Holy shit – a 5 Star read. This is not a test. Run do not walk to your local library or bookseller next Tuesday. Orrrrrrrrrr maybe only do
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Holy shit – a 5 Star read. This is not a test. Run do not walk to your local library or bookseller next Tuesday. Orrrrrrrrrr maybe only do so if you are a Saturday Night Live superfan? If you’ve been around my crap reviews at all, you should be aware that I am an SNL superfan who not only watches, but has gone on many a deep dive of the processes involved in making the weekly magic happen as well as reading/listening to celebrity memoirs of former cast members when I need something for Nonfiction November, but am too dumb to read most nonfiction. The only thing I have enjoyed more than my weekly hangouts with the Not Ready for Primetime Players for the past 35+ years was when the never disappointing 30 Rock was on the air (which, in case you live under a rock, was a fictionalized behind the scenes action of creating “The Girly Show” – an SNL knockoff). All that being said, Romantic Comedy could have been called “Liz Lemon Finds True Love” and I have no words for how much I loved it.
The first half (46%) is a breakdown of how “The Night Owls” (again *cough SNL cough*) comes together each week in order to appear live on your television. Like I said above, this is the make it or break part that will determine if this is your idea of a good time or not. I was practically crapping myself and most definitely Googled “did Curtis Sittenfeld work at SNL????” because it was so accurate. “Chapter 2” takes place a couple of years later and is epistolary format told via text messages (let me double down on my love and say epistolary when done well is also my jam). Then there’s Chapter 3 and an Epilogue but I ain’t a spoiler, so you’ll have to read it for yourself to find out what happens. Just now that unlike nearly every writer over the course of Covid, Sittenfeld didn’t shit the bed with her take on the pandemic.
The basic premise here is a potential love story revolving around “The Danny Horst Rule” – Danny being a fictionalized version of a The Night Owls writer/actor who somehow bagged an A-List babe who on paper would be considered way out of his league. (see Dan Akroyd/Carrie Fisher; Emma Stone/Dave McCary; Fred Armisen/Elizabeth Moss or Natasha Lyonne; Jason Sudakis/Olivia Wilde; Pete Davidson/pretty much everyone he’s ever fucked if you doubt this is a real-life thing – and note I’m excluding Colin Jost from this answer because he’s just as hot as ScarJo so the only thing that doesn’t add up with the two of them is the number of zeroes in their respective bank accounts.) Romantic Comedy turns the tables by featuring Noah Brewster, a superhot male rock star, possibly falling for the hilarious, but average TNO writer, Sally Milz.
I thought every single second of this was perfection. The only gripe I have is that my request for an early copy sat pending so long before I finally got approved, but since I got my greedy mitts on it a week early all is forgiven.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!!!!!...more
It all starts in the reading room at the Boston Public Library. A woman screams, a group of strangers form an odd common bond due to the experience. But one of them just might be the killer.
“It’s a bit like a locked room mystery, in reverse.”
I repeat myself quite frequently that right place/right time is often what should get the credit or the blame when it comes to books that end up as 2s or 3s for me. And then there are the ones that just suck me right in. The perfect place/time for this one would have been today – rainstorms and Fall-like temperatures hovering in the upper 60s. Luckily it mattered not one bit that the sun was out in full force and the temperature was over 100 degrees when I read this. I got pulled in to this story immediately, invested in both the mystery as well as all of the characters (especially Leo) and snarled at anyone who attempted to speak to me the entire time I was reading it.
ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley! ...more
Kelly (and the Book Boar)
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