Rating: 75% | C | ★★★☆☆ Warnings: + Sexual content Synopsis (from Goodreads): The world can see that international A-list actress Whitman ("Win") Tagore and jet-setting playboy Leo Milanowski are made for each other. Their kisses start Twitter trends and their fights break the internet. From red carpet appearances to Met Gala mishaps, their on-again, off-again romance has titillated the public and the press for almost a decade. But it's all a lie. As a woman of color, Win knows the Hollywood deck is stacked against her, so she's perfected the art of controlling her public persona. Whenever she nears scandal, she calls in Leo, with his endearingly reckless attitude, for a staged date. Each public display of affection shifts the headlines back in Win's favor, and Leo uses the good press to draw attention away from his dysfunctional family. Pretending to be in a passionate romance is one thing, but Win knows that a real relationship would lead to nothing but trouble. So instead they settle for friendship, with a side of sky-rocketing chemistry. Except this time, on the French Riviera, something is off. A shocking secret in Leo's past sets Win's personal and professional lives on a catastrophic collision course. Behind the scenes of their yacht-trips and PDA, the world's favorite couple is at each other's throats. Now they must finally confront the many truths and lies of their relationship, and Win is forced to consider what is more important: a rising career, or a risky shot at real love? Spoiler-Free Review: The latest addition to what has ostensibly become a blog-wide fascination with Hollywood culture here at le livre en rose, The View Was Exhausting is an admirable, if slow, attempt at unraveling celebrity culture and today's rash of PR (or maybe not PR?) relationships. The novel follows Win, a British Indian actress struggling to control her precarious status as a woman of color in the acting industry, Leo, a member of a wealthy business family, and their attempts to hide behind the veneer of their on-again, off-again romance. While the blurb presents this novel as a contemporary romance more than anything, what shines the most in this novel is Win's character arc. Clements and Datta are deeply sensitive when portraying Win's identity as a woman of color and all of the complicated games associated with it. The romance between Win and Leo, while the main engine of the novel, takes a supporting role in the general scope of the story. However, there is something strangely detached about this novel. Whether it's due to the writing style, which is rather matter-of-fact at times, or the strange gulf between the reader and the protagonists, I never truly connected to the story. The View Was Exhausting is all sharp lines, but it needs a few softer areas—a few moments of fleshy vulnerability rather than impenetrable deftness. (Of course, the irony is not lost on me that these are precisely the words Win was branded with.) (Click "Read More" for more information.) Plot (21/30) Beginning (7/10), Middle (7/10), and End (7/10) The pacing of the plot is consistent; there is no true climax in the novel, for better or for worse. Win and Leo's relationship has its rocky moments, but because their individual issues are so persistent, the reader is forced to direct all of their attention on one person at a time rather than watching how Leo and Win's desires and personalities play off of each other. The main reveal—Leo's surprise marriage—drags much of the story behind it. Win addresses Leo's marriage rather quickly and in a subdued manner, minimizing its effect on the plot despite its large role in the novel's blurb. As the story progresses and as Leo's surprise marriage appears to matter even less, the romance becomes a will-they-won't-they that is not always grounded in true stakes. Leo and Win fit together like forced puzzle pieces, always either pushing each other or being too aloof, and the flaws in their relationship seem to be an accepted condition of the novel rather than a point of development. Win needed him again, and he would be good at this, he knew; he would be good for Win. It was the only thing on his mind. Characters (20/30) Development (15/30) and Allure (15/30) The characters were the critical flaw in this novel. While Win and Leo are interesting characters individually, they come together to form a strangely, negatively flawed couple. They understand each other, but the passion between them, as well as their mutual forgiveness, is lacking. Leo in particular receives the lion's share of development issues. There is a wasted opportunity, I think, to extend his story into one of millennial ennui; his turbulent emotions and aimlessness seem to be a consequence of his oft-mentioned privileged upbringing, and of course his relationship with Lila—and clinging to Lila—does not evoke much sympathy for his character. Conversely, what shines is Clements and Datta's treatment of Win as an actress of color. Everything from microaggressions to misogynistic tabloid culture to preemptively hardening public images against smear campaigns is addressed with sensitivity and genuine interest. There is a lovely satisfaction in watching Win come into her own in the epilogue. Writing (17/20) Descriptions (7/10) and Flow (10/10) Ultimately, I found the writing style a little too straightforward. I tend to err on the purple side, so I will always prefer ornate writing over simpler writing. However, this novel feels part didactic—there is an invested storyteller providing facts for the reader, explaining why Win needs to be perfect—and in that sense less figurative language is perhaps fitting. Saint-Tropez looked almost cozy against the dark hillside, dressed up in dark velvet and sequins of orange light. It was reflected, a second city, on the inky surface of the sea. Closure/Set-Up (17/20)
Logic (7/10) and Closure (10/10) Considering the slow consistency of the overall plot arc, the ending of the novel is hasty; much, if not all, of Leo and Win's relationship issues are neatly tied up in the last chapter, and the epilogue shows them in a jet-set domestic bliss. This ending seems to promote the re-examination of the novel as one centering on Win's personal development rather than as her relationship with Leo. In that sense, developed last minute, it proves to be a satisfying farewell to an admirable debut.
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