Meg

After a promising debut novel, an almost forgotten second novel, and no shot at publishing his third book, Jacob Finch Bonner finds himself teaching in a pay-to-play MFA program. He’s got a plot idea that’s so good the writing won’t There’s so much tension here, as Jacob knows he’s stolen his best book, and it really is a great book. I mean, I didn’t exactly want Jacob to be rewarded with a bestseller for being such a half-hearted writing teacher and plot-thief, but I also didn’t

Evelyn doesn’t dare mention this in public, both because of the very real social penalties women face for badmouthing an ex, and because she’s pretty sure he took advantage of her research to build his new wife. Martine, the cloned wife, has been made with most of Evelyn’s features, but with changes designed to make her a better wife. The book continues to ask wild, wide, and thrilling specfic questions through the events of the story: Is a clone of murderer, who didn’t commit murder or remember murdering anyone, evil? Again, I wondered how the complicated relationships and the crimes were all going to resolve, whether Martine and Evelyn would get away with it, whether a certain alcoholic ex-assistant would become a liability, and what Evelyn would do about that, what would happen with the clones’ lifespans and Violet, what Evelyn would do next, etc.

Each prompt tosses readers into a dramatic scene, either a conflict or a major turning point in a character’s life, and then asks the reader/writer to finish the conflict or explain how our characters ended up at this point. While the prompts in Spark Jr had middle grades themes like magic, school bullies and new friends, these prompts are fully adult. — these story sparks work mostly by alluding to the dramatic events that led to this moment, and then inviting readers/writers to use their natural reader’s curiosity to start a new writing project. There’s a completely wild range of styles and situations here, perfectly chosen to inspire a stuck writer into a different style or to just try something new as a reset before going back to your current WIP.

At the beginning of the novel, Louise “works as a barista at this coffee shop that turns into a wine bar at night, and also writes for this e-commerce site called GlaZam that sells knockoff handbags, and is also an SAT tutor. I’m fine with murder and hiding the murder in a great suspense story like this one, but actually disposing of the body… eeew. Without giving away the ending or even too much about the crime,  I can at least say that I just loved the suspense as the murderer kept up the victim’s social media accounts, and laid an alibi in inspirational quote, fake travel pictures and check-ins. Social Creatures uses Manhattan ambition and desperation to set up a page-turning thriller with a dark crime and a twisted cover-up.