What do you think?
Rate this book
Ellipses
Set in the glossy world of New York City media, this sharp and witty debut novel follows a young woman caught in a toxic mentorship with an older, powerful executive as she grapples with career, belonging, and the complexity of modern relationships in the digital age.
When cosmetics mogul Billie rolls down her town car window and offers Lily a ride home from a glitzy Manhattan gala, Lily figures there could be a useful professional connection to broker. She’s heard the legends of Billie’s rise as a business titan, the product of white New England privilege and one of the few queer women in a corner suite. Lily feels stalled in a magazine industry threatened by social media, and in her relationship with her girlfriend, Alison. Mixed-race and bisexual, Lily’s spent her life negotiating other people’s sliding perceptions of her identity at the expense of her individual selfhood.
Billie is charming and hyperconfident, and she seems invested in mentoring Lily out of her slump—from the screen of her phone. But their text exchanges—and Billie’s relentless worldview—quickly begin to consume Lily’s life. Eager to impress her powerful guide, Lily is perpetually suspended in an ellipsis, waiting for those three gray dots to bloom into a new message from Billie.
As she navigates influencer interviews, cocktail lounge rendezvous, and staff meetings rife with microaggressions, all with one eye on her phone, Lily must ultimately work out not only what it is she really wants—but also how to make it a reality.
When cosmetics mogul Billie rolls down her town car window and offers Lily a ride home from a glitzy Manhattan gala, Lily figures there could be a useful professional connection to broker. She’s heard the legends of Billie’s rise as a business titan, the product of white New England privilege and one of the few queer women in a corner suite. Lily feels stalled in a magazine industry threatened by social media, and in her relationship with her girlfriend, Alison. Mixed-race and bisexual, Lily’s spent her life negotiating other people’s sliding perceptions of her identity at the expense of her individual selfhood.
Billie is charming and hyperconfident, and she seems invested in mentoring Lily out of her slump—from the screen of her phone. But their text exchanges—and Billie’s relentless worldview—quickly begin to consume Lily’s life. Eager to impress her powerful guide, Lily is perpetually suspended in an ellipsis, waiting for those three gray dots to bloom into a new message from Billie.
As she navigates influencer interviews, cocktail lounge rendezvous, and staff meetings rife with microaggressions, all with one eye on her phone, Lily must ultimately work out not only what it is she really wants—but also how to make it a reality.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published March 5, 2024
31 people are currently reading
3818 people want to read
About the author
Vanessa Lawrence
2 books14 followersVanessa Lawrence is a writer, editor, and native New Yorker. For nearly two decades she covered the arts, fashion, beauty, design, and New York society as a staff writer for publications including Women’s Wear Daily and W Magazine. She has a BA in history from Yale University and an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Ellipses is her debut novel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
April 6, 2024
was it me or was that ending super random and came out of nowhere
November 22, 2023
Earlier this year I read Under the Influence [ my review here and this book feels like a spiritual sibling in so many ways. Though I did find myself enjoying this one a little more, as there didn't seem to be the same constant dismissal of red flags...
Here we are following Lily as a chance encounter with Billie Aston brings the two women into a pseudo mentor/mentee relationship. Lily is working at a magazine and struggles with a series of microagressions and not feeling like her contributions are respected as much s they should be and Billie offers often questionable advice.
I appreciated the way that their relationship played out and how while it always felt distant Lily was still pulled back into it.
The book itself takes on an almost meta commentary about itself almost from the beginning that is certainly struck home in the final pages.
It's a book I can see benefiting from rereads and Vanessa Lawrence is a person I would like to read from again. Particularly in a book that really dug into some of the topics that felt more like a mention in passing.
Here we are following Lily as a chance encounter with Billie Aston brings the two women into a pseudo mentor/mentee relationship. Lily is working at a magazine and struggles with a series of microagressions and not feeling like her contributions are respected as much s they should be and Billie offers often questionable advice.
I appreciated the way that their relationship played out and how while it always felt distant Lily was still pulled back into it.
The book itself takes on an almost meta commentary about itself almost from the beginning that is certainly struck home in the final pages.
It's a book I can see benefiting from rereads and Vanessa Lawrence is a person I would like to read from again. Particularly in a book that really dug into some of the topics that felt more like a mention in passing.
March 10, 2024
Thank you to Dutton & NetGalley for the ARC! I had high hopes for this novel as its premise teased themes of queerness / power dynamics / Asian-American livelihood. Unfortunately, what was anticipated to be a lively narrative was really at its core an indulgent confessional cloaked in a monotonous plot.
Ellipses follows Lily and Billie (doomed from the start with this): Lily, self-proclaimed "writer, NOT journalist" (all the while attending events to conduct profiles and interviews and submitting these for publication etc but what I do know), is feeling despondent in her career trajectory when she suddenly meets a top executive, Billie, an older woman known to use shards from the glass ceiling to stab out her competition. Most of their interactions occur over text, which Vanessa Lawrence insists on enunciating as she reiterates "buzz buzz" every time a message comes through.
It's evident that Lawrence has had a comprehensive experience in her industry, but Ellipses seems to teeter the line between contemporary fiction and auto-fiction. I found this impression didn't necessarily work in the novel's favor as our protagonist, Lily, comes off as more pitiable and self-pandering, which in its own right could be useful to the plot and interesting to the audience, but yet... nothing profound, nothing real comes to fruition. It might have been better for Lawrence to have written a memoir of her experiences. At least then it may have felt material and honest. As a reader though, I felt nothing for Lily other than a sincere apathy and borderline disdain for her propensity to self-pity and navel gaze.
It doesn't help either that Lawrence's attempts at squeezing in the more progressive aspects of her novel through Lily's lens comes off as forced and inauthentic. There are a few instances where fetishization of Asian-American women is illustrated, but there's this dissonance between Lawrence's writing and the actual sentiments transpiring from her words that I genuinely can't connect. It could just be a matter of Lawrence's tendency to show rather than tell.
This failure to demonstrate extends as well to the central relationship between Lily and Billie. I kept waiting for the obsession and intensity that was dangled in from the story's premise to materialize, but nothing actually happened. Rather, the story is as simple as a twenty-something year old becoming enamored with the concept of someone who appears to be more beautiful, more accomplished, more renowned. Fantasizing about someone else who seems aspirational and larger than life is a daily hobby for all of us who use social media — I was hoping Ellipses would deliver more than a restatement of what we all already know and do.
All in all, I found it incredibly difficult to take this book seriously. After all when you include sentences like "Loneliness is other people" in your novels it's nearly impossible to consider sincerity.
*Spoilers ahead:
I don't typically talk spoilers in reviews, but in this case, it felt necessary to underscore the utter banality of this book's ending — the trope of "I'm a writer and I wrote out how this would end for us both in an actual book and it helped me have an epiphany" is such an overplayed cliche of a hand. Why relegate your stories to such inferior redundancies? It's such an overused trope that at this point if you'd told me this book was published in 2013, I would've believed you.
Ellipses follows Lily and Billie (doomed from the start with this): Lily, self-proclaimed "writer, NOT journalist" (all the while attending events to conduct profiles and interviews and submitting these for publication etc but what I do know), is feeling despondent in her career trajectory when she suddenly meets a top executive, Billie, an older woman known to use shards from the glass ceiling to stab out her competition. Most of their interactions occur over text, which Vanessa Lawrence insists on enunciating as she reiterates "buzz buzz" every time a message comes through.
It's evident that Lawrence has had a comprehensive experience in her industry, but Ellipses seems to teeter the line between contemporary fiction and auto-fiction. I found this impression didn't necessarily work in the novel's favor as our protagonist, Lily, comes off as more pitiable and self-pandering, which in its own right could be useful to the plot and interesting to the audience, but yet... nothing profound, nothing real comes to fruition. It might have been better for Lawrence to have written a memoir of her experiences. At least then it may have felt material and honest. As a reader though, I felt nothing for Lily other than a sincere apathy and borderline disdain for her propensity to self-pity and navel gaze.
It doesn't help either that Lawrence's attempts at squeezing in the more progressive aspects of her novel through Lily's lens comes off as forced and inauthentic. There are a few instances where fetishization of Asian-American women is illustrated, but there's this dissonance between Lawrence's writing and the actual sentiments transpiring from her words that I genuinely can't connect. It could just be a matter of Lawrence's tendency to show rather than tell.
This failure to demonstrate extends as well to the central relationship between Lily and Billie. I kept waiting for the obsession and intensity that was dangled in from the story's premise to materialize, but nothing actually happened. Rather, the story is as simple as a twenty-something year old becoming enamored with the concept of someone who appears to be more beautiful, more accomplished, more renowned. Fantasizing about someone else who seems aspirational and larger than life is a daily hobby for all of us who use social media — I was hoping Ellipses would deliver more than a restatement of what we all already know and do.
All in all, I found it incredibly difficult to take this book seriously. After all when you include sentences like "Loneliness is other people" in your novels it's nearly impossible to consider sincerity.
*Spoilers ahead:
I don't typically talk spoilers in reviews, but in this case, it felt necessary to underscore the utter banality of this book's ending — the trope of "I'm a writer and I wrote out how this would end for us both in an actual book and it helped me have an epiphany" is such an overplayed cliche of a hand. Why relegate your stories to such inferior redundancies? It's such an overused trope that at this point if you'd told me this book was published in 2013, I would've believed you.
February 3, 2024
maybe i’m missing something but by the end i don’t even think billie was that toxic. i think lily just sucked.
April 25, 2024
ELLIPSES reminds me of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, but more queer, more intersectional, and a little bit more frustrating to read.
Vanessa Lawrence's novel has a great premise: Lily, a frustrated magazine writer at the dead-end of her career (and her industry?) meets Billie Ashton, a Beauty industry executive with a titanic presence and a cool, crisp demeanor. Billie is powerful, Lily is jaded, and their interaction results in a mutual infatuation, a dangerous blend of professional, personal, and romantic as a power dynamic forms between the two women. The two women never meet again, instead building a relationship over text message. As Lily navigates career challenges, relationship woes with her girlfriend, and identity wobbles as a mixed race woman in a diverse city, her relationship with Billie serves as a catalyst for some big changes in her life.
The author cut her teeth in the magazine world, she excels in telling a story about the life of a woman who loves writing, loves a glossy, but doesn't know where her role will go. ELLIPSES is a smart novel that uses the plot to reflect the challenges of its protagonist. With the Magazine industry as a framing device, Lawrence literally traps her protagonist and forces her to seek alternative advice. She also frames the story with stories-in-the-story, using Lily's red lip article as a device to explore the ways that Asian women navigate the beauty industry differently than their white counterparts. I related to the challenges of being queer in a city like New York, where cost of living and rapid pace morph and change our relationships to dating and career catapulting. But for all the wit that pulled me deep into Ellipses, I was left frustrated by two elements of it: The punching bag of digital content throughout, and the abrupt ending that came out of left field. For the former, it was a perspective that hindered our relationship to Lily, who when she makes snide comments comes off as impervious to change.And for the latter, it just undermines the rich work that went into building a complex relationship between mentor and mentee which was layered far deeper than the ending implied. I was truly worried I was missing chunks of the back half of the novel, in particular the last quarter.
Thank you to Dutton for my gifted copy! This would make an awesome movie!
Vanessa Lawrence's novel has a great premise: Lily, a frustrated magazine writer at the dead-end of her career (and her industry?) meets Billie Ashton, a Beauty industry executive with a titanic presence and a cool, crisp demeanor. Billie is powerful, Lily is jaded, and their interaction results in a mutual infatuation, a dangerous blend of professional, personal, and romantic as a power dynamic forms between the two women. The two women never meet again, instead building a relationship over text message. As Lily navigates career challenges, relationship woes with her girlfriend, and identity wobbles as a mixed race woman in a diverse city, her relationship with Billie serves as a catalyst for some big changes in her life.
The author cut her teeth in the magazine world, she excels in telling a story about the life of a woman who loves writing, loves a glossy, but doesn't know where her role will go. ELLIPSES is a smart novel that uses the plot to reflect the challenges of its protagonist. With the Magazine industry as a framing device, Lawrence literally traps her protagonist and forces her to seek alternative advice. She also frames the story with stories-in-the-story, using Lily's red lip article as a device to explore the ways that Asian women navigate the beauty industry differently than their white counterparts. I related to the challenges of being queer in a city like New York, where cost of living and rapid pace morph and change our relationships to dating and career catapulting. But for all the wit that pulled me deep into Ellipses, I was left frustrated by two elements of it: The punching bag of digital content throughout, and the abrupt ending that came out of left field. For the former, it was a perspective that hindered our relationship to Lily, who when she makes snide comments comes off as impervious to change.And for the latter, it just undermines the rich work that went into building a complex relationship between mentor and mentee which was layered far deeper than the ending implied. I was truly worried I was missing chunks of the back half of the novel, in particular the last quarter.
Thank you to Dutton for my gifted copy! This would make an awesome movie!
March 27, 2024
Several other reviews mention that the characters, tension and world building just fall flat, so I won’t belabor that point.
This was clearly a work of auto fiction that attempts to also be a narrator describing Lily’s life from the third person, which ends up being really confusing and jarring. Much like the switch between Lily’s real life conversations and texts. I needed to flip between them like they were two different narratives because it felt so chaotic.
Attempts are made to describe the magic of NYC, so if that’s a genre you’re into, parts of the book will probably resonate. Weird ick: Lily and Alison are referred to as “the women” so many times that I almost made it a drinking game. “The women ordered a pizza” “The women sat on the subway seat” etc. I don’t know why this bothers me, but it does.
Glad Lily found her bliss at the end but I was really not invested in her trajectory even after page 200. I probably would have been equally happy if she’d taken another magazine job or worked with B. She comes across as a fresh graduate (or even younger) with her (lack of) grasp of workplace dynamics or really, any interpersonal dynamics.
There was so much potential here to explore sexism, racism, homophobia but they don’t get any serious exploration besides anecdotes sprinkled through the book to indicate that we do live in a world where these things exist. I found myself stopping to search for one of the books Lily talks about (The Lightening) because the premise of that book was more exciting than the one I was reading.
Almost didn’t finish.
This was clearly a work of auto fiction that attempts to also be a narrator describing Lily’s life from the third person, which ends up being really confusing and jarring. Much like the switch between Lily’s real life conversations and texts. I needed to flip between them like they were two different narratives because it felt so chaotic.
Attempts are made to describe the magic of NYC, so if that’s a genre you’re into, parts of the book will probably resonate. Weird ick: Lily and Alison are referred to as “the women” so many times that I almost made it a drinking game. “The women ordered a pizza” “The women sat on the subway seat” etc. I don’t know why this bothers me, but it does.
Glad Lily found her bliss at the end but I was really not invested in her trajectory even after page 200. I probably would have been equally happy if she’d taken another magazine job or worked with B. She comes across as a fresh graduate (or even younger) with her (lack of) grasp of workplace dynamics or really, any interpersonal dynamics.
There was so much potential here to explore sexism, racism, homophobia but they don’t get any serious exploration besides anecdotes sprinkled through the book to indicate that we do live in a world where these things exist. I found myself stopping to search for one of the books Lily talks about (The Lightening) because the premise of that book was more exciting than the one I was reading.
Almost didn’t finish.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2024
I really, REALLY enjoyed this debut set in NYC that sees a queer Asian American 30-something fashion magazine writer lamenting over the state of her career as she's overworked and unenthusiastic about the shifting industry landscape from print to digital.
When she meets an older, high profile queer fashion business icon at a party, the two strike up an odd mentor/mentee texting friendship that threatens Lily's relationship and sense of self. Excellent on audio narrated by Annie Q and highly recommended for fans of Sex and the City or the Devil wears Prada with a queer twist.
Many thanks to @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review. I'm excited to read more by Vanessa Lawrence in the future! This was witty and insightful and very entertaining to listen to on audio!
When she meets an older, high profile queer fashion business icon at a party, the two strike up an odd mentor/mentee texting friendship that threatens Lily's relationship and sense of self. Excellent on audio narrated by Annie Q and highly recommended for fans of Sex and the City or the Devil wears Prada with a queer twist.
Many thanks to @prhaudio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review. I'm excited to read more by Vanessa Lawrence in the future! This was witty and insightful and very entertaining to listen to on audio!
May 15, 2024
That’s all?!?! Like I get the boss lady was busy and so the communication had to be sporadic and unsatisfying for our protagonist. But that doesn’t mean the whole narrative had to be sporadic and unsatisfying for ME as a reader!!!! ☹ This whole story felt like an outline of a novel. So many of the characters and scenes felt like stand-in placeholders until the next text message interactions. I get that this is part of the whole unraveling of Lily’s life, but for it to have really worked, I think we needed to feel a deeper connection to Allison, or to Lily’s hobbies/work responsibilities, or to anything in the story outside of this one toxic relationship!!
I could’ve overlooked the unremarkable supporting characters if the messages themselves built into a more intriguing relationship. However, it seems like the promise of the interaction between Billie and Lily is never fulfilled, despite it being the part of the story where the author decides to direct most of her literary efforts. For all the work-up about this relationship, all we truly get is a miniature confrontation scene, too-good-to-be-true epilogue, and lousy sex dream sequence?!? BOOO!!!!
This is partially my fault, as I am easily distracted by these sorts of relationships, and will continue to read any modern book that has a weird power dynamic/relational thing going on. I’ve written about my shameful reading preferences in my review of Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, and the funny thing is I think that book has a lot of the same dry, anti-climactic sexploitation as Ellipses, except that Jonas pulls it off somewhat more successfully than Vanessa Lawrence. I really feel like Ellipses was a cross between Vladimir, Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis, and Devil Wears Prada (as everyone has already noted.) However, compared to the “parent” books, I would definitely classify this one as the least enjoyable. I mostly finished this book because of my interest in its topic, more than what was actually going on the page.
My final gripe is with the tone of the epilogue—I will share a brief, icky quote below:
What in the world is this lackluster, matter-of-fact, rapid-fire life events summary!?!?!?! I was embarrassed for the editor who let Vanessa Lawrence get away with this narrative dump of the “lessons learned” from Lily’s experience with Billie, which culminated in a revenge encounter that did not fit the prior narrative at all. I felt like the author couldn’t figure out a cleaner way to show us Lily’s arc and maturation during the story itself, and so she ended up writing a final chapter that read like an interview or book review about the story, instead of an actual culmination of the story. Again, how embarrassing!
Quotes I Loved
I will end this review with a *slight* endorsement for this story, only if you are equally drawn into reading stuff in this category. If that is the case, you will find that Vanessa Lawrence has a skill for reflection. In these crystal clear moments within the broader novel, I had a similar reading experience as I did with Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters and also with Luster by Raven Leilani. These are other authors who have an uncanny ability to perfectly describe some of the key experiences and emotions of people in our late 20s and early 30s. If you enjoy reading about that sort of thing, there is something to find here in that respect.
So, with hopes of not being tooooo evil in my review, here are some of my favorite quotes from this book:
1. No because this is exactly what fascinates me about power exchange and the like: “Everything about Lily’s interactions with Billie—the way Billie noticed her, then ignored her; the way she eyed Lily’s borrowed dress; her reaction to Lily’s job—made Lily dizzy with its opacity. It was not a bad dizziness. It was a dizziness that buzzed.” (34)
2. And this is a perfect encapsulation of why I’ve always been drawn to the concept of long distance marriages or internet-only love affairs: “And there was a more unsettling truth that Lily was loath to explore: She wasn’t entirely sure that she deserved better than B’s digital half-attention, professionally or otherwise. There would always be a part of Lily that believed that she would never be as appealing in real life as she seemed on paper—or in this case, on the liquid crystal of her phone’s screen. She was a writer, after all; she would always be most comfortable in the shadowed crevices between words, those that belonged to others as much as the ones that belonged to her.” (177)
3. Like clearly this lady can write something useful!!! We see the potential in passages like this: “Alison made the separation between work and existence sound entirely natural. They were the same age and had gone to similarly rigorous liberal arts colleges. Somehow, Lily had graduated with the idea that she was supposed to love her job, that her profession would be the source of her life’s intellectual and spiritual meaning, and anything less than that was ingratitude for her education. And Alison had entered adulthood believing that a job was a means to an end, that end being fiscal safety. Lily had never seen herself as independent of her work. Alison, who toiled far longer and harder hours than Lily ever had, took her existential separation as the basis for her occupational choice. Lily wondered if Alison possessed some secret to fulfillment that Lily had failed to learn.” (186)
4. For this passage alone, Lawrence has my respect! I’ve read few authors outside of her and Raven Leilani who can so clearly explain my draw to doom scrolling and other internet loneliness habits: “Lily had become someone who was so scared of living, she buried herself in the digital ether instead. If she couldn’t handle the pain of real life, she didn’t deserve to enjoy its pleasures, either.” (202)
5. I thought this was a very on-the-nose take about baby Millennials/elder Gen Zers as a sandwich generation to rival our Gen X parents. This is true politically, existentially, and in the case of this quote, professionally: "Not for the first time, Lily wished she could rewind or fast-forward her date of birth. Even eight extra years of age would have given her a little more time to enjoy the sunset before the industry went dark; if she had been younger, she would have avoided this moment altogether and woken up to a newly reconfigured landscape where her next move would be self-evident. But no, here she stood in this increasingly dank purgatory, trapped between the golden past and the invisible future, with no clue as to when she would emerge into the eventual dawn." (216)
I could’ve overlooked the unremarkable supporting characters if the messages themselves built into a more intriguing relationship. However, it seems like the promise of the interaction between Billie and Lily is never fulfilled, despite it being the part of the story where the author decides to direct most of her literary efforts. For all the work-up about this relationship, all we truly get is a miniature confrontation scene, too-good-to-be-true epilogue, and lousy sex dream sequence?!? BOOO!!!!
This is partially my fault, as I am easily distracted by these sorts of relationships, and will continue to read any modern book that has a weird power dynamic/relational thing going on. I’ve written about my shameful reading preferences in my review of Vladimir by Julia May Jonas, and the funny thing is I think that book has a lot of the same dry, anti-climactic sexploitation as Ellipses, except that Jonas pulls it off somewhat more successfully than Vanessa Lawrence. I really feel like Ellipses was a cross between Vladimir, Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis, and Devil Wears Prada (as everyone has already noted.) However, compared to the “parent” books, I would definitely classify this one as the least enjoyable. I mostly finished this book because of my interest in its topic, more than what was actually going on the page.
My final gripe is with the tone of the epilogue—I will share a brief, icky quote below:
“Lily had confronted the fatal flaw in The Cusp and in her own personal narrative. There was no struggle if the boss gave the young woman exactly what she wanted; there was no earned achievement if the young woman relied on a de facto fairy godmother to remedy her situation. Instead, the fashion designer protagonist—and Lily—had to do what real-life women have to do. She needed to save herself. On the subject of saving oneself and one’s relationships, Lily had experienced another epiphany on the topic of cohabitation…” (264-265)
What in the world is this lackluster, matter-of-fact, rapid-fire life events summary!?!?!?! I was embarrassed for the editor who let Vanessa Lawrence get away with this narrative dump of the “lessons learned” from Lily’s experience with Billie, which culminated in a revenge encounter that did not fit the prior narrative at all. I felt like the author couldn’t figure out a cleaner way to show us Lily’s arc and maturation during the story itself, and so she ended up writing a final chapter that read like an interview or book review about the story, instead of an actual culmination of the story. Again, how embarrassing!
Quotes I Loved
I will end this review with a *slight* endorsement for this story, only if you are equally drawn into reading stuff in this category. If that is the case, you will find that Vanessa Lawrence has a skill for reflection. In these crystal clear moments within the broader novel, I had a similar reading experience as I did with Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters and also with Luster by Raven Leilani. These are other authors who have an uncanny ability to perfectly describe some of the key experiences and emotions of people in our late 20s and early 30s. If you enjoy reading about that sort of thing, there is something to find here in that respect.
So, with hopes of not being tooooo evil in my review, here are some of my favorite quotes from this book:
1. No because this is exactly what fascinates me about power exchange and the like: “Everything about Lily’s interactions with Billie—the way Billie noticed her, then ignored her; the way she eyed Lily’s borrowed dress; her reaction to Lily’s job—made Lily dizzy with its opacity. It was not a bad dizziness. It was a dizziness that buzzed.” (34)
2. And this is a perfect encapsulation of why I’ve always been drawn to the concept of long distance marriages or internet-only love affairs: “And there was a more unsettling truth that Lily was loath to explore: She wasn’t entirely sure that she deserved better than B’s digital half-attention, professionally or otherwise. There would always be a part of Lily that believed that she would never be as appealing in real life as she seemed on paper—or in this case, on the liquid crystal of her phone’s screen. She was a writer, after all; she would always be most comfortable in the shadowed crevices between words, those that belonged to others as much as the ones that belonged to her.” (177)
3. Like clearly this lady can write something useful!!! We see the potential in passages like this: “Alison made the separation between work and existence sound entirely natural. They were the same age and had gone to similarly rigorous liberal arts colleges. Somehow, Lily had graduated with the idea that she was supposed to love her job, that her profession would be the source of her life’s intellectual and spiritual meaning, and anything less than that was ingratitude for her education. And Alison had entered adulthood believing that a job was a means to an end, that end being fiscal safety. Lily had never seen herself as independent of her work. Alison, who toiled far longer and harder hours than Lily ever had, took her existential separation as the basis for her occupational choice. Lily wondered if Alison possessed some secret to fulfillment that Lily had failed to learn.” (186)
4. For this passage alone, Lawrence has my respect! I’ve read few authors outside of her and Raven Leilani who can so clearly explain my draw to doom scrolling and other internet loneliness habits: “Lily had become someone who was so scared of living, she buried herself in the digital ether instead. If she couldn’t handle the pain of real life, she didn’t deserve to enjoy its pleasures, either.” (202)
5. I thought this was a very on-the-nose take about baby Millennials/elder Gen Zers as a sandwich generation to rival our Gen X parents. This is true politically, existentially, and in the case of this quote, professionally: "Not for the first time, Lily wished she could rewind or fast-forward her date of birth. Even eight extra years of age would have given her a little more time to enjoy the sunset before the industry went dark; if she had been younger, she would have avoided this moment altogether and woken up to a newly reconfigured landscape where her next move would be self-evident. But no, here she stood in this increasingly dank purgatory, trapped between the golden past and the invisible future, with no clue as to when she would emerge into the eventual dawn." (216)
April 15, 2024
This is one of the most frustratingly terrible books I've ever read. It is so incredibly clear that the author just wanted to write about her own life and perspective, but her story was too boring to be a memoir -- so she haphazardly included a subplot about this supposedly toxic mentor relationship that is so poorly fleshed out it doesn't at all feel like the conceit of the story. And yet, it is the main gimmick of the book and the surrounding plot also doesn't feel like the true conceit of the story, so it just ends up being about nothing but has all the air of masturbatory self-importance that it's clear the author thinks she's doing Important Work.
Because this is so obviously an author self-insert, it reads like you're having a conversation with someone who only speaks about themselves in the third person. It is so grating and self-indulgent, and the author every 10-20 pages or so cannot help but inject her own only partially related opinions -- opinions that are so reductive, cliched, and eye roll-inducing they read more like Twitter threads than they do narrative prose.
My hatred for this book is only exacerbated by the fact that I was recommended it in one of the latest issues of Vogue -- which suggests either that the staffer(s) who included it in their round-up did not read it or they are so high on their own supply that it being simply about their own lives as fashion magazine writers made it worthy of inclusion. Somehow, I think both are true.
Because this is so obviously an author self-insert, it reads like you're having a conversation with someone who only speaks about themselves in the third person. It is so grating and self-indulgent, and the author every 10-20 pages or so cannot help but inject her own only partially related opinions -- opinions that are so reductive, cliched, and eye roll-inducing they read more like Twitter threads than they do narrative prose.
My hatred for this book is only exacerbated by the fact that I was recommended it in one of the latest issues of Vogue -- which suggests either that the staffer(s) who included it in their round-up did not read it or they are so high on their own supply that it being simply about their own lives as fashion magazine writers made it worthy of inclusion. Somehow, I think both are true.
July 27, 2024
buzz buzz boring
May 30, 2025
This was so promising in the beginning but the ending was just terrible... the more I think about it the angrier I get
March 5, 2024
Vanessa Lawrence's debut novel, "Ellipses," takes readers on a whirlwind journey through the high-stakes world of New York City's media elite, blending sharp wit with keen insight into the complexities of modern relationships and professional aspirations.
In this captivating narrative, we meet Lily, a young woman navigating the cutthroat landscape of Manhattan's media scene. When Lily is offered a ride home by the charismatic cosmetics boss Billie, she sees it as an opportunity to advance her career. However, what starts as a promising mentorship soon veers into a toxic dynamic, blurring the lines between guidance and manipulation.
Lawrence explores the pressures of ambition and the quest for authenticity in a digital age dominated by curated personas. Lily's journey through workplace microaggressions and struggles with her own identity resonates deeply, offering a poignant commentary on privilege, power dynamics, and the ever-evolving nature of modern relationships. What makes the novel unique is Lily's internal thoughts on race and sexuality amidst societal expectations and personal conflicts. Through Lily's eyes, readers are invited to confront the nuances of privilege and the subtle ways in which identity shapes our experiences. What sets "Ellipses" apart is Lawrence's sharp prose and incisive commentary on the trappings of success and the search for validation. Billie's magnetic allure serves as a cautionary tale, highlighting the dangers of placing one's worth in external validation.
Personally, I also especially appreciated the general career advice that Billie would give Lily through text. A good book is multi-faceted and people take away what is most meaningful to them. Being in a spot in my career where I am considering what's next, reading the career advice of a beauty mogul not afraid to ask for what she wants was empowering and somehow just what I needed to hear.
Ellipses is a poignant exploration of ambition, authenticity, and the pursuit of self-discovery in a world where digital facades often obscure genuine connection. Vanessa Lawrence has delivered a stunning debut that is sure to leave a lasting impression on readers long after the final page is turned. Highly recommended for fans of "The Devil Wears Prada".
This review can also be found on my blog here: https://thegoodleybookshelf.wordpress...
In this captivating narrative, we meet Lily, a young woman navigating the cutthroat landscape of Manhattan's media scene. When Lily is offered a ride home by the charismatic cosmetics boss Billie, she sees it as an opportunity to advance her career. However, what starts as a promising mentorship soon veers into a toxic dynamic, blurring the lines between guidance and manipulation.
Lawrence explores the pressures of ambition and the quest for authenticity in a digital age dominated by curated personas. Lily's journey through workplace microaggressions and struggles with her own identity resonates deeply, offering a poignant commentary on privilege, power dynamics, and the ever-evolving nature of modern relationships. What makes the novel unique is Lily's internal thoughts on race and sexuality amidst societal expectations and personal conflicts. Through Lily's eyes, readers are invited to confront the nuances of privilege and the subtle ways in which identity shapes our experiences. What sets "Ellipses" apart is Lawrence's sharp prose and incisive commentary on the trappings of success and the search for validation. Billie's magnetic allure serves as a cautionary tale, highlighting the dangers of placing one's worth in external validation.
Personally, I also especially appreciated the general career advice that Billie would give Lily through text. A good book is multi-faceted and people take away what is most meaningful to them. Being in a spot in my career where I am considering what's next, reading the career advice of a beauty mogul not afraid to ask for what she wants was empowering and somehow just what I needed to hear.
Ellipses is a poignant exploration of ambition, authenticity, and the pursuit of self-discovery in a world where digital facades often obscure genuine connection. Vanessa Lawrence has delivered a stunning debut that is sure to leave a lasting impression on readers long after the final page is turned. Highly recommended for fans of "The Devil Wears Prada".
This review can also be found on my blog here: https://thegoodleybookshelf.wordpress...
December 8, 2025
this book bravely asks: what if Andy Sachs and Miranda Priestly had the hots for each other and it was SATC style show instead of a movie and instead of throwing your work phone into a fountain in Paris you rode an elevator as the climax of the story and it was revealed in the first chapter of the book in a flash forward. like wrong decisions one after another. maybe Mary Gaitskill could’ve pulled it off?
July 16, 2025
I recently read Vanessa Lawrence’s book Sheer. I absolutely loved it, so I decided to go back and read this, her debut novel. I can see that she is finding her voice in this one. She does write flirtation so so well.
December 23, 2023
Beautifully written. A fun debut from Vanessa Lawrence! This book explores topics often ignored in a way that didn’t feel forced.
April 18, 2024
I’d like to sue for slander on behalf of every femme 32 year old queer woman in New York.
September 9, 2024
Not sure what this was or what it was trying to do. Lily was whiny and annoying. Boring and repetitive.
September 3, 2025
joke was gonna be that this book will make me quit lesbian lit fic for good... well guess what im reading now.
May 23, 2024
3.5
There's a lot going on in this story, which touches on a range of issues such as sexism, power dynamics and mentorship, microagressions and the dichotomy of a mixed race identity. Lily works in an industry that is rapidly shifting from print to digital media and she struggles to adapt to a world where influencers rule the space. She deals with a workplace that is increasingly competitive, forcing her to deal with coworkers who seem determined to keep her down. She's faced with racial and sexual microagressions that make her workday miserable. I appreciate the way Lily's queerness was approached and her relationship with Alison was the best part of this story.
I despised Billie; given her status as a rich and white Boomer woman, relatively privileged compared to Lily, her advice felt so out of touch and definitely gave toxic vibes. Still, it felt like there was something missing; the fact that this relationship was solely via text messaging dulled the impact of it. I understand why the story was written this way (and the reason is literally spelled out for the reader at a certain point) but maybe I would have enjoyed Ellipses more if B had more physical presence in the story. The execution didn't live up to the premise.
The ending felt completely out of left field, despite being foreshadowed throughout the book. I felt that Lily's intentions were purposely obscured until the last few pages but this only left me confused. Where did this decision come from, when I don't remember Lily having any thoughts in this direction? What exactly made her change her mind when mere paragraphs before she was dead set on a different path? I'm not sure how I feel about the ending and epilogue.
Overall, the writing was engaging and Lily's experiences felt very relatable to me, as a fellow introverted woman in the corporate world. Still, I wish there was more to the relationship between Lily and B, and the ending left me with mixed feelings.
There's a lot going on in this story, which touches on a range of issues such as sexism, power dynamics and mentorship, microagressions and the dichotomy of a mixed race identity. Lily works in an industry that is rapidly shifting from print to digital media and she struggles to adapt to a world where influencers rule the space. She deals with a workplace that is increasingly competitive, forcing her to deal with coworkers who seem determined to keep her down. She's faced with racial and sexual microagressions that make her workday miserable. I appreciate the way Lily's queerness was approached and her relationship with Alison was the best part of this story.
I despised Billie; given her status as a rich and white Boomer woman, relatively privileged compared to Lily, her advice felt so out of touch and definitely gave toxic vibes. Still, it felt like there was something missing; the fact that this relationship was solely via text messaging dulled the impact of it. I understand why the story was written this way (and the reason is literally spelled out for the reader at a certain point) but maybe I would have enjoyed Ellipses more if B had more physical presence in the story. The execution didn't live up to the premise.
The ending felt completely out of left field, despite being foreshadowed throughout the book. I felt that Lily's intentions were purposely obscured until the last few pages but this only left me confused. Where did this decision come from, when I don't remember Lily having any thoughts in this direction? What exactly made her change her mind when mere paragraphs before she was dead set on a different path? I'm not sure how I feel about the ending and epilogue.
Overall, the writing was engaging and Lily's experiences felt very relatable to me, as a fellow introverted woman in the corporate world. Still, I wish there was more to the relationship between Lily and B, and the ending left me with mixed feelings.
August 31, 2024
I liked this book but the ending was weird. I liked the writing but at times I got a bit bored when Lily and Billie (annoying that their names rhyme) were not interacting.
March 7, 2024
Go into this knowing it is appropriately labeled general fiction and not a romance. Lily is a writer for a print magazine, an industry quickly fading away. She meets Billie Ashton who is older, wealthy and successful. Billy begins to mentor Lily via text messaging. It sets up a strange dynamic between the two. The title of the book comes from Lily waiting for the next message or direction to digitally come. This is a book about challenges in the workplace and Lily dealing with her mixed Asian race, her sexuality and more. Following Billy’s advice does help Lily at times but it causes friction in other parts of her life, especially with her girlfriend Alison. I thought this debut novel was interesting and liked the ending. And I like the NYC setting which is almost a character itself. But I couldn’t relate to Lily at times and a lot of her choices. (3.5 Stars)
January 3, 2024
Lily Michaels, a queer, mixed race woman working in the magazine industry as a writer, finds herself in a rut, both in her job writing unfulfilling pieces about social media influencers and in her relationship with her girlfriend Alison. Then she meets Billie Aston (aka B), a queer icon and powerful executive in the cosmetics industry. An older woman in her 50s, B is confident and ruthless in her career and begins to mentor Lily over regular text messages. Lily initially balks at B's unsympathetic and questionable views, but quickly finds that following B's hard-to-swallow advice pays off. Despite Lily's gut feeling that she should end her relationship with B, as the magazine industry shifts towards the digital world Lily finds herself relying on B more than ever.
There's a lot going on in this story, which touches on a range of issues such as sexism, power dynamics and mentorship, microagressions and the dichotomy of a mixed race identity. Lily works in an industry that is rapidly shifting from print to digital media and she struggles to adapt to a world where influencers rule the space. She deals with a workplace that is increasingly competitive, forcing her to deal with coworkers who seem determined to keep her down. She's faced with racial and sexual microagressions that make her workday miserable. I appreciate the way Lily's queerness was approached and her relationship with Alison was the best part of this story.
I despised Billie; given her status as a rich and white Boomer woman, relatively privileged compared to Lily, her advice felt so out of touch and definitely gave toxic vibes. Still, it felt like there was something missing; the fact that this relationship was solely via text messaging dulled the impact of it. I understand why the story was written this way (and the reason is literally spelled out for the reader at a certain point) but maybe I would have enjoyed Ellipses more if B had more physical presence in the story. The execution didn't live up to the premise.
The ending felt completely out of left field, despite being foreshadowed throughout the book. I felt that Lily's intentions were purposely obscured until the last few pages but this only left me confused. Where did this decision come from, when I don't remember Lily having any thoughts in this direction? What exactly made her change her mind when mere paragraphs before she was dead set on a different path? I'm not sure how I feel about the ending and epilogue.
Overall, the writing was engaging and Lily's experiences felt very relatable to me, as a fellow introverted woman of color in the corporate world. Still, I wish there was more to the relationship between Lily and B, and the ending left me with mixed feelings.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy.
There's a lot going on in this story, which touches on a range of issues such as sexism, power dynamics and mentorship, microagressions and the dichotomy of a mixed race identity. Lily works in an industry that is rapidly shifting from print to digital media and she struggles to adapt to a world where influencers rule the space. She deals with a workplace that is increasingly competitive, forcing her to deal with coworkers who seem determined to keep her down. She's faced with racial and sexual microagressions that make her workday miserable. I appreciate the way Lily's queerness was approached and her relationship with Alison was the best part of this story.
I despised Billie; given her status as a rich and white Boomer woman, relatively privileged compared to Lily, her advice felt so out of touch and definitely gave toxic vibes. Still, it felt like there was something missing; the fact that this relationship was solely via text messaging dulled the impact of it. I understand why the story was written this way (and the reason is literally spelled out for the reader at a certain point) but maybe I would have enjoyed Ellipses more if B had more physical presence in the story. The execution didn't live up to the premise.
The ending felt completely out of left field, despite being foreshadowed throughout the book. I felt that Lily's intentions were purposely obscured until the last few pages but this only left me confused. Where did this decision come from, when I don't remember Lily having any thoughts in this direction? What exactly made her change her mind when mere paragraphs before she was dead set on a different path? I'm not sure how I feel about the ending and epilogue.
Overall, the writing was engaging and Lily's experiences felt very relatable to me, as a fellow introverted woman of color in the corporate world. Still, I wish there was more to the relationship between Lily and B, and the ending left me with mixed feelings.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy.
March 12, 2024
Lily is in her 30’s, a worn out millennial with a job that uses and abuses her, she’s over worked and underpaid, and taken advantage of, struggling as the magazine she works for transitions from print to digital. She’s afraid of commitment and doesn’t stand up for herself.
She meets Billie and sees it as an opportunity to have a successful mentor to help her navigate the problems that pop up in her day to day at her job. Except Billie is infuriating and toxic. Her advice was right up there with like your parents or grandparents telling you the way to get the job is to take the resume into the store and ask to speak to the manager.
Billie, a white woman, never took into account the different experiences Lily may have in the workplace being mixed-race, like when one of her male coworkers made sexist, racist comments, Billie was like “he’s probably just being nice.” Like I’m sorry what? And Lily gets frustrated with her constantly yet CONTINUES to go back to her for her thoughts and opinions and advice, and Billie helps move her career forward by putting in a good word for her and in the end has a job opening at her company.
This is ALL through text by the way, which seemed an odd choice. I kept waiting for them to have some sort of affair or something, Lily’s friends hint that Billy might be into Lily, but their relationship never moves past texting about work. It’s sort of an emotional affair I suppose, as it causes issues with Lily and her girlfriend.
The book has a very Devil Wears Prada Ending. I was happy with the path Lily took, it was just SO frustrating to go on that journey with her 😂.
Overall, this book was fine. It was very well written, a quick listen on audiobook. Some of the narrative just sort of felt like things I’ve already heard before, a lot of “this is what our generation deals with” and while I agree with it, it sometimes just gets exhausting.
Thank you @netgalley and @duttonbooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
She meets Billie and sees it as an opportunity to have a successful mentor to help her navigate the problems that pop up in her day to day at her job. Except Billie is infuriating and toxic. Her advice was right up there with like your parents or grandparents telling you the way to get the job is to take the resume into the store and ask to speak to the manager.
Billie, a white woman, never took into account the different experiences Lily may have in the workplace being mixed-race, like when one of her male coworkers made sexist, racist comments, Billie was like “he’s probably just being nice.” Like I’m sorry what? And Lily gets frustrated with her constantly yet CONTINUES to go back to her for her thoughts and opinions and advice, and Billie helps move her career forward by putting in a good word for her and in the end has a job opening at her company.
This is ALL through text by the way, which seemed an odd choice. I kept waiting for them to have some sort of affair or something, Lily’s friends hint that Billy might be into Lily, but their relationship never moves past texting about work. It’s sort of an emotional affair I suppose, as it causes issues with Lily and her girlfriend.
The book has a very Devil Wears Prada Ending. I was happy with the path Lily took, it was just SO frustrating to go on that journey with her 😂.
Overall, this book was fine. It was very well written, a quick listen on audiobook. Some of the narrative just sort of felt like things I’ve already heard before, a lot of “this is what our generation deals with” and while I agree with it, it sometimes just gets exhausting.
Thank you @netgalley and @duttonbooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
March 13, 2025
such a painful hate read. normally i like prose but this was so annoying. the characters were frustrating and immature. i had to listen to the audiobook to get this over with.
January 31, 2025
Ellipses contains a fascinating exploration of the transition from the dominance of print to digital media. The best parts, for me, were when Lily ruminated on her purpose as a writer and how it shaped her identity. Things got almost a little too introspective at times (more on this later), and there were a couple segments that I thought would’ve made better personal essays than exposition in a novel, but I do love to read writers on writing. I also thought it was funny how she kept describing herself doing journalism then asserting that she wasn’t a journalist.
The writing is not bad, but it is really adjective heavy and I found a lot of the descriptions tedious. I think this was in need of more heavy-handed editing. The ideas here are stronger than the line writing, and there’s a lot of telling rather than showing, like the author wrote some notes on how Lily was feeling but didn’t go back to actually write it. Also she called heels “vertiginous footwear.” I don’t feel like I need to say anything else about that.
I also wasn’t super into the end. I was very aware the entire book that this was heavily based on the author’s real life experiences, but it got a little too meta for my tastes.
Also discovered a major pet peeve: referring to a lesbian couple that is hanging out as “the two women.” It bugged me so much.
The writing is not bad, but it is really adjective heavy and I found a lot of the descriptions tedious. I think this was in need of more heavy-handed editing. The ideas here are stronger than the line writing, and there’s a lot of telling rather than showing, like the author wrote some notes on how Lily was feeling but didn’t go back to actually write it. Also she called heels “vertiginous footwear.” I don’t feel like I need to say anything else about that.
I also wasn’t super into the end. I was very aware the entire book that this was heavily based on the author’s real life experiences, but it got a little too meta for my tastes.
Also discovered a major pet peeve: referring to a lesbian couple that is hanging out as “the two women.” It bugged me so much.
March 16, 2024
This was one of those books where the concept was stronger than the execution for me. The story follows Lily, an Asian American writer who works for a women's magazine as print is dying and digital is on the rise. She's stuck and often overlooked in her work. When she has a chance encounter with Billy, a 40something white woman and powerful beauty executive, they start a text based mentorship of sorts that has Lily doubting her every move. The book explores a lot from sexism, to racism, to the differences between Gen X and Millennials, and the changing workforce for creatives. There was a lot I could relate to as a writer and a POC woman in a white dominated field but I just felt like I've read a lot of the conversations and plot points a lot in recent years. This book didn't do enough to make Lily or Billy feel unique, or like they brought something new to the conversation. It was an interesting choice for their relationship to take place solely through text but I don't think the twist of it all stuck the landing. The book was an easy read with a few standout moments for me, and I do think Lawrence is a good writer on a prose level, I just didn't love all of her choices. I'd be interested to see what her title is about. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the arc!
January 23, 2024
Ellipses is a thoughtful and thought-provoking debut that follows Lily, a writer for a major magazine, as she navigates the decline of her print career as digital takes over, the complications of her relationship with her girlfriend, Alison, and the sometimes-good, sometimes-dangerous advice from her sort-of mentor, Billie. The prose is smart and sharp, and the experience through Lily’s eyes (journalism; workplace drama; life as a queer, mixed-race woman) feels deeply considered and lived-in. Through Lawrence’s storytelling, we get an insider’s look at life in the world of media that’s a good fit for fans of Sally Rooney and readers of classic periodicals like Elle, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan.
April 26, 2024
Lily is a wonderful creation - a young woman trying to figure out her life, on her “hero’s journey,” complete with a mentor who she has to outgrow. I appreciated the scenes at Lily’s workplace - this felt like such a real part of a young woman’s life and often neglected.
It’s also a romance between lily and her girlfriend, Alison. I loved how this thread feels at first like a minor part of the book, but grows in intensity.
I look forward to Vanessa Lawrence’s next book!
It’s also a romance between lily and her girlfriend, Alison. I loved how this thread feels at first like a minor part of the book, but grows in intensity.
I look forward to Vanessa Lawrence’s next book!
January 17, 2025
This was not as bad as I thought it would be. That being said, it was quite heavy handed. Idk why Lily was so enthralled with this mean mean woman. :( Masc shortage?
May 19, 2024
this was the most made-for-twitter book i have ever read with the writing and voice of someone who took exactly one (1) 100 level gender & women's studies class
Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews