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Catalina
A magnetic, provocative debut novel chronicling a young woman's downward spiral following the end of an affair
Elsa Fisher is headed for rock bottom. At least, that's her plan. She has just been fired from MoMA on the heels of an affair with her married boss, and she retreats to Los Angeles to blow her severance package on whatever it takes to numb the pain. Her abandoned crew of college friends (childhood friend Charlotte and her wayward husband, Jared; and Elsa's ex-husband, Robby) receive her with open arms, and, thinking she's on vacation, a plan to celebrate their reunion on a booze-soaked sailing trip to Catalina Island.
But Elsa doesn't want to celebrate. She is lost, lonely, and full of rage, and only wants to sink as low as the drugs and alcohol will take her. On Catalina, her determined unraveling and recklessness expose painful memories and dark desires, putting everyone in the group at risk.
With the creeping menace of Patricia Highsmith and the bender-chic of Bret Easton Ellis, Liska Jacobs brings you inside the mind of an angry, reckless young woman hell-bent on destruction--every page taut with the knowledge that Elsa's path does not lead to a happy place. Catalina is a compulsive, deliciously dark exploration of beauty, love, and friendship, and the sometimes toxic desires that drive us.
Elsa Fisher is headed for rock bottom. At least, that's her plan. She has just been fired from MoMA on the heels of an affair with her married boss, and she retreats to Los Angeles to blow her severance package on whatever it takes to numb the pain. Her abandoned crew of college friends (childhood friend Charlotte and her wayward husband, Jared; and Elsa's ex-husband, Robby) receive her with open arms, and, thinking she's on vacation, a plan to celebrate their reunion on a booze-soaked sailing trip to Catalina Island.
But Elsa doesn't want to celebrate. She is lost, lonely, and full of rage, and only wants to sink as low as the drugs and alcohol will take her. On Catalina, her determined unraveling and recklessness expose painful memories and dark desires, putting everyone in the group at risk.
With the creeping menace of Patricia Highsmith and the bender-chic of Bret Easton Ellis, Liska Jacobs brings you inside the mind of an angry, reckless young woman hell-bent on destruction--every page taut with the knowledge that Elsa's path does not lead to a happy place. Catalina is a compulsive, deliciously dark exploration of beauty, love, and friendship, and the sometimes toxic desires that drive us.
240 pages, Paperback
First published November 7, 2017
103 people are currently reading
1739 people want to read
About the author
Liska Jacobs
4 books166 followersLiska Jacobs is the author of two acclaimed novels, Catalina and The Worst Kind of Want both published by MCD | FSG. To quote a review in The Believer: "The Worst Kind of Want presents Jacobs at her best: thinking through the fraught ethical problems and pitfalls of desire... Jacobs is establishing herself as a novelist who can probe what it means to be both selfish and vulnerable, asking with bald-faced earnestness: What, in 2019, are adult women allowed to want—and at what cost?" Her essays and short fiction have appeared in The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Millions and The Hairpin among others. She has an MFA from the University of California, Riverside.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 148 reviews
October 4, 2017
I'm between 3.5 and 4 stars here, so I'll round up.
Why is it so fascinating to read about people in the midst of crises, mostly of their own design? Is it like rubbernecking as you pass a gruesome accident on the highway, that can't-look-but-can't-look-away feeling? Or is it more the reinforcement of how lucky we are that our lives aren't that bad, a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God moment?
Whatever the reason, reading about people whose lives are a mess can be fascinating. And if you look in the dictionary next to the word "mess," you might find Elsa, the protagonist of Liska Jacobs' debut novel, Catalina . She's just been laid off from her dream job as personal and executive assistant to one the curators of New York's Museum of Modern Art after a torrid affair with her married boss, and she's trying to figure out her next move.
She heads home to Bakersfield, California, with designs on blowing through her "very generous" severance package. After a few days' visiting her mother, she leaves with most of her mother's prescription drugs, and retreats to a fancy hotel in Santa Monica, where she spends her days and nights in a drug-addled, alcohol-soaked haze, flirting (and more) with random men she meets, and leaving even teenage boys bewitched. But as high as she gets, it can't really numb the pain from losing her lover and her job.
As much as the she dreads the thought, she decides to reunite with her college friends, whom she hasn't seen since she fled for the East Coast more than five years before—her ex-husband Robby, who still pines for her and wonders where they went wrong, her childhood friend Charlotte ("Charly"), and Charly's flirtatious, overgrown frat boy husband, status-conscious Jared.
"I can almost feel my old self, that girl who loved art—museums especially—who dreamed of a career far from here. Poor girl, joke's on you. You're back. Your old life just waiting for you, like a second skin."
Elsa convinces her friends that she's on a much-needed vacation from the craziness of MoMA, and they mostly believe her, despite a smile that doesn't quite meet her eyes, manic mood swings, and overindulgence in both alcohol and random pills. The group plans to embark on a sailing trip to Catalina Island, along with Robby's super-outdoorsy, over-achieving girlfriend Jane, and Tom, a wealthy, arrogant client of Jared and Robby's, who owns the boat they will travel on. It's a perfect opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the island along with copious amounts of liquor and pills (at least as far as Elsa is concerned), and perhaps rekindle some of the fun they used to have.
It's not long before Elsa realizes her friends are having troubles of their own. Charly and Jared are struggling with fertility issues and Jared's mercurial moods, alternating between attentive and overly flirtatious, which puts Charly even more on edge. Charly longs to rekindle her friendship with Elsa but notices that Elsa doesn't quite seem to care about any of them, as much as Charly hopes that's not true. Robby, despite being happy with Jane, misses the Elsa he used to know, and wants her back, not this sharp-edged, high-strung addict she has become.
Fueled by a lack of inhibition and depression over the shambles of her life, Elsa blunders from one bad situation into another, leaving her perplexed and concerned friends in her wake, until she starts to stir up trouble among the group. The false joviality and sense of nostalgia gives way to rehashing old hurts and frustrations, not to mention new ones, as Elsa is only interested in self-gratification, and she doesn't even know what will make her happy anymore.
Despite the somewhat depressing nature of Elsa's downward spiral, Catalina is immensely readable. I devoured the book in about a day, and although I wondered exactly when (and if) Elsa would hit rock bottom, and what (and/or whom) she'd take with her, I couldn't look away. You can't believe one person could make such a mess of things, and you wonder whether she'll realize she's only making things worse, but her path of self-destruction is fascinating, even while it's pathetic.
Even though Elsa's story is familiar, Jacobs' does a terrific job drawing you in, hooking you on these characters that aren't particularly likable, who can't seem to say the things they want to. At times she shifts the narrative into flashback mode, or in her stupor Elsa imagines certain things happening, so I got a little confused occasionally. But Jacobs' has created a soapy, messy story to get lost in, and her use of language in describing the beauty of Catalina borders on poetic.
Beach season may be over for part of the world, but it's never too late for a beach read! I enjoyed this a lot, and can't wait to see what comes next in Jacobs' career.
NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
Why is it so fascinating to read about people in the midst of crises, mostly of their own design? Is it like rubbernecking as you pass a gruesome accident on the highway, that can't-look-but-can't-look-away feeling? Or is it more the reinforcement of how lucky we are that our lives aren't that bad, a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God moment?
Whatever the reason, reading about people whose lives are a mess can be fascinating. And if you look in the dictionary next to the word "mess," you might find Elsa, the protagonist of Liska Jacobs' debut novel, Catalina . She's just been laid off from her dream job as personal and executive assistant to one the curators of New York's Museum of Modern Art after a torrid affair with her married boss, and she's trying to figure out her next move.
She heads home to Bakersfield, California, with designs on blowing through her "very generous" severance package. After a few days' visiting her mother, she leaves with most of her mother's prescription drugs, and retreats to a fancy hotel in Santa Monica, where she spends her days and nights in a drug-addled, alcohol-soaked haze, flirting (and more) with random men she meets, and leaving even teenage boys bewitched. But as high as she gets, it can't really numb the pain from losing her lover and her job.
As much as the she dreads the thought, she decides to reunite with her college friends, whom she hasn't seen since she fled for the East Coast more than five years before—her ex-husband Robby, who still pines for her and wonders where they went wrong, her childhood friend Charlotte ("Charly"), and Charly's flirtatious, overgrown frat boy husband, status-conscious Jared.
"I can almost feel my old self, that girl who loved art—museums especially—who dreamed of a career far from here. Poor girl, joke's on you. You're back. Your old life just waiting for you, like a second skin."
Elsa convinces her friends that she's on a much-needed vacation from the craziness of MoMA, and they mostly believe her, despite a smile that doesn't quite meet her eyes, manic mood swings, and overindulgence in both alcohol and random pills. The group plans to embark on a sailing trip to Catalina Island, along with Robby's super-outdoorsy, over-achieving girlfriend Jane, and Tom, a wealthy, arrogant client of Jared and Robby's, who owns the boat they will travel on. It's a perfect opportunity to enjoy the beauty of the island along with copious amounts of liquor and pills (at least as far as Elsa is concerned), and perhaps rekindle some of the fun they used to have.
It's not long before Elsa realizes her friends are having troubles of their own. Charly and Jared are struggling with fertility issues and Jared's mercurial moods, alternating between attentive and overly flirtatious, which puts Charly even more on edge. Charly longs to rekindle her friendship with Elsa but notices that Elsa doesn't quite seem to care about any of them, as much as Charly hopes that's not true. Robby, despite being happy with Jane, misses the Elsa he used to know, and wants her back, not this sharp-edged, high-strung addict she has become.
Fueled by a lack of inhibition and depression over the shambles of her life, Elsa blunders from one bad situation into another, leaving her perplexed and concerned friends in her wake, until she starts to stir up trouble among the group. The false joviality and sense of nostalgia gives way to rehashing old hurts and frustrations, not to mention new ones, as Elsa is only interested in self-gratification, and she doesn't even know what will make her happy anymore.
Despite the somewhat depressing nature of Elsa's downward spiral, Catalina is immensely readable. I devoured the book in about a day, and although I wondered exactly when (and if) Elsa would hit rock bottom, and what (and/or whom) she'd take with her, I couldn't look away. You can't believe one person could make such a mess of things, and you wonder whether she'll realize she's only making things worse, but her path of self-destruction is fascinating, even while it's pathetic.
Even though Elsa's story is familiar, Jacobs' does a terrific job drawing you in, hooking you on these characters that aren't particularly likable, who can't seem to say the things they want to. At times she shifts the narrative into flashback mode, or in her stupor Elsa imagines certain things happening, so I got a little confused occasionally. But Jacobs' has created a soapy, messy story to get lost in, and her use of language in describing the beauty of Catalina borders on poetic.
Beach season may be over for part of the world, but it's never too late for a beach read! I enjoyed this a lot, and can't wait to see what comes next in Jacobs' career.
NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blo....
October 27, 2017
“I call room service and order another Bloody Mary, which, I tell myself, is basically a salad.”
After being fired from working as an assistant at the MoMa, Elsa returns to California where she meets up with her college friends, including her ex-husband, Robby, who is dating a triathlete, and, though he seems happy with Jane, also seems to pine for Elsa. Her other friend, Charlotte “Charly” has a strained relationship with her husband.
Elsa constantly pops pills she stole from her mother. She doesn’t even know what the pills are—she makes guesses, and then washes them down with alcohol. Obviously alcohol and drugs keep a person in a haze where she doesn’t have to feel the pain of her married lover breaking up with her and firing her, but it also keeps her from being able to emotionally be there for her friends. The more we learn about Elsa, however, the more we learn that her lack of empathy came a long time before her downturn in circumstances.
Elsa is beautiful, and while that gives her some power, it also exacts a toll. This is a dark, well-written novel. It’s not a breezy beach read despite the fact the entire book happens in the course of a few days—at the beach.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and FSG Originals for the opportunity to review this book by debut author Liska Jacobs.
For more of my reviews, please visit: http://www.theresaalan.net/blog
After being fired from working as an assistant at the MoMa, Elsa returns to California where she meets up with her college friends, including her ex-husband, Robby, who is dating a triathlete, and, though he seems happy with Jane, also seems to pine for Elsa. Her other friend, Charlotte “Charly” has a strained relationship with her husband.
Elsa constantly pops pills she stole from her mother. She doesn’t even know what the pills are—she makes guesses, and then washes them down with alcohol. Obviously alcohol and drugs keep a person in a haze where she doesn’t have to feel the pain of her married lover breaking up with her and firing her, but it also keeps her from being able to emotionally be there for her friends. The more we learn about Elsa, however, the more we learn that her lack of empathy came a long time before her downturn in circumstances.
Elsa is beautiful, and while that gives her some power, it also exacts a toll. This is a dark, well-written novel. It’s not a breezy beach read despite the fact the entire book happens in the course of a few days—at the beach.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and FSG Originals for the opportunity to review this book by debut author Liska Jacobs.
For more of my reviews, please visit: http://www.theresaalan.net/blog
September 21, 2017
See my reviews on WP: https://anisabookreviews.wordpress.co...
Elsa Fischer is taking refuge from her fractured life in Manhattan. Armed with her friends in Santa Monica, Bloody Marys, and Mother’s pharmacy Elsa is trying to deal with a recent breakup and job loss. The affair ended abruptly, as well as the job, as they were part of each other. But Elsa is a category five hurricane of self-destruction. Only her friends and her ex-husband are unaware of the gale force winds on the sail to Catalina Island.
She is Ingrid a wine rep from Portland or Susanna from San Diego. What she wants to be now is not in her life. An illusion. She will pretend that she is on vacation, see old friends and blow off some steam.
The plot is about an Elsa escape through a slur of pills and alcohol. As she journeys with her friends to Catalina, the cast and crew are also suffering their issues and dysfunctional qualities. But it is captain Tom that is the most psychologically sober and can see through Elsa. The trip becomes bittersweet as everyone sheds their jacket of protection and indulges in their demons.
During the narrative, we are a witness to flashbacks of Elsa’s youth, memories of trips, of friendships but also to her parent’s marriage. A mother waiting up long hours for a husband that shows up late in the night and the subsequent arguments and hushed tones. A mother medicating herself with alcohol, to push away the thoughts of unfaithfulness. But what her parents do not know is that they set Elsa up for life without coping skills and a moral compass. These memories bring realism to the main character, making her relatable even though she is dark.
The narrative is well-written with images that put you at the moment with the main character. “I let the pills dissolved under my tongue and wait for the covers to creep up around me, the promise of hotel sheets..starchy stiff like beaten egg whites.” Jacobs has a beautiful way with words without getting lost.
The setting of Santa Monica, the Pier, Catalina Island and Joshua Tree takes you on vacation. The Pier dominated by the Ferris wheel in an atmosphere rich in fried food and cotton candy. Gazing into the starry nights that blanket you in the national park. And the description of Catalina Island, from the eroded bluffs, electric blue waters, to the schools of the orange Garibaldi fish.
When I first chose to request this novel I was attracted to the darkness of the story. And I walk away with something richer. I have a greater love and appreciation for the climate, topography, the ambiance of California.
Excellent novel and I highly recommend it to everyone. Thank you, NetGalley, and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Elsa Fischer is taking refuge from her fractured life in Manhattan. Armed with her friends in Santa Monica, Bloody Marys, and Mother’s pharmacy Elsa is trying to deal with a recent breakup and job loss. The affair ended abruptly, as well as the job, as they were part of each other. But Elsa is a category five hurricane of self-destruction. Only her friends and her ex-husband are unaware of the gale force winds on the sail to Catalina Island.
She is Ingrid a wine rep from Portland or Susanna from San Diego. What she wants to be now is not in her life. An illusion. She will pretend that she is on vacation, see old friends and blow off some steam.
The plot is about an Elsa escape through a slur of pills and alcohol. As she journeys with her friends to Catalina, the cast and crew are also suffering their issues and dysfunctional qualities. But it is captain Tom that is the most psychologically sober and can see through Elsa. The trip becomes bittersweet as everyone sheds their jacket of protection and indulges in their demons.
During the narrative, we are a witness to flashbacks of Elsa’s youth, memories of trips, of friendships but also to her parent’s marriage. A mother waiting up long hours for a husband that shows up late in the night and the subsequent arguments and hushed tones. A mother medicating herself with alcohol, to push away the thoughts of unfaithfulness. But what her parents do not know is that they set Elsa up for life without coping skills and a moral compass. These memories bring realism to the main character, making her relatable even though she is dark.
The narrative is well-written with images that put you at the moment with the main character. “I let the pills dissolved under my tongue and wait for the covers to creep up around me, the promise of hotel sheets..starchy stiff like beaten egg whites.” Jacobs has a beautiful way with words without getting lost.
The setting of Santa Monica, the Pier, Catalina Island and Joshua Tree takes you on vacation. The Pier dominated by the Ferris wheel in an atmosphere rich in fried food and cotton candy. Gazing into the starry nights that blanket you in the national park. And the description of Catalina Island, from the eroded bluffs, electric blue waters, to the schools of the orange Garibaldi fish.
When I first chose to request this novel I was attracted to the darkness of the story. And I walk away with something richer. I have a greater love and appreciation for the climate, topography, the ambiance of California.
Excellent novel and I highly recommend it to everyone. Thank you, NetGalley, and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
dnf
December 14, 2017DNF @ 3%
I read a single chapter of this book. It was enough. Catalina is the story of Elsa Fisher, a woman that spirals out of control after her affair with her married boss is discovered. She returns home, to a place where she never wanted to return to, to people she never wanted to see again, but she slips easily back into that life. Except everything is a tragedy because well, life is just so hard.
“Charly? She will definitely want to go shopping. And we will get Frappuccinos with skim milk, and try on dresses, and talk about whatever argument she and Jared are currently in the middle of. God, how exhausting to be back.”
I guess I never really understood why she HAD to go back home. Sure, maybe that’s explained in a later chapter, but she’s introduced as this martyr that loses her job and just gives up and goes back home. Why didn’t she try to get a new job? Why do I care? Oh wait, I don’t.
“The room-service boy lingers, saying he thinks redheads are pretty. He’s young and breakable and it would feel so goddamn good to break something.”
Yeah, Elsa Fisher is a pleasant individual. Real likable.
“I shower with my drink and take one of Mother’s Vicodins.”
Oh goodie. I picked up the novelization of a soap opera. Hard pass.
I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I read a single chapter of this book. It was enough. Catalina is the story of Elsa Fisher, a woman that spirals out of control after her affair with her married boss is discovered. She returns home, to a place where she never wanted to return to, to people she never wanted to see again, but she slips easily back into that life. Except everything is a tragedy because well, life is just so hard.
“Charly? She will definitely want to go shopping. And we will get Frappuccinos with skim milk, and try on dresses, and talk about whatever argument she and Jared are currently in the middle of. God, how exhausting to be back.”
I guess I never really understood why she HAD to go back home. Sure, maybe that’s explained in a later chapter, but she’s introduced as this martyr that loses her job and just gives up and goes back home. Why didn’t she try to get a new job? Why do I care? Oh wait, I don’t.
“The room-service boy lingers, saying he thinks redheads are pretty. He’s young and breakable and it would feel so goddamn good to break something.”
Yeah, Elsa Fisher is a pleasant individual. Real likable.
“I shower with my drink and take one of Mother’s Vicodins.”
Oh goodie. I picked up the novelization of a soap opera. Hard pass.
I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
December 6, 2017
I don't know what it is about these kinds of books that captivates me so thoroughly, but reading about unlikeable, self-destructive women is such a shamefully guilty pleasure of mine.
Elsa, the main character in this one, is horrible. Her friends are horrible. Everyone in this book is horrible, and I couldn't look away.
After getting fired from her job at the MoMA for having an affair with her boss, Elsa uses her generous severance package to fund a trip back to her college town in LA, where she reunites with her old friends and her ex-husband for the first time in 5 years.
Elsa is unapologetic about her relentlessly self-destructive behaviors. Addicted to pills and alcohol, she uses her good looks and sardonic charm to take advantage of everyone in her path.
At the heart of Elsa's downward spiral is her rejection of the life she feels expected to have. Like the untamed beauty and savagery of the ocean that surrounds her, she's capable of taking down everyone with her.
Are there really people who live like this? I thought to myself while reading this book. Exploring the greed and apathy and selfishness of the privileged class is nothing new in the literary world, and yet it's so often fascinating, eliciting both my schadenfreude and my sympathy.
Elsa, the main character in this one, is horrible. Her friends are horrible. Everyone in this book is horrible, and I couldn't look away.
After getting fired from her job at the MoMA for having an affair with her boss, Elsa uses her generous severance package to fund a trip back to her college town in LA, where she reunites with her old friends and her ex-husband for the first time in 5 years.
Elsa is unapologetic about her relentlessly self-destructive behaviors. Addicted to pills and alcohol, she uses her good looks and sardonic charm to take advantage of everyone in her path.
At the heart of Elsa's downward spiral is her rejection of the life she feels expected to have. Like the untamed beauty and savagery of the ocean that surrounds her, she's capable of taking down everyone with her.
Are there really people who live like this? I thought to myself while reading this book. Exploring the greed and apathy and selfishness of the privileged class is nothing new in the literary world, and yet it's so often fascinating, eliciting both my schadenfreude and my sympathy.
October 23, 2017
CATALINA WRITTEN BY LISKA JACOBS
Elsa Fisher has just been offered a very generous severance package to leave her dream job in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art. Why was Elsa fired from the best job she has ever wanted? Her boss is a married man for 27 years named Eric who Elsa thinks she loves and she also thinks he loves her. Could that be the reason Human Resources is saying the museum is cutting back on jobs. Elsa leaves her beloved life and flies home to reunite with a group of her closest friends in Los Angeles. There is Charlotte and Jared who got married five years ago going through infertility problems. Elsa takes her time reuniting with Charlotte who Elsa considers living the domestic life is boring. Elsa makes a choice to spend some of her money staying at the Miramar Hotel where she sleeps around popping her mother's stolen cache of prescription drugs and getting drunk on alcohol.
There is Robby, Elsa's ex-husband who still carries a torch for Elsa, while he is presently involved with adventurous Jane. Tom is the owner of the sailboat that is taking the group out to Catalina Island. Nobody in the group knows that Elsa was fired. They all are under the impression that Elsa has returned five years later for a reunion of sorts with taking a vacation to party in Catalina. Elsa has flashbacks of her time spent with Eric.
Elsa is not able to share any real intimacy with her friends and she gives out fake names with fake phone numbers to the various men she has sex with. At first I didn't like Elsa or understand why she is so determined to live such a self destructive and shallow life. By the end of the book I felt sorry for Elsa. Something bad happens on the trip to the Island that will shake Elsa to her core.
This was the kind of book that took it's time to grow on me and at about 80 percent in I appreciated the author's choice to use unlikable character's and how they connected so well with the plot. The descriptions of the Ocean and all of the aquatic animal life were written with vivid prose. I read this spare novel in one sitting and the blurb on the novel hits a homerun when comparing the author's storytelling with Patricia Highsmith. A really well accomplished novel that has a satisfying ending and it is also thought provoking and is addictive.
Thank you to Net Galley, Liska Jacobs and Macmillan for providing me with my digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Elsa Fisher has just been offered a very generous severance package to leave her dream job in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art. Why was Elsa fired from the best job she has ever wanted? Her boss is a married man for 27 years named Eric who Elsa thinks she loves and she also thinks he loves her. Could that be the reason Human Resources is saying the museum is cutting back on jobs. Elsa leaves her beloved life and flies home to reunite with a group of her closest friends in Los Angeles. There is Charlotte and Jared who got married five years ago going through infertility problems. Elsa takes her time reuniting with Charlotte who Elsa considers living the domestic life is boring. Elsa makes a choice to spend some of her money staying at the Miramar Hotel where she sleeps around popping her mother's stolen cache of prescription drugs and getting drunk on alcohol.
There is Robby, Elsa's ex-husband who still carries a torch for Elsa, while he is presently involved with adventurous Jane. Tom is the owner of the sailboat that is taking the group out to Catalina Island. Nobody in the group knows that Elsa was fired. They all are under the impression that Elsa has returned five years later for a reunion of sorts with taking a vacation to party in Catalina. Elsa has flashbacks of her time spent with Eric.
Elsa is not able to share any real intimacy with her friends and she gives out fake names with fake phone numbers to the various men she has sex with. At first I didn't like Elsa or understand why she is so determined to live such a self destructive and shallow life. By the end of the book I felt sorry for Elsa. Something bad happens on the trip to the Island that will shake Elsa to her core.
This was the kind of book that took it's time to grow on me and at about 80 percent in I appreciated the author's choice to use unlikable character's and how they connected so well with the plot. The descriptions of the Ocean and all of the aquatic animal life were written with vivid prose. I read this spare novel in one sitting and the blurb on the novel hits a homerun when comparing the author's storytelling with Patricia Highsmith. A really well accomplished novel that has a satisfying ending and it is also thought provoking and is addictive.
Thank you to Net Galley, Liska Jacobs and Macmillan for providing me with my digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
November 15, 2017
Women seeking salvation through men. Pretty boring.
November 2, 2017
A sad tale of a young woman that has hit rock bottom. Elsa has recently been let go of her dream job at MoMa because she was having an affair with her very married boss. She is absolutely devastated. She flies home to California where she reunites with not only her family but her college best friends. She spends her days in a complete haze due to self medicating with an array of pills, lots of alcohol, cocaine, and random sex with strangers which will lead her to devastating consequences.
It's hard to garner much sympathy for Elsa because she continually makes bad choices and rather than owning them she'd prefer to just walk away and not deal with it. She really doesn't care about anyone except herself. She may not sound like someone you'd want to read about but Liska Jacobs writes so beautifully that you are compelled to continue. This one was very good indeed.
Thank you so much to NetGalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for granting my wish to read this in exchange for my honest review.
It's hard to garner much sympathy for Elsa because she continually makes bad choices and rather than owning them she'd prefer to just walk away and not deal with it. She really doesn't care about anyone except herself. She may not sound like someone you'd want to read about but Liska Jacobs writes so beautifully that you are compelled to continue. This one was very good indeed.
Thank you so much to NetGalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for granting my wish to read this in exchange for my honest review.
September 7, 2017
Catalina is not a feel good book.
It’s beautifully written, lush, and incredibly depressing.
I didn’t like Elsa. There were times I almost liked her, but in the end I hated her.
The book has shades of Valley of the Dolls. The characters are so very desperate to not feel anything at all. Elsa in particular lives on pills and admiration – she barely allows herself an identity beyond those. And it’s so very sad that so many men want to sleep with her, but also hold her in contempt.
As you read about the beautiful, but desperate people – and the even more beautiful world of Catalina – you’re aware of a build up to something dark and tragic. It makes for a very unsettling read.
A very well written book that left me feeling very sad.
*ARC Provided via Net Galley
It’s beautifully written, lush, and incredibly depressing.
I didn’t like Elsa. There were times I almost liked her, but in the end I hated her.
The book has shades of Valley of the Dolls. The characters are so very desperate to not feel anything at all. Elsa in particular lives on pills and admiration – she barely allows herself an identity beyond those. And it’s so very sad that so many men want to sleep with her, but also hold her in contempt.
As you read about the beautiful, but desperate people – and the even more beautiful world of Catalina – you’re aware of a build up to something dark and tragic. It makes for a very unsettling read.
A very well written book that left me feeling very sad.
*ARC Provided via Net Galley
March 25, 2018
Five stars is maybe a little generous, but this debut took me by complete surprise. An almost Greek tragedy set against the scalding and scandalous backdrop of contemporary LA, we follow the instantly unlikeable Elsa hitting a downward spiral. Sparked by being fired from her swanky New York museum job, she’s bitter and wistful for the married boss who is the cause of this sudden predicament. She’s a freshly dyed redhead, popping a cocktail of pills, and hooking up with bad boys on the beach. We know how this story goes right? But as it turns out, we don’t. This gets gritty and claustrophobic and takes unsettlingly compelling turns. Nauseatingly readable, this book is as hot a mess as Elsa herself. A brilliant novel.
November 3, 2017
I missed something here. Instead of a beautiful portrayal of a woman facing a rough patch in her life, I read the story of a woman who historically ran away from her problems and ran so far she was back at the beginning. I felt no sympathy for the pill popping, booze guzzling Elsa who somehow expected that her affair with her boss would end up any better than her losing her job and not getting the man. I realize this makes me sound rather self-righteous, but isn't that the norm? Why should she expect a different result than all the poor women who have fallen for this in the past? After this, Elsa returns to the west coast to lie to her friends, which includes her ex-husband and his new girlfriend, about how great life is and to squander away her severance package. Even though I was able to sympathize with a couple of the characters, I found none of them likable and felt like they were all on their own paths of self-destruction. This made for uncomfortable reading. Was that the point of the book? I guess perhaps the fault was mine in expecting some redeeming quality in a story about a human train wreck.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in exchange for an honest review.
A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in exchange for an honest review.
abandoned
June 25, 2018Abandoning this one around page 80. I usually love books about difficult people, but this is reading rather flat for me right now, and sympathy for wealthy, beautiful people living beautiful sun-drenched lives is especially hard these days, even though they have the same interpersonal problems we all do.
October 10, 2017
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
I’m thinking, Who is this Elsa? Her name is so sterile and dead. It’s not me.
Elsa Fisher is a controlled disaster, her forbidden affair with her boss has reached it’s bitter end. She has been fired from her job at MoMA as executive assistant to the talented Eric Reindheart, what else to do but return home to Los Angeles and party with her friends, sail to Catalina and slowly self-destruct? With pills, booze, young hot guys, anything to keep reality at a distance, but as she sinks, she may will bring her friends down with her. She uses men along the way, young and old, high off her mother’s stolen pills. “He’s young and breakable and it would feel so goddamn good to break something.” Bitter, jaded, with her stale heart- she just can’t get out of her own way.
Her college friend’s lives have moved along, even her ex-husband Robby has a girlfriend, Jane- who seems so much lovelier than she did when they first met in New York. Jane, athletic, upbeat, just the perfect little package for her ex. The sort of woman that will glow in the intense focus Robby has to give any woman in his life. In the mix again, the men desire her. Her ex-husband Robby can’t seem to let go, always slipping back into an intimacy he should be long past. Questioning why things ended, jealous of male attention she receives, as if he still has that right. She almost enjoys the misery, the attention it garners from Robby. It’s hard to like Elsa, tangled so tightly in her own mess of a life, blind to the needs of her friends. Charly , her best friend, has been trying for children with her husband Jared. Jared is an over-grown flirt, at times adoring of his wifey Charly and others insensitive, but Elsa doesn’t see everything clearly, she is too wrapped up in her own victim mentality. With her bite, her vicious wit, her untouchable conscious she seems to only bring back destruction to the group. Telling her friends this trip is about a well needed vacation from her fast paced New York life, hiding the truth about her affair and being fired, sleeping with men, tossing back pills and booze, leading Charly astray, slowly the friends have to wonder- just why did she come back?
Her past is surfacing through her dreams, and in hazy painful memories of how she betrayed each of her friends in different ways, particularly when her beauty became ripe. She is remembering her father’s decline, the love she couldn’t muster for her first love Robby, every titillating moment she spent with Eric, her boss at MoMA. Tom has the boat the friends will all travel to Catalina on, a client of Jared’s, wealthy, smug and who has his eyes on Elsa, far more perceptive than any of her friends. He recognizes exactly what she is, exposing her hypocrisy, her needs, her cruelty and weaknesses. Before the trip is over, she will set off events that change each bond she has with her friends. Charly wants her best friend back so badly, possibly at her own detriment. Elsa’s heart is sour, she is a source of poison, and is too boozed soaked and self absorbed to see it. Rather than humbling herself, confiding in her friends, she pretends to be happy, carefree, and cynical. By the end of the trip, everyone will be changed, some will lose something vital to their future happiness, but will Elsa remained untouched by the damage she has birthed?
Publication Date: November 7, 2017
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
I’m thinking, Who is this Elsa? Her name is so sterile and dead. It’s not me.
Elsa Fisher is a controlled disaster, her forbidden affair with her boss has reached it’s bitter end. She has been fired from her job at MoMA as executive assistant to the talented Eric Reindheart, what else to do but return home to Los Angeles and party with her friends, sail to Catalina and slowly self-destruct? With pills, booze, young hot guys, anything to keep reality at a distance, but as she sinks, she may will bring her friends down with her. She uses men along the way, young and old, high off her mother’s stolen pills. “He’s young and breakable and it would feel so goddamn good to break something.” Bitter, jaded, with her stale heart- she just can’t get out of her own way.
Her college friend’s lives have moved along, even her ex-husband Robby has a girlfriend, Jane- who seems so much lovelier than she did when they first met in New York. Jane, athletic, upbeat, just the perfect little package for her ex. The sort of woman that will glow in the intense focus Robby has to give any woman in his life. In the mix again, the men desire her. Her ex-husband Robby can’t seem to let go, always slipping back into an intimacy he should be long past. Questioning why things ended, jealous of male attention she receives, as if he still has that right. She almost enjoys the misery, the attention it garners from Robby. It’s hard to like Elsa, tangled so tightly in her own mess of a life, blind to the needs of her friends. Charly , her best friend, has been trying for children with her husband Jared. Jared is an over-grown flirt, at times adoring of his wifey Charly and others insensitive, but Elsa doesn’t see everything clearly, she is too wrapped up in her own victim mentality. With her bite, her vicious wit, her untouchable conscious she seems to only bring back destruction to the group. Telling her friends this trip is about a well needed vacation from her fast paced New York life, hiding the truth about her affair and being fired, sleeping with men, tossing back pills and booze, leading Charly astray, slowly the friends have to wonder- just why did she come back?
Her past is surfacing through her dreams, and in hazy painful memories of how she betrayed each of her friends in different ways, particularly when her beauty became ripe. She is remembering her father’s decline, the love she couldn’t muster for her first love Robby, every titillating moment she spent with Eric, her boss at MoMA. Tom has the boat the friends will all travel to Catalina on, a client of Jared’s, wealthy, smug and who has his eyes on Elsa, far more perceptive than any of her friends. He recognizes exactly what she is, exposing her hypocrisy, her needs, her cruelty and weaknesses. Before the trip is over, she will set off events that change each bond she has with her friends. Charly wants her best friend back so badly, possibly at her own detriment. Elsa’s heart is sour, she is a source of poison, and is too boozed soaked and self absorbed to see it. Rather than humbling herself, confiding in her friends, she pretends to be happy, carefree, and cynical. By the end of the trip, everyone will be changed, some will lose something vital to their future happiness, but will Elsa remained untouched by the damage she has birthed?
Publication Date: November 7, 2017
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
November 13, 2017
3.5/5 stars!
Thank you so much FSG Originals for sending me a copy of Catalina by Liska Jacobs in exchange for an honest review! A look into the life of someone who is completely spiraling out of control leads to a quick twisted read and the realization that at any time any of us could lose our way just as easily.
This book hooked my interest right away. Main character Elsa is the storm wreaking havoc that you cannot look away from. I wanted to know what she was going to do next, why her life had fallen apart so quickly, and where she would end up. Liska's writing was very well done, she kept me interested in Elsa when normally I tend to find these types of reads a little boring. At just under 250 pages I got through this book in half a day, which made it the perfect book to squeeze in during a busy week.
For what I didn't love, I felt by the end that there wasn't much of a point to what I had just read other than to watch this woman spiral more and more out of control. The ending was abrupt and a bit lackluster. I suppose it was meant to show that her downward spiral was no where near its end. It just didn't make much sense to me seeing how that match up went through out the rest of the book. I do not want to give too much away so I'll leave it at that.
Overall, an easy read to pick up and finish in a day. The book's darker side really hooks you and makes you wonder if you could so easily lose control as well, and is there an Elsa in all of us?
Thank you so much FSG Originals for sending me a copy of Catalina by Liska Jacobs in exchange for an honest review! A look into the life of someone who is completely spiraling out of control leads to a quick twisted read and the realization that at any time any of us could lose our way just as easily.
This book hooked my interest right away. Main character Elsa is the storm wreaking havoc that you cannot look away from. I wanted to know what she was going to do next, why her life had fallen apart so quickly, and where she would end up. Liska's writing was very well done, she kept me interested in Elsa when normally I tend to find these types of reads a little boring. At just under 250 pages I got through this book in half a day, which made it the perfect book to squeeze in during a busy week.
For what I didn't love, I felt by the end that there wasn't much of a point to what I had just read other than to watch this woman spiral more and more out of control. The ending was abrupt and a bit lackluster. I suppose it was meant to show that her downward spiral was no where near its end. It just didn't make much sense to me seeing how that match up went through out the rest of the book. I do not want to give too much away so I'll leave it at that.
Overall, an easy read to pick up and finish in a day. The book's darker side really hooks you and makes you wonder if you could so easily lose control as well, and is there an Elsa in all of us?
November 15, 2017
https://instagram.com/p/BbiE_XVATRq/
Catalina is an incredible novel in the aftermath of Elsa's life falling apart. Every single character is full fleshed and real in their wanting. It's all a beautiful, painful mess that left me in a terrible state of ennui. Jacobs is masterful in her word play. Catalina is more than a story. It's a work of art. A stunning debut.
*I received an ARC of Catalina. My opinions are my own.
Catalina is an incredible novel in the aftermath of Elsa's life falling apart. Every single character is full fleshed and real in their wanting. It's all a beautiful, painful mess that left me in a terrible state of ennui. Jacobs is masterful in her word play. Catalina is more than a story. It's a work of art. A stunning debut.
*I received an ARC of Catalina. My opinions are my own.
November 30, 2017
ugh... Elsa is a thirtiesh woman is fired from the MOMA due to downsizing of staff. Or was it because she was having an affair with her boss? She runs back to California to her mother's home in Bakersfield. Along the way she reunites with her ex-husband and other old friends. Elsa is a despicable, drunk, pill popping, selfish person. I really did not like her, the other characters or the weak story line. Don't believe the hype
November 15, 2017
Catalina is being called 'California noir,' and I understand why, but I think it's more than that. Elsa isn't your typical noir bad girl; she's a woman of our times. Catalina is 'feminist noir.' Catalina is the book for the angry, dangerous, had-it-up-to-here world we find ourselves in-- this world the patriarchy has created. Read it and weep angry tears, I did.
December 27, 2017
‘She should know it’s a dangerous thing to be a woman. We want things, just like everyone else. Power, control, success – more than the world has to offer us. So we shove it down, hush it up, hope that it doesn’t tear us apart. I should tell her this but I’m worried she might not feel the same – that she is cracking up from not being able to toe the line, whereas I want to destroy it entirely.’ I loved how unapologetic this book is and it had some truly great moments but didn’t entirely work as a whole. Definitely still worth reading if you like your protagonists unreliable, drunk, drug addled, in crisis, prickly and complex.
October 4, 2018
Why should you read this book?
Let me just start by stating that Catalina by Liska Jacobs is an incredible debut. And who is Liska Jacobs? The author holds an MFA from the University of California, Riverside. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Millions, and The Hairpin, among other publications.
Elsa is the main character of this novel and is headed for rock bottom. After being fired from MoMa, she returns to Los Angeles where she re-encounters her college friends who are arranging a trip to Catalina. This novel deals with addiction, self-love (or lack of it), friendship and identity.
I think this book can be considered a LA/California noir. I really loved the way Jacobs wove this melancholic, sad and lost main character. There is something about Elsa that moves you deeply. She’s a reminder of what can happen to each one of us. After all, life is unpredictable and we can fall into a path of self-destruction very quickly.
Besides this gloomy atmosphere, this novel was so well-written. Liska Jacobs is certainly a very promising writer. The language was razor-sharp and there were some memorable and impactful quotes. I was so drawn to this book not because it is a page-turner but because it beautifully portrays a darkness that lives inside of each and every one of us.
I’d like to thank MCD Books for the free copy.
For more reviews, follow me on Instagram: @booksturnyouon
Let me just start by stating that Catalina by Liska Jacobs is an incredible debut. And who is Liska Jacobs? The author holds an MFA from the University of California, Riverside. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in The Rumpus, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Millions, and The Hairpin, among other publications.
Elsa is the main character of this novel and is headed for rock bottom. After being fired from MoMa, she returns to Los Angeles where she re-encounters her college friends who are arranging a trip to Catalina. This novel deals with addiction, self-love (or lack of it), friendship and identity.
I think this book can be considered a LA/California noir. I really loved the way Jacobs wove this melancholic, sad and lost main character. There is something about Elsa that moves you deeply. She’s a reminder of what can happen to each one of us. After all, life is unpredictable and we can fall into a path of self-destruction very quickly.
Besides this gloomy atmosphere, this novel was so well-written. Liska Jacobs is certainly a very promising writer. The language was razor-sharp and there were some memorable and impactful quotes. I was so drawn to this book not because it is a page-turner but because it beautifully portrays a darkness that lives inside of each and every one of us.
I’d like to thank MCD Books for the free copy.
For more reviews, follow me on Instagram: @booksturnyouon
November 14, 2017
A sad tale of a young woman that has hit rock bottom. Elsa has recently been let go of her dream job at MoMa because she was having an affair with her very married boss. She is absolutely devastated. She flies home to California where she reunites with not only her family but her college best friends. She spends her days in a complete haze due to self medicating with an array of pills, lots of alcohol, cocaine, and random sex with strangers which will lead her to devastating consequences.
It's hard to garner much sympathy for Elsa because she continually makes bad choices and rather than owning them she'd prefer to just walk away and not deal with it. She really doesn't care about anyone except herself. She may not sound like someone you'd want to read about but Liska Jacobs writes so beautifully that you are compelled to continue. This one was very good indeed.
Thank you so much to NetGalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for granting my wish to read this in exchange for my honest review.
It's hard to garner much sympathy for Elsa because she continually makes bad choices and rather than owning them she'd prefer to just walk away and not deal with it. She really doesn't care about anyone except herself. She may not sound like someone you'd want to read about but Liska Jacobs writes so beautifully that you are compelled to continue. This one was very good indeed.
Thank you so much to NetGalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for granting my wish to read this in exchange for my honest review.
November 28, 2017
This was like watching a train wreck happen in all its gory details.
November 30, 2017
It is ironic that I read this book, which chronicals a downward spiral, while reading another book which is literally called "Spiraling Upward", by Wendy Wallbridge.
I was pulled in by the descriptions of decadence so real I could smell and taste them. The beautiful scenery and the ugly personalities were an intoxicating mix. I would say there is not a reliable narrator in the bunch of mostly unsavory characters -
neither the slightly sociopathic protagonist or her immature, self indulgent friends. It was facinating to get inside Elsa's skin and try to figure out her motivation for such self destructiveness. I thought the descriptions of her previous job at the MoMA in NYC added a new dimension and made the narrative more interesting. The slight twist at the end to all the relationships was really good, just what the story needed. I would definitely read more from this author.
I was pulled in by the descriptions of decadence so real I could smell and taste them. The beautiful scenery and the ugly personalities were an intoxicating mix. I would say there is not a reliable narrator in the bunch of mostly unsavory characters -
neither the slightly sociopathic protagonist or her immature, self indulgent friends. It was facinating to get inside Elsa's skin and try to figure out her motivation for such self destructiveness. I thought the descriptions of her previous job at the MoMA in NYC added a new dimension and made the narrative more interesting. The slight twist at the end to all the relationships was really good, just what the story needed. I would definitely read more from this author.
December 27, 2017
Review to come
September 30, 2017
What a roller coaster of a book. Elsa, a pill-popping beautiful young woman has been fired at her job at the MoMA, is forced to leave her boss (who she is also having an affair with) and head back to California to her hometown and get her life together. However, that is not exactly what happens. Reuniting with her college friends, including her ex-husband, a healing journey is not what she goes on.
It's a beautifully written book, so beautiful that it succeeds in making me dislike the main character. She is selfish, self-destructive, and hopeless. However, the plot is incredible and the author does a fantastic job getting into the mind of someone at rock bottom. As soon as you start feeling sorry for Elsa, she will do something so incomprehensible that you are pulled right back into what's really going on. All of the characters are well developed and complex. The book is a fabulous debut from a novelist I cannot wait to read more of.
It's a beautifully written book, so beautiful that it succeeds in making me dislike the main character. She is selfish, self-destructive, and hopeless. However, the plot is incredible and the author does a fantastic job getting into the mind of someone at rock bottom. As soon as you start feeling sorry for Elsa, she will do something so incomprehensible that you are pulled right back into what's really going on. All of the characters are well developed and complex. The book is a fabulous debut from a novelist I cannot wait to read more of.
October 13, 2017
I thought this was going ito be one of those hip and trendy novels.... and maybe it is - but it is also a heartbreakingly, painfully, honestly beautifully told story of loss; of a job (for all the wrong reasons), family (the kind of family that makes you never want to come home), friendships (reconnected and then realizing why you disconnected once you reconnect), and loss of an affair romanticized.... and all the things done to excess - pills, drink, and sex - when losing all of the above and realizing what was thought to be having it all was realizing you had nothing at all. I loved it. Many thanks NetGalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advanced view!
June 13, 2017
Loved this book from first time author Liska Jacobs. Elsa is a totally relatable -- though sometimes it's painful to watch/read her trying to cope with her own self inflicted wounds. The sense of place is so vivid I could smell the ocean air off the California coast from my landlocked East Coast living room. An excellent debut.
February 11, 2018
A stellar addition to the category of novels in which the protagonist leaps headfirst into the void and gleefully circles the drain. Terrific pace and deft character development. Oddly affirming, but that's me.
November 23, 2017
Beautiful, heartbreaking, and amazing.
January 7, 2018
This debut novel is dark, despite its strong sense of place in sunny California. I usually don't like novels with an unlikable protagonist and mostly all other unlikable characters, so it's a testament to Liska Jacobs's abilities that I liked her book. Her narrative moves seamlessly between the past, the present, and even imagined occurrences.
The reader gets a front-row seat for the trainwreck that is Elsa's current life experience. She moves from California to NYC and lands a job at MoMA as an assistant to a curator, with whom she embarks on an extramarital affair. When she is let go from the job, she takes her "generous severance package" back to California, stopping in Bakersfield to raid her mother's varied collection of heavy-duty prescription pills before going to L.A. for a luxury vacation.
There, she deigns to meet up with her old friends Charly, married to Jared; and Robby, who Elsa was briefly married to, who is now living with Jane. The group makes plans to go to Catalina Island with wealthy Tom, who owns a boat. Tom seems self-serving and even dangerous to Elsa, but how different is he from her, really? He certainly seems "onto" her right away, telling her he heard pills jostling around in her purse and asking her why she is back with this group of friends after having moved to NYC. If I were to discuss this in a book group, the number one thing I'd want to talk about would be the character of Tom and what the author intends us to make of him.
The end of the affair with the MoMA curator has hit Elsa hard, because while spending, flirting (and more), popping pills, and boozing hard, she still desperately wants to hear from him. The specter of the affair lasts the whole novel. The reader learns about Elsa's troubled family background and the history of her friendship with Charly. It becomes apparent that the big question is how far is Elsa going to plummet on this Catalina trip, and what deliberate or collateral damage might she cause among the group.
The reader gets a front-row seat for the trainwreck that is Elsa's current life experience. She moves from California to NYC and lands a job at MoMA as an assistant to a curator, with whom she embarks on an extramarital affair. When she is let go from the job, she takes her "generous severance package" back to California, stopping in Bakersfield to raid her mother's varied collection of heavy-duty prescription pills before going to L.A. for a luxury vacation.
There, she deigns to meet up with her old friends Charly, married to Jared; and Robby, who Elsa was briefly married to, who is now living with Jane. The group makes plans to go to Catalina Island with wealthy Tom, who owns a boat. Tom seems self-serving and even dangerous to Elsa, but how different is he from her, really? He certainly seems "onto" her right away, telling her he heard pills jostling around in her purse and asking her why she is back with this group of friends after having moved to NYC. If I were to discuss this in a book group, the number one thing I'd want to talk about would be the character of Tom and what the author intends us to make of him.
The end of the affair with the MoMA curator has hit Elsa hard, because while spending, flirting (and more), popping pills, and boozing hard, she still desperately wants to hear from him. The specter of the affair lasts the whole novel. The reader learns about Elsa's troubled family background and the history of her friendship with Charly. It becomes apparent that the big question is how far is Elsa going to plummet on this Catalina trip, and what deliberate or collateral damage might she cause among the group.
November 5, 2017
A Huge thank you to FSG Originals for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review.
I loved this book, I loved and hated the totally unreliable Elsa, her drug induced stupor, the way that she had zero clue on how terrible of a person she truly was. She was oblivious to her selfishness, she was oblivious to anyone, but herself. Her friends, the men in her life, nothing mattered but the pills in her purse. She was so out of it most of the book that she put herself in the most dangerous situations. She was so focused on running from her past, and not facing what had happened, she lies to her friends about why she came, and instead of healing herself, she decides it's better to be wreck-less and uncaring. She is determined to ride the downward spiral.
Sometimes you fall in love, and it's dark, and intense, and it holds such a power of you, that when you lose it, you just don't know what to do with your life. Your obsessed with your past, and you wonder what you could have done to have made things worse.
Elsa decided to lie, to party, to do drugs, drink, and suck her friends into her world, without any concern for them. Tragedy hits, and she still doesn't change. Her final choice at the end of the book left me a bit puzzled, but then I realized it was the perfect choice for her, because that's just the type of shallow person she was.
I loved the writing in this book, I really felt like I was living within the pages. It really just had me hooked from the first page. I am so grateful I got to read Liska Jacobs first novel, she did such a stunning job. I look forward to many more of her books.
I loved this book, I loved and hated the totally unreliable Elsa, her drug induced stupor, the way that she had zero clue on how terrible of a person she truly was. She was oblivious to her selfishness, she was oblivious to anyone, but herself. Her friends, the men in her life, nothing mattered but the pills in her purse. She was so out of it most of the book that she put herself in the most dangerous situations. She was so focused on running from her past, and not facing what had happened, she lies to her friends about why she came, and instead of healing herself, she decides it's better to be wreck-less and uncaring. She is determined to ride the downward spiral.
Sometimes you fall in love, and it's dark, and intense, and it holds such a power of you, that when you lose it, you just don't know what to do with your life. Your obsessed with your past, and you wonder what you could have done to have made things worse.
Elsa decided to lie, to party, to do drugs, drink, and suck her friends into her world, without any concern for them. Tragedy hits, and she still doesn't change. Her final choice at the end of the book left me a bit puzzled, but then I realized it was the perfect choice for her, because that's just the type of shallow person she was.
I loved the writing in this book, I really felt like I was living within the pages. It really just had me hooked from the first page. I am so grateful I got to read Liska Jacobs first novel, she did such a stunning job. I look forward to many more of her books.
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