What You Could Have Won

by Rachel Genn

“I wrote this book because I didn’t want Amy Winehouse to be dead.”

Fame is the only thing worth having. Love is temporary brain damage. Or so thinks Henry Sinclair, a failing psychiatrist, whose career-breaking discovery has been pinched by a supervisor smelling of nipple grease and hot-dog brine. An emotional miser and manipulator par excellence, desperate for the recognition he’s certain his genius deserves, Henry claws his way into the limelight by transforming his girlfriend—a singer-in-ascendance, beloved for her cathartically raw performances—into a drug experiment. As he systematically works to reinforce feelings of worthlessness while at the same time feeding off Astrid’s fame, and as Astrid collapses deeper into dependence, what emerges is a two-sided toxic relationship: the bullying instincts of a man shrunk by an industry where bullying is currency, and the peculiar strength of a star more comfortable offloading her talent than owning her brilliance. Pinging between their apartment in New York (where they watch endless episodes of The Sopranos), a nudist campsite in Greece (where the tantalizingly handsome Gigi thwacks octopi into the sand), and a celebrity rehab facility in Paris (founded by the cassock-wearing and sex-scandal plagued ‘artist’ Hypno Ray), What You Could Have Won is a relationship born of regrettable events, and a novel about female resilience in the face of social control.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

228 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2020

Reviews

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

In common with numerous modern books, there is a studied fascination with drugs and drug-taking that authors seem to believe is central to human existence - but instead produces dull literature. It’s a book I would never have picked up (after reading the sleeve) had it not been part of my allocation from And Other Stories.

I understand that that sleeve that the theme here is ‘a failed psychiatrist’s manipulation of his emotionally dependent girlfriend into becoming one of his laboratory drug-addict specimens’ — but the result is a tale that is as flat and self-absorbed as the life that drug-addicts descend into (and maybe their analysts too).

In fact, it seems the book is a Trojan horse for Glenn’s real-life work as a neuroscientist focused on our addiction to regret. Yet there are too few interesting insights to justify ploughing through the whole book (although I did). I felt each character had been constructed around a scaffold of a psychiatrist’s technical profile, dry and empty, and which the avalanche of flabby words could not fill during the rest of the book. Consequently, I could not muster any interest in any of the characters, or their evolution.

[James Kinsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puzzling, bewildering at times, with a narrative that twists and writhes as it refuses to be pinned down, but rife with atmosphere and beautifully written.

[Stacy40pages]

Very odd. Too much back and forth; difficult to follow.

[Laura Waters]

No rating, not finishing, not my cup of tea.

[The Page Ladies Book Club · Rating 1 out of 5]

“I wrote this book because I didn’t want Amy Winehouse to be dead.”

Fame is the only thing worth having. Love is temporary brain damage. Or so thinks Henry Sinclair, a failing psychiatrist, whose career-breaking discovery has been pinched by a supervisor smelling of nipple grease and hot-dog brine.

Desperate for the recognition he’s certain his genius deserves.

Henry claws his way into the limelight by transforming his girlfriend—a singer-in-ascendance, beloved for her cathartically raw performances—into a drug experiment.

As he systematically works to reinforce feelings of worthlessness while at the same time feeding off Astrid’s fame, and as Astrid collapses deeper into dependence, what emerges is a two-sided toxic relationship.

Pinging between their apartment in New York (where they watch endless episodes of The Sopranos),

a nudist campsite in Greece (where the tantalizingly handsome Gigi thwacks octopi into the sand),

and a celebrity rehab facility in Paris (founded by the cassock-wearing and sex-scandal plagued ‘artist’ Hypno Ray),

Thank you, Goodreads and AndOtherStories for a chance to read What You Could Have Won!

I found that I had a hard time following this book. It jumps around with the point of view. There wasn’t much done with the development of the characters. So maybe that’s why it's hard to tell when the POV changes. Also, it jumps around in time. For example, {these aren’t exact pages where this happens it is just to give you an idea of what I mean} let's say the talk about something on page 43 then nothing about it then you get to page 97 it just pops back up. So, I don’t know. I was really unimpressed with the book. I think the author started with a good solid subject and then wrote stuff down as it came. But didn’t put the events in order of them happening. I don’t mean to be harsh but it just seems that after the scene were written they just stayed in that order. Happy reading everyone!

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sharp, fast paced story about abuse (substance and domestic). Genn delivers the voices of joint protagonists, one a failing psychology PhD and the other a pop star with addiction issues. Each character is brilliantly constructed, and their thoughts and motivations are carefully teased out on a journey between Greece, France and the USA on a path of degradation and attempted rehabilitation.

The story progresses from chapter to chapter but jumps narrator each time, which allows the reader to compile each previous part of the story from the point of view of the other - a clever device well employed. The storytelling is lucid and exciting in large sections, although I felt a couple of the chapters dragged on a little so the final cut might have welcomed a slightly sterner edit. But overall this is a piece of forceful storytelling.

[Kent · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was very difficult to follow. As I got further into the book the events seemed to jump back and forth making it difficult to sort out the order in which they took place. Characters were introduced by name with no identifying details and their relationship to the main characters could only be gleaned from context in other chapters. I did not like the style, but some of the imagery was interesting.

[Cheryl Sonnier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genn uses subtext expertly, to draw a many-layered picture of a dysfunctional relationship and a woman struggling with fame and addiction, as well as a manipulative partner. I loved the mix of first person and second person, and the insight that gave into the characters. Second person can bring so close to a character that it becomes a personal experience and Genn uses it well.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Really captivating writing with strongly evocative sections.

Music, drugs, experimental psychology... and The Sopranos (which, I'm afraid was lost on me).

[Lyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

What I really don't like about this book is the point of view it's told from. In some spots, it's first person and fairly clear who the characters involved are. But in most of what I read, it's second person, with it being somewhat clear who it's talking about, but also somewhat first person, and it also feels like third person... Overall, just very confusing and so hard to figure out what's going on. I THINK I got some kind of idea even if I can't explain it to anyone else, but I just straight up don't like it, because I'm still not sure and I don't think it should be that hard to figure out what characters are involved, even if the story itself is somewhat mysterious.
Note: I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.

[A Long Story Short Co. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was incredibily hard to stay with. It is shorter and can be read in one sitting. It doesn't start like it is the beginning, but as if you are joining in in the middle of a "scene". The dialogue can be impossible to even decipher at times. There is too much jumping back and forth in time and the switching back and forth of POV makes it even more confusing. I also was hoping for MORE with the topic and subject matter as I feel addiciton is incredibly overdone and can be quite boring if it's the same old same.

I give this 1.5 stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for my honest review.

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't think of another work that so perfectly captures the brutality of a relationship in which one person is all in and one person gives no fucks. And Genn's prose is distinctive, clever, and gripping; it elevates a premise that could have easily slid into "chick lit."

However, the visual descriptions didn't connect for me -- I struggled to picture the fabricated drug vessels and could not comprehend the bloodhound scene. More important, the shifts in time and perspective and tense (first person, second person, third person) made the book needlessly confusing. Changing tense with perspective is an interesting idea, but doing all three was too much.

[Sanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was not my cup of tea. I normally like books which switch between two different perspectives but this book jumped between Astrid and Henry in a confusing way - it could have done with labelling each chapter based on character and time/date as the story also jumped back and forth in the timeline. The story didn’t really develop enough for my liking and the sentence structure was overly complicated and playing up to “sophisticated” and “intelligent” words with little benefit in terms of driving the story forward or deepening the reader’s connection with the characters.

[Ellen Beardsworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book having chosen it from the small publishers I have a subscription to (and other stories). sadly I found it quite disappointing though the premise should have worked well for me. the writing was disjointed and didn't flow. I agree with a lot of the other reviews here, whilst I didn't struggle with the moving timeline the characters could have been developed further. I felt maybe the author tried to apply too much of her professional medical career to the book and I didn't sit well. perhaps a subject matter away from the day job would be more accessible to readers.

[Diana N. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book definitely needed some serious character development at the beginning to draw you in. It seemed like it started with being thrown into the middle of the story without any idea of who/what was going on. It jumped around throughout so much it was very hard to follow especially from different places/character points of view/time frame. I spent more time trying to figure out how to follow what was going on instead of really getting into deeply enjoying the book. It fell flat for me.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story of a drug-addicted pop star's toxic relationship with a controlling psych post-doc.

Chapters alternate 1st person (post doc) with 2nd person (starlet) (2nd person always a hard read). Some very unkind-to-the-reader shifts in time and content that are challenging e.g. chapter written mostly in Jive describing a nude volleyball match(?) Settled into it after ~p78.

Feel I should add that there are MAJOR spoilers for Sopranos watchers who haven't yet reached the end of Season 5!

[Roueida · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into it. A good deal of the time, I had no idea what was actually being said, who was saying it or why it was relevant. The Sopranos references were completely lost on me - I have not seen a single episode. It was an interesting story line, but as others have stated, it was very difficult to follow with little character development.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was very confusing. I could not understand what the plot was or where the story was heading. I feeling like so many names where thrown around that it became confusing. I could not tell how many characters there was. I honestly could not even finish the book.

I am still not sure what the underlying story is?

[Denise Sanchez · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was incredibly hard to follow. Chapters written nearly entirely in “zoot-speak”, timelines shifting constantly, and vague descriptions of the narrator’s thoughts and intentions were confusing and boring, to say the least.

I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this novel, particularly the change in perspective and narrative style (1st person to second person) from chapter to chapter

While parts of it I struggled with (why did I only watch the first season of The Sopranos?), I think overall it is a very good interesting read

[colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

why o why was ‘zooted’ always written in italics with a capital letter?

[Ellii · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initially stressful, eventually addictive.

[Vanessa Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I still don't really know what the story was here.