by Edan Lepucki
To be Published May 9 2017 by Hogarth
Finished April 22, 2017
Writer Lady Daniels and artist S Fowler (pseudonym for Esther Shapiro) share the spotlight of this story set in the Hollywood Hills. Lady gives the first POV, and I was struck at how bluntly honest and forthright she was with us readers. She kept me engaged even though her life was extremely messed up, but I eventually realized that she is not as honest as she pretends to be, unfortunately for her family.
S, on the other hand, is upfront about her trickery and deceipt, at least with us readers. She, weirdly, has taken on the persona of her estranged mother, who, when S's age, was an irresponsible nanny and a drunk. S also matches hair color change and makeup choices to Mom circa 1985. Weird that S would want to imitate such a phase in her mother's life, and that she actually knew so many details. S is doing this for an "art project." I didn't get it. When Lady hires S as nanny to her three-year old, Lady has no idea that S is playing a part (Who would do that, after all?) and no idea how her 18 year old son will react to the new live-in. S goes on to another art project, one that Lady is unwittingly swept into, and I started to get the why, but felt it still very strange indeed.
These women are more alike than initially apparent. Mother issues on both their parts; their mothers even had mother issues. Mother issues are a big factor. That I got! Complicated relationships and self-absorbed characters make this one that you have to occasionally stop and wonder about, sometimes asking, Who are these people? Do I care about what will happen to them? The children, yes. The adults, not so much. I read an ARC provided by LibraryThings.com.
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