Debra Ginsberg
2006
ISBN 978174175-150-5
This story opens with first-day-on-the-job jitters from Angel, starting a new career at a literary agency - reading the submitted manuscripts and deciding whether or not they are any good. Right from the beginning, there is a sense of almost hysterical urgency - the pace at the office is exhausting, even for the reader, and Angel throws herself into it to the detriment of the rest of her life, including writer/boyfriend Malcolm.
Between a crazy boss and an apparent stalker/submitter who is penning her life, Angel would start to wonder if she is going crazy herself - if she had time between phonecalls, memos and reading assignments.
The frenetic energy of the office hits you straight away, and the weird behaviour of Lucy and 'Kelly' do nothing to make Angel or the reader feel at home. Lucy is an engima, but by no means a quiet one - she is intimidating and scary, and Angel herself is stretched so thin that it's hard to tell if her uncharitable thoughts are a result of exhaustion or if she is actually quite nasty.
That aside, the mystery at the centre of the story - who is writing the manuscript that is following Angel's life - keeps you interested and reading. The ending arrives just as quickly as the rest of the book, and it confused me for several pages, but the tidying up at the end of the book makes up for it.
Enjoyable, but exhausting reading.
Date Finished: 14/09/07
Year Total: 29
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