Sweet Fury, by Sash Bischoff
book details
When a beloved actress is cast in a feminist adaptation of a Fitzgerald classic, she finds herself the victim in a deadly game of revenge in which everyone, on screen and off, is playing a part.
Lila Crayne is America’s sweetheart: she’s generous and kind, gorgeous and magnetic. She and her fiancé, visionary filmmaker Kurt Royall, have settled into a stunning new West Village apartment and are set to begin filming their feminist adaptation of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night.
To prepare for the leading role, Lila begins working with charming and accomplished therapist Jonah Gabriel to dig into the trauma of her past. Soon, Lila’s impeccably manicured life begins to unravel on the therapy couch—and Jonah is just the man to pick up the pieces. But everyone has a secret, and no one is quite who they seem.
A twisty, thought-provoking novel of construction and deconstruction in conversation with the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and told through the lens of the film industry, Sweet Fury is an incisive and bold critique of America’s deep-rooted misogyny. With this novel, Bischoff examines the narratives we tell ourselves, and what happens when we co-opt others into those stories; and she probes the blurred lines between victim and perpetrator and the true meaning of justice.
book review
i would like to preface this review by saying that i was really excited and looking forward to reviewing this book, but i don’t think i’m the right audience for it. just because i didn’t like it, doesn’t mean it was bad. i would still recommend sweet fury to certain types of readers.
sweet fury is a feminist retelling of Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night. i haven’t read the original, and after this book, i don’t think i want to.
the biggest thing that i struggled with was the writing style. i found the prose really stiff and unnatural sounding. it didn’t flow in a way that i would expect from a fiction book. (i’m assuming it’s the fitzgerald influence). the therapy session/notes were really difficult to read. i understand from a technical standpoint, but this is fiction. it could’ve sounded less formulaic.
i found the plot fairly flat and uneventful, besides the odd bit. because of this, i found myself bored with the story. the ending was definitely interesting but it didn’t make up for the all the pages of boring nonsense i had to ensure to get there.
the characters weren’t likeable (i feel this was intentional), but it made it harder to get through the book as i wasn’t rooting for anyone. i quite like angrily hoping something bad would happen to someone, but i didn’t even feel that with any of the characters.
i came into this book expecting an old hollywood thriller and was disappointed by the lack of thrilling. it lived up to the old hollywood expectations though.
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