My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.01 with 928 ratings (as of 5/12/2021)

Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written—let alone published—anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that – a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised, and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing” of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom? …Synopsis from Goodreads

200 Word Review

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

At what point does a good story idea become a person’s own for them to write? When it is published? Merely written? Does anyone really own a plot? Those are the questions that surround the premise of The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. However, The Plot is much more.

Jacob Finch Bonner, a once-promising writer, is now a failed author teaching third-rate MFA program when he meets Evan Parker, an arrogant student, who tells Jacob the plot of a story that is sure to become the next “big thing.” Jacob waits for Parker’s masterpiece, but it never is published. When Jacob learns Parker is dead, he writes Parker’s plot. Everything is perfect, that is, until a troll posts Jacob stole the plot. Here the story becomes a mystery.

My problem with the audiobook was I wanted to finish it. However, it’s challenging to listen while at work. I sat in my car to finish it before coming home and dealing with life.

The narrator, Kirby Heyborne, is considered one of the finest narrators working. Listening to him was like listening to Jacob tell his own story.

Heyborne’s narration and Korelitz’s plot make The Plot one of the best of 2021.

This review was published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Scribd.com, Kobo, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on 5/12/21. When available, using Overdrive, the review will be published and rated in 9 libraries.

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Run Time: 10 hours and 43 minutes
ISBN: 9781250804877
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: May 11, 2021

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