CANR
WORK TITLE: The Favorites
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.laynefargo.com/
CITY: Chicago
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:Has a degree in theater.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Has worked in the theater industry and in library science. Unlikeable Female Characters podcast, cocreator and cohost.
WRITINGS
With three other novelists, cowrote two novels in the “The Widows” series: Young Rich Widows, Sourcebooks (New York, NY), 2024, and Desperate Deadly Widows, Sourcebooks (New York, NY), 2025. Author’s works have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
SIDELIGHTS
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Layne Fargo is a Chicago-based writer who specializes in psychological thrillers. She has a degree and background in theater as well as women’s studies, and her focus has been on writing unapologetically feminist narratives. Along with her own novels, she has also teamed up with three other women authors—Kimberly Belle, Cate Holahan, and Vanessa Lillie—to write “The Widows” series. The first two novels in the series were Young Rich Widows and Desperately Deadly Widows.
Fargo’s debut novel, Temper, took advantage of her theater background. Protagonist Kira Rascher is an actress who has finally landed a juicy role in the Chicago theater scene, but the play’s director and costar, Malcolm, is known for pushing the limits of his actors. Adding to the play’s volatility is stage hand and Malcolm’s roommate Joanna, who hates Kira and resents the work she herself has to do. The story is told from the perspectives of both Kira and Joanna, as things come to a breaking point on the play’s opening night.
For a contributor in Kirkus Reviews, Temper showed that Fargo was “an author to watch.” They called her writing style “propulsive” and wrote that the “dueling narratives drive the increasingly frenzied chain of events.” Writing in Booklist, Margaret Howard called the book a “twisted tale” and added that the double narrators create a “sense of danger and suspense that will keep readers guessing.” Howard appreciated the “complicated female characters” and recommended the novel to fans of Tana French and Gillian Flynn.
Fargo’s follow-up, They Never Learn, features a protagonist who is both a college professor and a vigilante. Dr. Scarlett Clark teaches English at a small college, and she also murders men and teen boys who have been guilty of assaulting women. When the school starts investigating why so many people are being murdered, Dr. Clark starts helping with the investigation so as to manipulate it. Then a college student decides she is going to take her own revenge when her roommate is sexually assaulted, and things quickly get complicated.
Jane Murphy, in Booklist, wrote that They Never Learn will “satisfy [Fargo’s] fans and delight revenge aficionados everywhere.” Murphy particularly appreciated the connection the novel makes to one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest plays, Titus Andronicus. A writer in Kirkus Reviews found the book to be a “good thriller” but was less comfortable with the equation that revenge always equals justice.
The Favorites is set in the world of elite ice dancing but takes Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights as a starting point. The story focuses on two orphans named Katarina and Heath who are lovers as well as skating partners. To reach the top, however, they have to beat brother and sister Garrett and Bella, the privileged skaters and children of a famous ice skating coach. The story is told over fourteen years and alternates between a traditional narrative and sections from a documentary script based on the lives of Katarina and Heath.
A contributor in Kirkus Reviews compared the romance aspects in The Favorites to the romances of Colleen Hoover, but they particularly enjoyed the documentary sections and its narrators. The review noted that readers should expect plenty of surprises. Katie Fraser, writing in Bookseller, called the book an “utterly compulsive read that uses Bronte’s beloved text as a thematic blueprint.” Fraser also appreciated the documentary script elements and how the alternating sections “add context and fuel drama.” Fraser noted that sports romance novels are particularly popular on TikTok book reviews, but she pointed out that the story is not “reliant upon familiar romance tropes.” “Those who enjoy stories with a focus on interpersonal relationships . . . and drama will adore Fargo’s novel,” wrote Laura Hiatt in Library Journal. Hiatt stated that the “sharp, short chapters will keep readers turning pages.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2019, Margaret Howard, review of Temper, p. 68; September 1, 2020, Jane Murphy, review of They Never Learn, p. 44.
Bookseller, November 1, 2024, Katie Fraser, “Wuthering Heights on Ice: Layne Fargo Reimagines Bronte’s Classic in the World of Elite Ice Dance,” review of The Favorites, pp. 18+.
Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2019, review of Temper; August 1, 2020, review of They Never Learn; November 1, 2024, review of The Favorites.
Library Journal, December, 2024, Laura Hiatt, review of The Favorites, p. 81.
ONLINE
Book Q&As with Deborah Kalb, https://deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/ (September 9, 2019), Deborah Kalb, author interview.
Layne Fargo website, https://www.laynefargo.com/ (February 17, 2025).
Layne Fargo has a background in theater, women’s studies, and library science, so it’s only fitting that she now writes deliciously dramatic, unapologetically feminist stories for a living. She’s the author of the novels The Favorites, They Never Learn, and Temper, as well as co-author on the bestselling Young Rich Widows series, and her work has been translated into over a dozen languages. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner, their pets, and an ever-expanding collection of books she’s definitely going to read before she dies.
FULL BIO
Layne Fargo has a background in theater, women’s studies, and library science, so it’s only fitting that she now writes deliciously dramatic, unapologetically feminist stories for a living. She’s the author of the novels The Favorites, They Never Learn, and Temper, as well as co-author on the bestselling Young Rich Widows series, and her work has been translated into over a dozen languages. Layne lives in Chicago with her partner, their pets, and an ever-expanding collection of books she’s definitely going to read before she dies.
SHORT BIO
Layne Fargo is the author of deliciously dramatic, unapologetically feminist novels, including The Favorites, They Never Learn, and Temper. She lives in Chicago with her partner and their pets.
Monday, September 9, 2019
Q&A with Layne Fargo
Layne Fargo is the author of the new novel Temper. She is the co-creator of the podcast Unlikeable Female Characters, she has worked in theater and library science, and she lives in Chicago.
Q: How much did your own theater background affect your creation of Temper?
A: To be honest, I never thought I'd use my theater degree for anything practical until I got the idea for Temper! It was a lot of fun incorporating my backstage knowledge into the book.
Although since I no longer work in theater, I made sure to consult with friends and family who are still active in that world - including my partner Nathan, who's an actor with Otherworld Theatre Company here in Chicago, and Christina Gorman, a good friend of mine who is both an actress and a fight/intimacy choreographer.
Christina's expertise was invaluable as I was writing the scenes involving stage combat, since I had to first understand the safe way to perform violence onstage in order to come up with the very unsafe ways the characters in Temper do it.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: The storyline definitely evolved as I was writing it, but I always knew the ending. The final image of Kira and Malcolm was one of the first things that came to me, and it's stayed basically the same throughout the writing process.
I had no idea how controversial the ending would be, though! People seem to either love it or hate it. The ones who hate it often say they were disappointed because they predicted what would happen from early on in the book - which is, ironically, exactly what I intended! I wanted Temper's ending to feel inevitable, sort of like a Shakespearean tragedy, rather than trying to pull a shocking twist on the reader.
Q: You're the co-creator of the podcast Unlikeable Female Characters. How did you come up with the idea, and do you see your characters Kira and Joanna fitting into that framework?
A: The idea for the podcast came about because my co-hosts (Kristen Lepionka and Wendy Heard) and I all love to read and write about women who are not nice, not compliant, and not willing to play by the rules of the patriarchy. Some people may consider these characters "unlikeable" but we love them!
The plot of Temper centers around abuse, and I wanted to create characters who didn't fit the stereotype of the perfect, innocent victim. Kira and Joanna are selfish and manipulative and often downright cruel, especially to each other, but that doesn't invalidate the abuse they suffer at Malcolm's hands. There's a tendency to dismiss women like them (especially overtly sexual women like Kira), so I wanted to challenge readers to empathize with them instead, even if they don't particularly like them.
Q: Did you always know you'd be focusing on Kira's and Joanna's points of view? Did you consider including Malcolm's as well?
A: Originally the book was written in Kira's point of view only. I added Joanna pretty late in the writing process; she was a very minor character in the initial draft. Now I can't imagine the book without her voice!
I never considered including Malcolm's POV, because I feel like there are quite enough books (and movies and TV shows...) trying to get us to sympathize with charismatic, psychopathic men. Malcolm is most interesting to me through Kira and Joanna's eyes. He's a mirror for their own ambitions and desires, and as the story unfolds we discover that they're both putting a lot of meaning and import on him that he really doesn't deserve.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: My second novel will be published in 2020 by the same imprint as Temper (Scout Press). It's another psychological thriller, about a female serial killer who hunts abusive men on the college campus where she teaches. Although the story is totally separate from Temper, both books explore similar themes of rage and revenge - and of course, this new project has plenty of "unlikeable" female characters as well!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Back in 2017, when I was revising Temper, I was lucky enough to be chosen for the Pitch Wars mentoring program, and now I'm a mentor (co-mentoring this year with author Halley Sutton, who was my mentee in 2018). To any unagented writers out there who might be reading this, I can't recommend Pitch Wars highly enough. It changed my life!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
Fargo, Layne TEMPER Scout Press/Simon & Schuster (Adult Fiction) $27.00 7, 2 ISBN: 978-1-9821-0672-0
The theater is a tempestuous, bloody place to be in Fargo's prickly debut.
The struggle is real for 30-something stage actress Kira Rascher. She lives hand to mouth with her best friend (with benefits), Spence, works a day job she hates, and auditions for theater roles every chance she gets. She longs to star opposite the enigmatic Malcolm Mercer, who runs Chicago's Indifferent Honest Theater Company alongside his partner, and platonic roommate, Joanna Cuyler. Auditioning for Malcom for a new two-person play called Temper is a visceral experience, but not just for Kira. Joanna hates Kira on sight, pointing out that "she's beautiful, to be sure, but in an obvious way. Nearly vulgur." Kira gets the part, opposite Malcolm, and to say the two have chemistry would be an understatement. The script is very physical, and Malcolm is a merciless taskmaster willing to go to ridiculous lengths to squeeze the best from his actors, including inviting Kira's horrid, simpering ex-boyfriend to rehearsal as a tactic to stoke her rage. Meanwhile, the self-contained Joanna stews in a brew of jealousy and wasted opportunity, doing all the grunt work for the company while the odious Malcolm stirs the pot and beds his co-stars. All this tension would drive anyone crazy, but for these two women, it's bound to get messy. Fargo's propulsive writing style and Joanna's and Kira's dueling narratives drive the increasingly frenzied chain of events that play out in the lives of two very different women who find themselves at an inevitable breaking point. While certainly effective, the finale isn't shocking, especially after getting an eyeful of two otherwise intelligent women seething under the toxic spell of such an insufferable man.
This caustic passion play may not knock your socks off, but Fargo is an author to watch.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Fargo, Layne: TEMPER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A583840591/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b069b157. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
Temper. By Layne Fargo. July 2019. 352p. Simon & Schuster/Scout, $26 (97819821067201.
Temper is a twisted tale of what happens when violence, ambition, and the taste for blood take center stage. Kira is a young actress who has caught the eye of notorious bad-boy theater director Malcolm Mercer, landing her first starring role in his latest production. Malcolm's business partner, Joanna, has suffered for years from his capricious sexual pursuits and selfish refusal to allow anyone else the chance to shine. Joanna, threatened by Malcolm's new interest in Kira, begins to look for ways to undermine both of them in pursuit of her own chance at the spotlight. As the story ominously intensifies towards the play's opening night, Malcolm's behavior generates animosity and passion from Kira and Joanna, and it's clear their stories are quickly spinning out of control. Temper alternates narrators between Kira and Johanna and builds a sense of danger and suspense that will keep readers guessing, literally until the last page. Fargo's first novel features complicated female characters and will be well received by fans of Gillian Flynn and Tana French.--Margaret Howard
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Howard, Margaret. "Temper." Booklist, vol. 115, no. 17, 1 May 2019, p. 68. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A587366853/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=93109fef. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
Fargo, Layne THEY NEVER LEARN Scout Press/Simon & Schuster (Fiction None) $27.00 10, 13 ISBN: 978-1-9821-3202-6
A woman who has been killing men for years, and enjoying it, finds her secret under investigation.
Dr. Scarlett Clark, a successful English professor at small, elite Gorman University, has a secret: For years, she’s been killing boys and men guilty of assault and rape of other women. In a world where the university system shies away from seeking justice for these young women, she has taken it upon herself to assume the role of avenging angel, staging most of the deaths as accidents or suicide. But when she eliminates a star football player, doubt surfaces that he was suicidal, and Dr. Samina Pierce, head of the psychology department, begins to look for patterns in the past deaths. This doesn’t stop Scarlett, however, from planning one of her most personal murders yet. Scarlett’s story unfolds in parallel to a second tale: Chapters from Scarlett’s point of view alternate with chapters from the perspective of Carly Schiller, a Gorman freshman who witnesses an assault against her roommate and becomes obsessed with exposing the guilty student. In this novel, everything is black or white: Male behavior is always predatory while female response is always justified. While author Fargo may have intended her vigilante to be the embodiment of independent, enlightened womanhood, a hero for the #MeToo era, it’s clear that Scarlett is actually a sociopath. Those who deem themselves an arm of justice often have to live in the gray area, but there's little evidence that Scarlett feels guilt or inner conflict, as the most compelling vigilante heroes in literature usually do. Instead, the argument that murder is always justified, and even admirable, might make for a good thriller, but it rejects the opportunity to explore accountability and inspire true cultural change.
Disarms its own argument for woman power by simply equating revenge to justice.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Fargo, Layne: THEY NEVER LEARN." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2020. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A630892426/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1acf2f01. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
They Never Learn. By Layne Fargo. Oct. 2020. 352p. Simon 8i Schuster/Scout, $27 (9781982132026); e-book, $9.99 (9781982132040).
Fargo's second psychological thriller (following Temper, 2019) will satisfy her fans and delight revenge aficionados everywhere. Scarlett Clark is a popular English professor at Gorman University. But Scarlett has a secret: "I've spent the last sixteen years murdering men who deserve it." All of her victims have come from the university community, so it's no surprise that campus officials decide to appoint a special investigator. In her initial arrogance--and, later, thanks to a heated romantic relationship--Scarlett puts her secret life at risk. Meanwhile, Gorman freshman Carly Schiller is trying to keep a low profile, but her roommate, Allison, has plans for her, and the two students develop an intense friendship. When Allison is sexually assaulted, Carly becomes obsessed with making a fiat boy pay. Intense is the key word here, and the author does an astonishingly good job in getting inside the heads of Scarlett and Carly as they take turns narrating. A Shakespeare class on Titus Andronicus is cleverly inserted into the story: "Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, Blood and revenge are hammering in my head."--Jane Murphy
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Murphy, Jane. "They Never Learn." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 1-2, 1 Sept. 2020, p. 44. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A637433399/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=103a95df. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
Fargo, Layne THE FAVORITES Random House (Fiction None) $28.00 1, 14 ISBN: 9780593732045
Star-crossed figure skaters whiz through decades of melodrama on and off the ice.
Fargo's latest feature pairs skaters entwined by destiny and irradiated by fan and media obsession, as she cleverly tells her tale by alternating between narrative sections and clips from the script of a fictional 2024 documentary calledThe Favorites: The Shaw & Rocha Story. Katarina Shaw and Heath Rocha are "small-town Midwestern trash," both orphans, he of mysterious origins. Teen lovers, they enter the world of skating at the 2000 Nationals, where they meet their rivals, brother and sister skaters Garrett and Bella Lin, the privileged twin children of figure skating icon-turned-coach Sheila Lin (and an anonymous Sarajevo Olympic Village sperm donor). For the next 14 years, violent passions, bloody on-ice accidents, bedroom betrayals, sabotage, paparazzi-driven scandals, and nonstop cliffhangers--"Unfortunately, it was only the beginning"--lead up to an epic brouhaha at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia, by which time the reader's capacity for outrage and surprise has gotten quite a workout. But don't give up in the stretch: "NBC Sports commentator Kirk Lockwood reports live from the Sochi Olympics. 'In all my years covering skating,' he says, shaking his head solemnly, 'I've never seen anything like this.'" Though the stereotype-driven characterizations of the skaters are a couple dimensions short of real or relatable--Heath in particular is a furious cipher--Fargo does a nice job with the narrators of her documentary. One of them, a former skater turned gossip blogger named Ellis Dean, can be relied on to spill the tea ("That program was the most passive-aggressive shit I'd ever seen--and I'm from the South, honey"), while an uptight U.S. Figure Skating official dryly tows the party line: "Ice dance can have a certain sensuality to it, yes. Many programs express the beauty of the love between a man and a woman. But what Ms. Shaw and Mr. Rocha were doing bordered on vulgarity." After all the histrionics and hormones, the unlikely ending Fargo bestows on her characters is a hoot.
Colleen Hoover-style romance heads to the Olympic rink. Buckle up.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Fargo, Layne: THE FAVORITES." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A813883739/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7ec21dbc. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
Initially, Layne Fargo thought that reimagining Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights was an "unhinged idea", she tells me over video call from her home in Chicago. Early reservations aside, the result, The Favourites, is an utterly compulsive read that uses Bronte's beloved text as a thematic blueprint for a story set in the world of professional ice dance.
The Favourites follows Katarina (Kat) Shaw and Heath Rocha who begin skating together as children, their chemistry on the ice becoming more electric as they age and their feelings mature. But ambition divides them. For Kat, nothing will be enough until she wins Olympic gold, but all Heath wants and needs is Kat. He skates for her. Kat skates to win.
Things swiftly become complicated when the duo are invited to train at the Lin Ice Academy, helmed by former Olympic gold medalist ice dancer, Shelia Lin. As Kat and Heath train with the Lin twins--Bella and Garrett--tensions mount and reach a breaking point. In the aftermath, we follow Kat's skating career across years filled with countless competitions and her turbulent, all-consuming relationship with Heath. Fargo's experience as a thriller writer, mostly published in the US, is evident in the breathless pace at which The Favourites unfolds. The first-person narration is deftly cut with a documentary script from a programme about Kat and Heath called "The Favourites: The Shaw & Rocha Story". The chapters alternate between the interviews and Kat's narrative to add context and fuel drama. "They were an obsession," says the narrator in the opening of the documentary. "Then a scandal ... and ultimately ... a tragedy."
Sports romances, where the plot usually revolves around two people, one or both of whom compete at a high level in sport, are hugely popular, especially on BookTok, and can often be singled out by their jovial cartoon style covers that depict the fated pair. The Favourites is not a typical sports romance. There is sport and there is romance, but the narrative is not reliant upon familiar romance tropes: the stakes are higher, the ending uncertain for much of the novel and there is little spice. However, it still basks in the heady mix of professional athleticism and romance. Fargo says: "What interested me about it was the intensity of the personalities. To be an elite athlete you have to be so driven, so disciplined, so ambitious, and I think, in a lot of cases, there's not really room for love or relationships. I see this a lot in sports romances where it's like: 'I can't get involved with this person right now because I'm trying to make it to the Olympics, I'm trying to win the championship or whatever.' So, that creates conflict right away."
The juxtaposition not only creates romantic conflict but has the potential to cause rifts in friendships. One of the most important relationships in The Favourites is the unlikely friendship struck between rivals--Kat and Bella. "It was so important to me to show this friendship between two super driven, ambitious women." The relationship between the two is complicated yet filled with a deep love and respect that exists beside an innate desire to best the other. Envy and support "absolutely can" co-exist in the same relationship, Fargo believes, pointing to her "friendships with other writers" that operate alongside professional competitiveness. Similarly, Bella and Kat were modelled on the friendship and rivalry between US ice dancer Madison Hubbell and French ice dancer Gabriella Papadakis. The pair have "retired from competition", but Fargo has "read interviews with them where they will very candidly [say]: 'Yes, I love her, she's my friend, but I want to beat her. I want the gold.'"
To win the Olympic gold medal she so desires, Kat has to push her body to the limit. It is a visceral reading experience, feeling the strength that goes into her skating, the dance lifts and the sheer force of will required to compete professionally. The novel "really challenged" Fargo "to be more embodied" in the way that she writes. Although "not an athlete of any kind", she drew from her experience living with chronic pain. "I do a lot of really intense massages, Pilates, dry needling--very painful treatments that actually help the pain. So, I used a lot of that physical experience to imagine what it would be like to be an athlete, putting your body through all these things." Previously, Fargo has tried to write a character with chronic pain but found it "too raw". She adds: "I haven't found a way to do it yet, but I was able to channel that into Kat without it being about the same condition." Once Fargo "started really digging into" Bronte's novel and ice dance it seemed serendipitous: "It all mapped out so well. There are themes in WutheringHeights of class and race differences that really are a huge issue in skating--because it's such an expensive sport, it tends to be a lot of affluent white people." Bronte's depiction of Cathy, a fierce and ambitious woman, defiant of the gendered restrictions of 18th-century England, also became a key touchstone for Fargo's own unapologetic protagonist.
Kat's ambition burns through her dire financial circumstances and dismantles the expectations of women in ice skating. Where the judges and the audiences in the novel expect a "waif', a delicate woman ready to please the crowds, Kat is fiery, refusing to be cowed into submission. "Cathy in Wuthering Heights is really pushing back [against expectations of women] and Kat is also struggling with that. She's very competitive, she's very ambitious and you have to be that to be a successful athlete--but in skating you're supposed to be pretty, well-mannered and polite." One character observes: "Olympic athletes, female ones especially, are expected to follow a certain script ... Kat Shaw shredded that script and set it on fire."
Kat must deal with gendered questioning from the press that many real-world female celebrities endure. During a live interview before a global competition, Kat is asked about her engagement and bites back: "What the hell kind of question is that?" Fargo purposefully set the novel during the early 2000s, a time where the paparazzi were notoriously vicious when "scrutinising the actions of women". The author's online biography states that she writes "unapologetically feminist stories" and when we speak, Fargo explains that she is "always trying to push back against patriarchal heteronormative narratives", continuing: "Kat is not interested in marriage, she doesn't want to have kids. The dreams we are told as women that are supposed to be the pinnacle of our existence, she's just not interested in them."
The Favourites will be your next obsession. It is a rich exploration of female ambition, desire and love and has the potential to become the next BookTok favourite, offering a welcome escape from a dreary January.
Metadata
Imprint Chatto & Windus
Publication 16.01.25
Format hb, eb (16.99 [pounds sterling])
ISBN 9781784745 4 8 6, 9781529927344
Rights Sold in 13 territories, including the US (Random House)
Editor Kaiya Shang
Agent Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret
Book Extract
Today is the tenth anniversary of the worst day of my life. As if I could forget, when millions of strangers have been so eager to remind me. I'm sure you've seen the news stories, the magazine covers, the social media posts. Maybe you're planning to snuggle up on your sofa tonight with a bowl of popcorn and binge the documentary series released to commemorate the occasion. Schadenfreude and chill. Go right ahead. Enjoy the show. But don't fool yourself into thinking you know me. By now, I've heard it all: Katarina Shaw is a bitch, a diva, a sore loser, a manipulative liar. Cold-blooded, a cheater, a criminal. An attention whore, an actual whore. Even a murderess. Call me what you want. I don't give a damn anymore. My story is mine, and I'll tell it the same way I skated: in my own way, on my own terms. We'll see who wins in the end.
Katie Fraser @katiefr3
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 The Stage Media Limited
http://www.thebookseller.com
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Fraser, Katie. "Wuthering Heights on ice: Layne Fargo reimagines Bronte's classic in the world of elite ice dance." The Bookseller, no. 6085, 1 Nov. 2024, pp. 18+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A820716327/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=b06d31fc. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
Fargo, Layne. The Favorites. Random. Jan. 2025. 464p. ISBN 9780593732045. $28. F
The latest from Fargo (They Never Learn) tells the story of Katarina Shaw, the most famous yet controversial ice dancer of her generation. A new documentary is coming out that advertises itself as a behind-the-scenes look at her life. In order to set the record straight, Kat decides to tell her story her way: about being orphaned at a young age; breaking into ice-dancing with her best friend, Heath Rocha; training at the famous Lin Academy in Los Angeles; her all-consuming ambition for a gold medal; and the scandals that put her name in lights. Most anticipated of all is what happened that night at the ice-dancing final at the Sochi Games 10 years ago, when she and Heath parted ways. Chapters alternate between Kat telling her side and interviews from the documentary. This novel has plenty of twists and turns; triumphs and tribulations; scandals, love, betrayals, and friendship. It is a coming-of-age story rolled into a cautionary tale rolled into a drama of epic proportions. Sharp, short chapters will keep readers turning pages, as all is not what it seems. VERDICT Those who enjoy stories with a focus on interpersonal relationships, friends-to-enemies-to-friends narratives, and drama will adore Fargo's novel.--Laura Hiatt
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
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Hiatt, Laura. "Fargo, Layne. The Favorites." Library Journal, vol. 149, no. 12, Dec. 2024, p. 81. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A820431125/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=ce71930b. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.