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WORK TITLE: You Were Here
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.giansardar.com/
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married; children: one son.
EDUCATION:Received degree from Loyola Marymount University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Gian Sardar is a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, and now works as a writer.
Psychic Junkie: A Memoir was written in cooperation with Sarah Lassez. The book focuses on Lassez who decides to seek out some divine consultation to figure out where she should go in life. As this point, her acting career has met little success and she is frustratedly single. She hopes by visiting a psychic she can learn what positive things are in store for her and her ambitions. However, after that initial visit, Lassez finds herself unable to stop consulting with psychics. Her addiction grows even stronger when the forecasts of the first psychic she consulted fall through, leaving her to ask for advice from several other psychics in the area for a second opinion. While they all suggest she is destined for success, she cannot find it. Her attempts to deal with this urge and the rest of her life lead Lassez down a road of self-discoveries, which involve seeking professional help to sort out her problems, heading to a ranch owned by her family in order to recover in peace, and much more.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the book a “lively, tongue-in-cheek “addiction” memoir.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote: “Readers may turn the last page wishing they could hang out with Lassez’s best friend Gina, who deserves an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Creative Nonfiction.”
You Were Here
You Were Here is a novel starring Abby Walters, a woman who is plagued by a set of unfortunate circumstances surrounding the town she grew up in. Every time she’s there, her mind lapses into giving her terrifying dreams filled with phobias and violence. She decides to go back, partly to attend a reunion for her high school class and partly to get to the bottom of where her dreams could be coming from. In the process, she not only unearths a startling link to a woman she has never met, but who was not alive during her lifetime. Her name is Eva, and her relationship to Abby uncovers unimaginable secrets.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer remarked: “Sardar keeps the tension high to the very end.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor felt that “this deftly executed study of the dark that lies in the human heart is artfully drawn.” Library Journal writer Jane Jorgenson commented: “Despite a few flaws, this first novel will appeal to readers of Christina Schwarz and Diane Chamberlain.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2006, review of Psychic Junkie: A Memoir, p. 393; March 1, 2017, review of You Were Here.
Library Journal, February 15, 2017, Jane Jorgenson, review of You Were Here, p. 83.
Publishers Weekly, May 15, 2006, review of Psychic Junkie, p. 65; March 6, 2017, review of You Were Here, p. 41.
ONLINE
Gian Sardar Website, https://www.giansardar.com (November 8, 2017), author profile.
BIO
Gian Sardar studied creative writing at Loyola Marymount University and is the coauthor of the book Psychic Junkie. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and insane dog.
You Were Here
Publishers Weekly.
264.10 (Mar. 6, 2017): p41.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
You Were Here
Gian Sardar. Putnam, $27 (384p) ISBN 978-0399-57500-6
Abby Walters, the heroine of Sardar's intricately plotted first novel, moved from Makade, Minn., to Southern
California to escape her past, particularly to get rid of a recurring nightmare in which she's buried alive while repeating
a name that means nothing to her: Claire Ballantine. But she can't escape her nightmares. Fourteen years later, after
learning from her mother that Claire was a close friend and neighbor of her grandmother, Abby returns to Makade to
seek answers that might explain the hold the dream has over her. In going through her grandmother's papers, Abby
learns that Claire was involved in a love triangle. At her 15-year high school reunion, Abby reconnects with old crush
Aidan Mackenzie, who's now a detective hunting a vicious killer and rapist. Though she's already attracted to another
man, Abby flirts with Aidan and soon finds herself in a love triangle of her own. Sardar keeps the tension high to the
very end as she teasingly reveals how the dream resonates with events in Abby's life. Agent: Lucy Carson, Friedrich
Agency. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"You Were Here." Publishers Weekly, 6 Mar. 2017, p. 41. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA484973632&it=r&asid=07dd838c4b2fe153267caf121d60d195.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
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Sardar, Gian: YOU WERE HERE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Sardar, Gian YOU WERE HERE Putnam (Adult Fiction) $27.00 5, 16 ISBN: 978-0-399-57500-6
A woman, haunted by terrible dreams, digs into her grandmother's past, uncovering a tragic love triangle and a
stunning crime.When 33-year-old Abby Walters, who has been haunted by dreams of being buried alive for years,
wakes up with the name Claire Ballantine on her lips, she returns home to Makade, Minnesota, to dig into her family's
past. She'd been feeling restless, anyway, and impatient with her screenwriter boyfriend's hesitancy about getting
married. It turns out that Claire was Abby's grandmother's neighbor, and Abby's mother says she disappeared one day
in 1948, never to be found. As Abby digs further, she discovers evidence of a shocking crime the year Claire went
missing. Meanwhile, Abby's childhood crush Aidan Mackenzie is back in Makade after a stint as a St. Paul cop. He's
still a cop but was hoping to leave the violence behind. It's not to be: a serial rapist is on the loose, and he seems to be
targeting women who look a lot like Abby. Soon Abby and Aidan reconnect, and the sparks are undeniable, but the
past is about to intrude on the future with tragic results. The present-day narrative is expertly interwoven with Claire's
story, which involves the horrific consequences of an affair gone wrong. Abby's dreams add a layer of creepiness to
Aidan's investigation, and because Aidan offers to help her research the past, she gets closer to the rape investigation
than she probably should, but Abby is no wilting flower. Sardar's characters are well-developed and her prose is
dreamlike, at times reading very much like poetry, making the heartbreaking events of 1948 even more poignant.
Readers who find the journey more important than the destination might get more out of this character-driven story,
especially since the final revelations, while undeniably horrible, aren't all that surprising. Nonetheless, this deftly
executed study of the dark that lies in the human heart is artfully drawn. An impressive if flawed debut with a touch of
the otherworldly.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Sardar, Gian: YOU WERE HERE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA482911789&it=r&asid=73f830385b3f17b03fdb676d82a03be4.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A482911789
10/22/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1508712981213 3/5
Sardar, Gian. You Were Here
Jane Jorgenson
Library Journal.
142.3 (Feb. 15, 2017): p83.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution
permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Sardar, Gian. You Were Here. Putnam. May 2017. 384p. ISBN 9780399575006. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780399575020. F
Sardar's debut novel combines psychological suspense with family drama in a story that spans two different times. In
the present, Abby Walters is returning to her Minnesota hometown for the first time in years. She's stayed away
because of the debilitating nightmares about death and being buried alive that reoccur when she's home. Now Abby
thinks she has the beginnings of an explanation for the disturbing dreams so she decides to return for her high school
reunion and perhaps finally put the nightmares to rest. But the pieces of her puzzle connect to a woman from the past.
In 1948, Eva is a young woman who has fallen in love with a married man. William loves her back, but he's torn about
what to do. He cares for his wife and doesn't want to destroy her. The decisions made will have catastrophic
consequences for everyone. Sardar's novel is beautifully written, and Eva's story line is particularly intriguing and
tragic. But the work does suffer a bit with a few too many plot elements. VERDICT Despite a few flaws, this first
novel will appeal to readers of Christina Schwarz and Diane Chamberlain--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI
Jorgenson, Jane
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Jorgenson, Jane. "Sardar, Gian. You Were Here." Library Journal, 15 Feb. 2017, p. 83. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA481649091&it=r&asid=512c655629b80f9c4f01fdd4e518a900.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
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Psychic Junkie: A Memoir
Publishers Weekly.
253.20 (May 15, 2006): p65.
COPYRIGHT 2006 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Psychic Junkie: A Memoir SARAH LASSEZ WITH GIAN SARDAR. Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $14.95 paper
(336p) ISBN 1-4169-1838-8
This lively, tongue-in-cheek "addiction" memoir by an actress trying to make good in Hollywood quickly fizzles into a
tedious diary of boyfriend angst. Lassez was declared by a trendy magazine as one of 12 "Actors to Watch" and yet one
year later she's scraping by on welfare and with so few calls for work that her agent is hard-pressed to remember who
she is. An introduction to a psychic proves to be the beginning of the end: Aurelia reads a star-studded destiny in the
author's tarot cards. "Never had I so much faith in others' abilities to recognize my abilities," Lassez gushes. This
morsel of hope prompts the author to rely increasingly on Auretia's predictions about cleansing her aura and dating
men fated for her. Still struggling with her career by age 30, she challenges Aurelia's rosy predictions and begins a
disastrous dalliance with one phone psychic after another, who all assure her that the Knight of Wands is on his way
into Lassez's life. In the end, heartbreak and poverty force her to recognize the folly of putting her life on hold for a
man who might never come, and she emerges from this chirpy, can-do narrative as Mirabel the Psychic, who salves
other people's heartaches. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Psychic Junkie: A Memoir." Publishers Weekly, 15 May 2006, p. 65. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA146175547&it=r&asid=b27d6d2cc9346fdc5fc5b6d1366bddac.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A146175547
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Lassez, Sarah with Gian Sardar: Psychic Junkie:
A Memoir
Kirkus Reviews.
74.8 (Apr. 15, 2006): p393.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Lassez, Sarah with Gian Sardar PSYCHIC JUNKIE: A Memoir Simon Spotlight Entertainment (240 pp.) $18.95 Jul.
11, 2006 ISBN: 1-4169-1838-8
Just when you'd think memoirs couldn't get more self-parodying, a first-time author spills all about her obsession with
psychics.
Lassez, a sometimes-employed actress in L.A., turns to psychics to determine if she'll ever land a big role, or a man.
Though these seers are only occasionally accurate, and then only about the most obvious things, she gets hooked. Her
self-styled "addiction" is really just a conceit that allows her to ramble on about life as a broke, 30-year-old singleton in
Hollywood. She could have transformed the one-dimensional palaver into something a bit more substantial had she
been willing to offer even a little self-scrutiny. In passing, Lassez mentions an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
diagnosis and scoring some flee Zoloff from the wife of a doctor, but the closest she ever comes to examining her
fixation with tarot is wondering, "When would I land the role of 'Sarah Lassez,' a woman with a life?" Fortunately, the
silly subject matter is redeemed by the author's self-deprecating sensibility and deadpan humor. Lassez's ruminations
about an engagement ring that is never offered, her description of a week spent rehabbing at her parents' ranch and her
transcription of the one lone therapy session she attends are hilarious. She manages never to take herself too seriously--
an important quality in a narrator who is constantly kvetching about being dumped. When told by her shrink to join a
12-step group, Lassez admits that she's looked into it already, but there is no Psychics Anonymous: "If I was lucky
enough to be addicted to heroin I'd be at a meeting right now." Further bolstering the book's oddball charm is a likable
cast of supporting characters. Readers may turn the last page wishing they could hang out with Lassez's best friend
Gina, who deserves an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Creative Nonfiction.
Entertaining fluff.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Lassez, Sarah with Gian Sardar: Psychic Junkie: A Memoir." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2006, p. 393. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA145571394&it=r&asid=8ff61f075ab17f5fe3f990e938d2c526.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A145571394