Reviewed by Ephantus Gold
“Murder Your Darlings: A Novel” by Jenna Blum follows Sam Vetiver, a novelist with twenty-five years’ experience and New York best seller who is grappling with loneliness after fifteen years of marriage. She is drawn into the world of captivating charm and intellectual seduction, often failing to see the manipulation lurking behind the disguise. Inspired by her dad who was a writer, Vetiver’s career sprouted early at the age of four. All she would think about or spend time doing was writing mystery and magic. In present day, she is waiting to write her fifth book, “The Gold Digger’s Mistress” but is worried that she won’t hit a home run as the date to its delivery draws closer. We meet her on her final “Sodbuster” book tour, whose culmination sees her tired and lonely, and as usual, with no one to celebrate or commiserate with. Purchase Here.
But much to her shock, she receives an email from a familiar author turned “admirer” who she deems “ridiculously successful” and “a bad boy of literature,” with whom she shares a publisher. In the message he appreciates one of her books which he claims “changed him forever in some invisible but indelible way.” Curious as to why he, “the real deal” reached out, Sam sets on a journey to find out. Little does she know that her arrival at the venue where he is hosting one of his book reading, sends chilling waves down the spine of a stalker who has been trailing him for the longest time, threatening to pull Sam into an obsession where she is not just an “intrusion” but a “betrayal” that demand immediate response.
This book pulls the reader into a high-stakes psychological labyrinth where literary ambition collides with dangerous obsession. You are plunged into tense moments, where every one of them threaten to twist in a potentially dangerous game, making you loudly wonder who the true architect of the story is, and which character seems destined for a tragic end. It masterfully weaves a dual narrative plunging the reader into the chilling, fractured mind of an antagonist, which it does with the same intimacy and passion that it grants its weary protagonist. I love how this novel transcends its thriller framework to deliver a profoundly humanly relatable story where it explores the need to cure loneliness, and how that can lead to trusting the wrong people. I believe that its raw power lies in how it connects the dots between traumatic pasts, the many times dangerous commodification of people, and the desperate, flawed choices we all make when we fail to see our own worth. “Murder Your Darlings: A Novel” by Jenna Blum is that one book that holds a dark mirror to the soul of anyone who has ever longed for a connection. It will seduce you with its prose, haunt you with its insights, and leave you breathless with its twists.