I EAT MEN LIKE AIR
Author: Alice BermanSeries: N/A
Source: Manuscript via Publisher
Publisher: Audible Originals
Publication Date: September 26, 2019
Overall Rating:
Diversity Rating:
Summary:
A ferocious and compelling mystery-drama for the #MeToo era in the vein of The Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
With the snow falling fast on a New Hampshire mansion, seven 20-somethings assemble to celebrate an upcoming marriage in a debaucherous weekend that will change their lives irrevocably. The lavish trip to celebrate Will and Jessica’s upcoming nuptials brings together a cast of characters who know each other from Ivy League schools and childhood Upper East Side haunts: Lulu, an LA-based Instagram influencer; Maxie, a former Park Avenue princess, now Midwestern housewife; Yael, an ER doctor from Ohio; Rob, a colorless Wall Street trader; Will, a morality-obsessed lawyer; Jessica, his perfectionist bride-to-be, and Alex Sable, a lawless bon vivant. Alex, son of a billionaire hedge-fund scion, was the sole witness against his classmate in a serial rape trial 15 years ago, which seems to follow Alex wherever he goes.
By Will and Jessica’s wedding day, four months later, Alex Sable would be dead. In that same house, in a bathtub filled with his blood.
Can Tyler, a well-known podcast reporter, pry his way into their closed-door world, and parse through the secrets that connect the seven like a web? As Tyler attempts to find the truth behind the months leading up to Alex Sable's dramatic death, he follows the bridal party - whose lives have spiraled in wildly different directions - through the events that brought them to a fateful night.
Told in dual timelines, the months leading up to the wedding and the investigation thereafter, I Eat Men Like Air is a riveting look at the unraveling of a friend group punctured by violence, and a chilling depiction of the rage that festers when it’s kept secret.
Amazon
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.
Trigger Warnings: rape
This is an Audible Fall Editors' choice and I completely understand why. This book takes you on a ride from hating everyone as they are introduced, to feeling sorry for certain characters, to loving the closeness of found family and cutting toxic people off. A haunting and moving story that showcases the ingenuity of women in the #MeToo era. I EAT MEN LIKE AIR will keep you turning pages until the very end in a clever Upper East Side mystery and character expose.
Following a few different story lines, I liked that Tyler was the piece that kept them all together. I was hoping this would be more like Sadie by Courtney Summers in which we would get more of the podcast portion, but I think it was a smart call to have flashbacks and have Tyler bring us back to the present with the investigation. I really liked how he became part of the group and that he really cared about the impact of the story, not just telling the best one.
As much as all the characters are easy to hate, we get so much depth to them while reading that it is hard not to see their value as well. I like how easily people brush off Lulu because she is Instagram famous but there is so much more to her than that. I liked that everyone got their own perspective and being so deep into the minds of all the characters. I felt like I was on the ground with them on the outside looking in. Berman does such a fantastic job of distinguishing each of the characters and their voices while keeping them all the same.
I will say this started off a little slow for me - I was hoping for a bit faster pace from the get go - but it did pick up almost immediately and I kept reading until I finished! It is as much a character expose and essay on the importance of power imbalances in today's political climate as it is a murder mystery. Berman walks that line perfectly.
Definitely pick this one up and give it a listen. You won't regret it.
Alice Berman is a New York City-based author whose first Audible Originals book, “I Eat Men Like Air,” will be published September 2019. The fiction author sold her book, “Lost Boys and Technicolor Girls,” to ABC, where it is currently in development to become a show with Freeform. Hailing from a political family in Washington, D.C., Berman attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, winning the Gibson Peacock Award for creative nonfiction. Post-grad, Berman lived in London and Los Angeles where she co-founded the app, Shopfeed, and served as Creative Director for Pop & Suki. Today, Berman writes from her Tribeca loft. Alice is a founding board member of animal advocacy group Creatures Great and Small; she serves on the Young Collectors Council Acquisitions Committee at the Guggenheim and the Blair House Restoration Fund, and she is a Young Lion Conservator at the New York Public Library. Find her on Instagram at @alicecanaryplum.
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Trigger Warnings: rape
This is an Audible Fall Editors' choice and I completely understand why. This book takes you on a ride from hating everyone as they are introduced, to feeling sorry for certain characters, to loving the closeness of found family and cutting toxic people off. A haunting and moving story that showcases the ingenuity of women in the #MeToo era. I EAT MEN LIKE AIR will keep you turning pages until the very end in a clever Upper East Side mystery and character expose.
Following a few different story lines, I liked that Tyler was the piece that kept them all together. I was hoping this would be more like Sadie by Courtney Summers in which we would get more of the podcast portion, but I think it was a smart call to have flashbacks and have Tyler bring us back to the present with the investigation. I really liked how he became part of the group and that he really cared about the impact of the story, not just telling the best one.
As much as all the characters are easy to hate, we get so much depth to them while reading that it is hard not to see their value as well. I like how easily people brush off Lulu because she is Instagram famous but there is so much more to her than that. I liked that everyone got their own perspective and being so deep into the minds of all the characters. I felt like I was on the ground with them on the outside looking in. Berman does such a fantastic job of distinguishing each of the characters and their voices while keeping them all the same.
I will say this started off a little slow for me - I was hoping for a bit faster pace from the get go - but it did pick up almost immediately and I kept reading until I finished! It is as much a character expose and essay on the importance of power imbalances in today's political climate as it is a murder mystery. Berman walks that line perfectly.
Definitely pick this one up and give it a listen. You won't regret it.
Alice Berman is a New York City-based author whose first Audible Originals book, “I Eat Men Like Air,” will be published September 2019. The fiction author sold her book, “Lost Boys and Technicolor Girls,” to ABC, where it is currently in development to become a show with Freeform. Hailing from a political family in Washington, D.C., Berman attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, winning the Gibson Peacock Award for creative nonfiction. Post-grad, Berman lived in London and Los Angeles where she co-founded the app, Shopfeed, and served as Creative Director for Pop & Suki. Today, Berman writes from her Tribeca loft. Alice is a founding board member of animal advocacy group Creatures Great and Small; she serves on the Young Collectors Council Acquisitions Committee at the Guggenheim and the Blair House Restoration Fund, and she is a Young Lion Conservator at the New York Public Library. Find her on Instagram at @alicecanaryplum.
One winner will get a glam set, including a skincare set and makeup set from Glossier! US only (sorry!) Ends September 30, 2019!
I wasn't too sure about this one, but I think you might have convinced me to give it a try. Thanks for sharing, and great review!
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