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A review by pagesplotsandpints
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz
4.0
Read Completed 2/25/25 | 4 stars | Book #20 of 2025
This was a fun read! I wasn't sure what to expect because the beginning was honestly not really my style. The writing was a little too... pretentious? But I also think that was the kind of point because Jacob was supposed to be this great literary writer who ends up writing a thriller and he kind of doesn't even know how to do it. I really wasn't sure if I was going to like the book if that was how it was going to be written the whole way, but as the thriller side of the book picked up, the tone changed just a bit as well.
The best part of the book was the lead up to what THE PLOT actually was. Jacob is a teacher of creative writing in a special program, and one of his students, a total self-centered jerk, tells him he has the most amazing plot for a book that no one has ever done before. When the book never gets published, Jacob looks up the student a few years later to find out that he's dead. With a struggling writing career never taking off after his one successful release (and multiple other failures), he makes the plot his own and writes his own story based off that very specific concept.
As the book goes on, we aren't outright told what the plot is, so I really enjoyed the way that the author chose not to give everything to the readers. Jacob's version of "the plot" is revealed little by little as we the readers get pages of his story, so there's really a suspense building there. As this suspense is building, Jacob is also starting to get threats from a person who is going to reveal that he stole this idea from his former student who died, and Jacob is slowly breaking down as the threats get bigger and start being posted publicly, so there's a WILD sense of dread there that I felt alongside Jacob. Reputation ruining stories always hit me in the gut, so it was such a tense book for me!
As for who the threat is... I DID figure out that twist. From the beginning, I had strong suspicions at who this person was and how they were involved, but I just didn't really know why yet. Once we started finding out what "the plot" was, I put those pieces together pretty easily, but still got a few things wrong until the other twist started coming into play. It was definitely still fun even though I knew the twist, so it wasn't shocking for me -- as a thriller reader -- because I'm used to picking up on these types of twists. If you're not a thriller, maybe you won't see it coming!
As for the plot itself... sure, it was a good twist, but it's been done before 😅 Again, as a thriller reader, it wasn't the most shocking thing I've ever read in a thriller book and there are even true stories like that out there. But I really did like how it was incorporated into this novel!
The ending was just a bit lackluster for me. I wasn't ever rating this 5 stars at any point, but I almost didn't give it a full 4 stars because of the ending. It wasn't bad, but it was a little too villain speech-y and it basically just dropped all that suspense quickly. I wish there was a little more tension in the finale because even though it was a little wild, it all just fell off and could have ended with a little more bang instead of a quieter... ending.
There is a sequel now, and I highly recommend NOT even looking at it until you've read this book because the concept of the book itself is a huge spoiler. I brought this on vacation with me and had a fun time reading it, so that also added to my enjoyment!
This was a fun read! I wasn't sure what to expect because the beginning was honestly not really my style. The writing was a little too... pretentious? But I also think that was the kind of point because Jacob was supposed to be this great literary writer who ends up writing a thriller and he kind of doesn't even know how to do it. I really wasn't sure if I was going to like the book if that was how it was going to be written the whole way, but as the thriller side of the book picked up, the tone changed just a bit as well.
The best part of the book was the lead up to what THE PLOT actually was. Jacob is a teacher of creative writing in a special program, and one of his students, a total self-centered jerk, tells him he has the most amazing plot for a book that no one has ever done before. When the book never gets published, Jacob looks up the student a few years later to find out that he's dead. With a struggling writing career never taking off after his one successful release (and multiple other failures), he makes the plot his own and writes his own story based off that very specific concept.
As the book goes on, we aren't outright told what the plot is, so I really enjoyed the way that the author chose not to give everything to the readers. Jacob's version of "the plot" is revealed little by little as we the readers get pages of his story, so there's really a suspense building there. As this suspense is building, Jacob is also starting to get threats from a person who is going to reveal that he stole this idea from his former student who died, and Jacob is slowly breaking down as the threats get bigger and start being posted publicly, so there's a WILD sense of dread there that I felt alongside Jacob. Reputation ruining stories always hit me in the gut, so it was such a tense book for me!
As for who the threat is... I DID figure out that twist. From the beginning, I had strong suspicions at who this person was and how they were involved, but I just didn't really know why yet. Once we started finding out what "the plot" was, I put those pieces together pretty easily, but still got a few things wrong until the other twist started coming into play. It was definitely still fun even though I knew the twist, so it wasn't shocking for me -- as a thriller reader -- because I'm used to picking up on these types of twists. If you're not a thriller, maybe you won't see it coming!
As for the plot itself... sure, it was a good twist, but it's been done before 😅 Again, as a thriller reader, it wasn't the most shocking thing I've ever read in a thriller book and there are even true stories like that out there. But I really did like how it was incorporated into this novel!
The ending was just a bit lackluster for me. I wasn't ever rating this 5 stars at any point, but I almost didn't give it a full 4 stars because of the ending. It wasn't bad, but it was a little too villain speech-y and it basically just dropped all that suspense quickly. I wish there was a little more tension in the finale because even though it was a little wild, it all just fell off and could have ended with a little more bang instead of a quieter... ending.
There is a sequel now, and I highly recommend NOT even looking at it until you've read this book because the concept of the book itself is a huge spoiler. I brought this on vacation with me and had a fun time reading it, so that also added to my enjoyment!