Heather is the glowing center of the Breakstone family. She's beautiful and magnetic, worshipped by all, especially her parents, Mark and Karen. To outsiders, their family seems perfect---rich, successful, happy---but, in reality, Mark is plagued by insecurity, Karen is deeply lonely, and their family life is suffering. As a result, Heather feels simultaneously neglected and smothered by her parents, and is irritated by their inability to provide a more balanced and stable version of love.

Bobby Klasky is having some issues of his own. After being released from prison, he's just trying to survive---working odd jobs to make enough money to eat and move out of his drug addict mother's trailer. He's doing okay for himself, but he's not mentally stable. In truth, he thinks people are disgusting, and he would really love to torture them and rape them and kill them until they're all dead---starting with the most beautiful person first. 

If you think you know where this story is going, well, you probably do. Heather, the Totality is a predictable, expected, one-dimensional book that offers up nothing new in the way of character development, plot, or general insight. We've all read this has-been story a million times before---and, what's worse, there are better versions out there. 

What bugs me most, though, are the women in this story. They are so unbelievable and cliche. Karen, as a mother, is all wrong. I know many, many mothers (good ones and really bad ones, too), and I've never met a woman with such little personality or dimension. And Heather...good grief. She is the nymph from a cheesy porno:  gorgeous and innocent, yet damaged, naughty, and, gasp, so willing. Ugh.

In other words, you're going to want to skip this one. I know, I know, but it's Matthew Weiner! It's Mad Men, for crying out loud! Believe me, I feel the disappointment, too. But unfortunately, this little novel is no good. It's just no good. Do yourself a solid and let it pass you by.

I had high hopes for this book based on the author, Matthew Weiner, and his creation, Mad Men. Unfortunately, this lacked everything that made the show unique - the plot was predictable, the writing was overly simplistic, and I failed to appreciate any of the characters. This felt more like an outline for a story as opposed to a fully developed novel. 

The basic story is about the Breakstone family: Mark, his wife Karen, and their daughter, Heather. Even at a young age, Heather's vivacious personality made people flock toward her and propelled her into success and popularity at school. Of course, she also attracts the attention of a worker (a former convict) at her apartment building. 

This had potential, but it just didn't have any twists or dynamic characters to make this a more worthy read. I suppose I'll stick with old Man Men episodes...

I loved Mad Men. I mean ... Don Draper, right? He's a pretty fantastic character, and I loved how Matthew Weiner showed how a man with everything he thought he wanted nearly self-destructed when he realized that he had it all wrong.

So thanks to that television show, we know Matthew Weiner can write. We know that he understands characterization and agency. He knows how to tell a story.

Heather, the Totality might make you wonder about that, though.

For one thing, at a scant 144 pages, it is so fast-paced as to feel like Weiner had a strict word count. This is okay when he's breezing through Mark and Karen's backgrounds and beginnings, but when you get to the climax and denouement, it's problematic. I kept wondering if part of the story didn't make the ARC I read through NetGalley.

For another, Weiner veers between overwrought melodrama and taut suspense, with far too much of an emphasis on the former. He has a good eye and ear for Mark and Karen, and I particularly liked how he showed the fluctuating relationships between the two of them and their daughter Heather. Bobby, the troubled stranger who infiltrates their lives, seems unoriginal to the point of caricature. Nothing about him rings true because everything about him is hackneyed.

I won't even discuss the ending. The very ending is fantastic, but the climax is almost eye-rolling in its predictability, not to mention that whole "seriously you could take your time with this" thing.

I wanted to like this. I tried to convince myself that my complaints were minor and ridiculous, but Matthew Weiner has shown that he can do better. I look forward to reading that book.

This is a very short book and although the story was gripping I felt the characters were not fully formed . tells the story of a wealthy couple and their daughter. A released sociopath becomes obsessed with the daughter. There is a little background on each character . although I did read it to the end I felt it was sparse

2.5 stars.

I can understand the negatives reviews for this book because it was underwhelming.

People are complaining about the writing style but it didn't bother me that much. I guess this just felt like a slightly bulked out storyboard for a TV show, which would make sense as the author wrote Mad Men.

Some people think there is no character development in this novella, but I can't say I agree. Mark and Karen are well described throughout the book and though you don't get much history into each character, you learn enough about them as they grower older together and have a child. Same goes for Bobby. Heather, on the other hand, is more difficult to get to know. We didn't really get the chance to learn much about her.

I honestly feel like this book was a little above my level of understanding and maybe I didn't get the bigger picture, but to me this just felt like a boring story of overbearing, selfish parents and their confused golden child and a disturbed man. I know I'm getting this all wrong but hey, what can you do.

I call the story boring, and it was a little bit, but it wasn't the worst thing. I actually enjoyed Bobby's monolgue the most, even though it was filled with sick and depraved rape imaginings. I guess because he was the only character that had any character, it made his part of the story worth reading.

I agree with reviewers who said this felt cut off all of a sudden, because it does just seem to end out of nowhere, and in a pretty dull manner.

This novel reminded me of Hubert Selby Jr's work. Depressing, bleak, dark and slow.

Thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This slim volume represented to me a storyboard for a film or a TV series.  The book captured my attention immediately with the fear that two of the characters who lived on opposite sides of the Hudson River would someday meet and tragedy would be the result.  The resolution was very interesting.

I was taken by surprise by this book.  It was as if I was watching the events while they were occurring.  The way that the brevity of the writing conveyed the intensity of the emotions happening held my attention and drew me into the story.  Everyone seemed so alive and close by that I found myself wondering how can I tap someone on the shoulder and say, Hey your are not noticing something important!  This story captures the complexity of human relationships and the struggle to move from awareness to action poignantly, especially the spiral of emotion that moves one from being uneasy further and further towards desperateness.  It captures well the mystery of how people with so many advantages are still impoverished when it comes to being able to live their lives effectively.  Hope Mr Weiner keeps writing!

What an incredible novella. I was so exited to dive into this because of the author (huge Mad Men Fan) and it did not disappoint. Both breathtaking and page-turning, I gobbled this up on one day. I really hope he writes a longer novel soon.

The name recognition of the author will guarantee that this book gets checked out at my library, but the book itself is full of choppy sentences, exploitative rape fantasies, and awkward pacing that may discourage readers.

Given the writer's link to Mad Men, I jumped at the chance to read this.  However, it was terribly written with no prose or character development.  Because of the writing style, it was a quick read but it wasn't enjoyable.  None of the characters were likeable and it was generally poor.

This was the worst. Really awful stuff. Not well written at all.

This book caught my interest with its descriptive prose, and it is interesting...but it wasn't quite my cup of tea. It is a fast-paced book with a few twists and turns but I don't know if I would recommend it except maybe to fans of Mad Men.

In Heather, the Totality, Matthew Weiner has written a portrait of a family whose life revolves around Heather. Heather is an ideal child - beautiful, empathetic, vivacious, and popular; she is all the best parts of her parents, Karen and Mark Breakstone. The Breakstone family is perfect on the outside and beset with typical, but painful problems under the surface. Mark struggles professionally; Karen struggles with her role as a mother as Heather grows up and needs her less; and Heather is doing her best to wade through the morass of adolescence. 
On the flipside of the Breakstone's privileged life and problems is that of Robert "Bobby" Klasky. Bobby's life is a series of disadvantages that lead him to prison sentence for assault. While in prison, Bobby is given accidental encouragement for his sociopathic tendencies while seeing a prison psychiatrist. 
Through chance, the trajectories of the Breakstone's and Bobby's life meet, and everything changes.
I enjoyed Heather, the Totality. It was an excellent choice for a lazy, summer morning read.

Heather, the Totality is a novella written by Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner. That's the entire reason I requested this book. Since Mad Men was so visually stimulating, I was curious to see what Weiner could do in a non-visual medium.

The novella follows two main stories: the lives of a rich upper east side family and a loner construction worker who crashes into the lives of the various family members. The best way to describe this story is dark!

I ultimately enjoyed reading Heather, the Totality because I like dark, but I don't think this is for every reader. I don't know many people I would want to recommend it to, even people I know who were avid Mad Men viewers. I did appreciate how Weiner went there and didn't back down from the evil living in his characters. There just isn't a lot to hold onto in this story. Its length and a little bit of lack in emotional depth make it a reserved read.

Recommended for anyone who can handle the darkness lurking around any corner.

A short yet compelling and seductive literary thriller.

You might know the author from his amazing series, Mad Men! Now Matthew Weiner brings us a short book called Heather, The Totality. It’s essentially about a wealthy family in New York City whose daughter, Heather, becomes the subject of a stalker. Creepy and a little dark!

The plot is cloaked in secrecy, here is the only thing you can find about it: The tale of a family and a psychopath.

It’s more than that, the book tells how the parents met and fell in love and about Heather too. I’m very curious what other readers think of this story!

This might be a very enjoyable book for some people, but the creepiness factor is high and I think I just wasnt in the mood.

I jumped at the chance to read this novel after hearing about it on the Book Riot podcast. Matthew Weiner is the creator of Mad Men and this book is his debut. It's almost a stretch to call it a novel because it's so short. It's more like a long short story or a novella. 

There's not a lot to tell about the plot without ruining it, which is probably why the description on Goodreads simply reads it's the tale of a family and a psychopath. True, but it's also a story about obsession and parental love. 

Overall this debut is an entertaining read. The storytelling is very expository with very little character development, but it's short and compelling enough that it's easy to not be too bothered by its shortcomings.

Heather, The Totality is a short, read in one sitting novel by Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner. Obviously, Weiner has a knack for character development and such is the case here. The publisher synopsis for this book is simple, probably in an effort not to give anything away. It is described as “a collision course between a privileged family and a dangerous young man.” I’ll go further than that. Heather, The Totality follows a dysfunctional married couple living in NYC and their young daughter and only child, Heather, whom they worship. It also follows a man named Bobby, a twisted character from the wrong side of the tracks. He has recently been released from prison and has his eyes set on Heather. The race to the conclusion (Bobby’s “collision course” with the family) is eerie and suspenseful. The conclusion itself is certainly not what I had expected.

Published in the June 22, 2017 edition of The Napanee Beaver, pgs.8-9