Relationships between friends, socioeconomic classes, coworkers - the theme of symbiotic relationships is present through Anna Pitoniak’s novel “Necessary People.”

Throughout the story, those symbiotic relationships shine. Stella - attractive, rich, calculating and manipulative - craves the spotlight and needs those around her to build her up. Violet - ambitious and attentive - grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and needs to shed her past to become more like her best friend Stella. They feed off of one another, filling the gaps that the other is missing. Violet’s ambition, dedication and hard work propels her upward through her career, while Stella seems to have everything handed to her. It can be said that there is a fine line between love and hate, and Violet walks this line with Stella carefully, knowing when to backtrack and when to press. Being too reliant on others, even if the reliance is mutual, can become a downfall, just as this novel shows.

Overall, I was invested in Violet’s story as a best friend and ambitious employee as she struggled out of the shadow of who she used to be, always defined by another person.

wow this book was messed up!!!! But of course in the perfect psychological thriller kind of way! Anna Pitoniak did an amazing job writing characters you want to hate but can't! And wow don't get me started on the storyline because one WOW and two I'm not saying a word because you deserve to be just as shocked as I was!
I look forward to read more from Anna!

This one was fun. It is well written psychological thriller, with interesting settings, and nicely developed characters who are not necessarily likeable but you like them anyway!

Definitely worth reading.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the opportunity to read your ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Necessary People is seriously messed up! Meet college girls Stella and Violet. Stella is the beautiful, rich goddess type. Violet is plain, hard working and modest. This is a story of frenemies at its best. Each girl envies something about the other. This makes for a volatile friendship. You can be best friends but actually hate each other. It's a girl thing, especially college age when you're still establishing your identity. The story slowly builds with all this underlying tension, and you just know that Violet has to stand up for herself at some point. I will not spoil anything. I am glad it ended the way it did. It seemed fitting for this story. This is a well written sharp and suspenseful story. The girls are not necessarily likeable, but Violet will win you over eventually. She's the underdog here. It's a slow start, but stick with it. You will not be disappointed. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! It’s about two young women, Stella and Violet, while striving for success, they each reveal just how far they'll go to get what they want. The personalities were authentic and interesting and it kept me mesmerized until the end! It had a surprising conclusion that I didn't expect. This was a page turner!!! I will be recommmeding this one to all my friends! I was fortunate to receive this novel from Netgalley as an Advance Reader Copy, in exchange for an objective review.

This was one of those "just one more chapters" books. The plot was paced perfectly, with no lulls or awkward timeline transitions.

Two young women meet on a college tour, bringing their divergent lives into sync. They are like magnets, attracted to the qualities they find in each other but lack in themselves. Stella is beautiful, aloof, and razor-sharp; Violet is plain, hard-working, and determined. Their relationship is codependent, with Violet as the safety net for Stella's irresponsibility. But when Violet begins to come into her own, the very foundation of their friendship is threatened - and the deterioration ends in a bang, not a whisper.

"Necessary People" is a great book for readers who like suspenseful fiction, but tend to avoid the thriller genre. It's a great escape during a rainy afternoon or day at the beach.

I received this advanced proof from netgalley in return for an honest review. I really liked this book. Neither Violet nor Stella are extremely likable characters, but this book really makes you think? How far would you go to protect your life, your security, your self-value? It is clear that the friendship between Stella and Violet is unhealthy, and while Violet definitely benefits from this friendship, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. We have all had to deal with narcissists in our lives, and Stella certainly fits the bill. The book started a bit slowly for a thriller, but it is necessary to understand the relationship between these two women before you can understand what happens and why. The ending is tidy, but I can't help but wonder if Violet will be able to put all of this behind her. I will say that, as I was reading the book, I felt like this would make an interesting movie. Overall, I enjoyed reading this and plan to look for other books by this same author.

4 Stars

Two women who are oh so different, yet each has what the other wants. Is it love or is it hate? Why it’s “Necessary People.”

Stella is gorgeous, rich and popular, with family everyone wants. Violet is pretty, intelligent and hardworking. Stella is jealous of what Violet achieves; Violet is jealous of who Stella is. Best Friends and frenemies who meet in College, without each other, they cease to exist. Violet is down to earth, kind and decent. Stella is unreal, wealthy, snobby and well, rude. They go together like oil and vinegar, so different and yet, it’s like pure perfection.

“Necessary People” is drama and a thriller rolled into one. It’s fast-paced and edgy. It’s character driven and full of angst. What else is there to say except that it was hella good!

Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown and Company and Anna Pitoniak for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on Goodreads and Netgalley on 2.26.19.
*Will be Published on Amazon and Twitter on 5.21.19.

I loved "The Futures" by Anna Pitoniak and so I was ecstatic to receive this advanced NetGalley. "Necessary People" did not disappoint. This is a novel that reads like Netflix - totally binge-worthy and it will keep you up way past your bed time. Anna Pitoniak writes a great NY novel - pure escapist pleasure for someone who grew up with Gossip Girl and is low-key obsessed with the rich and famous of the UES. Thank you NetGalley & Little, Brown and Company!

Necessary People is a great look at the line between friendship and mutual usury. As taut as a tripwire and as piercing as a scalpel.

While I find ingratiating social climbers fairly repulsive, I have an undeniable pull to stories that center around them and the insiders who give them access. And so here, Violet Trapp recounts the story of how she and socialite Stella Bradley meet, forge a friendship and ultimately progress to loathing and contempt. Stella has the money, charisma & physical beauty thing (which is apparently blonde with blue eyes because recent fiction always makes them so; I'm starting to think the brunette socialites have gone extinct) going for her. Violet has the intelligence, determination and ambition. Both are envious of the other's gifts and talents and as inertia is wont to do, this leads them down a dark path that eventually takes both over the edge.

The tenor of the novel is tense throughout and builds uncomfortably making this a propulsive read. I knew it was all going to go badly but I didn't know how, when or if either would be left the victor in the end. I wasn't rooting for either woman but I could well see where each was coming from about the other. I was impressed by that as Violet is our narrator (and not an unreliable one). She sees and relates events but for all her careful study of the world she wants in on, misses some very clear signals and hints. I mean the sort that from a certain perspective are flashing with sirens blaring and lightning bolts raining down all around them. I credit Pitoniak with her deft writing here as it's a delicate thing to pull off.

I thought the wider Bradley family was well portrayed in varying orbits from Violet. Stella's father, Thomas and grandmother, were on the farthest edge, followed by brother, Oliver, positioning mother, Anne closest after Stella. Even so, it shone through quite clearly how each regarded Violet and her position, worthiness to be in their company and her usefulness. It was funny, sad and eye-roll worthy altogether.

Anne, Stella's mother treated Violet as a mix of hanger-on and gopher, which grated until it's remembered that Violet put up with this relegation because Violet is getting subsidized rent and status adjacency. Mutual using isn't something that inspires side taking. I found myself often screaming, "Violet, it's time to move! Why are you still here?" so I couldn't very well hold it against the characters who wondered the same, silently or not. That Violet kept going to Bradley family events and holidays frankly creeped me out. It was like she never thought to demur out of sheer politeness. I get that no one ever taught her better but Violet had never even considered the idea of a pro forma invite that is supposed to be deferentially acknowledged and declined. Violet's ambition, self-preservation and determination strangled any chance self-respect had of taking root in her. I've had a day to think about the story and I still don't know if I'd say those served her well in the end.

Pitoniak's lush prose lends itself to highlighting and wanting to remember. I found this to be the case for The Futures as well. The setting of the cable news network landscape was original and fascinating and has definitely given me another angle from which to watch.

As to books this reminded me of, this seemed the more refined, honed and glossier cousin to Social Creature by Tara Elizabeth Burton, with shades and sprinkles of Jessica Knoll's, Luckiest Girl Alive, Stephanie Clifford's Everybody Rise and Beverly Whittemore-Miranda's Bittersweet. This is the better done version of what those did in parts with varying degrees of success. And okay yes, to the low hanging fruit, it gives a nod to Highsmith's Ripley. I know that's a lot of books but I did mention at the outset that I have a pull to these sorts of ingratiator stories. I never know at the end of one of these if they're a primer for climbers or a cautionary tale for the initiated. Like, Here's how you get in vs. Let them in at your own peril. Something to ponder.

Highly recommended.

You pay attention because you have to pay attention. The world isn’t going to unfurl itself for you. You have to pry it open.

College, that place that draws people from all walks of life together, broadens your world view, lets the priveledged and working class rub shoulders and be better for it, this is the meeting place for one hell of a story. For Violet Trapp it was her intelligence and hard work, not her parent’s money that lands her at the private college. There isn’t an inkling of homesickness in her body, not for the mother who, while poor, was ‘the worst sort of snob’ and a violent one at that. Violet wants nothing more than to forget her family entirely, to cut her roots. Vilolet, a 19 year old girl whose support and encouragement came from her teacher rather than her own parents. She will invent a world where she can be a success, join the ranks of the wealthy. Her first door into the world of privilege opens when she becomes roommates with Stella Bradley, after saving her. Beautiful, outspoken, indifferent because money allows such things, there are ‘unseen parts’ that over time Violet is privy to. Violet’s first time with the Bradley family is during Thanksgiving and before long she may as well be one of them. She becomes, she flourishes once Stella enters her life. Knowing this family, blending in with them, becoming one of them is a ‘golden opportunity’ and our Violett is always paying attention, it’s what people without options must do.

Their friendship transcends college, after graduation Violet moves to New York to work for cable news. They are grueling days, thankless, but at least she can afford to be there and in a beautiful apartment with a doorman at that all because of the ‘arrangement’ with Stella’s mother. Stella, doing Stella things ‘wherever the wind takes her’, urges her to just live there, of course mother Anne expects pay, to make it official only. Even so it’s a deal other’s would kill for. In the vacuum of Stella’s absence, Violett works her way up the ladder, begins a flirtation with her co-worker Jamie and waits for her friend to show. Stella’s ‘hot temper and impulsive spirit’ makes for disappearing acts and blunt cruelties now and then, like reminding Violett where she came from, more as a joke of course. Her impulsiveness and vanishing can come in handy though too, at least for Violet. The relationship works with Stella as top dog, they have their roles to play, so when Violet becomes the youngest associate producer, it’s not such a shock that Stella decides to use her connections to get into the news.

When you’re beautiful and beguiling, and wealth is your superpower, any mistakes you make is ‘charming’. Stella has such charm in buckets and buckets, their roles are the ‘poor girl’ and ‘the rich girl’ and often Violet seems more like a stray the Bradley’s took in, or a pet project. Despite all her hard work, Stella surpasses her, easing into everything she wants without the sweat, blood and tears Violet must squeeze out of her worn out self. Stella’s fast rise in the business is as effortless as her beauty. Stella is demanding and often tyrannical, and when you live on the charity of the wealthy, friend or not, ‘like a daughter’ or not, you will be at the constant beck and call, a permanent audience to their dramas.

“The meager territory I had claimed as my own, the little patch of land free from Stella Bradley’s shadow- it was gone, invaded, colonized.” From here, the novel descends into darker more treacherous water and only one “It Girl” can exist. It gets twisted, and both are guilty of heinous behaviors, psychological warfare until one of them snaps.

This reminds me a lot of The Talented Mr. Ripley, not entirely, but similar dynamics. Who the hell do you root for here? Both are deceptive and selfish, though it’s easier to understand where Violet is coming from, she is relatable. What is it about some female friendships, that rivalry, the jealousies that often simmer beneath the surface of things? Envy that buzzes around like filthy flies? Of course most friendships of this vein end in childish tiffs, not crimes. Why do some people always have to demand what’s yours, even when they don’t really want it? Stella likes Violet in her place where she is insecure, uncultured, needy and dependant on her whims. She isn’t about to let Violet stand on her own two feet, no way, not when her benevolence, her family’s charity helped mold her. Stella isn’t as unobservant as Violet thought, and much more conniving but has underestimated just how badly Violet wants her territory back! Why should Stella always win, why should she be destined for great things wrapped up in her cloud of arrogance and indifference, it means nothing to her, she doesn’t earn anything! So we spiral…

This is a disturbing novel, especially once you get to part 3. Definitley add this novel to your May reading list!

Publication Date: May 21, 2019

Little, Brown and Company

Ohhhh, How I truly enjoyed this book! I started reading it twice and couldn't really get into it, so I surprised myself by picking it up again.... But I'm so glad I did. I was fascinated by the dynamic and relationship between the two main characters, Violet (plain girl from the wrong side of the tracks) and Stella (beautiful, careless girl from Old Money). I so desperately wanted to see Violet stand up to Stella, and without giving too.much away, something happens a little over halfway that encourages Violet to do JUST that, in a way. I wouldn't call it a twist, necessarily, and certainly not a mystery, but it kept me on the edge of my seat, trying to figure out how the author was going to wrap things up after the turn of events. It ended just the way I had hoped it would. This was such a good book. I actually went and ordered the only other novel by Anna Pitoniak, The Futures, because 1) I've has it ditto g on my Amazon Wish List forever and 2) because I enjoy Necessary People so immensely. I cannot wait to see what Anna Pitoniak does next. 5Full Stars.

Sharp, timely, acutely insightful and constantly surprising--this is a contemporary read sure to win fans everywhere. Anna Pitoniak writes brilliantly of the dilemmas--and the strengths and weaknesses--of women in today's world.

I could not stop reading this book! I predict that this will be a big hit next summer. An interesting take on a Talented Mr. Ripley-esque situation set in the world of cable news.

This was a page turner!!! I will be recommmeding this one to all my friends!

Violet, the main character, was really someone I could get behind and root for! She and her nasty BFF Stella have an extremely dysfunctional relationship! Although the book is dark and twisted, I loved that Violet was ambitious enough to not allow herself to be a doormat. It was refreshing to see a story that didn’t end up nice and neat or happy ever after. I hope to read more books like this in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book! Great job Anna Pitoniak!

If you've never had a best friend that acts like Stella, I applaud you. While I've not experienced a relationship like this in my adult life, this was certainly a dynamic that happened in my younger years, and I really identified with the struggle of your "best friend" also being the one person who gets in your head and under your skin the way nobody else can. I agree with other reviewers who have mentioned this being a common trope - rich, beautiful girl vs. poor, mousy girl - but I feel like it's a trope for a reason, and that's because it's so often reflected in real life. It works, and it works well in the story.

I appreciated Violet's drive and ambition, and I love that it drove her to being the kind of person that would kill to continue her forward motion. For whatever reason, I didn't see her killing Stella in the beginning, but by the time we reached that point in the story, it made total sense that she'd choose to let her drown.

Overall, loved this story! I'd rate a 3.5, rounded up to a 4 because it's a page turner and a fast read!

Necessary People by Anna Pitoniak could have easily devolved into another New York-ish style novel, and it is that in a way. The sights, the sounds, blah, blah, we're all so cool. But really, this is a story about a dysfunctional friendship between two women, Stella and Violet, who ultimately become enemies. Stella is hugely wealthy, Violet is not, and after a time, their dysfunction ramps up and becomes untenable. This novel also conveys the class differences in society, and some of these became stereotypes in this story. This is difficult but not impossible to get past. Overall, I found this novel eminently readable, a good plot, some meandering, but overall an interesting character study for both lead characters. Would recommend. Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book! It had an unexpected ending that I didn't see coming. The characters were well developed and it kept me enthralled until the end!

Violet and Stella became fast friends during their college years. Close to being complete opposites, it may be said that they complimented each other. They always had each other's back. Brash as she could be, Stella stood up for the more mild-mannered Violet (and vice versa).




Stella comes from a very wealthy family. She eventually takes a job at KCN, herself and charms her way through the rungs. This rifles Violet's feathers a bit - after all, they all know that Stella is a "rich connection". This really becomes evident when Violet visits Stella's grandma in Maine and sees that the station head happens to be a friend of grandma's. "She needs to be in front of cameras", says Ginny (the station head). And... of course this happens. Stella disappears during Christmas time from New York and a week later turns up in Maine, alone at her grandmas seasonal home. She does this type of thing once in a while - Oliver, Stella's brother, admits to Violet and their parents.

A "cold lead" that the news station had given up on 3 years ago comes to the forefront. Jaime and Violet are sent to Florida to flush out the case. By now Stella and Jaime are an item and Stella is not very happy about this. (But Stella is rich and beautiful!) Jaime admits to Violet that he is tired of Stella's antics and needs to break
up with her. This is when the big fight during the break-up occurs and when Stella really goes missing, again


No more - could easily be a spoiler. A true page-turner. Recommend for all fans of thriller/suspense reads.


Many thanks to Little, Brown & Company and NetGalley for a superb read!!!

Ambition is a force as foreign to me as Timbuktu, so naturally it makes for a compelling subject to read about. And this book is all about the power of ambition. It starts off as a tale of female friendship, a sort of cripplingly codependent relationship with all the jealousy, toxicity and screwed up power dynamics that comes with. But Violet and Stella, all too obviously named if you ask me (and by reading this review you more or less did), the shrinking Violet of Floridian white trash and the shining Stella of the East Coast Upper Crust elites, are drawn to each other on the first day of college and inseparable from then on. Violet is obsessively driven with getting as far away from her humble beginnings as she can, Stella seems determined on nothing much but leading the charmed life of privilege and for a while they coexist in a sort of balanced symbiosis, until Stella decides to want what Violet has (because in a perverse way everyone wants what they can’t have) and sets off to pursue a career also, in the same fast paced competitive business of New York cable news. And that world proves to be (proverbially) just isn’t large enough for both of them and neither is willing to compromise. Enter…collision. And collisions are fun to read about. Even the ones you predict from a mile away. It took me a while to get to this because the description hinted strongly of women’s fiction, but this is much darker and more demented than that contrived coziness offers. This is dangerous, deadly even. And entirely too much fun. The writing is terrific, not only does the author really get the Stella/Violet dichotomy perfectly, but she also uses it ever so cleverly to satirize the social class separations and stratospheric worlds the two inhabit and how easily those dividing factors can be swept away. In a way both women are the embodiments of an American dream, flip sides of the same coin, one comes from nothing and single mindedly climbs to the top, one has all one can ever hope to have in life, money, charm, good looks. Neither are moral, ethical or even basically decent, but then again the world we find ourselves in is, tragically, measured in dollars, not good deeds. Plus these sorts of sociopaths are fascinating to read about. This one, in fact, caused a singularly visceral reaction, an effect books seldom have on me, wherein you just want to slap the characters with the pages they come written on or in my case whack them with a Kindle. But still…such a good read. And Violet is such a compelling protagonist, an epitome of a certain Type A personality, so fascinating to track as she matures into becoming the leading lady. The last page of the book questions whether cruelty is necessary to success. Seems like it is a required ingredient. It’s difficult to imagine a certain level of success without a particular cruel streak to it, a certain kind of ruthlessness, kill or be killed world or corporate structures too brutal to sustain a balanced life outside of it. And oh how well Violet learns that lesson. Plus there’s more than just ladder climbing going on, there’s a death, a finely taut suspense (Crime and Punishment style only without guilt, sociopath style) and just absolutely terrific psychological emotionally intelligent drama. So yes, great read. Very tough to put down and very nearly read in one go. Very glad to have discovered this author, I know her debut is available at the library and, after this book, I have every intention of reading The Futures also. Recommended to anyone who loves a good disturbing tale well told. Thanks Netgalley.