I have picked this up so many times, read 20 pages and set it down. I struggled to get in to the writing the story. I finally picked it up on audiobook and while it was pretty slow, it kept my attention. I enjoyed the “book within a book” aspect. I almost wish there was more of Crib and less of The Plot! While I did predict the twist, it’s definitely unique and I would recommend it to people who like more of a slow burn story.

I started and stopped this book a million times. It just wouldn't go away. I kept seeing it everywhere, I accepted the signs the universe was giving me and I finally dove in, I'm glad I did! It's definitely a slow burn, but it got twisty fast. Once the "thing" happened, it was a roller coaster from there. I didn't guess the ending until the scene was playing out on the pages. I love that! This ended up being a great novel. I'm so glad I listened to the universe, which is mostly Instagram book reviewers and Jimmy Fallon.

3.5 stars rounded up - I read this in June last year but forgot to post my comments:
Slow starting, a bit of a drudge at first as author Jake revisits over and over (and over!) the fear of being exposed for 'taking' a plot idea, but then the last 1/4 of the book really accelerates and finishes strong. It borders on being too angst filled for me, but is saved by short appearances by other mildly interesting characters and his efforts to figure out who's threatening him. A couple of twists make the wait worthwhile.

My husband (who has written a couple books) and I talked about the underlying premise of this story and what constitutes plagiarism and theft of a plot or idea or story. It made for an interesting discussion for us.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #CeladonBooks for the advance copy - the opinions and comments are my own.

The Plot sounded really interesting to me. I do enjoy fiction about writers and writing. The book was not my cup of tea. I found the writing style to be dull and hard to follow therefore I did not finish this book. Could not understand the hype.

Thank you Celadon Books and Netgalley for this Advanced Reader Copy. This was a honest review.

Couldn't get into this one — i tried so many times! And the blurbs on the back of the book are from some of my favorite writers so I just kind of feel bummed this one wasn't for me. Might still try again in the future but for now I'm kind of giving it up.

I enjoyed this book! As a writer, I love books within a book and this did not disappoint It was a well-crafted story that had me turning the pages.

Jacob Finch Bonner, while teaching at a writers conference, meets a young man with an incredible story he plans to write. A few years later, while he is struggling in his own career, he remembers the young man, discovers he's passed away and makes the decision to tell his story. What follows is his meteoric rise in the literary world and his personal life. This started out slowly for me but once it got going, it went fast and I couldn't put it down.

I found this book as sort of an enigma. The premise seems to be a stretch with the main character hijacking a plot from one of his students and gains wealth and fame from completing the story and selling it. But I felt some manipulation by Korelitz with things happening just a bit too pat without the main character incredibly unware of what is going on. He also seems way too compulsive to find out what happened to the guy with the original idea. The climatic scene brings to mind the old Twilight Zone series with the perfect crime being performed. The book has received lots of best of the year hype, but I was mostly lukewarm to the effort.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

Jean Hanff Korelitz can write. Plain and simple. I was a fan of her previous novel, You Should Have Known and so I immediately wanted to read The Plot. I cannot believe it but The Plot was even better than her last novel. It was taut and suspenseful and kept me gripped to the edges of my seat.

Absolutely amazing!

I have picked up and put down Kirelitz's The Plot over the course of the last few months. While in many ways denser and more intellectual in content, diving deeply into story plot and who owns the idea to a story, this book remains fun throughout!

Jacob Bonner was once an author on the rise, before his career peaked and he's forced to teach an MFA English course. Then he meets student Evan Parker. Evan has a plot to a story that he knows will be excellent, enough to garner movie deals and notoriety. But once Evan tragically dies, leaving his plot up for grabs, Jacob takes this as his opportunity to reignite his career. Launching into stardom, Jacob has finally made it big. But someone knows what he did and they don't want this plot getting out.

While slightly torn on how I felt about The Plot, I thought the first half moved at a very slow pace, but did an excellent job establishing the characters and the stakes. However, once the pace began to pick up midway through, the characters began acting illogically and I found myself very detached from large parts of the story.

Similar to the books own plot, I thought this story had so much potential and was very promising, if the execution wasn't perfect. It still made for a very fun read and I'd recommend for anyone interested in the mystery thriller genre!

predictable but entertaining read, tho I guessed the plot twists! With all the hype I expected more.

I’ve gone back and forth a bit on whether or not this is a 3.5 or a 4 star book, mostly because I thought that the big gotcha moment was predictable from very early on in the book (although I didn’t think the author would go quite as far with it as she did.) I ended up at 4 stars because I did enjoy reading it overall and I have respect for an author who will really go for it with her ending.

Jacob Finch Bonner – coasting on the limited acclaim of a one-and-done book he published in his twenties – is an adjunct professor at a third-rate school’s writing program, “teaching” adults with no promise how to improve their writing. Until one day, Evan Parker walks into his office with an idea for a book that he is writing that is a sure thing – he’s come up with a plot outline for a book like nothing the world has seen before and it’s going to make him wildly successful. However, when the book is never published and Jake can’t get the idea out of his head, he decides to write it himself. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know what he has set in motion until it’s too late.

One thing I was really impressed with was the author’s book within a book. The idea that she wrote full chapters of a second mystery book within her main narrative was a really different idea, although I did find myself being drawn to those chapters more than the ones from the main book, which probably made me judge the main story more harshly. I also appreciated the time jumps so we didn’t have to get bogged down in the day-to-day of these characters’ lives leading up to anything relevant actually happening. However, the time jumps also took away from the full development of the main characters, which I think would have been helped by showing a bit more of their struggles and general isolation.

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

Fabulous book. And I loved how it was carried out. Two plots going on within one book. The character development was great. And while I had an inkling fairly early on of what the twist was going to be, the storyline kept me guessing and I was still surprised when it was time for the big reveal at the end.

Definitely recommend this to others.

I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

One of the best books that I have read this year. It certainly lives up to the hype. It told an incredible story that lingered with me for some time. Excellent.

Wow! This book was suspenseful and fast paced. It was a very jarring read! I really couldn't put this one down.

I ended up DNFing this book. The writing style was not for me. I got about 50% of the way through before I gave up. It was very slow and I felt like we were reading about the same points over and over again. I did enjoy the idea of the book; just don’t think that it was executed effectively. I was very bored and wanted more action to happen for a mystery/thriller.

I wanted to love this book but I just didn’t. It felt like such a long read & it's not even a very long book. The story didn’t feel very original &. I only finished it to know what happened.

Thoroughly enjoyed this read by Ms Koreltz. Nicely written. Characters well developed. Hope to see the next one soon. Fun book!

Absolutely loved this book! It was first and foremost incredible that it had not only the captivating main plot, but also the second story nestled in it, essentially two novels at the same time. The tension was built so gradually and so well; I knew that "something" was going to happen and was torn between wanting to savor the writing and needing to know how it ends. The reader and the main character made the same discoveries at the same time, and this worked really well in the scope of the story - having too much dramatic irony would have lessened the impact of the ending. I did predict part of the twist, but that didn't take away from the eventual reveal. Rarely do I think I would enjoy re-reading a mystery after I know what happens, but this is definitely one I'll return to, and recommend to anyone who will listen.