Title: Blank
Author: Zibby Owens
Publisher: Little A
Pub date: 3/1/24

Pippa is an author worrying whether she will be a one hit wonder all while trying to balance family life and handling all the curve balls life is throwing her.

I enjoyed this quick read. The story had me rooting for Pippa and wondering what she would do next. It also showed that authors are human after all and struggle like the rest of us mere mortals. The look behind the publishing curtain, I found interesting and made me want to try to discover even more new authors to support.

Thank you #NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story.

Blank leaves me with few thoughts and feelings but the ones I do have aren’t very good. In the beginning I wasn’t quite convinced by the characters but I wanted to give the book a chance to improve. The “quirky to be funny” is something I dislike and each interaction with the family was that. There was a major plot twist that felt jarring and not in a good way. Also hated the romance that sprouted out of nowhere.

Overall ick

I want to say thank you to Netgalley for an advanced ARC of this audiobook.

I enjoyed this story about the publishing industry and how it's all rigged but at the same time showing, that as long as the cover looks good a lot of people will buy anything. The author in this book wanting to show through her writing just this thing but her life was more complicated then she let's on to people around her ...
I felt for the main character and wanted her to be happy and accomplish her dreams of becoming a great author again, but the pressure of everything does show though the cracks a bit showing thr effects.

Publishing woes. Turning the publishing world on it's head. Making quick work of a new book after the original was scrapped. It's all here! Pippa has a lot of work to do!

Thank you for this advance copy of Blank. Zibby Owens remains a force in the book and publishing world as influencer, bookseller, author and publisher. Interesting to see behind the scenes look at what has been at least partially inspired by life experience.

The first half of the book was okay but the second half was not good. I almost DNF’d. It got too ridiculous and far-fetched, as well as cheesy. It coood have been developed more. I would give it 2.5 stars.

Thank you for the ARC.

Blank was imaginative and original. Pippa is an author with a bestseller struggling to reproduce her earlier success. She was almost finished writing her follow up book when she found out the title AND plot were the same as another authors book coming out. How does that even happen?? Her publisher tells her she has five days to submit her new book or she has to repay the advance she got. Her son comes up with a “novel” idea that will set the literary world on its head! IF she can pull it off.

I loved Pippa. A mom, a wife, struggling in her job. She was real! Loved the twist in this one too. Again, struggle makes her real.

Blank by Libby Owens features a middle aged author named Pippa whose life is a hot mess. She has a marriage that is dead, she can do no right in the eyes of her teenager, and is way past due to turn in her next manuscript. Problem? Her last great idea was stolen and published by her nemesis. She not only has not written a word, she does not even have an idea.

It’s when her son gives her an idea, a fresh way to call out the publishing industry and get her “book” submitted on time, that the novel takes off. Her agent dumps her, but she finds a way in anyway. Without giving any spoilers, I will just say that Pippa figures out quickly who is in her corner and who is not.

Libby Owens creates a character in Pippa that is not always likable. She frequently comes across as a bystander in her own life, but this makes it all the more sweet when she finally finds her agency. The novel was also somewhat uneven in its pacing, but just when things would get a little slow, another bombshell would be dropped and I was pulled back in, happy to continue on the ride.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little A publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

2.5 stars. I won’t get into the synopsis of Blank by Zibby Owens because it can be found easily online.

I adore all of the positive ventures the author has undertaken to promote books and writers, and her commitment to uplifting the publishing industry and authors. I was eager to read her fiction debut.

Blank was a fast read and had some funny moments and wry humour. Momentum definitely picked up in the back half, the writing and dialogue less choppy, and I was eagerly reading and curious as to what would happen with Pippa and her various quandaries. I could feel Pippa’s stress and anxiety with juggling so many balls, the most important motherhood, marriage, career, and financial uncertainties. Jewish representation was incorporated in an interesting way to round out the story, and it added an emotional, meaningful layer. There were a few fun behind-the-scenes tidbits of the publishing industry.

Had it not been for these various aspects, I would have had an even more difficult time with this review.

Unfortunately, I found the first half of the story to be particularly cringy in reference to both the writing and the content. The story, along with interspersed dialogue and text messages, didn’t have ease or flow. Even though the meta bits were neat to pick out (the name of the author’s real life podcast, a sly reference to the author’s new bookstore, a couple of well known authors, book influencers, etc.), it did feel contrived. Some of the publishing industry “inside” items were outright jabs, and while last year’s hit Yellowface by R.F. Kuang was subtle in its satire, this from Owens is a constant and is beginning to grate on this reader. Blank was all over the place and was going off in so many directions with multiple characters and plot points. The story did all come together in the end, but aspects of the ending had a different tone once again. It was also surprisingly preachy and could have done with tighter editing.

🌟🌟💫

Thank you to Little A and Netgalley for the electronic advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. So very glad it has been released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

Blank by Zibby Owens makes you laugh and also covers some very serious topics. Zibby Owens knows all about books - she's a writer, publisher, podcaster and even owns a bookstore! The main character Pippa Jones is a writer who had her debut novel become a huge hit and now she can't think of anything to write about for book number two. With a deadline looming over her her son suggests turning in a blank book. It's a joke right?!! Maybe not! This book takes along for the ride! Some true laugh out loud moments! Highly recommend!

I was looking for something short and light and that's exactly what this book is at just 234 pages. This is Zibby Owens's debut novel - her writing feels a bit immature and the storylines are pretty contrived and predictable. Pippa Jones is a forty-something writer with serious writer's block after her first novel was a bestseller. She's unhappy in her marriage to Ethan but not really willing to do anything about it, mainly because of how she thinks it will affect her teenage daughter Zoe and her 12 year-old son Max. She starts working on what she thinks is a great idea for a second novel, but finds out that it's basically the same plot as a superstar author already released. When she can't come up with anything at all, she tries something totally out-there that Max suggests as a joke. She's going to shake up the publishing industry and hope for the best. In the process, she learns all kinds of secrets about every part of her life. Thanks to #Blank #NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to get into this book and I almost "gave up", but glad I went ahead - once I was in, I didn't want to stop reading. This was an enjoyable, quick (once I got into it) and fun read. I enjoyed the publishing (process about writing a book and coming up with ideas) and parenting themes.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

For me, it was a hard book to get through. It was all over the place and seemed like it needed to be edited more. Fast read.

I enjoyed Zibby Owen’s Blank about a best-selling author struggling to come up with her next book idea. Pippa gets an idea from her son for a blank book - a book with no words that would be a statement on the publishing industry.

Pippa is a mom juggling all the things: dealing with her publisher, staying connected with a group of college friends, struggling with her marriage.

She deals with pressure by visiting open houses and posts about them on her secret Instagram account. But snooping in other houses leads her to a secret that could turn her life upside down.

I enjoyed the characters and writing, and found this to be a quick, funny read.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Little A in exchange for my honest review.

I must be an outlier bc I cannot understand the high star reviews.

Unfortunately, this was a huge miss for me. I really didn't care for the MC, I found her to be whiny and really annoying and her husband just sucks. I felt bad for her friends, particularly Kelly, bc Pippa is just THAT annoying.

Overall, I can't recommend this book and I'm not entirely sure who the target audience is- possibly a mid-40s mom living a really pampered life in LA with spoiled kids and a spoiled husband?

Special thanks to NetGalley and Little a for sharing this digital ARC with me in exchange for my honest review.

I received this book as an ARC. I had never heard of this author before and was happy that this book ended up being a pleasant surprise. I have read a lot of books with the "author struggling to write next novel" trope but this one took a brand new angle and wasn't super predictable like many. I was very engaged and finished the whole book in just a few days. I felt the climax was a little rushed, but again, not predictable. Would recommend!

Cute book. Tough topics spun in makes for a good book.
Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

I struggled with this book. I pushed through hoping it would improve. The writing was all over the place. It is slow moving and the sex scene was a little much.

There's a funny kind of symmetery to my reviewing this book - in the novel, the four women discuss Lily King's 'Writers & Lovers' which was one of my favourite books that I read in 2023. I liked the sound of this one from its blurb - I thought it sounded like a quirky take on the 'writer struggling to get unblocked' theme.

I thought it started out well and, as silly as the idea of a blank book is, I thought she did make some good points around the notion of instant gratification and the 'Tiktok-ification' of how we consume culture and entertainment in today's world. I think there was some good stuff around the idea of technology curating what we read, watch, etc, and I think the idea of a blank book actually plays really smartly into that idea.

The problem was that the challenge of getting this blank book published gets resolved too quickly which paves the way for the kitchen sink melodrama that makes up the rest of the book and it drags down the relatively interesting ideas that it started out with. The big plot point here is Pippa trying to figure out what to do about her husband (spoiler alert - she should have done it about 20 years previous) who is an almost impossibly one-dimensional character.

There's a lot more going on (kids, parents, friends, a contrived reappearance of a childhood acquaintance, etc) that results in the whole thing becoming too busy and, frankly, asks the reader to suspend far too much disbelief.

It's a pity because I think there was space for this to be a smart satire of the publishing industry - instead the most interesting part got wrapped up in a melodrama that did not stand out in the slightest.