Ellipses is a thoughtful and thought-provoking debut that follows Lily, a writer for a major magazine, as she navigates the decline of her print career as digital takes over, the complications of her relationship with her girlfriend, Alison, and the sometimes-good, sometimes-dangerous advice from her sort-of mentor, Billie. The prose is smart and sharp, and the experience through Lily’s eyes (journalism; workplace drama; life as a queer, mixed-race woman) feels deeply considered and lived-in. Through Lawrence’s storytelling, we get an insider’s look at life in the world of media that’s a good fit for fans of Sally Rooney and readers of classic periodicals like Elle, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan.

3.75/5 stars

"Ellipses" by Vanessa Lawrence is full of tension.

Lily is a journalist for a print magazine who is stalling out in her career, and a bit in her life as well. She has erected walls around herself that even her long-term girlfriend cannot penetrate. When a chance meeting puts her in direct contact with Billie Aston, a rich, successful, older, and queer icon, Lily is seduced by the chance to further her career with one-on-one mentoring. Lily and Billie quickly develop a digital mentorship, communicating only via text, and on Billie's schedule.

As work gets more difficult for Lily and she realizes how her bosses are taking advantage of her, she clings to advice from Billie to help her through, regardless of how it starts to affect her personal life.

I think this book had a great idea - sort of a queer, POC, "The Devil Wears Prada", set against a digital/modern backdrop-- but at times got caught up in the weeds of the "themes" it was attempting to deal with. As a mixed-race person myself, I loved Lily's perspective on her Asian and white backgrounds and how that affected being seen in the world. I did however feel like Lily would go on for paragraphs about her experiences and troubles in an "information dump" method as opposed to showing us through interactions. While there is certainly an underlying (and very intriguing!) plot to this novel, most of it happens inside Lily's head where she is just going over decisions and choices in her head and I did find that slow at times. I also enjoyed Lily's friends and the conversations she had with them around making a life she was happy with and not feeling forced into heteronormative milestones.

Either way, I did enjoy this read, and thought that Lily's and Billie's characters were very fresh and not at all what I expected. Lily consistently surprised me in her decision-making, especially with a big twist at the end!

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love this novel--especially the ending. It's so powerful.

Ending was kinda weak but plot overall was quite cool. I found the choice to have it all by text cool and it worked well. Thanks for the arc!

While I felt hopeful about the premise of this book, the execution was lacking. There is too much telling and not enough showing. There was not enough tension building or action. The writing really lacked for me. There were so many opportunities to really explore race, class, and queer identity that just fell flat. I wanted to like this, but it just was not the book for me.

Ellipses by Vanessa Lawrence has such a promising concept—Lily, who is frustrated and feeling stuck within her career, meets B, a mega-successful business woman, who suddenly takes an interest in mentoring her. Through their texts, Lily develops a toxic and obsessive relationship with B, which spills into her personal life as well as her professional.

Over the span of the novel, Lily grapples with being mixed race in a world that prioritizes whiteness, being queer, and figuring out what it is she actually wants in life and how to reach it.

There's a lot I appreciated about Ellipses; I think the Lawerence did a fantastic job of showing how all of these facets of life that Lily was working through are intertwined. That feminism has to be inclusive, in regards to race, age, sexuality, ect.

However, I struggle giving it anything higher than a 3. Overall, I feel like the toxicity between B and Lily could have been pushed further, explored a little deeper. The audience definitely was exposed to it, but I feel like there could have been a bit more to really highlight that aspect. I also struggled with feeling like Lawrence was more of a 'teller' than a 'shower' and the ending felt a bit abrupt as well.

I was so intrigued by the concept but was let down with the full execution. It was still an enjoyable read, but I don't know if I would return to reread it.

3.5 stars! I was instantly intrigued by Ellipses—I always enjoy books with an NYC setting, that take place in the journalism/publishing (particularly magazine journalism!) worlds. The story follows Lily, a magazine writer who is navigating a toxic workplace, contemplating the future of her career, and feeling stagnant in her relationship with her girlfriend Alison. Then, the mysterious yet charming beauty executive Billie waltzes into her life, wanting to serve as her mentor—but will this new connection be more than Lily bargained for?

I loved how character-driven Ellipses was! I appreciated the focus on Lily and her journey to harness a stronger sense of identity in every facet of her life, as well as the social commentary and insights into what it is like to work in the media industry. I also enjoyed the relationship between Lily and Alison, and thought that aspect of the story was really well-done. However, I wanted a little more depth from the dynamic between Lily and Billie. Billie seems to have such a strong presence in Lily's life despite Lily only hearing from her over text, yet I feel like she lacked that presence in the book, if that makes sense. She was definitely a fascinating character, but their relationship dynamic itself wasn't as twisty or complex as the premise indicated it would be. Additionally, I loved the meta aspect of the ending, but felt like it could have been expanded on/drawn out a little more, and found the conclusion of the story a little abrupt overall. While I wanted more from certain parts of the story, I still thought Ellipses was a compelling, promising debut! Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC.

I appreciate that this coming of age, journey of self-discovery novel had a protagonist in her thirties. I also enjoyed the very real and relatable internal grappling that Lily went through as she struggled to adapt her career and relationships to fit her worldview, needs, and growth. The title is very fitting in that it also applies to how this book read--I felt like I was the ellipsis, waiting for ... what? It seemed like this was a lot of build-up for an outcome that wasn't a surprise to anyone. Although it's fine to have the story be more about the journey than the destination, Lily's journey dragged and was predictable. I also found myself wondering more about Lily's childhood and how that shaped her worldview and sense of self. I also don't believe there was any mention of her parents or other family. While Lily is still relatable, this omission made it harder for me to feel connected with her. The ending was satisfying and fulfilling, but nothing that couldn't have been anticipated from the prologue and first two chapters. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting a book about representation-based challenges in the modern workplace (specifically the magazine industry), toxic mentorship, commentary on social media/influencers, and anyone looking for a story about someone who finds her voice and learns to stand up for herself.

This book was memorizing and had great commentary on high society. I enjoyed reading this book and could immerse myself into this world.

I wanted to love this book, I really did, but I really only liked it. I thought it was nice to read, but it didn't really captivate me like I was hoping. I would still recommend this to my library though.

This one wasn't a perfect fit for me, though I really appreciate the concept and having queer main characters. The cover and title are great as well. Overall I found myself wanting higher stakes, more conflict, and more chaos to the relationships, which I think means I'm not the best reader.

Eh, this book was underwhelming and not much happened. I was so excited by the description too. The overall writing wasn’t too bad though, the plot just needed a lot of work.

This just seemed very average to me. I didn’t feel any particular connection to the characters, and the plot line fell a little flat for me.

This book is great for people who crave chaotic, toxic female relationships. It feels like The Devil Wears Prada meets The Talented Mr. Ripley in energy, which is mostly what kept me going. The actual writing felt boring and lackluster– it was full of the author telling me things about the main characters, then showing me through brief snippets of text that felt emotionless and stilted. The pacing was strange and it detracted from my reading experience. I have no doubt this will be successful with its intended crowd, but it was not for me.

Ellipses is exactly the kind of literary fiction I like to consume! It's set in New York City which is already something I always enjoy in a book and we follow Lily, a writer which is also another one of my key reading interests so Ellipses was right up my alley. The characters are a part of the media industry which provided great social commentary about the digital age and how we form and maintain relationships within it. I loved reading about the relationship dynamic between Lily and Billie - it was toxic and yet, intriguing. The complexity and messiness is what makes the book progress. As we follow Lily in this journey of discovering herself, we learn so much about the uncertainty of life and what carving out a life looks like for someone in the digital age. It was a good read and I look forward to the published version which is out in March 2024.

Thank you NetGalley and Dutton Books for providing me with an early copy!

Lily Michaels, a queer, mixed race woman working in the magazine industry as a writer, finds herself in a rut, both in her job writing unfulfilling pieces about social media influencers and in her relationship with her girlfriend Alison. Then she meets Billie Aston (aka B), a queer icon and powerful executive in the cosmetics industry. An older woman in her 50s, B is confident and ruthless in her career and begins to mentor Lily over regular text messages. Lily initially balks at B's unsympathetic and questionable views, but quickly finds that following B's hard-to-swallow advice pays off. Despite Lily's gut feeling that she should end her relationship with B, as the magazine industry shifts towards the digital world Lily finds herself relying on B more than ever.

There's a lot going on in this story, which touches on a range of issues such as sexism, power dynamics and mentorship, microagressions and the dichotomy of a mixed race identity. Lily works in an industry that is rapidly shifting from print to digital media and she struggles to adapt to a world where influencers rule the space. She deals with a workplace that is increasingly competitive, forcing her to deal with coworkers who seem determined to keep her down. She's faced with racial and sexual microagressions that make her workday miserable. I appreciate the way Lily's queerness was approached and her relationship with Alison was the best part of this story.

I despised Billie; given her status as a rich and white Boomer woman, relatively privileged compared to Lily, her advice felt so out of touch and definitely gave toxic vibes. Still, it felt like there was something missing; the fact that this relationship was solely via text messaging dulled the impact of it. I understand why the story was written this way (and the reason is literally spelled out for the reader at a certain point) but maybe I would have enjoyed Ellipses more if B had more physical presence in the story. The execution didn't live up to the premise.

The ending felt completely out of left field, despite being foreshadowed throughout the book. I felt that Lily's intentions were purposely obscured until the last few pages but this only left me confused. Where did this decision come from, when I don't remember Lily having any thoughts in this direction? What exactly made her change her mind when mere paragraphs before she was dead set on a different path? I'm not sure how I feel about the ending and epilogue.

Overall, the writing was engaging and Lily's experiences felt very relatable to me, as a fellow introverted woman of color in the corporate world. Still, I wish there was more to the relationship between Lily and B, and the ending left me with mixed feelings.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy.

The premise of this sounding really intriguing, but the execution unfortunately did not follow through.

Theoretically, this book is about a young writer, Lily, who forms a strange on-off professional friendship with a beauty executive, Billie, whom she meets at an event. The story follows Lily over a tumultous period of her life both professionally and personally, during which she carries on this relationship, entirely over text. There were some interesting threads here which I think weren’t pulled strongly enough, and the author did a great job with expressing Lily’s stagnation and frustration in a compelling way, but I didn’t love this overall. I felt like the toxicity of the central relationship wasn’t really convincing, and there was a lot of telling, not showing, at points where some showing would have been more engaging and effective.

I'd be interested to see what the author does next, and if you're looking for a more internally-driven character growth arc (and not a book about a toxic queer professional friendship) you might enjoy it, but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

Thanks to Dutton and Netgalley for the advance copy!

Ellipses is a book where I at times was lost at who to root for. I was rooting for Lily and then against her. It felt as if Lawrence wanted us to not like Lily but the more I read I got a better understanding. Lily has worked in a field where looks and see through personalities are in. All climbing to get a better view of whatever’s coming next and willing to step on others to secure themselves. Yet, when she meets this charming executive named Billy, it throws Lily off her axis. Jeopardizing her relationship with her girlfriend, Alison as well as her sense of self. You start to see that eventually Lily doesn’t care about the view at all but instead wants to create a whole different one. I really enjoyed this book. The relationship been Lily and Alison and was one that takes you on all its normal ups and downs that more books should showcase. I also enjoyed the insight I got behind what it’s like working for a fashion magazine. Reading Lily’s constant train of thought was complicated but honest and made me want to read more. I’ll leave you with this quote from the book. “Because to be forgotten, one had to exist in the first place. And that was itself an achievement.” Thank you to NetGalley, Vanessa Lawrence, and Penguin Group Dutton for my advance copy.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing this ARC for my voluntary and honest review!

Overall an easy read but all of the societal issues the author tried to tackle felt a little forced; it would have been better as a series of essays. The plot also felt a bit redundant - woman shuts out partner, seeks advice from toxic mentor, then gets mad when advice isn’t what she wanted to hear. Wash, rinse, repeat.

"Ellipses" by Vanessa Lawrence is a debut novel that delves into the complex world of identity, ambition, and the impact of digital connections. While the plot holds promise with its exploration of a young woman navigating the challenges of her professional and personal life, I found the narrative to be somewhat hampered by repetitiveness.

The exploration of Lily's struggles with identity, both as a mixed-race and bisexual woman, is a compelling aspect of the novel. Lawrence delves into the complexities of microaggressions in the workplace and the challenges of maintaining authenticity in the face of societal expectations. The themes of forging one's path and navigating the digital landscape are timely and resonant. However, the novel falls into a repetitive pattern that dilutes its impact. Lily's perpetual suspension in an ellipsis, waiting for Billie's messages, becomes a recurring motif that loses some of its potency over time. The constant revisitation of this dynamic slows down the narrative and at times feels like a reiteration of the same emotional beats.