Next to Heaven AUDIO by James Frey is an interesting book in the way it’s written. It begins by giving vignettes of each of the characters and where they have come from, sometimes how they’d met. All with a view to their coming together at some point for the rest of the story. They all lead us to New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, of which we’ve been given a vignette as well. In this century it is the perfect place for wealthy professionals and their families to settle in mini-mansions built just for them, within commuting distance of New York City. The town had taken an interesting approach to zoning and so the town was laid out carefully. Here we meet the people we had met earlier, now older and married, most of them. Several of the women got together and decided to hold a sex party/swinger party. They planned it carefully, first selecting the participants, then pairing them off. It was well-organized with room assignments given to women, and then to the men who would join them. They had planned it to benefit themselves, of course. That is when things started falling apart.

An interesting glimpse into a word vastly different than the one in which I reside, the characters were neatly drawn; many of them were self-centered and narcissistic. Some got hurt on this evening as there were drugs involved and at least one person chose something stronger than was intended. Some fell in love and continued with affairs. At least one was bankrupt and stole from is lover, although that apparently never came to light. Then someone was murdered. We learned that fact about half way through the book, from a police officer, but we didn’t know who it was. Then, later, someone was dead, horrifically. The police officer, David, was sure it knew the culprit but couldn’t prove it. Then he discovered, in an interesting way, he was wrong. Excellent characters, far from likable, but well-done. Interesting set-up and plot. Pacing was good. Very lurid and very steamy. Interesting lives.

Gina Gershon was the narrator and was perfect for the book. I enjoyed every minute of her narration. She brought the story to life. Sometimes the audio version livens up a book that may otherwise drag in spots.

I was invited to listen to Next to Heaven by A E Titles/S&S Audio. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #AETitlesSandSAudio #GinaGershon #JamesFrey #NextToHeaven

I saw another review that said this was like a modern Gatsby and I thought about that through the whole book. I agree with that because it’s rich people with coping mechanism only rich people could have. But I felt bad for Gatsby. I don’t feel bad for most of these folks.

The book itself was “I can’t put this down!” I loved the stream of consciousness narration and the different POVs. I really struggled with how many characters there were though! They were all so similar! But different. I almost made flash cards at one point.

I swapped back and forth between the ebook and the audiobook. The narrator of the audiobook, Gina Gershon, was perfect for this! She was so good!

Thank you to NetGalley and Authors Equity and Simon & Schuster Audio for an ARC of this book! This is my honest review.

3⭐
* Bored, rich people
* Elite Parties
* Scandal
* Betrayal
* and of course, a murder.
This is definitely the book for you.

This book had a lot of potential, I think the repetition is what threw it for me.

Thank you NetGalley and AE Titles / S&S Audio | Simon & Schuster Audio for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book has been stirring up some controversy and discussions on social media recently. I don't know all the details, but the author and publisher are said to support AI. You can do what you will with that information.

I received an advanced listener copy from the publisher and chose to honor my commitment to listen. That being said, I didn't hate the book. Honestly I think it was pretty interesting and had a decent amount of snark that I personally enjoyed. I think there are solid bones and it really could have been a great book.

The biggest issue I had was there were a lot of instances of repetition. I think it was meant to be amusing and snarky and the first time it was, but this happened multiple times in the story and it got old. If you opt to read it, you'll see what I mean.

I think the narrator did a solid job and so I'm going to rate this book 3 overall.

I received a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Huge thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. I’m always grateful for the chance to try something new.

That said, this one just didn’t work for me. The pacing felt very slow, and I had a hard time connecting with the characters or staying invested in the story. I also struggled with how frequently the female characters were described in a way that felt more objectifying than insightful.

I really appreciate being considered for the ARC — even when a book isn’t my style, I’m always glad to have had the chance to read and reflect on it.

Thank you so much for sending me this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. At this time I did not finish the book. I found the narrator was extremely boring and I could not connect to the story at all. I wish it started out with some more character development and less about the town and it’s back story.

James Frey’s Next to Heaven delivers a thrilling plunge into the glittering yet corrupt world of New Bethlehem’s ultra-wealthy elite. Narrated with seductive flair by Gina Gershon, the audiobook pulses with tension and intrigue from the first word. Gershon's narration really sold it for me as a listener.

Frey skillfully balances dark satire and dramatic stakes: voyeuristic glimpses of the one percent are sharply counterbalanced with shocking betrayals and a haunting murder at its core. At its best, the journey satirizes privilege while gripping the listener with twists and high-stakes suspense .

This is not a good book. The slow start and then no murder until 3/4 in, isn’t a god mystery book. Once I read he used AI to write this book I was out. It makes more sense as to why so many things were repeated, why certain words were used over and over .

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I wanted to like this but it spent a bunch of time building up what felt like too many characters and resolved it in a single chapter. Some of it was funny and some of it had spice potential but it was overall a bit flat. I wasn’t invested in any of the characters enough to root for them. It just felt incomplete.

I really wanted to like Next to Heaven, but it just wasn’t for me. The synopsis describes the story as a thriller being centered around an elite party, but that’s misleading—it wasn’t a typical party at all. The “party” was really an orgy, and the vulgarity throughout the book felt excessive and off-putting. On top of that, having an elderly female narrator for the audio discuss graphic sexual content was uncomfortable and honestly a little creepy.

I also struggled with how unrealistic the story felt—especially when it came to money, character behavior, and how the death was handled. For something marketed as a thriller, it took nearly the entire book (about 80%) before anything actually happened. The key death comes way too late, and the investigation and ending felt rushed and underdeveloped.

What did work for me were the short chapters and the shifting points of view. I also liked that all the characters were introduced early on, which helped ground the story at first. Structurally, the book had potential, but the content and pacing just didn’t live up to it.

Wild, sharp, and totally unfiltered, Next to Heaven is a fast-paced dive into the messy lives of the ultra-rich. It’s part satire, part thriller, and full of chaos. If you like scandal, secrets, and a touch of dark humor, this one’s a fun ride.

This book was wild, in the best, messiest way possible. Normally, I struggle with books that have a ton of characters, but the author did such a great job giving each one a distinct voice that I never felt lost. Everyone felt like a real person, which made the drama all the more fun to read.
Yes, I guessed the ending, but honestly? Didn't even care. The ride was so entertaining that the predictability didn’t take away from the satisfaction. If you're into juicy rich people drama with a thriller twist, this one delivers. It’s twisty, chaotic, and totally bingeable. Highly recommend for your next weekend read!

hated it. Normally I love a good wealthy murder mystery, but this was NOT it folks. WAY WAY too many characters and the author spent 75% of story to just painting a visual picture with very little plot progression. There’s also a lot of things the author writes that he seems to want to portray at melodic poetic style sentences but it really just doesn’t fit well. Apparently the author used AI to write the book? cop out... I still appreciate Netgalley gifting this ARC even though it was more than difficult to get through.

This book had the potential of being good. If we take some of the basic elements, move the murder plot to earlier in the book, maybe, just maybe, we’d have something there.
It really gave me the same feeling of when I’d have a writing assignment in my science class back in middle school, where it was rumored that my teacher would only care about how many pages long out essay was, but not read it at all. My sister once put an entire cake recipe within the assignment and the teacher never noticed. I guess the author thought we wouldn’t notice either. I know James Frey said we wouldn’t notice what was written by him or AI, since it was all reviewed by him, but to that I’d say he’s either underestimating our intelligence or I really, really dislike his writing style. This book was SO REPETITIVE. One of the chapters even has an entire paragraph written the same way! A lot of their actions were written as if they were lists. There’s a chapter that it’s like a random Ode to Connecticut (a cake recipe would have been better). There’s another chapter where he lists who the secret is spreading to and is just a list of random names saying they wouldn’t spread the secret anyway but did it. It could have been summarized to something like “no one was supposed to know, and yet, everyone knew”. Matter of fact, if this book could have been rewritten, without the repetitiveness and the unnecessary info, it would have been a short story.
As much as I love a good dumpster fire of a story, this was not it. Use your time reading something else, go tackle that TBR.

On a technical side, the audiobook was skipping about 5 chapters towards the end and there was either some bonus chapter in the end, of a chapter fell out of order as well. Also, the interview with the author and narrator wouldn’t play entirely. Hopefully they fixed it before the release. The narrator was great though.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of the ebook and audiobook in exchange of my honest opinion.

I am so disappointed to find out that this author uses AI to write his books. I was looking forward to listening to this audiobook but I decided against finishing after finding out. I did listen to a short part of it and the narrator did a great job so my rating in no way pertains to the narrator.

This is a very trashy summer read. Seems like James Frey wants to reinforce his self-described reputation as a “bad boy.” Readable and also forgettable. Seems destined to be the next Nicole Kidman limited series about the ultra-wealthy and ultra-despicable crowd…and of course a murder and betrayal.
Thank you to Net Galley for an advance copy.

The audiobook version seemed to be missing a few chapters. Hopefully that is addressed before the audio book is available to the public.

Let’s chat about AI.

It’s not going anywhere, so how does it fit into society in an ethical (and more environmentally friendly) way? I’m sure it will serve society in many valuable ways in terms of technology, but does it have a place in the creative world?

James Frey (touted in the early aughts as “the man who conned Oprah” seems to revel in controversy. I was still curious about his new book, and learned of his usage of AI in his writing just a few weeks ago. In an interview from two years ago, the author is very blatant about how he not only uses AI for research purposes, but to copy his writing style. So the reader is left not knowing who (or what?) generated the words they are reading.

My first instinct is I am not interested in consuming art of any kind generated by AI, but I was curious to see what an AI generated book would look like and tried to read this one objectively. And being that I received an ARC, I’m comfortable with not supporting the author monetarily.

It’s ever evolving, but at the moment AI can still be pretty shitty. Like how it STILL can’t get hands to look like hands. Or how the AI blurb that comes up at the top of every google search is sometimes wrong. Well, the same goes for writing. AI or not, this book wasn’t that amazing. While Frey does have some decent writing chops (I truly enjoyed his first two novels), I wouldn’t classify his writing as any better using this tool.

What seemed like a sordid story with a number of rich people doing rich people things with a lot of infidelity happening, it sounded like a juicy enough read. I was invested enough, despite struggling to keep all of the characters and pairings straight, but it felt really whomp-whomp by the end. It also didn’t help that the audiobook arc was a true dumpster fire, missing chapters that I had to go back and read in the print version.

I will chalk this one up to being a little experiment, and have no intentions with consuming AI generated books in the future. Why would I, when there are so many incredible minds already writing wonderful books with just their imaginations?

2⭐️ (rounded down from a 3⭐️, because you know, cheating).

I enjoyed this story. Listening to it as an audiobook was difficult for me because there were so many characters and I couldn’t keep straight who was who. Would recommend it to physically read instead of an audiobook.

"Next to Heaven" is where I live in Connecticut. The exacting details of setting and people are spot on in James Frey's newest work of fiction and what I enjoyed thoroughly. Thankfully my own neighbors are not as obnoxious and egotistical, but deplorable characters have great big comeuppances in "Next to Heaven." What begins with a high class key party among three couples and a lacrosse coach and girlfriend, ends in a trip to hell, a long plotted murder and break ups. The key party is RACY stuff and definitely written by a male author. It's shock and awful at points but the consequences of the night are the main story. Mr. Frey's writing is repetitive at times and he has said he's experimented with AI - this would seem to be a result. All said, it's a good and quick summer book but one to listen to as Gina Gershon is the reader. She and Mr Frey have an excellent conversation following the book's conclusion and discuss his inspiration being "Hollywood Wives" by Jackie Collins. These details increased my post reading satisfaction. He's already working on the screenplay.

What a fun read! This book is perfect for summer and who doesn't enjoy reading about rich people behaving badly? Sprinkle in a little swinging and you've got a banger addition to your pool bag. Frey shines here in the nuanced specificity of his characters. In spite of the sheer number of folks we're following, once I settled into the narrative I was never confused. No mean feat. This is absolutely worth the read. My favorite kind of brain candy.