Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

I Need You to Read This, Jessa Maxwell's new novel,  combines several threads of plot, swirling around an advice column in a fictional New York newspaper. One thread concerns a woman who has applied for the job of advice columnist upon the murder of the long-standing incumbent in the job. She has relied on the column in her own life's tumultuous course, but that is her primary qualification, , and is surprised when she is hired for the job. This thread follows her insecurity and imposter symdrome about doing the job, as well as her contacts with a possible suitor and her relationship with a couple of sort-of friends. Another thread follows that tumultuous past, as she becomes involved in an abusive relationship. Another thread follows her own investigation of her predecessors murder, a pursuit that will bring all th thread together in a violent resolution. But there is one more thread, as we follow her in her choice of letters to answer in her column, as well as her heartfelt advice to this correspondents (in the shadow, of course, of her predecessor, her own personal hero).

     The result of all these themes is involving and propulsive, with several major twists that move the whole story forward and keep the reader involved.