S. F. Prescott

Slow burning suspense.

Alana B. Lytle is a screenwriter whose recent credits include Netflix’s Brand New Cherry and Peacock’s A Friend of the Family. Her short fiction has been published in Guernica. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and sausage-shaped dog. Man’s Best Friend is her debut novel.

Published May 14th, 2024.

The first chapter was enticing enough to keep me reading, although it felt detached from the rest of the novel. The first half of the book was slower paced, introducing a cast of privileged people partying and hooking up. El, the protagonist met them in school where she attended on a scholarship and always felt like the odd one out. I went into this one blind and when I double checked the genre, the pace made sense. I don’t read as much general / literary fiction since it’s usually slower, however the murder in the middle sped it up. When El finds out an old friend of hers has been found murdered, she’s devastated and immediately starts investigating. A few coincidences cause her to suspect Bryce, her fiancé. A lot was crammed into the second half, and in the end, both El’s and Bryce’s decisions became foggy once all the secrets were out.

I didn’t love the characters and felt their choices to be unrealistic, especially El’s, just so she could live a life of luxury. The mention of dogs and their erratic behavior felt disconnected, like the first chapter, and I wasn’t sure how it fit with the characters or storyline. The themes of rags to riches and complex relationships were clearly expressed, but the ending fell flat for me.

For readers who enjoy a slower pace, characters with dark motives, and complex relationships.

Synopsis:

Ever since her year as a scholarship student among the ultra-wealthy at a Manhattan private school, El knows what it is like to feel rich—to feel chosen. And being not chosen is her current living nightmare: at age thirty, she has given up her dream of becoming a famous actress, she has no passions, no great love, nothing to look forward to.

Then El meets a mysterious trust-fund Cambridge grad who holds the keys to the world she has long dreamed of. Bryce may not be particularly good-looking, charming, or interesting, but he has chosen her. El allows herself to be lulled by the ease and safety that his wealth provides, becoming Bryce’s little pet, and giving up her job, friends, and apartment in short order. But when a series of disturbing and slightly surreal events reveal that Bryce is not quite what he seems, but something entirely more sinister, El must face the consequences when his darkness—and her own—are unleashed.