This debut novel is, in my opinion, a home run.
It has it all: wonderful writing, a propulsive plot, the kind of verisimilitude I could really sink my teeth into, and characters I felt I knew, especially as a longtime resident of Sin City.
Now, describing its story makes Close Relationships With Strangers sound tawdry. After all, it's about a paparazzi photographer from Las Vegas trying to score in Los Angeles while fighting the urge to return to his hometown, and the book includes such trusty tropes as a Las Vegas girlfriend who does burlesque and various scenes of Hollywood hedonism.
But Diamond makes a lot of interesting choices as she tells her tale, such that even her cliches are given full-shrift, so much so that I found myself nodding in agreement during my second read-through.
Whatever a given section consists of, whether it’s trenchant social commentary or biting dialogue or phantasmagoric scenery, Diamond handles it with such mastery that I dreaded the book's ending.
But Diamond nailed that, too. It's an ending that stuck with me & drew me into re-reading the book immediately, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I cannot recommend this novel enough. Go read it!
Get CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH STRANGERS by Krista Diamond here: https://a.co/d/0aqr0LlV
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