Alison Hardtmann's Reviews > Precious You

This novel tells the story of the relationship between two women. Katherine, in her early forties, is the editor of an business magazine called Leadership, which is sold and the new owner's niece, twenty-four-year-old Lily, is hired, ostensibly as an intern, but because of her family connections, she has more importance than that. Katherine and Lily begin with an antagonistic relationship that is marked by both attraction and enmity. As their conflict intensifies, it's clear Lily has an ulterior motive behind her actions and that Katherine is not equipped to deal with any conflict whatsoever.

The ages of the two protagonists is constantly mentioned and the story is often framed as a conflict between generations. Apparently, Gen X professional women are sexual predators of a kind to make Don Draper uncomfortable and frankly incompetent and mentally unstable as well. And Millenials are conniving and manipulative. Along with bludgeoning the reader, over and over again, with this idea of a conflict between generations and Katherine's accompanying obsession with how very old and past it she is (she's in her early forties!), there's the persistent idea that women are obsessed with age and how sexually attractive they are as the only thing that gives them value. Had this been set in the modeling world, or among a group of paid escorts, that world view would be obsolete, but at least understandable. In the publishing world, this strains belief.

The other problem is the greater one. Neither character is likable, nor do they have any characteristics that make them interesting to read about. Lily is a cipher, manipulative and beautiful. The reason she has for her actions is explained at the very end of the novel, but there's not enough substance there to ever understand her motivations or reasoning. And Katherine is a stew of conflicting character traits. Clever and driven enough to become the magazine's youngest ever editor and to run the magazine single-handedly for two decades, she is nevertheless malleable and vulnerable to the point where even being asked routine questions sends her into a tailspin. She's either too drunk or too hung-over to function, even when it's clear she's fighting to keep her job and she continues to give Lily important tasks even when it's evident that Lily is sabotaging her, Katherine knows she's sabotaging her, and a particular task can ruin her career. It made no sense at all.

On the plus side, the author writes well. I just wish that she had come up with characters worthy of her writing ability and that she had trusted the reader enough to not have to make every plot point obvious. The plot did hold promise, it's just unfortunate that the author couldn't be subtle about her intentions.