review: the other story by tatiana de rosnay

The Other Story follows a stunningly successful first-time novelist who was inspired to write after learning about his father’s secret identity. I expected a life-altering bombshell, but it was pretty mundane as far as family secrets go. Without a big reveal, it was absolutely unbearable to spend so much time with the atrocious main character. It often left that Tatiana de Rosnay was trying very hard to write a literary novel with a despicable lead in the vein of some of the great authors of centuries past; she failed. Nicolas is simply the worst sort of human. He uses his newfound fame to cheat on his girlfriend (who is also unlikable, so you don’t feel bad for her) with fans. Nicolas narrates in great detail why a cheater should use a BlackBerry instead of an iPhone and shows no shame as he exchanges explicit text messages with a married woman. As a result, I felt no sympathy regarding his struggle to write a second novel. When the attempt at redemption came at the end of The Other Story, it was far too late.

Click here to check out an audio sample of The Other Story from Macmillan Audio.
1/5
Review copy from Amazon Vine.