“In Bridget Hoida’s So L.A. [...] One woman juggles the five stages of grief in this novel’s cutting portrait of a marriage’s slow-motion deteriorati
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“In Bridget Hoida’s So L.A. [...] One woman juggles the five stages of grief in this novel’s cutting portrait of a marriage’s slow-motion deterioration. Prone to embellishment, melodrama and laugh-out-loud set pieces, […] Hoida gives her [protagonist] a sure and steady voice, full of caustic wit and raw emotion. With bright similes and shining epigrams, she gleefully mines Tinseltown tropes while skewering class, consumerism and body image. Revelations are punctuated with punch lines that land squarely in the gut. In this razor-sharp debut, grief and loathing beget a juicy tragicomedy.”
-Kirkus Reviews
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Magdalena de la Cruz breezed through Berkeley and built an empire selling designer water. She’d never felt awkward or unattractive… until she moved to Los Angeles. In L.A., where “everything smells like acetone and Errol Flynn,” Magdalena attempts to reinvent herself as a geographically appropriate bombshell—with rhinestones, silicone and gin—as she seeks an escape from her unraveling marriage and the traumatic death of her younger brother, Junah. Magdalena’s Los Angeles is glitzy and glamorous but also a landscape of the absurd. Her languidly lyrical voice provides a travel guide for a city of make-believe, where even Hollywood insiders feel left out.
Like a lane change on the 405 freeway during rush hour, Bridget Hoida skillfully navigates the impossible. In So L.A. Hoida offers both a satirical and sympathetic portrait of contemporary Los Angeles through the penetrating prose of her female protagonist. Evoking a dynamic and materialist landscape, So L.A. introduces readers to the unforgettable voice of an extremely talented new writer.
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