The Sequel (The Book Series, #2)

by Jean Hanff Korelitz

From conception, and through a childhood bathed in the eternal sun of their parents’ obvious worship, Evan had lived a singular life, mindlessly strolling along on the red carpet in his head as it perpetually unfurled before him, anticipating his precious footfalls. Because, as far as he was concerned, none of the other members of his family had anything at all to do with him.

Evan proved to be in possession of a robust pharmacopeia, including a white plastic jar of a hundred 5 milligram diazepam tablets and numerous prescription bottles containing a

hundred 10 milligram OxyContin tablets. Enough to induce opioid addiction in an entire Sackler-sponsored football team.

Through Jake she had met so many unpublished writers, and they were bitter people, but the irony was that they remained bitter even if they did manage to publish. Now they were just bitter about other things: reviews and marketing attention from their publishers, invitations to festivals, places at colonies like the one she’d visited a year and a half earlier, all of the magic fairy dust that a few books and authors received, and most books and authors did not.