Ellipses by Vanessa Lawrence

 

Publisher: Dutton

On Sale Date: March 5 2024

Pages: 288

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Lily is a woman in her thirties who works as a magazine writer  New York City, where she writes about and interviews influencers, actresses, and fashion designers. But the print magazine she writes for is not going that well in sales, and the bosses of the magazine move more and more to the website of the magazine and to social media. Lily feels at a standstill in her work life, where she has to deal with racial micro aggression  because she is half Asian and personal life, where she is dating her girlfriend Alison. When she attends a gala for Alzheimer in Manhattan for the magazine, a woman names Billy Astor who is a big name in the glossy magazine scene, rolls  down her town car window and offers Lily a ride home and mentorship. Lily and Billy start a connection, where Billy becomes a mentor of Lily to help her writing career in the right direction. Lily hopes. But the texts slowly start to influence Lily's life in a toxic and unhealthy way.

The storyline of Ellipses starts very promising. Lily feels like a woman with a lot of problems, where every other person might think of as minimal problems. Her work life is not very problematic it seems, and her love life with Alison is less problematic as Lily portrays it. (I think that Alison was very kind and more stabile in her actions than Lily) 

Then over to the text mentorship she has with this Billy person (it is not very detailed described who this Billy is, is she a stylish but rude magazine editor in chief like Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada, does she has good intentions or not? The reader has clearly has to find this out herself, to never get a real answer on this Billy's person. The ending truly leaves you with even more questions, as everything Lily seemed to want the whole book long, she gets presented on a silver plate by Billy, and then...she refuses it all!! It truly left me wondering why the author made this choice in the story The storyline and the ending, it all was okay but it felt repetitive at many points when Lily had a problem with work or with Alison and went to a text with Billy for some guidance, where Lily mostly doesn't agree with anyway. If Lily was more likeable character with some more self confidence I would have liked her and her story more. It truly would have added more to the story if we also read Billy's point of view Shortly said, I had expected more of this book.