Funny, sharp, and infinitely voicey—a glimpse inside the mind of a love-deprived writer aching to be seen
It’s any writer’s dream: an empty house to write in and not pay for. Bonus points if you get to do it in the Hamptons with a fancy coffee maker and hot rich dudes around every corner. But I don’t know if anybody’s told Lover Girl how primo her situation really is.
Author Nicole Sellew’s protagonist doesn’t have a name, so we’ll just call her Lover Girl. She represents that in more ways than one: sure, she’s seeking love and sex, but she’s also the definition of a lover to other people. Specifically, Lucas and Cameron.
Lucas’s parents own the house Lover Girl is staying in. He’s hot, and he’s rich, and Lover Girl spends pages pining after him (even though it’s not too hard to get him), but he’s about as emotionally unavailable as they get. She admits she could actually fall in love with him if she hasn’t already, but, despite being exactly what she wants, it’s also not what she’s trying to do. She wouldn’t expect a relationship from him. It doesn’t stop her from sleeping with him of course. I mean, he did make this dream house available to her, so she owes him. Right?
But the house isn’t empty, it turns out. Lucas has also allowed Cameron to sleep there, one of Lover Girl’s former lovers. He’s hot and rich too, coasting on what finances his parents gave him despite not being on speaking terms with them. She already wasn’t getting any work done on her novel while she was alone, but now that she has Cameron to spiral over, lust over, and have sex with, her allotted work time dwindles even further.
This is very much a novel inside of Lover Girl’s mind. She’ll think herself out of or into anything, and the prose reflects that—a stream of consciousness style from a girl who is outwardly sure of herself but deeply self-conscious of her actions inside. She does everything she can to come off a certain way to boys: she cares about things but shrugs her shoulders when asked about them; she doesn’t hear what you said but giggles about them anyway; she’s cold but won’t ask for a jacket; she’ll take an uncomfortable nap if it means she’ll look cute doing it.
If you love reading into the psychology of characters, you’re going to have a damn good time with Lover Girl. At once, she’s aware of her privilege and completely ignorant of it. She doesn’t work on that novel because she doesn’t have to; another perfect opportunity will fall into her lap after this one ends, won’t it? As a writer myself, I always wanted to know if Lover Girl got any writing done today only to realize that she won’t tell me; it’s not even on her mind.
There are a number of quirks that make Lover Girl as a character interesting. She’s a girl fueled by sexual desire with limited inhibitions on the outside, but she might just be a page away from crying uncontrollably. It’s just a matter of if she’ll let herself feel something from it this time. One of my absolute favorite ticks of Lover Girl is that she’ll tell herself she’s beautiful and ugly in the same sentence. She’s so unsure of herself and so desirous of affection that she has to constantly seek out positive attention from men and constant reassurance from herself. But she can’t help but let those little jabs of pain in when she thinks she doesn’t fit a conventional type of beauty at every given moment.
This is a novel of privilege, and it feels like one. I wouldn’t call Lover Girl particularly easy to like or empathize with, even if she is relatable, but her lack of ambition also makes for a fairly stagnant plot. I don’t need plot in my literary fiction, but I couldn’t help but want something to get through to Lover Girl in a way that Sellew just doesn’t seem to want to do here. It’s voicey and it’s real, but it can also feel one-note.
Lover Girl is a quick, psychologically rich read at just over 150 pages. It’s got sex, hot guys, beautiful houses, and fancy coffee makers you might not know how to use. If you’re looking for a sharp bite and a vivid stream-of-consciousness style, you’ll be seduced by Lover Girl.
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