WOMAN OF THE YEAR

A once-gregarious psychology student with a traumatic past and a fondness for cats finds herself at the center of a dangerous revenge story.

Holly Serpenta and Lorelei Green were best friends at an elite East Coast college known for its psychology department—until their friendship was torn apart by a charismatic and manipulative professor. Now they've been estranged for 20 years. Holly is rich and powerful and has two grown children, and she's being named Woman of the Year at a gala dinner that will include guests like Sonia Sotomayor, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Zadie Smith; Lorelei, who's the narrator, remains alone and is recently unemployed from a job she didn't much like to begin with, though she does have her cats. She blames Holly for a traumatic incident that caused her to drop out of college just before the final semester, and she's been following Holly's career closely ever since. Lorelei isn't happy about how well her former friend is doing and begins to plot her revenge. But she's not the only one. Someone else from their past has demons, too, and all roads lead back to the bizarre psychology department at Woodward College. Though this book is a page-turner and Lorelei's first-person voice feels authentic, the friendship between Holly and Lorelei is thinly described. We see the whole thing in flashbacks, most of which are scenes that Lorelei just summarizes. Lorelei describes the women as best friends, but that friendship doesn't come across in the book. Though Bell successfully flips the "crazy cat lady" trope on its head and offers a satisfying ending, a number of the characters, including Holly, are flat, and the motivation of the charismatic professor feels far-fetched, like he's a cartoon villain, which might have worked better if his department head wasn't also maniacal.

Despite some unconvincing elements, this novel will resonate with anyone interested in psychology (or cats).