Complicit
The compulsive, timely thriller you won’t be able to stop thinking about
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
'A must-read' Stylist
'Powerful' Harriet Tyce
'A spellbinding novel' The Irish Times
'Thrilling' Heat
'Compulsive' John Marrs
'Dazzling' Chris Whitaker
'Grippingly readable' The Daily Mirror
'A rollercoaster read' Elle
THE THING IS . . . WHO DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO GAIN BY HAVING A CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM? ALL THAT MONEY? HE DREW US ALL IN LIKE BEES TO HONEY - AND HE KNEW IT THE ENTIRE TIME.
Ten years ago, Sarah left behind a career in Hollywood that she had sacrificed everything for. Now she lectures at a small college, her dreams of showbiz success long behind her.
When a curious journalist raises her filmmaking past, Sarah must finally tell her own story and confront the old dreams that she left behind. But with old dreams come new realisations, and Sarah can't help but wonder: was she complicit in the terrible events that happened all those years ago? And is she content to let the past stay buried?
POWERFUL AND TIMELY, COMPLICIT IS A GLIMPSE INTO THE DARK GLAMOUR OF HOLLYWOOD, AND THE PRICE OF AMBITION IN A DANGEROUS WORLD. A COMPELLING SLOW BURN THAT ASKS THE QUESTION: IF SPEAKING UP COULD COST YOU EVERYTHING, WHAT WOULD YOU REALLY DO?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the uneven latest from Li (Dark Chapter), a film professor looks back with guilt in 2017 on her early producing career and her studio head's sexual misconduct. In flashbacks, Li reveals how Sarah Lai, raised by a Chinese American family in Flushing, N.Y., feels out of her element at Firefly Films in the West Village, where she tries to navigate the "complicated miasma of egos," among them those of up-and-coming writer and director Xander Schulz and studio founder Sylvia Zimmerman. After Firefly debuts Xander's first feature film at Cannes, British billionaire Hugo North backs the company, rebranding Firefly as Conquest. When the shoot for Xander's latest is moved to Los Angeles, Sarah is left in charge as acting producer and must deal with Xander's petulance and Hugo's appetite for beautiful women, drugs, and power. At the center of the production is up-and-coming actor Holly Randolph, now a big star, whose backstory gradually emerges. Li skillfully depicts the ways in which powerful people exploit and abuse those trying to get a foothold in the film industry, though the narrative is at once overlong and underdeveloped, leaving the central theme of complicity underexplored. It ends up being an intriguing if not quite satisfying look at #MeToo in the film industry.
