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CLICKBAIT

Holly Baxter

From the co-author of THE VAGENDA, a whip-smart debut novel that's a darkly humorous take on the media, for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Jami Attenberg's All Grown Up, and Halle Butler's The New Me.

"I entered the year of my disgrace at Rockaway Beach. I was thirty-five and divorced for the worst reason, a reason that had imploded my career and the lives of pretty much everyone around me, a reason that had even made the newspapers. This was not good for a reporter. The first thing they tell you when you begin your training is never to become the news." Unfortunately for Natasha, this ultimately leads to her reassignment at the bottom of the news food chain - a Junior reporter, rewriting stories different enough so that the paper doesn't get sued for plagiarism. Down on her luck, things pick up when her ex-boyfriend Zach moves in as her roommate - strictly platonic, of course. But is he perhaps giving her signals that they could rekindle an old flame? Natasha's grasp on reality is further shaken by her trips home to Nantucket to visit her mom and sister, who seem to live in an alternate universe she left a long time ago. When her sister moves to NYC, Natasha's worlds begin to collide - and the frantic pace of the news catches up with her attempt to find a new path forward from the event that changed everything. This is a whip-smart debut novel that's a darkly humorous take on the media, for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Jami Attenberg's All Grown Up, and Halle Butler's The New Me. Holly Baxter is a journalist and writer from Newcastle, who spent 12 years working in London journalism before transferring to New York City in 2019. Having reported for The Guardian and The New Statesman, she now does political satire and social justice-themed investigations for The Independent. She has appeared on BBC News, Sky News and Channel 4 News as a political commentator on numerous occasions, including three appearances on Newsnight. In 2013, she co-authored THE VAGENDA, a media satire non-fiction book for women, with The Guardian's Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett. She is currently based in Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband, son and semi-feral cat Nelson, and is covering the 2024 US election for The Independent. @h0llyb4xter

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Book Published 2024-08-13 by HarperCollins Perennial

Comments

CLICKBAIT made me wince and made me howl. With a biting humour and a flair for the outrageous that is entirely her own, Holly Baxter has created an antiheroine for our times. A darkly hilarious debut that satirically captures our morally vapid media world with more accuracy than I ever thought possible. I loved it.

A dazzling and hilarious debut novel about work, love, passion and publishing. Think Bridget Jones meets Fleabag at a Manhattan tabloid.

This satire of media and publishing may hit a little too close to home for anyone who works in journalism--but you should definitely give this dark comedy a try either way. Baxter captures just the right blend of cringe and humor, and you won't want to look away from this train wreck.

Like yelling at the movie screen, 'DON'T OPEN THAT DOOR,' you will yell at Clickbait's fabulously flawed, smart, and entertaining Natasha as she bungles and fumbles her way through a skyrocketing and hell-plunging time in her life. This book is impossible to put downyou can't help but root for Natasha who manages to humiliate herself from England to Rockaway and beyond.

In this razor-sharp, darkly humorous novel, Holly Baxter draws a no-holds-barred portrait of a woman whose actions have caused her life to collapse at her feet - and charts her misguided attempts to climb out of the rubble. I laughed. I cringed. I couldn't stop reading.

Baxter's debut is a portrait of a misanthropic yet wry thirtysomething in vain trying to fix her life...She's living in a tumultuous world of her own making, and she'll have to change if she ever wants a life she can be proud of. Recommend to readers of She's a Killer, and anyone who enjoys stories of adults refusing to grow up.