{"product_id":"the-stepdaughter","title":"The Stepdaughter","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Stepdaughter\u003c\/i\u003e is the perfect book for people who find Joan Didion too even-keeled, Renata Adler too fair-minded . . . In its own way, it's a perfect novel . . . Blackwood's best book . . . It deserves to be a cheeky summer hit.\" --Gideon Leek, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA wicked stepmother finds her ideal prey in Carlone Blackwood's \"quite brilliant\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e) debut.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA lavish Upper West Side apartment is the site of a familial cold war about to enter a phase of dangerous escalation.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e J is a lonely woman without even the luxury of being alone. Her husband has fled to Paris with his latest flame, but he's left J not only with their own four-year-old daughter, Sally Ann, but with the sulky cake-mix addicted, thirteen-year-old Renata, a leftover from his previous marriage. The presence of a pert au pair, Monique, serves only to make J feel more isolated and self-conscious. What she'd like is someone to blame.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Writing letters in her head to imaginary friends, J delights in dwelling on the hapless Renata, who \"invites a kind of cruelty.\" This is an invitation J fully intends to take up--and like so many stepmothers before her, she will find that wickedness, once indulged, is a difficult habit to kick. A mordant black splinter of a book, Caroline Blackwood's first novel stands as proof positive of her eternal mastery--and mockery--of the darkest depths of human feeling.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"McNally Editions","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48515592749305,"sku":"9781961341128","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/1811\/7625\/files\/imageloader_48dd1b70-79b7-4562-99d5-1ca361e9df7a.jpg?v=1781208060","url":"https:\/\/hookeandplotte.com\/products\/the-stepdaughter","provider":"Hooke and Plotte Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}