Necessary People

Starred review from March 18, 2019
Pitoniak’s fantastic sophomore effort (after The Futures) concerns what happens when ambitious plain Jane Violet Trapp finds her social and professional territory impinged upon by her narcissistic and charming best friend Stella Bradley. After meeting in college, Stella and Violet fall into roles in which the former, a beautiful heiress, lives a life of excess from which the latter constantly has to save her. Once they graduate, Stella travels the world, while Violet works hard as an intern at the cable news network KCN, quickly rising through the ranks. Violet sees her job as a means to get as far away as she can from her childhood of poverty and abuse, and also a way to flourish in a world where unfocused Stella is always the brightest star. Resenting Violet’s ascendency, Stella uses her connections to get a foot in the door at KCN, where she promptly steals Violet’s thunder by getting promoted and receiving credit for a story that was Violet’s brainchild; she also starts dating Violet’s good pal Jamie. Stella’s about to ink a multimillion-dollar contract when Jamie dumps her, sending her off the deep end. The friends have a huge fight before a fateful incident, leading Violet to wonder if Stella will ruin her one way or another. This stirring character study and treatise on the dark sides of ambition, friendship, family, and privilege will hook readers from the get-go.

Starred review from February 1, 2019
A pair of college best friends--one born with everything; the other starting from nothing--become post-college rivals, intent on success no matter the cost.Stella Bradley is rich and blonde and beautiful, a monied Manhattanite, irresponsible and razor-sharp. Violet Trapp is a hardworking kid from Florida with no money and no family support. Their connection is instant. "It wasn't that my personality changed when I met Stella," Violet reflects. "It was that it became....I didn't just want the friendship of this dazzling girl. I wanted the world that had made her so dazzling in the first place." Violet is determined to overcome her own roots; by studying the Bradleys, she imagines, she might become one of them. After college, Stella flits across the globe, and Violet, the "responsible one," stays in New York--living in the Bradleys' apartment, intended for Stella--gets an internship in cable news, falls in love with the job, is promoted, and then is promoted again. She excels in production, behind the scenes, cultivating sources, engrossed in the work. When Stella returns, though, the relationship can't quite pick up as before: Violet has an identity now, separate from Stella; the power between them has shifted. And then Stella pulls a few strings--family connections, natural charm--and begins encroaching on Violet's new turf. She, too, gets a job at the network and begins climbing the ranks. And her newfound ambitions are not behind the scenes but in front of the camera, once again eclipsing Violet, restoring the balance between them: invisible, hardworking, talented Violet and Stella, the star. But this time, Violet is fighting back--by any means necessary. If the pivotal event of the book--and its sinister aftermath--seems slightly far-fetched given the relative grounding of the first two-thirds of the novel, who cares? It's a trivial quibble given the sheer pleasure of reading this book. Pitoniak (The Futures, 2017) is an astute social observer, and the novel--a literary thriller about class aspiration and young female ambition--is a twisting delight with a haunting punch.Deceptively nuanced, and impossible to put down, this is escapism with substance.

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April 15, 2019
Bad choices abound in Pitoniak's (The Futures, 2017) second novel, in which two friends' ambition and jealousy overwhelm their relationship. College is Violet's escape from her small Florida town and her emotionally abusive parents. There she meets outgoing Stella?beautiful, rich, and charming?and it becomes even easier to leave her past behind as she embeds herself in Stella's life, practically becoming a member of her family. Stella needs Violet, too, to temper her bad behavior and continually save her from herself. After graduation, Violet gets a job as an intern at a cable-news company and quickly moves up the ranks. But when Stella uses her connections to also get a job there and soon ends up in front of the camera, things turn ugly. Pitoniak's dialogue-heavy prose keeps a quick pace, and her characters and the TV-news setting ring true, even as the propulsive plot begins to strain credibility. Hand this to readers who like books exploring the dark side of female friendships, � la Megan Abbott, or fans of Tara Isabella Burton's Social Creature (2018).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)