Precious You

January 1, 2020
A Gen X magazine editor-in-chief and her new millennial intern play an escalating game of cat and mouse in former journalist Monks Takhar's debut psychological thriller. At 41, London magazine editor Katherine Ross already feels like a walking cliché. She and her longtime partner Iain, a failed screenwriter, used to be the cool kids, complete with an open relationship and a cavalier attitude to drugs and drink. Now Katherine feels old and out of touch, reaching for a life that seems to have gotten away from her. After 20 years with her magazine, Leadership, and a bout of depression that caused a blip in her upward trajectory (and seems to be trying to take her over again), she's trying to get back into the swing of things. Enter Lily Lunt, a beautiful, vibrant, and privileged 24-year-old upstart who seems to have weaseled her way into an internship via her aunt Gemma--who recently bought Leadership. Lily is everything Katherine used to be: "I couldn't take my eyes off you. You were like looking into a mirror, or more like a window into a different time in my life, not long past, but just out of reach." The lonely Katherine's desire for mutual understanding, maybe even friendship, with Lily is clouded by instinctive mistrust. Katherine soon recognizes that Lily's wide-eyed innocence is a mask, but what is she hiding? Lily wastes no time sidelining and embarrassing Katherine at Leadership, and before Katherine knows it, Lily has also wormed her way into Katherine's personal life, including, to her horror, her relationship with Iain. Katherine and Lily's tense and twisted push and pull unfolds through sinuous, overlapping first-person narratives--addressed to each other--that the author carefully shapes to highlight the characters' often divergent takes on shared events. Monks Takhar tackles workplace dynamics, aging, feminism, mental illness, and the hotly debated generation gap, all within the framework of a tightly plotted revenge thriller that reads a bit like a less soapy 21st-century Single White Female. Readers won't be able to tear their eyes away as this runaway train inevitably derails. A wickedly sharp first novel from an author to watch.

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January 13, 2020
Near the start of Monks Takhar’s dark and disquieting debut, 41-year-old Katherine Ross, editor of Leadership, a trade magazine, learns she has a new intern: publisher Gemma Lunt’s 24-year-old niece, Lily Lunt. Lily’s youth and millennial sensibilities make the already depressed Gen Xer feel ancient and irrelevant, so she’s secretly thrilled when Lily invites her out for drinks and proclaims her admiration. Shortly thereafter, Lily begins edging out Katherine at work, but Lily’s already charmed Katherine’s assistant and her significant other, 50-something failed screenwriter Iain, and both dismiss Katherine’s burgeoning suspicions regarding Lily’s actual intentions. Consequently, by the time Katherine realizes that Lily has designs on both her job and her partner, ruin is inexorable. Monks Takhar intersperses Katherine’s bitter and broken first-person narrative, which is directed at Lily, with entries from Lily’s diary detailing her motives and machinations. Though psychotic “snowflake” Lily rings true, curmudgeonly Katherine reads a decade older than her stated age, which undercuts the plot. Still, Monks Takhar delivers an excruciatingly tense slow burn that’s rife with twists that shock and devastate. Agent: Allison Hunter, Janklow & Nesbit.

March 1, 2020

DEBUT Takhar's first novel uses clichéd generational struggles in the workplace as the foundation for a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse. Katherine Ross is a stereotypical Gen-Xer. The editor of Leadership magazine, she still rocks leather jackets and skirts and has no qualms about divulging the details of her long-term open relationship with Iain. When the publication is bought out, Katherine is shocked to discover that the new owner has brought along her millennial niece, Lily, to help run the show. Things immediately turn creepy as Lily systematically picks away at Katherine's life, stealing her friends, lovers, and professional prowess. Why is Lily so determined to destroy Katherine? A hidden manuscript contains the chilling reason, and Lily is just manipulative and shifty enough to uncover it all. VERDICT Things progress rather quickly and unrealistically at times, and some of the plot twists are hard to follow, but this debut with an interesting premise is a solid read. It shines a new light on generational dynamics at work, and readers will recognize themselves and others in the characters.--Chelsie Harris, San Diego Cty. Lib.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2020
Katherine Ross has built a career at Leadership, a London trade magazine, but now she's on rocky ground. The new owner isn't likely to enjoy Katherine's now hungover, uninspired work, but Katherine's days of putting in more than the minimum effort are behind her. She's late on the new boss' first day, and is forced to share a cab with Lily, who turns out to be Leadership's oh-so-enthusiastic and web-savvy new intern?and the boss' niece. Things quickly go from bad to worse as Lily jumps the ladder at work and insinuates herself into Katherine's personal life and her partner's affections. It will take all Katherine has to hold onto even a semblance of herself while her career and everything she knows are being ravaged for no reason at all?though readers will come to realize there's more to both Lily and Katherine's backgrounds than is at first apparent. Takhar's debut, an intense, character-driven study of revenge, is perfect for those still looking for psychologically twisty thrillers featuring boozy Englishwomen who go wildly off course, � la The Girl on the Train.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)