The Other's Gold

June 17, 2019
Four women form an intense bond as college freshmen and support one another through life-altering mistakes across a decade and a half in Ames’s unfocused debut. In 2002, sporty Alice, uber-rich Ji Sun, stunningly beautiful but academically struggling Margaret, and feisty, adopted Lainey arrive at Quincy-Hawthorne College. After immediate friendship, Alice divulges that years before she caused her brother’s intellectual disability by intentionally pushing him off a tractor. In their sophomore year, all four become entranced by a popular professor until Ji Sun fabricates a claim of sexual harassment against him. After college they all gravitate to New York City, where Lainey becomes a well-known voice of the Occupy Movement and Alice struggles with fertility problems. The foursome’s friendship cools when Margaret, now a popular blogger and wife to a wealthy scion, crosses a serious line, and drifts further apart when Lainey makes an even more shocking mistake. Ames rarely provides sufficient retribution for characters’ bad decisions, and the tangents about their lives become distracting. Though there are moments of powerful emotion, and the details and emotional crises are well drawn, most readers will feel frustrated by the meandering plot and the characters’ choices. Agent: Lisa Grubka, Fletcher & Company.

Julia Whelan superbly narrates this story of four friends--South Korean Ji Sun, Southern Margaret, wealthy Alice, and biracial Lainey--who meet as freshmen at an elite New England college. Whelan is exceptionally skilled at conveying dialogue. She creates a distinctive and believable voice for every character, including secondary characters, male and female. Indeed, every character is well considered, with their range of emotions and underlying apprehensions projected in Whelan's varied and impressive portrayals. Her remarkably steady pacing guides listeners through frequent shifts in point of view and an array of scenes ranging from college life to marriages, careers, and illnesses. Listeners will be swept along by Whelan's performance of this engrossing audiobook. M.J. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine