Screenwriter Caroline Glenn delivers some seriously good, gory fun in her debut novel, Cruelty Free.
It’s been a decade since Lila Devlin last stepped foot in Los Angeles. After the kidnapping of her daughter, Josie, she left her A-list acting career and rising A-list husband behind in Hollywood, disappearing from the public eye to lick her wounds in anonymity.
Private life healed Lila. Really, it did. And so, after ten years, she’s returning to the scene of the crime to forgive, to set things right: her image, the inept police who bungled her daughter’s investigation, the true crime obsessed fans who turned her misery into money, and the press who fueled those unhinged sexist rumors suggesting Lila was the one at fault. Lila plans to make amends not in Hollywood, but in the beauty world with her new skincare brand created in honor of her lost daughter.
It was all going according to plan too – albeit slowly and, dare she admit, unsuccessfully – before an old press acquaintance turned up and unleashed a deadly rage long buried inside her, forcing Lila to admit that forgiveness isn’t always the best revenge. Sometimes murder is. What follows is a deliciously wild, blood-soaked ride that will have you laughing and gasping in equal measure.
In Cruelty Free, Glenn leans into her screenwriting chops, producing a campy horror novel that unfolds like a movie. It’s a busy story, a sometimes overly complicated narrative that because it asks readers to hold onto more information than feels necessary, it holds itself back from going as deep as it could. Because at its core, this book is more than a revenge story. Cruelty Free is a delightfully entertaining commentary on toxic beauty standards, celebrity culture, and womanhood. It’s impossible not to think of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Anna Nicole Smith, and all the other famous women chewed up by the press while reading. If their stories ignite a fire in you, then this book is sure to satisfy it.
