I Need You to Read This by Jessa Maxwell

I Need You to Read This by Jessa Maxwell

Alex Marks moves to New York City hoping for a fresh start—just a quiet life with her copywriting job. But when she hears about the murder of her childhood hero, Francis Keen, everything changes. Keen wasn’t just any journalist; she was the beloved voice behind Dear Constance, a famous advice column. Her death shocks everyone, but the killer was never caught.

On a whim, Alex applies to take over the column, never thinking she’ll actually land the job. But once she does, strange letters start showing up at the office, making her wonder—why hasn’t the murderer been found? And could her new boss, the powerful editor-in-chief Howard Dimitri, have something to do with it?

As Alex digs deeper, she realizes she’s not just uncovering Keen’s secrets—she’s stirring up ghosts from her own past. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more dangerous things become. Can she solve the mystery before she ends up just like Francis Keen?

I loved the premise of this book. It felt almost comfortable and literary at first, before unsettling things came into play. One slight pet peeve was that I felt like Lucy was too obvious - not who she was necessarily, but how she fit in. I think that reveal came a bit too early and was too heavy-handed. 

Overall the book was a page-turner and I wasn’t sure who did what until the end.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I have never reviewed this one because I read it before Goodreads existed and never thought to go back and cover my bases. This was required reading my junior year, and is one of the few required books I actually read. (I have always been a bookworm but argue that there's a difference between reading what I want and required reading, so I often skipped out on anything beyond CliffsNotes for schoolwork.)

When I read this in high school, I loved the language. It was gorgeous, so descriptive I could picture it all. After struggling through dry, long books, this felt refreshingly contemporary. Since that initial reading, I've re-read it several times and always find something new to appreciate. Even now, reading critiques of the book along with spins and retellings, I keep noticing qualities I never noticed on my own.

I'm proud to have my own version of this story (in a way, since it uses some of the original language) out in the world. At least, it's coming soon - on April 10, 2025, the 100th anniversary of the original.