The novel starts with middle-class couples who meet for dinner at each other’s houses and discuss their high-flying careers whilst discussing their gifted children. It all sounds rather derivative of much of what comes out of suburban drama. In this case, North London affluence.
The main characters are Kate, a retired art historian, who has been married for 30 years to Jack, a successful architect. Lanchester brings Jack’s character to life through how couples develop their own private language and code of behaviour.
The awkwardness of the scene with the couple downstairs waiting for the host couple to return, who are having a frank conversation about each other and their guests, without realising the baby monitor is blaring it out downstairs, was a joy to read.
So a key part of the plot is Kate when she loses her husband Jack, but I was not convinced by the lack of emotional grieving in her story arc. As the plot develops we are in middle-class territory here – Phoebe, a millennial, writes a hit TV show called ‘Cheating’. The story wakes up when Kate discovers that her private language with the deceased Jack, used in the show. So the plot thickens as to how Phoebe found out and if they were having an affair. We would all be outraged and feel exposed about this.
I found the dual-narrative structure worked well in how two people can interpret the same facts in different, self-serving ways. As an observational piece, the dialogue is razor sharp.
However, the behaviour of both women, as one embarks on a revenge mission against the misdemeanours of the other, means there is no one to invest in – this is about narcissism and manipulation. It is a weakness in the development of the story.
As a “Boomer vs. Millennial” cage fight – the entitled, property-owning older generation versus the narcissistic, ambitious media-obsessed younger generation. But I didn’t feel this was well written to make it a key part of the story.
The final resolution was sudden and didn’t fully earn the emotional weight of its consequences. Spoiler alert – you will figure out who dunnit before you reach the end.
To what extent you invest in this novel partly depends on how much you care about the characters. But the actual scheming is pure fancy stuff – no one is injured, only their feelings. No car crashes, but a little bit of crypto. Look What You Made Me Do feels written for television. Will I remember it as a novel? Not really, but the cleverness of the writing stands out.
