We Could Be Beautiful

3.75 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I have probably never felt less sympathetic for a main character-narrator than I did for this one. At least not recently. I am referring, of course, to Catherine West, the bored, lonely, self-indulgent, trust-fund baby that is the main focus of We Could Be Beautiful. I mean, these are the kinds of things she says:

When I said “I love you,” it might have been more for me than for her. I was making a serious effort to become softer. I was practicing. It made me so uncomfortable to utter these words that I actually felt dizzy for a second, and distractedly reached for my water glass to avoid eye contact.

it would have been incredibly easy for this character to veer off into unforgivable silliness and absurdity

This is not a thriller in the traditional sense

a steady ominous thrum surrounding William and “The Secret”