A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK! • An empowering, behind-the-scenes novel of a young Hollywood actress and the dark secret she’s ready to confront. One of Summer 2020’s Most Anticipated NovelsMarie Claire, Entertainment Weekly, Oprah magazine, Bustle, E! Online, Popsugar, Goodreads, Today Show online, New York Post, Betches, Better Homes & Gardens, HelloGiggles, Bad on Paper … Homes & Gardens, HelloGiggles, Bad on Paper podcast, The Stripe, Shondaland, HuffPost, CNN.com, Mashable
“Beautifully written and compulsively readable…At its core, this book is about redemption, grace, and pain.”
—Jenna Bush Hager
“A novel so full-blooded, so humane, that the pages feel almost warm to the touch. A clarifying, purifying chronicle of a promising young woman gone astray and the story of her comeback. Grace Turner can do it. You can do it, too.”
—A.J. Finn
Grace Turner was one movie away from Hollywood’s A-List. So no one understood why, at the height of her career and on the eve of her first Golden Globe nomination, she disappeared.
Now, one year later, Grace is back in Los Angeles and ready to reclaim her life on her own terms.
When Grace is asked to present a lifetime achievement award to director Able Yorke—the man who controlled her every move for eight years—she knows there’s only one way she’ll be free of the secret that’s already taken so much from her.
The Comeback is a moving and provocative story of justice—a true page-turner about a young woman finding the strength and power of her voice.
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I still,think I’d this book and pray for the little ones being manipulated while growing up. Sexual harassment comes in all different sizes and the way some people seem to know how to twist your mind into submission or hopelessness! With all that has been going on the Woman’s movement, it is very timely
Rating: ½
Genre: Contemporary
The Comeback is the story of Grace Turner who entered Hollywood during her teenage years and became among the A-list. But one day she suddenly disappeared from the limelight. Now she is making a comeback and she is going to have it her own way rather than being controlled like before. When she gets the opportunity to present the man who directed her movies and controlled her career and life with a lifetime achievement award she grabs it and decides to make the real comeback!
This book has been on my radar since its release in 2020. The synopsis is fantastic and it has everything that appeals to my taste. This was a five stars prediction for me. So did it live to the hype that I’ve created for it in my own head? Unfortunately no. Though as a plot I think it is a solid one and the characters are well written too. My main two problems are with the pacing and the jump in time frames. The pacing was not consistent. At times events were moving fast and at other times things slowed down drastically. As for the timeframe, I felt confused several times as to whether I was reading about the present or the recent past, or the character’s early years in Hollywood. This confused me and did not make me enjoy the flow of the story.
Many times I kept thinking that this must be the story of Lindsay Lohan because there are many similarities between her and the main character. Both were successful teenage actors who also became victims of alcohol and drug addiction. This could be just a coincidence but I had the actress’ face in my mind while I was reading about Grace. I think the main purpose of the story is the unfolding psychological trauma that Grace goes through due to sexual abuse by her colleague. Readers will follow Grace and how she decides to reclaim her life and dignity. In short, this is another story of the #MeToo movement that we have seen in Hollywood.
Loved this story. It was sweet and engaging.
Feminism at its finest. About a guy in power who tried to take a girl’s spirit and how he almost did, until one day she decided to rise above like the true bawse she is.
Grace Turner was a child star when she suddenly left Hollywood at the height of her career. A year later she’s back, but everyone wonders why she left in the first place. Her story was heartbreaking. I found myself rooting for her as she found the strength to tell her story. 4
Ella Berman leaves you anguished and hurting, yet she also gives you hope.
You will not always like Grace. In fact, you may not ever like her, and that’s by design. One day, she was a popular, attractive teenager in London who auditioned for a role in a TV series; the next day, she’s an actress with a devoted bastion of fans. The day after that, she has fled Los Angeles for Anaheim, where her parents now live, and she stays there a year, telling no one where she is or why she’s there.
To some extent, she doesn’t have many people to tell. Her one friend, Laurel, is also her assistant, and Grace appears not to be too concerned over their lack of contact over the past year. She has her agent and manager, but she is a commodity to them, not a person to whom they extend any emotional space. There is also Dylan, her husband, the man she left within a year of marrying him. The one person her fans and the rest of Hollywood would think she would keep in touch with is Abel Yorke, the director who controlled her career and life for eight years. But Abel Yorke, as you quickly realize, is a predator.
Grace reveals her flaws, almost reveling in them. She reacts against the narrative of her as a precious star, to the point where she dons white Crocs when she goes out. Yet the Hollywood machine’s tentacles still stick to her. When a glam squad weaves their magic, she likes it, acknowledging its power to make her something she is not.
At the same time, Grace’s emotional isolation will affect you. It blurs her edges, making her someone you want to protect, even as she is determined to self-harm. She makes one bad decision after another because she doesn’t know what else to do. As her sister points out, “famous people are eternally frozen at the age they were when they became famous.” In Grace’s case, that’s fourteen.
The scenes showing Abel Yorke’s abuse are difficult to read. My heart cracked for Grace, who was aware that Abel was doing something wrong but also aware that if she rejected him, she would lose everything. Imagine carrying that dilemma when you are too young for a driver’s license.
Grace grows and swells as she slowly forgives herself. She demands the freedom to discover who she is without Abel Yorke, reclaiming relationships she allowed him to destroy–perhaps most significantly the relationship with herself.
I loved so much about this book, which I read in one day because I could not put it down. There are a few weaknesses. Dylan, for one, is undeveloped. Because he’s an essential character, I needed more from him. A loose thread or two should have been tied. These feel like fairly minor complaints, but given how beautifully Ella Berman writes, I think they are things she could have done.
This book demands discussion, so if you’re in a book club, I hope you choose it. Please hit up the comments and let me know your thoughts.
Compelling story. I’m a sucker for initial unlikable narrators and different versions of happily ever after.
I listened to this one on Audible and a great portion of REALLY liking it is my favorite narrator narrated it. Saskia Maarleveld. She could read the phone book and make it 5 stars.
I enjoyed the story. There were many layers to Graces story of how what she experienced changed her. How her “comeback” and relationships with others peeled off the layers. Especially her friendship with Amelia.
Good beach read/listen. This was a Read with Jenna book club pick.
Holy intense, gut-wrenching story! The Comeback is the story of Grace Turner, her rise to stardom, her fall to rock bottom, and everything in between. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so caught up in a character, but Grace’s story grabbed hold and held on tight. The story feels very real and it’s completely compelling. It’s one of those emotional stories that just takes root – if I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about it, and it’s a tale that I won’t soon forget. I would caution that some parts of this book are quite hard to read, and I think the fact that it feels so real makes it even more so. It’s dark, it’s prevalent, and it’s impossible to put down even when I read parts that made me want to look away. That said, and I’m trying very hard not to enter into spoiler territory, it is called The Comeback, so there is something to hope for. I won’t say what, or even how much hope there is, but there you have it. I haven’t read a story that’s hit me like this one in some time, and I would challenge anyone looking for an intense read to give this one a gander. And I’ll finish with this – The Comeback is a debut novel, and as such, Ella Burman has set the bar quite high for whatever comes next.
As I was getting ready to write my review for The Comeback by Ella Berman, when I saw this was one of Jenna’s August book pick! So excited. In the Comeback, we have a powerful story that is honest, raw and puts readers right in the middle of what is happening. Grace Turner, a young actress who was raised in the lights of Hollywood was at the height of her career when she disappeared. A story told in past and present tense, we see how one deeply affects the other. The story of how a young girl was taken to a world she was not ready for and lost so much at the hands of one man.
Now Grace is confronted with the past that almost destroyed her and she is ready. Ready for her comeback and maybe to admit secrets she carried for too long. We begin to see Grace confront what happened to her and though her journey was not an easy one, it is one many can relate too on so many levels. The Comeback by Ella Berman was emotional and thought-provoking read and I am excited to read more from this author in the future.
Read and reviewed for Sultry Sirens Book Blog.
Happy reading!
My Rating:
Content Rating: 18+
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Adult
Published: Expected Publication, August 3, 2020, by Berkley
Under all the glittering lights of Hollywood lies a seedy side that society has ignored for a very long time. The Comeback is Ella Berman’s debut novel, and it is a powerful, thought-provoking book that explores the sleazy side of Hollywood and the powerful men that control it. This book is… Raw. Gripping. Courageous. A realistic portrayal of what it looks and feels like to be manipulated and controlled by someone able to wield total power over someone else. And imagine the person being manipulated is a child.
Able Yorke, an independent film guru, plucks Grace Hyde out of obscurity and transforms her into Grace Turner. Since the age of 14, when Abe discovered Grace, she was surrounded by people whose sole job was to make her look perfect and give her everything and anything she wanted. And for eight years, she was “perfect” until she wasn’t.
“I thought it would be hard to disappear, but it turns out it’s the easiest thing in the world. Whoever you may have been, you’re forgotten as soon as you pass the San Fernando Valley.”
Eight years later, she is walking away from it all, stardom, her husband, and everything she has accomplished. This is where Grace’s story begins, she runs back to the family that all but abandons her, but it is the only place she feels somewhat safe. Grace tells us her story by giving us glimpses into her past. A story filled with psychological and sexual abuse, alcohol and drug misuse, a failed marriage, tense relationship with her family, zero self-esteem and self-worth and depression. Eventually, her parents ask her to leave, and she heads back to Hollywood. Back in Hollywood, she tries to confront her demons and remake herself in that world. The tipping point in all of this is when Grace is asked to present Able with the lifetime achievement award.
“Maybe my mom was right about me when she said I wasn’t happy, but what she doesn’t understand is that since the age of fifteen, I’ve never dared to want to be happy. I’m just trying to stay alive.”
What struck me the most and made me the saddest is that Grace’s most important relationship is not with her husband or family but with Abe. From day one, Able has manipulated, isolated, controlled, and inserted himself into every part of Grace’s life, until she has no life. Throughout this book, Grace’s hopelessness is palpable. Grace seems to have everything, but at what cost? Imagine being surrounded by people who are paid to like you. Imagine being betrayed by the person who you depend on the most and who you idolize.
“…I was his muse and he was my Svengali. I was untouchable, unstoppable, hurtling down a path to immortality so rapidly, so immaculately, that not one person stopped to question how it all worked so well, a fortysomething man and a teenager being so inextricably linked.”
The Comeback was well written, and the characters well developed. I felt there were some slow spots, but overall the pacing was good. There are not many likable characters in this book, including Grace. Grace is full of flaws, and there were times that I wanted to give her a good shake, but at the same time, I felt pity for her, and even with all her faults, she was also relatable. I think it’s important to remember that she was a child thrown into an adult world when all this happen, and she never learned how to develop lasting relationships. The only character that I liked was Grace’s husband, Dylan. Dylan is a standup guy, and you can feel how much he loves Grace. However, everyone else in Grace’s life only cares about themselves and what they can get from Grace.
The Comeback is not your feel-good summer read. It is a powerful book that addresses the abuse of power and manipulation by an authority figure to its most disgusting heights. However, it is essential to remember that this book is not all pain and suffering; it’s about a woman who is a survivor. Overall, I enjoyed The Comeback, but I would have liked a more definite ending.
* Please note the quotes in my review are subject to change once the book is published. *
** I kindly received an ARC of this book by way of Edelweiss/publisher/author. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. **
Grace started acting as a young teen. Since then, she’s become a star. But she’s been carrying a secret and has spent the last year hiding from it at her parent’s house. But hiding out has its disadvantages, especially because the paparazzi just won’t leave her alone. Caught in many less than flattering headlines, Grace must decide if she wants to return to acting. But she has hefty reasons for leaving, and the tradeoff might be too much.
Berman wrote this in alternating timelines from the past and the present. The past tells of the abuse Grace suffered at the hands of Able. She felt hopeless to speak up as he cut her off from her family. His emotional manipulation left her reliant upon him. As it progresses, she realizes she has no allies. Not in this industry where you keep your silence, or you’re shut out of the business for good.
Through Grace, we read about the abuse in the industry and the silence it demanded. I wouldn’t be surprised if Grace was suffering from PTSD from the long-term abuse. My heart broke for her as she told of the isolation and loneliness. She had never learned to make friends or function in everyday life because she started so young. It was rewarding watching her find her strength and heal. Thank you, Berkley for sending this along.