I’m not, of course. I’m a 32-year-old writer who has published two books and is trying to build a literary career. Only once that began to seem like a legitimate possibility did my ex-boyfriend feel threatened by it. A frank study of the psychological, and at times literal, gymnastics that are required of striving women' RAVEN LEILANI, bestselling author of LUSTER We had just moved in together for the first time, in Paris, when he confessed that my keeping a journal made him uncomfortable. People in relationships make all sorts of off-the-cuff comments, and they don’t mean anything, he explained. It made him nervous to think of me remembering or writing down things he said. He joked that if I wrote about him, it would be the end.

This month, when my book was published in the US, he sent me a congratulatory message, saying how thrilled he was for my success. He has definitely not read the book; I don’t know if he has read the description. If he has, he must not have thought my critique of the patriarchy in Hollywood might include him. Brilliantly deadpan and spiky in all the right ways. An accurate, darkly funny but also brutal portrayal of everyday workplace and world power dynamics. I couldn't put it down Emily Itami, Costa-shortlisted author of Fault LinesI found the protagonist here to be unbearable, the story difficult to care about, and the #metoo theme forced, as if the author wrote this book because she wanted to capitalize on the movement and threw together a copycat and clichéd way to make it happen. Meanwhile, her outwardly impressive but privately difficult and unstable mother is a constant source of stress. At some point, something has to give. The question is, is success worth all the compromises? And at what point do you become complicit in a system you recognise is problematic? When whispers start to circle that your office might have 'a bit of a rape problem,' and your close friend confesses her own unsettling encounter, you know there is plenty to gain from staying silent, and all too much to lose through speaking out. Our narrator just graduated from Harvard and is the daughter of a prominent attorney known best for her work representing women in sexual assault and harassment cases. It is because of this pedigree that she is able to go to one of her mother's good friends, the head of development in fictional network XBC, to get a job. While it's a low level assistant position, she has also skipped a few years of even worse work to get there. She is ambitious and we get to see her work in detail, so if you do enjoy that kind of behind the scenes look this has a lot of that.

We urgently need to develop avenues for conversations about all the behaviour that lives in this grey space. We also need to stop blindly applauding powerful women in Hollywood as if their success is inherently “good for women” or an illustration of the system working in a more egalitarian way. Some of the worst men in Hollywood are women. It’s an ugly truth, and one that’s difficult to discuss in the nuanced way it deserves, but women are often better foot soldiers of the patriarchy than men. Particularly women who have held positions of power for a while. Understandable: they, too, are the product of structural forces. That may explain, but it doesn’t excuse. And a number of them wield their gender as a protective shield against criticism. You know the rules of this world. When someone senior tells you how pretty you look, you smile and thank him - and make a mental note never to wear that dress alone with him again. Nora Ephron was the patron saint of militarized vulnerability. She refused shame. Take, for example, her Esquire essay about having small breasts. Society said: hate your body, but don’t talk about it. Nora said: you don’t get to have it both ways.I remember being 23, anxiously navigating halls where executives didn’t look me in the eye, holding the muted phone to my ear, thinking: if I have the opportunity to speak, I hope I make the most of it. I’m trying my best. The compulsively readable debut novel about a young woman trying to succeed in Hollywood without selling her soul - perfect f or fans of Sweetbitter, My Dark Vanessa and Exciting Times Since the protagonist was unnamed, it was easy to put myself in her shoes despite not having anything in common with her. The ending also more or less leaves things u