Reviews for Fair ones : a double novel
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Two longtime friends are in a crowded Brooklyn bar for a hastily improvised wake for their close mutual friend, Claire. Stricken Jen and Mara, the narrator, are trying to look after Claire’s mother, there from Iowa, and deflect an obnoxious ex-boyfriend of Claire’s, Jase, a Wall Street guy. The scene, kinetic, painful, and funny, bristles with confused emotions and odd juxtapositions and raises many questions. Claire slowly begins to cohere as a beautiful and kind public school guidance counselor, intensifying the shock of her shooting death. Mara and Jen emerge as entwined yet very different characters. Mara is a private tutor for high-school students, including a girl under disturbing pressure from her wealthy father and a motherless, nature-loving boy whose father is a caring forensic pathologist. Jen, a smart and edgy former journalist unhappily running a multimedia content platform, becomes convinced that Jase is implicated in Claire’s killing. After a dizzying year of grief and inquiry, Jen takes over as narrator in a mind-spinning move that further deepens and complicates the many-faceted story. Millet (Atavists, 2025) spikes this transfixing tale with keen and caustic insights into friendship and love, privilege and obsession, delusion and truth, vulnerable children, aging parents, and imperiled nature, all amidst ambushing moments of wry humor and radiant beauty.
Library Journal
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Following the sudden, violent death of their best friend Claire, Mara and Jen are left untethered, struggling to understand the circumstances of her killing and how to continue living in the shadow of her absence. This double novel from Millet (Atavists: Stories) consists of two linked sections: "Fair," narrated by Mara in the immediate aftermath of Claire's death, and "Ones," told from Jen's perspective a year later as the women attempt to process their grief, manage their aging parents and strained relationships, and understand their lingering guilt. As the women revisit Claire's past and search for answers surrounding her death, Millet shifts away from mystery and toward an examination of friendship, memory, and survival. Her prose is sharp and quick, while her eccentric, deeply human characters balance grim humor with keen emotional insight. Themes of loneliness, survivors' guilt, and chosen family run throughout, enriched by Millet's understanding of the tiny loyalties, irritations, and intimacies that sustain long friendships. Particularly affecting is Millet's portrayal of grief as an ongoing reshaping of identity rather than a single transformative event. VERDICT Wry, psychologically astute, and quietly devastating, Millet's book will appeal to readers of character-driven fiction and nuanced explorations of women's friendships.—Erin Galloway
Publishers Weekly
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Millet (Atavists) explores grief in this down-to-earth story of two friends dealing with their friend’s untimely death. Structured in two parts, it begins with “Fair,” set shortly after the death of 40-something Claire, a New York City public school guidance counselor, in an apparently random shooting at a bus stop. Claire’s friend Mara, the narrator, can’t bring herself to discuss Claire’s killing, but she repeatedly revisits the incident in her mind while handling such practical tasks as organizing Claire’s apartment and taking care of Claire’s dog. Eventually, Mara approaches acceptance, acknowledging that Claire’s death will always hover around the edges of her life. The plot thickens when Mara and Jen, Claire’s other close friend, learn that Claire’s “smarmy” ex-boyfriend, Jase, has a shrine to Claire and might have been stalking her. Jen comes to suspect that Jase was responsible for Claire’s death. The second half, “Ones,” picks up a few years later from Jen’s perspective. The circumstances of Claire’s death have come to light, and the friends now live in a new normal, though Jen frets over a “dirty little secret.” Driven less by intrigue or suspense than an interest in the stages of grief, Millet’s two-parter succeeds at reminding readers that living in the present is the best tribute to a life cut short. There’s much to admire in this refreshingly unsentimental story of moving on. Agent: Maria Massie, Massie McQuilkin & Altman. (Oct.)
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A deadly gun accident leaves two old friends stunned by the loss of a third. “The scenario sounded improbable, the kind of anecdote you told that was so far-fetched no one who heard it really believed you. But sadly, it was also a fact.” This observation will surely resonate with readers of Millet’s latest novel, which wraps a witty, nuanced domestic drama about midlife relationships around a narrative bolt from the blue. A 13-year-old Brooklyn boy who’s brought his father’s gun to the bus stop to show off discharges it accidentally, killing a 40-something school guidance counselor with a shot through the heart—at least, that’s the first account of the incident we hear. The victim is Claire, whose longtime best friends, Mara and Jen, find themselves lost and disoriented without her. Oddly, Jase, a finance bro ex-boyfriend of Claire’s they’re surprised to see at the memorial service, seems to take charge of the grieving process, holding a sort of after-party at his lush Tribeca loft (Jon Hamm makes a cameo appearance), then a large-scale celebration of Claire’s life a few weeks later, both occasions featuring surreptitious cocaine for select guests. The novel is divided into two parts, both driven almost completely by dialogue. The first is told from Mara’s perspective, the second from Jen’s, with troubling truths coming to light in both. At the same time, the friend group they form with Claire’s brother and all three of their male partners deepens and evolves in positive ways; Claire’s brother even meets his partner at her funeral. Terrible things and nice things can happen at the same time; even amid tabloid-level trauma, life goes on. Millet insightfully illuminates the ways our mundane lives and usual modes of thinking might be stretched and challenged by a radical twist of fate. Millet continues to weave astute social commentary into sharply observed, character-driven plots. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
