BOOK REVIEW: The Beckett Effect

THE BECKETT EFFECT
by Nashae Jones
Available now

Wren wants nothing more to become a filmmaker, and the new class offered at her little Richmond prep school might just give her a chance. There's just one problem: Beckett Lane, the handsome nepo baby of a vampire show star, is everywhere she goes. Even her sister Kennedy has fallen prey to the "Beckett Effect." being charmed by this boy everyone knows is a major player. After Beckett embarrasses both sisters at an upscale party, Wren figures out her revenge. She and her best friend will use a class project, deconstructing elements of Jane Eyre into a short film, to expose Beckett as a literal Rochester: an unforgivable modern-day "Byronic hero."

As the girls start assembling their documentary on "John Doe," surprising truths come to light: mainly, that the rumors about Beckett may be overblown, if not outright false. The interviews with his exes are, for the most part, relatively benign. And when Wren begins fake-dating Beckett for more information, she witnesses a vulnerable side of him that doesn't mesh with the hearsay at school. Soon, she's starting to second guess her project. But between her best friend needing the grade to stay afloat and some of Beckett's exes really looking forward to the documentary, Wren might not have a choice. Could her own feelings have been the problem the whole time?

The Beckett Effect is unabashedly (and admittedly) a riff on 2006's John Tucker Must Die, with hat tips to noughties films and cinema in general. While it's inventive in its cinematic approach and its deconstruction of the idea that characters (and indeed people) can be squeezed into tropes, it still does follow that teen rom-com story track. I've mentioned it before: the one that, in the third act (or the fourth in this book's labeled sections), sees a "time bomb" of the protagonist's own making from Act I going off and destroying everything until they learn a lesson.

That said, I enjoyed The Beckett Effect in spite of the fact that it's on these rails. I loved seeing a story set in Virginia, one that interrogates the concept of tropes in general, and hell, one that throws back to Jane Eyre. I sometimes wonder if these predictable story structures in this genre are the work of editors, and I would love to see this and other stories loosed from that constraint.

DRINK PAIRING: Elixir of Hydration

Kennedy's princess aesthetic immediately put me in mind of two things. One was the Kate/Edwina dynamic from Bridgerton, but the other was this sparkly elixir from Velvet Hammer. Mix with water or a bev of your choice for a tart pink lemonade hydration boost. Use my link to get a discount on this and other drink powders from Velvet Hammer!

FEATURED CANDLE: Storm Rider

This month's featured candle from Frostbeard was a perfect match for the cover aesthetic, but it also brings to mind the same sort of moody romance Wren and her classmates are studying as the book begins. Use my link for a discount on this and other book-inspired candles from Frostbeard Studio!