Taylor Jenkins Reid's new novel is like eating a bowl of broccoli — in space
I finished this novel about soaring into space while grounded on a runway, going nowhere. The delay was ironic given that I'd nearly missed the flight: too busy suggesting to the Dunkin' Donuts guy who didn't want to refill my water bottle that he should act like 'a human being'. All of which is to say that you might think that a book as trite and self-aggrandising as this one would appeal to someone like me. Perhaps I just wasn't in a good mood. Or perhaps it's not a very good book.
Which is surprising. Atmosphere is the ninth novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, the BookTok-anointed empress of the thoughtful sun-lounger read. Her speciality is embedding tales of ordinary woe — neglectful parents, cheating spouses — into glamorous worlds. Her 2017 novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, the story of an Elizabeth Taylor-style star in Golden Age Hollywood, spent a year at the top of the charts in 2021, propelled by tear-streaked video endorsements from passionate, largely young and female fans. Her 2019 novel Daisy Jones & the Six, a playful fake oral history of a Fleetwood Mac-ish rock band, was turned into an Emmy-winning TV show. In total, across all formats, Reid has sold 21 million books. Time magazine claims to have double-sourced a rumour that she signed a five-book-deal for $8 million per book.
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