Debut novels often feel like autofiction, and that was most certainly the case in Vanessa Lawrence’s new book, Ellipses. In Ellipses, a 32 year old woman, Lily, falls into a toxic text-based mentorship with Billie, an older and wildly successful beauty mogul. Lily is delighted by this chance at friendship—and maybe even something more—with Billie. She’s stalled out in her career at a magazine and is generally frustrated by life. Billie offers the perfect escape.

The plot structure that Lawrence dreamed up is incredible. The idea that someone in her early 30s is still capable of falling prey to what is essentially a form of grooming is fascinating and something that doesn’t get explored enough. It takes away the layer of “this person is creepy” and moves it to “this person is domineering/controlling”, which makes for a far more interesting story in today’s day and age. I was excited to see how Lily’s relationship with Billie would unfold.

The only thing I knew about this book when I requested an advanced copy was that it was about an LGBTQ+ writer. Lily is bisexual and dating Allison, but her fear of commitment has been pushing them apart. Lily’s relationships—both with Allison and her college friends—are the high spot in this novel. Anytime we spent time with them the book felt lived in and fresh.

The aspect of the book that didn’t quite land for me was the characterization of Lily. I didn’t know her well enough to truly care about her or understand her actions. While I wanted the best for her on the level that I want the best for every woman, I felt a level of remove from what was happening inside of her head. When she made a big decision (as she does in the last 1/4 of the novel), I was surprised. It seemingly came out of nowhere. I wish I had more knowledge of Lily’s inside thoughts and her emotional state, so that I could feel closer to her. This is something incredibly hard to accomplish given that Lily and Billie communicated solely over text. Perhaps the book could have benefited from more in-person interaction, since as I mentioned those scenes with friends were my favorites.

I mentioned earlier that this book reads like autofiction. I don’t actually think this is a bad thing, given that many of my favorite TV shows and literary content are just that. In this case, the similarities are striking. Lawrence is a staff writer for W Magazine and attended a small liberal arts college in New England. She’s a New Yorker. In Ellipses, Lily is all of these things, and towards the end of the book she turns to writing a “fictional” novel about her experiences with a toxic mentor. The similarities were too hilarious for me not to bring up.

What makes this autofiction novel so devastating is the fact that Lily—a biracial Asian American—faces countless micro-aggressions that both Billie and Allison don’t seem to understand. It was hard to read all of the ways Lily’s life was made harder and more uncomfortable simply because of the way others perceived her, and it was even harder to read the ways that the white women in her life didn’t show up for her. I wish that Lily had been more deeply characterized so that these moments felt more emotional and less like statements of horrendous things that happened.

In all, I enjoyed reading Ellipses, especially the middle third which concentrated more on Lily’s relationship with the outside world than the relationship happening inside of her phone. I look forward to seeing what comes next for Lawrence in the writing world.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book for review.

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