To Die For

A Novel

By: Joyce Maynard

Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Piper Goodeve, Carly Robins, Lily Ganser, Tara Sands, Paul Castro Jr., Lisa Flanagan, Jonathan Davis, Jim Conroy, Will Collyer, Arianna Ratner, Dwayne Hill, Jeff Wiens, Joyce Maynard, Adam David Thompson

“A seductive page-turner” about a murderously ambitious cable-news star by the New York Times best-selling author of Labor Day (The New York Times Book Review).

Local weather reporter Suzanne Maretto craves nothing more than to transcend life at her suburban cable television news station and follow in the footsteps of her idol: Barbara Walters. When she concludes that her unglamorous husband is getting in the way of her dream of stardom, the solution seems obvious: Get rid of him. She seduces a 15-year-old admirer, Jimmy, and persuades him to do her dirty work. Mission accomplished, Suzanne takes to the airwaves in her new role as grieving widow, in search of a TV deal. If that means selling Jimmy down the river, she’s ready.

Maynard’s brilliant, funny, and groundbreaking novel—adapted by Gus Van Sant into the cult classic movie of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman—was first published in 1992 before the era of manufactured stardom and the phenomenon of televised murder trials as entertainment. The book still stands as a razor-sharp satire of celebrity-fixated culture and the American obsession with TV—a novel that imagined the phenomenon of reality television before its creation, with alternately bone-chilling and hilarious accuracy.

©1992 Joyce Maynard (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

Great production and writing

I enjoyed the interview format, where each character tells his or her story. Despite so many different performers (one for each character) it was easy to follow.
You know where the plot is leading, but it's still enjoyable and gripping.
The one performer I had a problem with was the one reading Suzanne, the main character. I didn't find her interpretation believable.

Typical narcissist story

I love crime stories. This one started out pretty good but the ending was flat. Suzanne was truly a manipulative narcissist and death was too easy. She should have spent the rest of her privileged life in prison.

Susan was very greedy and self absorbed

The story line was very intriguing and I liked all the narrators. I I will be looking for more of them in other books.

What was that?

I tried to find the humor and understand Suzanne’s narcissistic beliefs about herself but everything about the book fell flat.

I hated to rate the narration so low as several actually portrayed their character well but Suzanne’s voice about did me in. Unfortunately not my book!!

Graftuc

WS good story you could see it was a story that could’ve happened. May be back in the 80s good twists and turns entertaining for sure.

fiction or fact?

great book . I loved the performances of all of the actors . but did no one notice the complete parallels to the Pamela Smart case from 1990?

Moral dilemmas abound in this book

The narrator for Suzanne Moretti did an excellent job creeping me out. I thought she played the role of a narcissist well.
My heart strings were pulled for Jimmy, being dimwitted enough to follow through and his mother, making the decision to keep him for this to be the outcome.

Very good

I’ve been waiting for this book to become available on audible for 2 years now and it did not disappoint.

Enjoyable but predictable

The story was thin, characterizations 2D and inconsistent. The end felt uninspired and Suzanne's fate doesn't make sense.

Ripped from the headlines of the early 90s

Still topical and showing the obsession over being famous at any cost. Very much reminiscent of the Pamela Smart Case from back then, but takes things in different directions. Overall a solid story told in interview format. Funny thing is that the most upsetting moment was … well, won’t spoil it, but just say ACAB.