I read quite a bit in 2023 but hardly ever got round to blogging about it, because life as they say, be lifing, but I could not let the year fade to black without talking about the best book I read all year. My top five of all time. Art of Scandal by Regina Black. If you have not read this book, READ THIS BOOK. Buy it here.
So, before I wax on lyrical about this, let me tell you the lengths to which I went to get this book, I’d been waiting on the release thinking we might get it in the UK on audio at least, same as the US but not a chance, the earliest we were going to get it was in April of 2024. But you know me, I don’t know when to climb down. My incessant stalking on amazon paid off because the audiobook was finally available and I immediately downloaded it and started listening. On another random late night stalk on amazon, I saw the e-book was finally available, and as you know, excess is my by-word, for one can never have too many books, no matter how high the TBR pile stacks, I immediately bought it on e for the simple reason being, the audio is so luscious. Mela Lee must read all audios; she lends such power and divinity to this story, I had to see the words as she said them, feel them as she read them, revel in them as she intoned them, and have them imprinted in my soul. The trinity is complete with the hardcopy recently received from good friends, and I immediately delved into it and finished in one afternoon on Boxing Day; my fingers now aptly romanced by the words on the page.
This book is fantastic.
There is a moment when I know I am all in, not only that, but I am team Rachel in all her badness. I will ride for this woman. If she murders someone it will be their fault and I will be the one to dig the grave. She will be my queen and I, her liege, I will be her ride or die until the wheels fall off and in the after life if she goes to hell, I am going with her too. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, she will do that will make me turn from her. And that moment is the beginning of the book when she very deliberately pushes the red velvet birthday cake she’d perfectly baked for Matt, down to the icing and perfectly calligraphed name “she’d practised a dozen times” until she got it right, over the counter and it falls by his feet in perfect slow motion. This is the scene I want to see the most on screen because it sets us up for a hell of a ride, scandalous and delicious. I was all-in, a card-carrying member, even president of the Rachel fan club because nothing she did would ever be wrong. If she did you wrong, it was probably your fault, and you most certainly deserve it. This was also the moment I knew I wanted to both listen to and read this book so I could sink into the words, see the words unfold; it is a different type of emotion. If I could climb into the story to live out the words, I would have.
Let me take it from the top before I get carried away; the premise of the story is simple and isn’t this always the best kind? A politician’s wife receives a dick pick from her husband on his birthday but oops! it was not meant for her, of course he is fucking around on her, and this is how she finds out; the fucking simpleton. Matt is the town’s mayor and a shoe in for the Senate; they live among the one percent in their bubble of a neighbourhood. Rachel is Black and Matt is White. Rachel was also a teenage mother and the conduit to which Matt’s campaign seeks to capture the demographic; she was the entrée into the “woke” vote; whipping her out like a talisman.
Nathan, my darling Nathan, is not all he seems to be on first sight, but Rachel is none the wiser, only we are, which is GENIUS of Regina Black to bring the audience in on the story earlier on than the characters on page; in a different author’s hand it would fall apart, of this I am convinced. Nathan is hiding parts of who he is, and we know why, his family is the wealthiest in the neighbourhood, but a lot of his life choices go against the grain of his parent’s expectations for him. He is also the younger of two siblings who wasn’t planned for, was the prodigal son to his older brother’s golden child; and made to feel that way. He is also a talented artist who runs the neighbourhood laundromat…
Do you see the layers upon which this story is built? Stupendous.
Rachel and Nathan meet, and shenanigans ensue… this is as much in the way of the story as I am willing to give away without spoiling the story, and this is something you should get to experience for yourself. Listen to the audio, read the e-book, and if you can wait until January, for the hard cover coming out on the UK, buy the hard cover and sink further into the story.
This is a finely woven story, laced with the complications of family, scandal, betrayal, class and race, shrouded in romance. Interspersing worlds both different and same, and enunciating the searing difference in a story written as poetry. Hard lines softened by curved edges. This is poetry steeped in reality, a story that punctuates words; smashing emotions together, so the feeling jumps right at you. You almost want to lean in so the words can caress you and the story infiltrates your senses moving you to sensibilities beyond your control as you feel the sharp pin prick of the realism captured whether in a soft swoon or a quiet sigh or a searing look.
I love how bitchy and cold Rachel starts out; like a heart encased in ice that slowly, so slowly, chips and melts away to reveal that softness beneath, festooned with love. Complicated Black women are my favourite characters to read because it shows us in all mannerisms of life. And when I say complicated, it is not the Hollywood type that directors often typify with a forced acceptance, pretentious even. No, not that type. It’s the type that allows us to be all things: sweet and cold. Aloof and bitchy. Loving and caring; with that quintessential manner in which we can say fuck you, where the recipient feels it in their soul. It is particular to us; said with feeling only we can encapsulate and evokes emotions only we have felt.
When Rachel says it to Matt after he wants her help with his crooked Windsor knot I felt it and I relished it. It is how it ought to be said.
Rachel reveals what happens when a woman plays small to embiggen her husband. When she presses pause on dreams and hopes for the greater good of her husband. It is what happens when women take a back seat as we are always expected to, for the community. Every woman has felt this. Has had to play this. And every woman can relate to it on some level. Here, Black makes it take centre stage on the page and it is a visceral feeling. She calls out to every single one of those feelings every woman has been forced to make do with. Swallow down the response. Breathe a certain way. Black women contort their tones and ways in certain rooms to avoid the stereotype that comes with a hint of a reaction or difference.
I loved this story. It did not play small. It was the politician’s wife who has had to take a back seat, dimming herself so he can shine, she is walking through fire to come out on the other side. You will love this story too. I promise you.
And then there is the love story between Nathan and Rachel that unfolds in layers aforementioned. We expect it, but it turns in ways we don’t see coming. It is slow and searing, prickling the skin in that way that makes one’s hairs stand. Both of them on page are gentle and symphonic. Rachel withdraws and in so doing reveals herself to Nathan, who is struggling with his own complications: being part of the family business or sticking to his craft as an artist whilst living above the laundromat he owns in the bougie as hell neighbourhood half of which is owned by his family. He wants to run and hide but the option to do that is sometimes not his to make. Rachel is the mayor’s wife whose world is crumbling around her ears and all she wants to do is scream but she cannot. She must still grin and bear it and be the perfect wife until such a time she is no longer needed.
They meet when she is part inebriated, has on no shoes, and is dressed inappropriately for the weather. He on the other hand, is having to deal with a friend he has outgrown even if it is one, he has known a while that seems, on the face of it, to have it all together, but still wants to hang out with girls he picked up at a convenient store. Old enough; but will still raise eyebrows. The other characters around Nathan and Rachel draw them out to us even more, fill up their back stories and lived histories. I love how Black centres race but doesn’t make it the entire story. We are very aware of the dichotomy of race and complications that can arise from interracial relationships but that’s not the whole, it’s only part. A very pertinent part that enriches the narrative
It was like “audible honey” is how Nathan hears Rachel’s voice and if that doesn’t tingle you, you’re not alive. Chaotically sexy is how he sees Rachel which is the perfect description of a woman trying to rein in who she is but is fighting a losing battle; she has quieted the beast for too long and it won’t be quiet anymore; her unravelling will be loud and will devour all in its wake. These are the types of heroines I love to read and write about; like a pianoforte; smart and reckless, wild and daring with the note, revealing in its pianissimo whilst throwing a curve with an unexpected twist.
There is also the complicated unconditionality of parental love; a story between Beto and Nathan, father, and son when a father’s wish has blinded him so much that when he finally sees his son, to let him know how much he loves him, has always loved him, it is too late. Isn’t that always the case? Our parents’ dreams for us growing up is always at odds with our desires, their complicated acceptance of our identity outside of their visions. It’s love. All Love and this is fleshed out in Beto’s love for his sons and Nathan’s understanding of his father’s deeply abiding and lasting love for him. Eventually.
I repeat emphatically here; THIS IS THE BEST BOOK bar none, which I read in 2023 and my top five of all time. Regina Black did not come to play small on page or in the story, it is not a lengthy read; it is tightly packed and every word necessary, it is how love ought to unfold, hard won and softly given, scandal and intrigue that lends itself in the loud and quiet moments, brotherly love and affection, friendships, and community. Right down to the effects of gentrification of a neighbourhood, Regina Black injected us right in the heart and what a divinely glorious feeling it is.