A debut novel about a young writers’ assistant on a late night comedy show and what transpires when she accepts an invitation from its enigmatic host to spend a long weekend at his mansion in Connecticut.
... a thoroughly modern tale of the search for adulthood ... Confident and insightful, Somers’ book is, in short, an admonition to be careful what you wish for ... Somers has written her protagonist with a sharp eye for the type of ennui endemic to a swath of the millennial generation ... looks at dissatisfaction and loneliness, and how money and fame do not necessarily stave off those uncomfortable feelings. It’s also a cynically funny look at the lies people tell to themselves or each other, whether it’s to further one’s career, seduce someone, or even just get out of bed on gray mornings. Somers’ deft handling of the juxtaposition between self-defeating pessimism and the heartfelt need for human connection would be impressive for any established author; for a debut, it’s a tantalizing promise of incisive works to come.
... taut and incisive ... a tender, if occasionally joyless, portrait of bizarro-world comedy writers who wish everyone would knock it off with all the joking around already ... Somers is clear — exquisitely, wrenchingly so — when articulating Bloom’s lifelong fixation on Best...
With Hugo Best, Somers deftly teases out the muddled and sometimes inappropriate relationship men like him have with fame ... Somers does a great job balancing June's competing feelings ... Hugo is never overly predatory (the book would be trite if that were the case), but it's clear his behavior is, at best, not great ... Somers shines when depicting the little moments between the two, which are funny and poignant ... Somers knows exactly when both the laugh lines and the cringes should hit ... Stay Up with Hugo Best hilariously skewers and celebrates the world of late-night shows and comedy.
