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A review by niamhreviews
The Favourites: Lace up for the must-read thrilling love story you'll be obsessed with in 2025 by Layne Fargo
4.0
I was very kindly given an e-ARC of this book via Netgalley and Random House UK / Vintage.
I'm going to open this review with one certainty: you (whoever is reading this review) should read this book. If only to get ahead of what I consider to be an inevitable adaptation for the screen. It's enthralling, immersive, chaotic, and dramatic and I was totally gripped reading it.
According to an article in The Bookseller, this is a sort of adaptation of Wuthering Heights and reader, let me mis-quote another Bronte novel by saying I got 0 inclination that that was what was going on here. Someone who understands WH more than I do can perhaps find the similarities, but for me, it was just a novel set in the competitive world of ice dancing, blending snippets from a documentary with first-person prose from Katarina's perspective. And I can confidently tell you that this book is an incredibly addictive reading experience. When the book was down, I wanted to pick it back up. Things move at a lightning pace so you never have a chance to feel bored. The cast of characters explodes with bitter rivalries, romantic clashes and tension. It's like watching endless episodes of the Real Housewives (both a good and bad thing as I'll elaborate below). The characters are generally unlikeable, but you understand why and they're really fun to read about. Again, I don't see the Cathy and Heathcliff of it all (with the exception perhaps to the names of the lead characters which has literally only just occurred to me). If your book is going to be 'inspired' by a piece of classic literature, maybe include that in the marketing materials??
It's a good book, I had a great time reading it. But I also had some issues with it.
For me, 'The Favourites' was a book written to be turned into a TV show. And I hope they do adapt it. Because 6-8 hours of properly paced television is the best way to explore this narrative as it's written. Nothing ever goes smoothly. No one succeeds. There's always some sort of drama, some sort of chaos, injury, criminal activity, sexual manipulation, bog-standard manipulation, drama - it's happening on every page. Considering how frequently the author needed to tell us that Kat was 'the ice queen' and super focused on her goals, every time something even went minorly wrong before a performance, she would completely fall to pieces. Because of the structural choices in the book, huge chunks of time are summed up in short, unbiased paragraphs from the documentary. I can't help but think had the author chosen to commit fully to the 'Daisy Jones & The Six' multi-media style for this novel, it would have been more successful.
A lot happens in here and by about the halfway point, the book jumps the shark and things start to get so ridiculous, you no longer feel particularly invested in the outcome. Every obstacle that could be thrown at these characters is - everything AND the kitchen sink. It goes full soap opera, including the literary equivalent of the ad break line. For example - 'I turned around - and froze in horror.' or 'I screamed' - chapters cut off and jump to documentary clips in the name of tension that I didn't feel worked very well. The incidents towards the end - I can't say much because of spoilers - should have been better set up as a through line through the novel, which means the ultimate conclusion left me feeling rather unsatisfied. We've spent 400+ pages with these characters and that's the ending we get? After all that? If you're going to conclude with sabotage, then build the sabotage up throughout the entire book not just that last 25%.
Because we only get Katarina's perspective in the prose sections, the other main characters - particularly Heath, Bella, and Garrett - are all held at arms length and left me wanting more development. Rivalries only last for so long before burning out and taking another direction. You've really got a novel of two halves here and I wanted more from the first half to travel over into the second. I felt Katarina was well-written and the journey she went on through the book was really well developed and put together. But she's not the only character here and because so much effort has gone to including this enormous cast, I wanted more from them too.
When the inevitable adaptation comes, I really hope it's for TV. Give this book the space it needs to breathe. Give it the time, much like Daisy Jones & The Six had. A film would condense it all far too much and take away from what could be some incredible visual work. I'm also surprised this book wasn't held back to be released in 2026 to coincide with the winter Olympics, but reading it will certainly get you in the mood for Milan 2026.
'THE FAVOURITES' will be available from January 16th.
I'm going to open this review with one certainty: you (whoever is reading this review) should read this book. If only to get ahead of what I consider to be an inevitable adaptation for the screen. It's enthralling, immersive, chaotic, and dramatic and I was totally gripped reading it.
According to an article in The Bookseller, this is a sort of adaptation of Wuthering Heights and reader, let me mis-quote another Bronte novel by saying I got 0 inclination that that was what was going on here. Someone who understands WH more than I do can perhaps find the similarities, but for me, it was just a novel set in the competitive world of ice dancing, blending snippets from a documentary with first-person prose from Katarina's perspective. And I can confidently tell you that this book is an incredibly addictive reading experience. When the book was down, I wanted to pick it back up. Things move at a lightning pace so you never have a chance to feel bored. The cast of characters explodes with bitter rivalries, romantic clashes and tension. It's like watching endless episodes of the Real Housewives (both a good and bad thing as I'll elaborate below). The characters are generally unlikeable, but you understand why and they're really fun to read about. Again, I don't see the Cathy and Heathcliff of it all (with the exception perhaps to the names of the lead characters which has literally only just occurred to me). If your book is going to be 'inspired' by a piece of classic literature, maybe include that in the marketing materials??
It's a good book, I had a great time reading it. But I also had some issues with it.
For me, 'The Favourites' was a book written to be turned into a TV show. And I hope they do adapt it. Because 6-8 hours of properly paced television is the best way to explore this narrative as it's written. Nothing ever goes smoothly. No one succeeds. There's always some sort of drama, some sort of chaos, injury, criminal activity, sexual manipulation, bog-standard manipulation, drama - it's happening on every page. Considering how frequently the author needed to tell us that Kat was 'the ice queen' and super focused on her goals, every time something even went minorly wrong before a performance, she would completely fall to pieces. Because of the structural choices in the book, huge chunks of time are summed up in short, unbiased paragraphs from the documentary. I can't help but think had the author chosen to commit fully to the 'Daisy Jones & The Six' multi-media style for this novel, it would have been more successful.
A lot happens in here and by about the halfway point, the book jumps the shark and things start to get so ridiculous, you no longer feel particularly invested in the outcome. Every obstacle that could be thrown at these characters is - everything AND the kitchen sink. It goes full soap opera, including the literary equivalent of the ad break line. For example - 'I turned around - and froze in horror.' or 'I screamed' - chapters cut off and jump to documentary clips in the name of tension that I didn't feel worked very well. The incidents towards the end - I can't say much because of spoilers - should have been better set up as a through line through the novel, which means the ultimate conclusion left me feeling rather unsatisfied. We've spent 400+ pages with these characters and that's the ending we get? After all that? If you're going to conclude with sabotage, then build the sabotage up throughout the entire book not just that last 25%.
Because we only get Katarina's perspective in the prose sections, the other main characters - particularly Heath, Bella, and Garrett - are all held at arms length and left me wanting more development. Rivalries only last for so long before burning out and taking another direction. You've really got a novel of two halves here and I wanted more from the first half to travel over into the second. I felt Katarina was well-written and the journey she went on through the book was really well developed and put together. But she's not the only character here and because so much effort has gone to including this enormous cast, I wanted more from them too.
When the inevitable adaptation comes, I really hope it's for TV. Give this book the space it needs to breathe. Give it the time, much like Daisy Jones & The Six had. A film would condense it all far too much and take away from what could be some incredible visual work. I'm also surprised this book wasn't held back to be released in 2026 to coincide with the winter Olympics, but reading it will certainly get you in the mood for Milan 2026.
'THE FAVOURITES' will be available from January 16th.