People Are Talking

A BUSTLE BEST NEW BOOK A notable addition to the dark academia shelf. Publishers WeeklyDesperate to find a plot for her second novel, author Mallory Shepard attends her estranged best friends wedding in Austin, where she and six friends try to settle old scoreswith unexpected deadly consequencesin this debut for fans of Veronica Mars, Tara Isabella Burton, and Tana French.In PEOPLE ARE TALKING, the debut novel by Amanda Eisenberg, Mallory Shepard has her back against the wall. Her girlfriend dumped her, her landlord wants to evict her and her literary agent is about to drop herunless she can come up with a compelling follow-up to her debut novel. A book deal would solve her problems, which is why she agrees to attend an estranged college friends wedding in Texas. Itll be the first time shes seen that friend group since an incident tore them apart nine years earlier, and Mal intends to secretlysqueeze her ex-friends for information. The plan is nearly foolproof, except that her still-raw hurt and righteous angerthreatens to expose her agenda, as does her weakness for her college nemesis: Andrew Rosen.Danit Leibowitz iswas Mals best friend. Together they transformed the Newts, a secret society, into a group that tracks alleged rapists long after they graduated from the prestigious halls of Weston College. Now a rising lefty political star, Dani is asked to come up with another plan to reinvent the Newts, which Gen Z deems out of touch amid ever-changing gender and sex politics. When she learns Mal will be there, Dani hatches a plan to appease the Newts and win back her friend, all in 72 hours.Crammed into an Austin rental for the weekend, the six friends seek to settle old scores and win back ex-friends and lovers. But when the Newts infiltrate the wedding, with deadly consequences, Mal and Dani are forced to consider whether theyre willing to separate the personal from the politicaleven at the expense of protecting the people they love.