Guy

With clear, propellant prose, Bydlowska (Drunk Mom) places readers inside a terrible man’s head to terrific effect. Guy is a successful talent agent, a star-maker. He’s complicated, self-possessed, and assured of his good looks and social worth. He’s also selfish and doesn’t care about the damage he does to others so long as he gets what he wants, which is to be admired—desired for his power and what little affection he extends his conquests. Guy views all women as numbers on a scale, ranked for their beauty and desirability. In $isi, his prized pop icon on the rise, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, he sees an opportunity to turn tragedy into enterprise; Dolores, his obsessive onetime lover turned stalker, is an endeavor he’d just as soon forget; Bride, whose personality presents Guy with his first real battle, seems a mountain to be climbed. There’s an American Psycho–like quality to Guy’s idiosyncrasies: his obsessiveness regarding food, the coldness with which he views friends and lovers, the fetishistic self-love through which he details his own merits. But Guy is not a psychopath; he simply views the world in calculating terms. What’s alarming is how not-horrifying and utterly familiar he seems. He’s just some guy. (Oct.)