Agnes Lives!

A miserable cool girl sighs through life in Newton’s bold if tunnel-visioned debut. It’s 2014 in New York City, and 30-something Agnes Maurer—nepo baby, former model, current magazine staffer, and muse to her famous novelist-filmmaker boyfriend, Nathan—is looking for someone to kill her. Agnes pursues her miserable end over the course of one day, seeking a would-be killer by reaching out to exes and old friends on Instagram, trying to buy a gun from the counterfeit bag sellers on Canal Street, flirting with bartenders who might have criminal urges, and pressuring an ex to stab her with her boss’s stolen letter opener. Agnes recalls the protagonists in other recent fiction about young women burdened by their beauty, wealth, and intelligence, but the material feels underdeveloped, and the many secondary characters are intentionally left two-dimensional, which heightens the effect of Agnes’s solipsistic spiral but becomes redundant given the large cast of potential murderers. Still, the novel sustains a humorous edge, as when Agnes reflects on her devotion to Nathan (“I’ve been completely dedicated to the career of dedicating myself to his career”). As Agnes’s desperation increases, the story builds to a great crescendo. At its best, this is a clattering ode to millennial womanhood and the ravages of New York City. (June)