The Shampoo Effect

Jackson (Pineapple Street) serves up an enjoyable tale of a writer who makes new friends and then steals their stories. Caroline Lash, the 28-year-old daughter of a famous author, chafes at the idea that she’s a nepo baby. After she sells a story to the New Yorker, she quits her mid-level publishing job and leaves New York City for an 18-month fellowship in coastal Greenhead, Mass. Traveling there by train, she has a meet cute with environmental scientist Van Whittaker, a Greenhead local, who gives her napkins after she gets a jelly donut all over her white jeans. They meet again in Greenhead, and he invites her into his circle of high school friends, including his ex-girlfriend, Bailey. Not long after Caroline and Van begin hooking up, Bailey announces she’s pregnant with Van’s child. As Caroline tries to figure out how she feels about the news and navigate her place in the tight-knit group, which she’s already come to treasure, Jackson weaves in chapters focused on Bailey and the others, showing the story from their points of view. Further complicating the truth is Caroline’s thinly veiled novel in progress about Greenhead and her new friends, which heightens their interpersonal drama. Jackson has a knack for local color and well-rounded character work, as she gradually picks apart Caroline’s “ingrained snobbishness” about “life outside the city.”This has plenty of heart. (June)