i was "assigned" this book at work, but i was pretty interested in it when i read the back jacket copy. i was really interested when i started reading, and couldn't quite put it down. at first. its the kind of book i would have gladly read 20 years ago, but it was also really enthralling. at first.

then one incident occurred in its pages that made me step back and look at the book in my hands, as if it were really something very different and quite icky. i just, so very suddenly, stopped believing in the book and all the characters in it. it was on page 102 of the advance readers' copy i had, if anyone is interested. it was not the surprise onset of anaphylaxis, but all of the elements surrounding it. i very suddenly did not believe that this was a scary situation, with very real people feeling threatened by any number of things. i felt so very removed from a story that had completely held me to it, until that moment.

i don't know why that moment was the one, but the effect was jarring, and by the end of the book i was actually annoyed. i quickly realized that i had had trouble differentiating most of the characters from each other, but had been too sucked in to notice how often i consulted the teacher-character's "cheat sheet" to conveniently remind me who was exactly who. i didn't form a hypothesis to the whodunnit until right before the reveal, understanding that i was actually not that interested in the mystery. i came up with an idea of my own of the culprit, which i thought would be a nice homage, only to be upset when the actual baddy was revealed. and even with the possibility of revealed mysteries, the last 20 pages were full of extreme drudgery.

the thing about this review is that, despite all that, i want to give this book another star, or even two. i really do. the reason is that i was actually deeply touched by some moments in the narrative, particularly around the writing teacher's character, when i realized how much she had truly been given in her necessarily incomplete first marriage, how much she had been willing to live without ever since. it was truly heartbreaking, and i reveled in the author's telling of such moments of pure feeling.

still, i have a couple of other concerns, especially around continuity. still, i read the advanced reader's copy, so maybe all of those concerns are actually moot, and they have been fixed by stalwart fact-checkers. still, how do people have access to texts they shouldn't technically have access to? am i missing something?

perhaps.

ok, tirade ends ... now. ( )

Delightfully self-aware! This was a really fun read, but not fluffy or too light. The premise is a community college writing class that becomes the setting/vehicle for a murder mystery. "Amy Gallup was a loner who was afraid to be alone." (12) She is also the teacher and mostly fearless leader for the Fiction class that meets Wednesday nights. We begin at the beginning with the first class and its students - introductions, intentions, etc. - a diverse group of 13 (!) with various reasons for taking the class. Amy is the primary focus and through the narrator we mostly get her story except where it intersects with the students. But the book opens with a malevolent point of view describing Amy from the outside. This same pov intrudes throughout, and begins to target others in the class as they are sharing critiques of their work and soon it turns physical with frightful pranks, email hacking and harassing phone calls (landline, 2009 before cell phones were so prevalent) It must be one of the students, but how to find out which one? The escalation of events leads the university to cancel the class and fire Amy but the devoted group of students continues to meet in homes, even though the threat and danger is evident. Amy, who peaked early in her own career as a writer and has had some personal tragedies that have blocked her creativity since (death of a spouse, divorce) is both freaked out and intrigued by the events unfolding. She really likes all the students, but she is such an introvert, she literally cannot be around them more often than the weekly class. As she tries to reason out who the so-called "Sniper" is, she has to confront some of her own biases and demons too. A sampling of the students: Dot Hieronymous who takes murder mystery cruises and has written a script for one; Tiffany, the pretty air-head looking feminist scholar, Ricky Buzza, reporter, Syl Reyes who is just there to meet chicks, Edna Wentworth, spinster retired schoolteacher, Dr. Richard Surtees, pompous jerk who is writing a novel, Carla, essentially a groupie who has taken numerous classes with Amy and is able to parrot her word for word, and a few others thrown in the mix. Honestly, that was the one downside for me - a few too many to keep track of! Lots of humor here with a great parody of the writer's workshop model, but authentic story-telling and a true mystery whose resolution I did not see coming. I really enjoyed this one! ( )

Innocent and uncommitted this writing class may seem at first but as the plot unfolds dark feelings suddenly creep in and jolt your senses; suspicions are aroused as you dismiss clues for red herrings and are drawn deeper into the characters. ( )

If a member of your night class were murdering classmates, wouldn't you find something better to do those evenings? So would I, but thankfully the members of the writing class in Jincy Willett's "The Writing Class" keep coming back for more.

That's just one of the things about the novel that don't quite add up, but I don't think a realistic murder mystery was Willett's objective in her 2008 novel. It is more a satire on writing classes, literary aspirations and even murder mysteries themselves.

Amy Gallup is a novelist, or former novelist, whose books are out of print and whose literary career, like her personal life, lies in ruins. To support herself and her dog, she teaches a writing class for adults, most of whom have little or no talent but who pay the fees, so they're in. Just wanting to be a writer is good enough for Amy. That's more ambition than she has anymore.

Even early on it is clear some member of her new class has a screw loose. Ominous phone messages, notes, etc., keep appearing as the weeks go on. Then one class member is found dead, then another. The police don't take it seriously. (Since Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, police incompetence has been more rule than exception in murder mysteries.) Since her class refuses to disband (and she needs the money), Amy realizes it is up to her to find the Sniper, as the killer is dubbed.

"The Writing Class," sometimes interesting and sometimes not, doesn't earn an A, but it is good enough to make you glad you kept coming back for more. ( )

Very entertaining. ( )