Review: PERSONA by Genevieve Valentine

My review of Genevieve Valentine’s Persona went up this weekend, and here is a bit of it:

Suyana Sapaki is the Face for the recently-formed United Amazonian Rainforest Confederation — a C-lister for all intents and purposes, new to the scene, unloved by the camera, and unfortunately given to plain-speaking and refusal to play the smiling, conciliatory part handed to her. Suyana is angry, and a little too often, the anger shows. At best, she’s a liability; at worst, where her handler is concerned, she’s a non-story.

Until someone tries to kill her.

Pretty sure I read this book in a sitting. It couldn’t be more different from The Girls at the Kingfisher Club (which, OK, I also read in a sitting), but the narrative core of resisting constraint by making an art of stillness, by wearing stylised masks, by exerting more control over oneself than the constraints themselves possibly could, is definitely cut from the same cloth.

Since writing the review — in which I uncharacteristically hope for a sequel — I’ve had confirmation that the next book in Valentine’s celebrity-as-statecraft world is already written. This makes me so happy. I was entirely satisfied by Persona ending where it did, but there were so many hooks for a sequel, and they certainly sank into me.

#SFWApro