The Daydreams

May 22, 2023
Hankin (The Summertime Girls) delivers a sparkling story of lasting friendships amid the pitfalls of celebrity culture. Summer, Noah, Liana, and Kat starred on the smash teen TV show The Daydreams, about a pop music group of the same name, which imploded during a devastating live show 13 years earlier after Summer’s journal was leaked to the press (the details of the leak, and its implications, are teased out over the course of the narrative). After rumors of a reunion circulate on Twitter, the show’s former stars are asked by the network to get back together. Kat’s now a D.C.-based lawyer; Noah, a bona fide Hollywood star; Liana, trophy wife to a sports star; and the Britneyesque Summer, whose star has been marred by several trips to rehab. Kat, who’s on a partner track, is reluctant. Soon, though, she’s pulled back into the drama and unfinished business she’d left more than a decade earlier. The cascading revelations behind the leak of Summer’s journal, complete with an unexpected series of betrayals, will hit readers like a ton of bricks. Hankin keeps the plot tight and the flawed characters sympathetic—even the villain. Readers won’t want to put this down. Agent: Stefanie Lieberman, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

Starred review from June 10, 2024

Hankin's (Happy & You Know It; A Special Place for Women) third novel transports readers back to 2004, when a Disney-like television show starring teens breaking into the music business rose to popularity until a disastrous live finale ended their pop group and show, The Daydreams. Noah continued to increase his popularity by acting, while his gorgeous costar (and crush) Summer became a social media disaster. The show's mean girl, Kat, became a lawyer, and talented Liana married a famous athlete. Ten years after the finale, the cast reunites (some reluctantly) for a live reunion special, and the drama resumes on and off the set. Shining a spotlight on the challenges of being a child star, Hankin professionally narrates portions of the novel herself, along with a talented cast of narrators (Tyla Collier, Elena Rey, Briggon Snow, James Fouhey, Stephanie Sheh). Each narrator accurately portrays their character's personality throughout the various writing techniques Hankin deploys, including soliloquies, news articles, and social media posts. VERDICT Recommend for summer beach-listening lists, as well as to fans of reality TV and Taylor Jenkins Reid's Daisy Jones and the Six.--Sarah Hill

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