I don’t know what it is about Emma Cline’s books that completely suck me in. On the surface this book was so basic, but in the center it’s a very interesting character study on what it’s like to be broke, alone and desperate.

The story is pretty simple: 22-year-old Alex is a sex worker from New York City. She’s not good with money and owes a lot of money to a lot of people. She’s learned to seek out men who can take care of her for long periods of time, but eventually they catch on and toss her aside. She owes several past roommates some money, and she has one guy in particular who relentlessly calls and texts her to get back what she owes him. When she meets a man named Simon who has a place on Long Island, and the two hit it off, she jumps at the chance to live in his big house with him through Labor Day. Things are going very well with Simon. He buys her expensive clothing and treats her very well. She feels like maybe he’s someone who she can finally settle down with and help her change her life around, but a misstep at a party and a minor fender bender in his beloved car that she doesn’t tell him about leads Simon to abruptly ask Alex to leave, shattering her sense of security. He buys her a train ticket and asks his assistant to drive Alex to the train station, but when she gets there, Alex decides not to leave. She’s convinced that Simon just needs to cool off. She decides she’ll hang out on the island for a few days and then show up to the big Labor Day party at his house and make him see just how much he misses her.

Over the course of the next few days, Alex will continue to be harassed by Dom, the man she owes money. He’s closing in and he knows where she is. She’ll meet several people along the way – all people she is able to effortlessly con into believing she is someone she’s not while she waits out the days until she can reconnect with Simon.

The plot of the book is really basic, and what you read in the synopsis is basically all that happens. I was worried that I was not going to be into this book because it felt like it has nowhere to go, and while the journey isn’t necessarily complex, I was absolutely fascinated with Alex. We know little to nothing about her upbringing or what got her into the sex trade, but in the end it really doesn’t matter because we probably wouldn’t be able to believe what she said anyway because she’s a very unreliable narrator. We witness her lying and finagling her way through life and while it feels kind of skeezy on one hand, you can’t help but root for her. As much as I wanted her to learn a lesson the hard way and get her shit together, I also wanted her to be okay and wanted things to turn around for her with Simon.

Alex isn’t the only one who is lost and alone – in fact, she meets many characters along her journey who are suffering in their own way. I loved watching how she connected with them and learned about their own struggles. One that was particularly interesting was the 17-year-old guy she meets on the beach and spends some time with toward the end.

Last week I reviewed a book that I really didn’t connect with and I mentioned in my review that the story never went anywhere – there was no real ending. Funny thing is, this book was kind of the same. There’s a cliffhanger ending, but in the end, I liked it. I think the difference between this book and the one I reviewed last week was the main character. As flawed as she was, I cared for Alex in a way, whereas with the book last week, I hated the main character. I guess I’ve found the determining factor as far as what will bump up my final rating of a book.

While the story wasn’t super deep, the character study was. If you’re someone who needs a complex plot with a clear ending, then this book is definitely not for you, but if you’re someone who loves an unreliable main character and a more character driven book, I would definitely check this one out.