Born For This - Caitlin Devlin

45%

26.12.25

I can sort of see what Devlin was going for here - but it didn't really work. Trying to add nuances to perceived nepotism - and actual privilege is fine if we care about the characters. But everyone was either awful (the main character and her friends) or unrelatable (her aunt and mother) so the stakes would have been higher if they'd all tried to go into accountancy instead of the family business of acting.

The Real Deal - Caitlin Devlin

60%

02.05.24

I really liked this, as long as I ignored the apparent lack of copy editing (continuity errors, misplaced Americanisms, grammatical mistakes that didn't seem to be related to the narrator's voice... why?! I've deducted points for being yanked out of immersion). Its intriguing premise developed into a thoughtful take on the nature of experience, memory, the media and potentially abusive relationships.