Vantage Point: A Novel

by Sara Sligar

Overview

Succession meets Megan Abbott in this seductive, technological suspense about the dramatic downfall of one of America’s most affluent families.

“Terrifying and uncanny.” —Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters

The old-money Wieland family has it all: wealth, status, power. They’re also famously cursed.

Clara and her brother, Teddy, grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents’ tragic deaths, haunted by rumors and paparazzi. Fourteen years later, they’ve mostly put their turbulent past to rest. Teddy has married Clara’s best friend, Jess, and the three of them have moved back home to take over the sprawling, remote family mansion known as Vantage Point.

Then Teddy decides to run for the Senate—an unnerving prospect made much worse when intimate videos of Clara are leaked online. The most frightening part is that she doesn’t remember filming any of them. Are the videos real? Or are they deepfakes? Is someone trying to take down the Wielands once and for all?

Everyone thinks Clara is losing her grasp on reality. But she knows the truth: the videos are only the beginning. Years ago, the curse destroyed her parents. Now, it’s coming for her.

Sara Sligar, the critically acclaimed author of Take Me Apart, returns with a shocking family drama full of suspense. Brimming with palpable tension, Vantage Point carefully unravels a twisted web of family secrets and political ambition that raises questions about the nature of “truth” in our digital age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374282295
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	01/14/2025
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Sara Sligar is an author and academic based in Los Angeles, where she teaches English and creative writing as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in History from the University of Cambridge. Her writing has been published in McSweeney’s, Quartz, The Hairpin, and other outlets. Take Me Apart is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

"A fleet, au courant Gothic thriller."

—Joumana Khatib, The New York Times Book Review

"Fascinating . . . [Sligar] knits together themes of "the modern" and "legacy" skillfully."

—LitHub

"Sligar's clever psychological tale explores the dark side of technology and its effects on our perceptions."

—Katie Pomeroy, Booklist

"Vantage Point oozes atmosphere and tension—I was seduced by the fabulously wealthy and famously cursed Wieland family and could not stop turning the pages until I learned every last one of their dark, dynastic secrets."

—Jessica Knoll, New York Times bestselling author of Bright Young Women and Luckiest Girl Alive

“Vantage Point is a thriller for our times, where politics meets paranoia, and technology turns into terror. Sara Sligar has tapped into our most contemporary fears and turned them into a feast of a story. I devoured this book.”

—Janelle Brown, New York Times-bestselling author of Pretty Things and I’ll Be You

"Vantage Point is a haunting, pitch perfect exploration of paranoia and perception, the ways we craft our identity both publicly and in our own minds, and the fine line between loyalty and complicity, power and control. Sara Sligar is that rare writer whose high concept is matched by faultless prose, rich emotional insight, and a vein of delicious dark humor that bleeds when pressed. This is a novel to devour, then savor. I loved every mind-bending page."

—Katie Gutierrez, author of national bestseller More Than You'll Ever Know

"Vantage Point is a sophisticated suspense novel that’s as thought-provoking as it is unnerving. With her signature seductive prose, Sligar holds up a mirror to the dark side of privilege and the true horrors of being a woman on the internet, crafting a story that feels like shattered glass: brilliant and exquisite, but it will cut you deep.”

—Layne Fargo, author of The Favorites and They Never Learn

“The kind of suspense novel that slithers under your skin—crackling with sharp writing and unforgettable characters. Sara Sligar makes it look easy with Vantage Point, an unforgettable story of family, identity, and how the two intersect—sometimes with deadly results.”

—Alex Segura, bestselling author of Secret Identity and Alter Ego

“Sara Sligar’s new novel is a primal scream, sounding a harrowing alarm about how thin (and deadly) the line between synthetic and real has become. A terrifying and uncanny novel, Vantage Point takes dupes and deep fakes to another level. Even the shrewdest reader will be left off kilter and unable to answer the most simple question: what did I just see?”

—Katy Hays, New York Times-bestselling author of The Cloisters

"Vantage Point is a thoroughly modern Gothic novel that will have you turning its pages at warp speed. Sara Sligar has written a fearsome, sharp novel that is both timeless and culturally relevant and filled with dark delights."

—Ivy Pochoda, author of Sing Her Down

From the Publisher

2024-10-10
The remaining members of a Kennedy-esque family discover that someone is pulling the strings to destroy their credibility—and maybe even their lives.

Every year when April rolls around, Clara Wieland feels like she’s living on the edge of a knife. After all, an inordinate number of her family members, most recently her own parents, have died in freak accidents during that month, a phenomenon that’s come to be known as the Wieland curse. This year, the month coincides with her older brother Teddy’s run for a Senate seat from their home state of Maine. So, when a compromising video of Clara is released on the internet, the timing couldn’t be worse, for Teddy’s campaign or Clara’s fragile mental health. As she hides away to survive the cruel comments of internet trolls, Clara starts having hallucinations of her dead parents. Teddy has little patience for his sister; he’s been caring for her for years, through devastating bouts with an eating disorder and through her grief. But Teddy’s wife, Jess, was Clara’s best friend before they were in-laws, and she’s more apt to listen—so when she, too, is targeted by an internet video that appears to be a deepfake, she believes Clara’s insistence that something else is going on. Maybe it’s the curse; maybe it’s someone with a grudge against the wealthy, powerful Wielands. Either way, Clara and Jess have to look beyond their complicated family/friend relationship to uncover the truth. Clara is a frustrating protagonist at first, since her trauma has led to self-destructive habits that she seems little inclined to face or change, but Sligar renders her with such complexity and compassion that it’s easy to cheer when she begins to figure things out—and when she rejects the convenient trap of the curse narrative, finding power and agency as she learns to trust in her own intelligence.

A unique twist on the thriller genre with an appealing side of female empowerment.

Kirkus Reviews