Blank: A Novel

By: Zibby Owens

Narrated by: Sharon Freedman

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

A wife, mother, and frustrated writer faces an impossible deadline for turning her life around in a hilarious debut novel about family, friendship, success, and exhilarating self-(re)discovery.

Pippa Jones is a fortyish former literary sensation who fears she will be a one-hit wonder. After the follow-up book she was almost done writing, Podlusters, had to be tossed (it ended up sharing a plot and title with superstar author Ella Rankin’s summer blockbuster!), she couldn’t write a thing. Months of staring at a blank page made her confidence vanish like a one-night stand. When she finds out that she has only five days left to finish (or rather, start) or repay an advance she’s already spent, Pippa has a brilliantly original idea. Okay, fine, her twelve-year-old son came up with it as a joke, but Pippa and her teenage daughter approved.

Pippa’s not only going to make a bold statement, but she’ll change the book world while she’s at it! Can she pull it off? At this point, she doesn’t have a choice.

When Pippa’s publisher gets intimately involved, it unlocks a series of plot twists she never saw coming. From the courtyards of posh Beverly Hills hotels and Malibu mega-mansions to Brentwood and Santa Monica bookstores, Pippa races against time—in her used Volvo—and discovers more about her career, marriage, family, friends, and herself than she ever could have dreamed up.

©2024 by Zibby Owens. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Owens clearly understands the publishing industry…. An enjoyable read full of book industry antics and plenty of dramatic surprises.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Owens’s depiction of Pippa’s angst feels genuine, especially given the convincingly portrayed demands of marriage and motherhood…”—Publishers Weekly

“Owens' depiction of a neurotic writer on the brink is presented with comic zeal, but the plot elements focused on Pippa’s personal life are likely to resonate most with readers.”—Booklist

The plot of the story is good, the blank book aspect spoke volumes.

The end of the book felt rushed. The narrator was fine with female voices and the kids. The adult male voices were not great.

Written for Chardonnay-drinking soccer moms…

Disappointing. Characters are cliché, superficial, and the plot wraps up remarkably fast and with seemingly rapid emotional resolution. It’s a nice light beach read, but not much else. I couldn’t relate to any of the characters, their actions seemed silly and their relationships predictably bad, based on the lack of moral fiber and backbone they exhibited from the first page. Perhaps a good reflection of life in LA - hopefully not. If meant as a satire, meh… not well delivered. If meant as a sympathetic commentary on life for middle-aged women with teenaged kids in a social media-dominated world, meh… boring…
Performance note: all the “men” voices sound creepy, even the ones for characters we are supposed to like.

Better than expected

I was ready to DNF during the first half, but ended up being fairly satisfying.

All the “Blanks” filled in!

I liked the twists in this story - even if I suspected some of them, all very satisfying. Having read Bookends there were what I considered little finds that made me think of it again. I liked this book even more than I thought I would!

Finished better than it started

When I first started reading/ this book listening to this book it just annoyed the crap out of me how annoying her children were and how she kowtowed to them and how this is what's wrong with America today etc. But I hung in there and finished the book and I was extremely glad I did. When a cleverly crafted and delightful book it was. It was also fun reading it in the lead up to Passover as this is about a Jewish family with the son becoming bar mitzvah and the dog named Dayenu and Friday night shabots. It did remind me a little bit of an old time silent movie where you want to cheer the heroes and boo the villains and hiss at the evil doers. I do feel like I know many of the characters in this book from my real life with my real life family. It was a great way to end the month of March!

Mixed up!

If it wasn't for audible, I would not have read this book! To me it was mixed up. It was very boring.

waste of time

Shallow unappealing characters. The story is unrealistic and uninteresting. Waste of time and $$. Don't bother.

hard to listen to

the performance was very stilted and talked like a robot. not convinced it was a real person. narrating.