by Kayla Rae Whitaker
narrated by Alex McKenna
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Published: 2017
Publisher: Random House
Genre: Contemporary, Art, Women's Fiction
Hardback: 384
Rating: 5
Zombie sighting:
Because everyone knows that a zombie's eyes are always empty.
chapter Sleepwalk, page 311
First sentence(s):
Introduction to Sketch was held in Prebble Hall, a building professor McIntosh called "Ballister's dirtiest secret" during our first class.
In the male-dominated field of animation, Mel Vaught and Sharon Kisses are a dynamic duo, the friction of their differences driving them: Sharon, quietly ambitious but self-doubting; Mel, brash and unapologetic, always the life of the party. Best friends and artistic partners since the first week of college, where they bonded over their working-class roots and obvious talent, they spent their twenties ensconced in a gritty Brooklyn studio. Working, drinking, laughing. Drawing: Mel, to understand her tumultuous past, and Sharon, to lose herself altogether.
Now, after a decade of striving, the two are finally celebrating the release of their first full-length feature, which transforms Mel’s difficult childhood into a provocative and visually daring work of art. The toast of the indie film scene, they stand at the cusp of making it big. But with their success come doubt and destruction, cracks in their relationship threatening the delicate balance of their partnership. Sharon begins to feel expendable, suspecting that the ever-more raucous Mel is the real artist. During a trip to Sharon’s home state of Kentucky, the only other partner she has ever truly known—her troubled, charismatic childhood best friend, Teddy—reenters her life, and long-buried resentments rise to the surface, hastening a reckoning no one sees coming.
A funny, heartbreaking novel of friendship, art, and trauma, The Animators is about the secrets we keep and the burdens we shed on the road to adulthood.
My two-bits:
Loved this story of friendship, collaboration, and life of two artists in the animation business.
Got me thinking of the life of artists, their creations, their transitions and their inspirations.
* part of Tournament of Books 2018 (here)
