Author Janelle Brown will be reading from her latest book, I'll Be You, answering questions and staying after for a signing at Woodside Library on Sunday, May 1 at 1:00 PM. This author talk will be a hybrid event. We welcome you to join us in person at Woodside Library or online via a Facebook livestream.
To join the livestream, visit our San Mateo County Libraries Facebook, opens a new window page. Copies of Janelle's books will be available on site and online through the Foundation for San Mateo County Libraries, opens a new window. Feel free to submit your questions by April 30th here, opens a new window.
From the bestselling author of Pretty Things, Janelle Brown’s I’ll Be You is a story packed with surprising revelations and sharp insights about the choices that define our families and our lives—and could just as easily destroy them.
About I’ll Be You
As children, Sam and Elli were inseparable. Beautiful identical twin sisters attached at the hip, they began their Hollywood careers together, oftentimes playing the same role—and sometimes each other. Now adults, they’ve drifted apart: Sam is a recovering addict and Elli a seemingly devoted homemaker.
But then Elli goes to a spa retreat and stops answering her phone. After Sam’s destructive behavior fractured the unwavering trust Sam and Elli always had in each other, Elli hasn’t spoken to her in over a year. So when Sam’s father calls to say that Elli’s husband has moved out and they need help caring for Elli’s daughter while she’s gone, Sam is shocked. Elli has a daughter?
Now caring for a niece she never knew existed, Sam is on a mission to find out where Elli has disappeared to. Is her new women’s self-help group to blame? Could it possibly be a cult? As Sam investigates her sister’s secrets, she comes to realize that Elli was more complicated than she ever imagined.
Praise for Janelle Brown and I’ll Be You
Bestseller Brown (Pretty Things) infuses this twist-packed mystery with an intense story of creating one’s identity, rife with deep family trauma and a low-key, creepy depiction of the dark side of twin intimacy…The perfectly paced emotional reveals of the twins’ shared history pull the reader toward fierce investment in Elli’s safety and the sisters’ reconnection. Brown has upped her game with this one.—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Janelle Brown is a terrific storyteller and stylist, and I’ll Be You is one of those books you’ll devour. It has a hot mess of a narrator—actually two hot messes, twins—both of whom you will root for, even as you are screaming at them to get a grip. Also? The novel has more twists and turns than the canyon roads that snake up and around Los Angeles. —Chris Bohjalian (The Flight Attendant, Hour of the Witch)
Janelle Brown has done it again, creating a deliciously twisty page-turner you won’t be able to put down. But I’ll Be You is much more than a riveting thriller; it’s a powerful and moving portrait of the fiercely tenacious bonds of familial love. With her trademark beautiful writing, depth of emotion, and sharp insights, Brown explores the dangers that lurk behind the seductive worlds of Hollywood child stardom and self-help culture. I loved this novel. —Angie Kim (Miracle Creek)
Absolutely delicious…Janelle Brown is a surgeon of the complex relationships between women. I gobbled this up. —Emma Straub (All Adults Here)
About the Author
Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything and This Is Where We Live. An essayist and journalist, she has written for Vogue, The New York Times, Elle, Wired, Self, Los Angeles Times, Salon and more. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two children.
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