For the first 10 chapters, the novel hooks the reader in the manner of a conventional “whodunit”—the reader is given a brutal murder of a celebrity husband and a stunning trophy wife, who stands to inherit millions, actually holding the murder weapon over the body yet claiming her innocence. The traditional conventions are set in motion: The reader is set up to expect an investigation, numerous leads and dead ends, and ultimately a revelation. Just as the reader settles in for a murder mystery, Part 2 moves to Toronto and introduces an entirely new set of characters centered on a troubled young girl named Joey Reyes. Within these chapters, the narrative recounts different traumatic moments in Joey’s childhood and adolescence. The reader is left to wonder where Paris Peralta is and what is happening with the investigation into the bloody murder of the former sitcom superstar.

The novel is something of a supernova in the sense of Paris’s definition of the term. When Drew Malcolm appears at her patio in Seattle from her past, Paris panics. The past and present, she frets, will now fuse—she can no longer keep compartmentalized her dark past and the sustained performance of the present.