'Stay Up With Hugo Best is a book that is also described as 'the perfect read for the #MeToo era,' but that isn’t just a platitude.

An outstanding comedic debut about the deeply unfunny trials of growing up in and out of the spotlight. What could be a straightforward novel about a young woman and an older man taking mutual advantage of one another is instead a brilliant study in how rarely we seize opportunities to grow and change for the better-especially if we're lucky enough to get more than one. She mines depths out of Hollywood's propensity to look the other way when beloved men behave badly without a hint of preachiness. “On the surface, Somers' debut is light and breezy, but the narrative is deft, controlled, and deadly smart. Somers is clear-exquisitely, wrenchingly-when articulating Bloom’s lifelong fixation on Best.”

“Incisive, funny, and tinged with melancholy, the timely novel follows two lost but clever souls desperate for connection.” “A zippy debut…June’s quick wit keeps the banter flowing over a bizarre Memorial Day weekend…the millennial and the magnetic celebrity are surprisingly well suited, two sardonic souls who find themselves connecting…magnificent…a devilishly fun ride.” “A witty and subtle commentary on sex, power, and social politics” ( Refinery 29) and “an outstanding comedic debut” ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Stay Up with Hugo Best announces a gloriously irreverent, bold, and winning new voice in fiction. As the weekend unfolds and the enigmatic Hugo gradually reveals appealingly vulnerable facets to his personality, their dynamic proves to be much more complicated and less predictable than June imagined. June, in need of a job and money, but harboring the remains of a childhood crush on the charming older comedian and former role model, is confident she can handle herself. “Incisive, funny, and tinged with melancholy, this timely novel follows two lost but clever souls desperate for connection” ( Entertainment Weekly). When June Bloom, an assistant on the late-night comedy show, Stay Up with Hugo Best, runs into Hugo himself at an open mic following his unexpected retirement, she finds herself fielding a surprising invitation: Hugo asks June to come to his mansion in Greenwich for the long Memorial Day weekend. This is the story of their four days together, a “zippy…magnificent…devilishly fun ride” ( Vogue). Hugo Best is a beloved late-night TV icon and notorious womanizer who invites her to his mansion for Memorial Day weekend. June Bloom is twenty-nine, broke, and an aspiring comedy writer.

St Joseph's University (Brooklyn Voices Series).

Stay Up with Hugo Best by Erin Somers