Give Me Everything You've Got - by Imogen Crimp (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Hot to the touch, a seductive modern gothic about a promising young filmmaker at a famous director's summer home

In the midst of an unrelenting heat wave, up-and-coming filmmaker Ruby arrives at the summer home of her idol. Ellen, an iconoclastic feminist director known for mentoring other women, has offered Ruby a room of her own while she finishes her screenplay. Pitching Ruby as the next big thing, producers are clamoring for a "female story" mined from her past, and the deadline is fast approaching.

When Ruby arrives in the countryside, Ellen's house emerges like something out of a dream--grand and imposing, surrounded by sprawling gardens and a shimmering swimming pool. But tension thrums beneath the picture-perfect surface. Ellen's reputation is under fire after she's accused of appropriating a story that wasn't hers to tell. Meanwhile, Ellen's mercurial daughter, Lara, lounges by the pool under the blistering sun, drawing her mother's latest houseguest toward her like a moth to a flame.

As her aspirational summer of artistic retreat unravels, Ruby finds herself entangled in an all-consuming relationship, waiting for the heat to break. Even the house itself begins to feel haunted, and Ruby has the unnerving sensation that she's not the first promising young woman to fall under its spell.

Hot to the touch, Imogen Crimp's Give Me Everything You've Got is a spellbinding fever dream of a novel, exploring the dark corners of ambition, exploitation, and what it takes to be a woman artist.

Review Quotes

"Like the best perfumes, Give Me Everything You've Got makes you lean in closer. Classic notes of atmospheric suspense (Rebecca, The Turn of the Screw) linger underneath a woozy blend of ambition, sex, and manipulation. An intriguing and seductive bouquet of a novel."
--Meg Howrey, author of They're Going to Love You

"A mesmerizing treat that takes the reader on a gripping, labyrinthine exploration of power and corrupted feminism. Imogen Crimp executes a stylish and sensuous game of cat and mouse, as elegant as it is disturbing."
--Aisling Rawle, author of Good Morning America Book Club pick The Compound

Praise for A Very Nice Girl

"Absorbing and gripping . . . Like Raven Leilani's Luster, Naoise Dolan's Exciting Times, or Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends."
―The Guardian

"Crimp [is] channeling the Sally Rooney style: interior and complex, but also unafraid to incorporate corporeal forces among all the others that govern us."
―Vogue

"Enthralling . . . A Rooney-esque exploration of power and class in women's relationships."
―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Imogen Crimp's enjoyable debut novel . . . is an all-too-real reminder of what it is to be a woman in your 20s, searching for who you are, trying on identities or stuck in a complicated pseudo-relationship even when you know you shouldn't be. It's a book about assessing your worth through other people's eyes--parents, friends, a lover--and about being observed: by an overprotective mother, by men on the tube, by those who assess her auditions, by classmates competing for her slot, and ultimately by the audience."
--The New York Times

"Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People."
--Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss

"A blazing, darkly funny debut . . . It has an honesty and tenderness that will stay with me for a long time."
--Rachel Joyce, New York Times bestselling author of Miss Benson's Beetle and The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

"Transfixing from the start, A Very Nice Girl steals the show. Gorgeous prose, bone-dry humor and brutally shrewd observations make Imogen Crimp's debut sing in this perilous love story about a talented young woman learning to wield her voice. Intimate and intoxicating, A Very Nice Girl absolutely dazzles."
--Beck Dorey-Stein, New York Times bestselling author of From the Corner of the Oval

"In A Very Nice Girl, Imogen Crimp explores complicated relationships, the creative life, and the challenges of your twenties, with precision and subtlety. Touching on feminism, power, finances, and the pleasures and dangers of a new relationship, this book is an assured debut."
--Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground

"An exquisitely detailed novel--Crimp absolutely nails the intricate inner workings of the opera world. Humorous, biting, and unnervingly honest, the story explores one young woman's path to finding herself."
--Addie Woolridge, author of The Checklist

"Imogen Crimp captures the glittering thrill of being young and choosing your own life with a dark, unflinching undercurrent of desire, power and control."
--Jessica Andrews, author of Saltwater

About the Author