Kiss Me First

Starred review from March 25, 2013
Moggach’s impressive debut, a gripping psychological thriller, is all the more disturbing for its plausibility. Introverted nerd Leila finds a group of friends of sorts after discovering Red Pill, a Web discussion list that debates philosophical matters in a Randian fashion. For the first time, Leila has people who care what she thinks. Among them is Red Pill’s founder, Adrian. After he builds up Leila’s confidence, making her feel like she’s something special, he asks her to perform a disturbing act: he wants her to take over the online life of Tess, a troubled woman who plans to commit suicide without letting anyone know. As Leila immerses herself in Tess’s life in preparation to take it over via Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail, she becomes increasingly attached to the task, relishing creating an imaginary life—not realizing that Adrian’s motivations for the identity theft are vastly different than they appear to be. Moggach’s skill in plotting means readers won’t anticipate the twists and turns built into the story, making for an intensely enjoyable reading experience. Memorable and fast-moving. Agent: Anthony Topping, Greene & Heaton (U.K.).

April 15, 2013
Moggach's debut draws the reader into a series of events that bring together three very disparate individuals and puts them into a bizarre game of chance and deceit. Leila's father left before she was born, and her mother died when she had barely reached young adulthood. Sheltered, socially inept and almost friendless, she secures a job testing software out of the home Leila bought herself: a run-down apartment over an Indian restaurant in Rotherhithe, in Southeast London. But things all change when Leila joins a philosophical discussion group on a website known as Red Pill and is befriended by the site's owner, an American named Adrian. Leila is elevated to one of the site's most trusted commenters, and soon, Adrian approaches Leila with a proposition. Would she pretend to be someone else online for about six months in order to cover up the woman's pending suicide? The woman in question is a dark-haired, hypnotic gamine who entrances men and has many friends, basically the opposite of Leila. Tess, as she is known, has some emotional issues and doesn't want anyone else to realize she's gone off and killed herself, so she plans to do the deed someplace where her body won't easily be found. Leila agrees and begins to correspond with Tess, learning her friends, habits, speech patterns, likes and dislikes, and history. But then things happen that Leila not only hasn't counted upon, but also isn't prepared to handle, and everything starts to tilt, changing the way Leila views what she's doing and the people who are important to both women's lives. In Leila, Moggach has drawn a young woman who is convincingly naive in the ways of the world and incapable of making good decisions. The story crackles with tension until the end, when it inexplicably runs out of steam. An interesting first book that manages to incorporate technology into a sexy psychological thriller that holds the reader's attention until it reaches the oddly tame ending.

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July 1, 2013
Moggach's taut psychological thriller opens with a video conversation between Leila, a socially isolated twentysomething, and Tess, glamorous and pushing 40. As the pages fly by, Moggach reveals that Leila has been recruited by Aiden, the mysterious owner of a website that focuses on philosophical discussion, to impersonate Tess online so that Tess can commit suicide without her friends and family being any wiser. Leila finds Tess to be quite different from her. She's impulsive, worldly, more than a bit flighty, and genuinely determined to end her own life. After months of communication, Tess hands the reins to her online life over to Leila, and Leila crafts a fictional new chapter for Tess, thousands of miles away on a remote Canadian island. She also communicates with Tess' friends via e-mail, but when an old boyfriend, Connor, makes contact to try to resume his relationship with Tess, Leila finds their correspondence chipping away at her impartiality with the most unexpected result: she's falling in love with him. Moggach's debut is a compulsively readable, complex character study.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2013

London-based debut author Moggach has dreamed up a nice chiller. Shy Leila comes into her own when she stumbles upon the website Red Pill, which hosts ethical debates. Soon Red Pill founder Adrian asks her to be part of Project Tess, and she's communicating regularly with the sophisticated but troubled woman. The creepy part? Soon, in a case of identity theft writ large, Leila will be expected to become Tess.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2013

Bipolar thirtysomething Tess, still unable to manage her illness with meds, wants to die. Charismatic libertarian Adrian Dervish, founder of the website forum Red Pill, offers a means that will cause minimal pain to her loved ones left behind: Tess will say she's moving away to start a new life, and a well-prepared surrogate will continue Tess's life online with family and friends for months, as Tess gradually fades away. The surrogate selected by Adrian through his website is socially awkward Leila, long isolated by caring for her MS-stricken mother, who has just died. Assuming another person's identity proves to entail pleasure as well as risks, as Leila's tasks take unexpected turns and details of her own mother's death leak out. VERDICT First novelist Moggach presents an intriguing thesis with some solid plot twists and sound characterizations, but the level of suspense is lower than one might expected and peters out at the end. However, enough skill is shown that perhaps Moggach's second effort will be the charm. [See Prepub Alert, 2/1/13.]--Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.