People Are Talking
By (Author) Amanda Eisenberg
Three Rooms Press
Three Rooms Press
30th July 2025
United States
General
Fiction
Narrative theme: Social issues
Contemporary lifestyle fiction
Winner of New York Press Club Political Reporting, Internet 2021 (United States)
Paperback
336
Width 139mm, Height 209mm
Desperate to find a plot for her second novel, author Mallory Shepard attends her estranged best friend's wedding in Austin, where she and six friends try to settle old scores-with unexpected deadly consequences-in this debut for fans of Veronica Mars, Tara Isabella Burton, and Tana French.
Mallory Shepard has her back against the wall. Her girlfriend dumped her, her landlord wants to evict her and her literary agent is about to drop her-unless she can come up with a compelling follow-up to her debut novel. A book deal would solve her problems, which is why she agrees to attend an estranged college friend's wedding in Texas. It'll be the first time she's seen that friend group since an incident tore them apart eight years earlier, and Mal intends to squeeze her ex-friends for information. The plan is nearly foolproof, except that her anger problem threatens to expose her agenda, as does her weakness for her college nemesis: Andrew Rosen.
Danit Leibowitz is-was-Mal's best friend. Together they transformed the Newts, a secret society, into a group that tracks alleged rapists long after they graduated from the prestigious halls of Weston College. Now a rising lefty political star, Dani is asked to come up with another plan to reinvent the Newts, which Gen Z deems out of touch amid ever-changing gender and sex politics. When she learns Mal will be there, Dani hatches a plan to appease the Newts and win back her friend, all in 72 hours.
Crammed into an Austin rental for the weekend, the six friends seek to settle old scores and win back ex-friends and lovers. But when the Newts infiltrate the wedding, with deadly consequences, Mal and Dani are forced to consider whether they're willing to separate the personal from the political-even at the expense of protecting the people they love.
Amanda Eisenberg is a writer and adjunct professor based in Manhattan. An award-winning journalist, her writing has been featured in Politico, InStyle, and the Washington Post, among other outlets. She has written extensively about women's health issues, with a focus on health care access and sexual misconduct. Amanda grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, and graduated from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. People Are Talking is her debut novel.