‘Devil in the White City’ Ordered to Series at Hulu, Keanu Reeves to Star

This is a ripped-from-the-headlines type story that doesn’t aim for thriller entertainment but rather the real life ways being a part of an industry steeped in rape culture sneaks up on you. Sarah Lai went from up-and-coming producer to teaching film at a small college. It’s not the life she had wanted for herself but she’s left Hollywood and it is what it is — until a journalist asks to speak to her. He’s interviewing everyone who’s worked with a particular film producer over allegations of sexual assault. Lai is hesitant to speak but meets with him telling pieces of her story, revealing to the reader what it was like to be an assistant and then producer in an industry that celebrates the “boy’s club”. If you like going deep into a business (how films get made from start to finish), this is a well done look at rape culture that keeps the majority of things off page, focusing instead on the way we’re intentionally taught to not notice the red flags around us. The audiobook is narrated by Katie Leung and really made me feel like I was listening to Lai tell me the story of her time in film production.

(TW conversations about teen with eating disorder/ attempted sexual assault on page/ rumors, accusations, assumptions of sexual assault)

Here’s a fun thriller tipping its hat at horror tropes without being a horror novel. It’s also for fans of a story inside a story. Adele Rafferty ran away from her home in Ireland to L.A. hoping to put a bad filming experience behind her. But a call to replace an actress in a movie set to start filming right now makes her think this could be her final chance to be a star. So back home she goes to a film set in the middle of the woods to film a horror film. But from the start, things don’t feel right and she doesn’t know who to trust and she’s out in the middle of nowhere…

(TW sexual harassment, groping / attempted murder suicide)