You know that little voice in your head that sometimes feeds your insecurity? The voice that whispers maybe you aren’t good enough? In “The Naysayers,” authors Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke explore that concept by creating an alternate world in which people are paid to literally whisper negative thoughts into the heads of those who reside in the “Real World” and are in “danger” of being too happy and secure in their lives.
It’s the same concept author Louise Penny explores in her last two novels when she writes about the legend of the grey wolf and the black wolf that exist inside each of us. The grey wolf represents kindness, compassion, hope and love while the black wolf represents all kinds of negativity, such as anger, envy, and greed. The two wolves fight for power inside every person. When the listener asks which wolf wins, the answer is: the wolf you feed. In this novel, the authors imagine what would happen when only the black wolf is getting fed. The whispers that are inserted into the minds of people from that other world only suggest failure, push insecurities, and question success. There is no room left for positivity, for the grey wolf.
Main character Megan Lowell comes from a line of strong women. Her grandmother was the head of Naysay Inc., and her mother is now the CEO. Her mother never married, and there has been no father figure in Megan’s life. There really hasn’t been much of a mother figure either, as her mother is cold and distant, molding Megan into a successor in a company that thrives on negativity.
The story begins as Megan starts working at Naysay Inc. and has decided to work as a lead whisperer in the Social Media department, whispering to influencers. As she explains to the director of negativity and failure for the company, she wants to influence the influencers. And in one of the many clever observations around real life values and real life events that populate this novel, Megan says, “Forget teachers, I believe it’s the influencers who are shaping young minds in the Real World.” Ouch. (Retired teacher here.)
But her point is well made. Megan has done her homework and explains that social media “does an excellent job of making people anxious and depressed.” If whisperers are getting into the minds of the influencers, that could evoke real negative change. By destroying the confidence of those who have a huge audience, the result is a huge demand for products that purport to make anxious people feel better. Products sold by companies that pay Naysayer Inc. generously for their services.
But when Megan’s influencer client falls in love with the author client of her coworker Ben, they find that not only are the sparks lighting up around Lily and Jasper, but between Megan and Ben. Megan was always determined to not “stoop” to romantic entanglements, but she doesn’t quite know what to do with all the emotions she is feeling around Ben. And as the attraction between them heats up, they begin to feel guilty keeping Lily and Jasper apart and basically ruining their lives as they do so.
The story is extremely clever, and the observations about how we allow social media to affect our feelings of self-worth are spot on. The company must jump in when a person’s vulnerability index reaches a certain point. I loved the various references to real life events such as when the team is discussing Jasper and how to attack his self-esteem. One person says his he doesn’t seem to be the same guy as “the guy who had one of the highest vulnerability indexes we’ve seen since Rudy Giuliani booked Four Seasons Total Landscaping company for a press conference.”
The authors also did their research into how love and sexual arousal affect the brain. They turn off the part of the brain that we use for critical thinking and rational thought. Drug addicts’ brains light up the same way as those who are in the throes of attraction. So when that happens to Lily and Jasper, it’s more difficult for Megan and Ben to get their whispers to stick. Lily and Jasper aren’t thinking rationally.
In addition to the extremely creative plot and world building and the sweet romance between both the Real World couple Lily and Jasper and the Naysay world couple Megan and Ben, there are some hard truths about the world we live in and the deleterious effects of social media. They point out that we don’t call people anymore, we just text. Instead of having conversations about politics or social issues, we use memes. Anxiety in the real world is through the roof. Those are all, at least in part, due to the pervasive effects of social media and news in thirty-second long sound bites.
Is the book also somewhat autobiographical in the discouraging whispers that Ben uses with Jasper, the author? Those horribly pointed barbs that Ben aims at Jasper seem perfectly attuned to what authors might think. And yes, the authors told me that, in general, those represent some of the negative thoughts that swirl in their own heads at times. There’s a lot to process after reading this novel that is at times humorous, at times poignant, and at times, perhaps, uncomfortably realistic. The next time the little voice inside your head turns negative, think about who is doing the whispering. Naysayer? The black wolf? Don’t listen!
This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.