Frida Slattery As Herself by Ana Kinsella
Harper Collins Publishers
Published May 5, 2026
Have you ever formed a friendship in youth that felt so magnetic that it seemed predetermined? A feeling of one soul calling to another, so much so that you know your life's course has changed just by meeting them? Frida Slattery As Herself, Ana Kinsella's hefty debut novel, takes on this theme in a modern romance set before, during, and after the era of #MeToo.
In 2006, hopeful actor Frida Slattery meets a slightly older and more successful director and playwright, John Reddan, in a pub in Dublin, Ireland. Both are trying to find a path to success in the world of Irish theater. Over the next 15 years, their journey takes them to London, New York, and Los Angeles. Young and spouting the pretentious patter of artists newly graduated from university, they are at times exhausting enough to make the eyes roll. Luckily, they grow out of it and into multifaceted adults as time goes on.
Told from two perspectives, John and Frida's voices give us an intimate map of their worlds. Kinsella has a way of reporting on their personal quirks and making them entirely relatable. "Sometimes when Frida left the room on Capel Street, stepping out into the dark evening, she found she could walk for streets and streets before she remembered who she was, or where she was going."
As they journey through the highs and lows, the characters take on a satisfying depth. By the end of the book, I truly felt that I knew both the beautiful and ugly aspects of their makeup. I found I could not completely hate either of them, even as their actions were deeply questionable.
John and Frida's connection wanders from that of muse and artist into one of collaboration, in which the lines of creative ownership are as messy and undefined as their love affair. Many things are called into question as Frida and John ebb and flow through one another's lives. Through Kinsella's lens, their actions, past and present, take on completely different meanings as the #MeToo movement cuts through the entertainment industry. Kinsella's description of the pandemic and all the emotional turmoil it wrought feels like a time capsule of accuracy. At times, the connection between John and Frida oscillates between love and hate and, maybe, codependency. "She had thought that the thing that linked them after all this time was gossamer thin, delicate as silk. John was treating it like the heavy coil of rope that kept the ocean liner attached to the dock."
Though the book is over 500 pages, my interest and investment in their story remained steadfast. There is a satisfaction in how well I knew these characters by the final page. An insider's view of the theater world and the film industry, Frida Slattery As Herself is an absorbing deep dive into two lives connected by art and love, and by the end we may not know the difference.
