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A satirical Hollywood horror-romance novel is set to release next year from Hanover Square Press and debut author Clare Ogawa.
The book, titled “This Town Will Eat you Alive,” follows an assistant who learns the movie
exec she works for is turning into a tentacled monster that eats women alive. While obviously fictitious, the work is based on Ogawa’s own experiences as an assistant in show biz and Ogawa is writing under a pseudonym in order to maintain her anonymity while she’s still working within the industry.
Releasing July 6, 2027, “This Town Will Eat You Alive” follows Frankie Meyers, who has one goal: To claw her way to the top of Hollywood and become an Oscar-winning producer. But for now, she’s stuck as the assistant to Lee Becker, famous studio head and infamously horrible boss.
Per the book’s synopsis, “Frankie is willing to endure Lee’s angry rants and impossible requests because he’s her golden ticket to the top — but her ambitions are derailed when she discovers that girls are going missing around him. Everyone knows about Lee’s reputation, but her digging uncovers something far worse than the usual Hollywood misogyny. Lee Becker is transforming into something monstrous and tentacled at night. Something with a voracious appetite for blondes. Frankie figures she’s probably safe since she’s half-Japanese and not his usual type, but she still needs to stop him. And when his son, Blue Becker, also learns the truth, she’s happy to have help from someone who believes that there’s something left of Lee to save. But when girls continue to disappear despite their efforts, Frankie and Blue must choose between their own desires and stopping the monster for good.”
The North American rights to the book were acquired by Hanover Square Press’s Dina Davis in a preempt from Jenny Bent at her eponymous agency.
Hanover Square Press provided the following bio for the pen-name author behind “This Town Will Eat You Alive”: Clare Ogawa is a Gen-Z mixed Japanese-American author. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where by day, she works in Hollywood. While not quite as absurd or grisly as the events in ‘This Town Will Eat You Alive,’ her personal experiences starting as an assistant and working her way up to executive in the weird and wonderful film industry inspired this horror novel.
“Like a lot of young people, I only started working in the industry after the #MeToo movement, and I had no idea what to expect,” Ogawa said. “What sort of behavior was labeled acceptable or not anymore? What if someone escaped the movement when they shouldn’t have? Would they actually change their behavior, or would they just hide it better? Making the boss a literal monster was a way to externalize all of those fears. It also provides an interesting conundrum for a young female protagonist entering an industry with full knowledge of its fraught history. There’s a tension between knowing what’s already been exposed, the aspiration of what the industry should be, and the reality of what it still takes to get ahead.”
