A wildly original novel that pulses with heart and truth . . . That this powerful exploration of friendship, desire, ambition, and secrets manages to be ebullient, gripping, heartbreaking, and deeply deeply funny is a testament to Kayla Rae Whitaker's formidable gifts. I was so sorry to reach the final page. Sharon and Mel will stay with me for a very long time. -Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest Unusual and appealing . . . The Animators covers familiar debut-novel territory: the search for identity, the desire for success, the bewildering experiences of small-town misfits leaving home for the bright lights of New York City. But Whitaker turns these motifs on their heads simply by changing the direction of the road and populating it with women. - The New York Times Book Review A mix of Beaches , Girls , and Thelma & Louise . . . a 'complicated,' 'sensual, sexy,' raw nerve of a 'roller coaster' through a 'tumultuous' friendship . . . If you let this story happen to you, you're gonna love it. - Glamour The Animators is inspiring in its freshness and its authenticity, one of the most original and raw books I've read in a long time. I look forward to more Whitaker novels to add to my library. - The Dallas Morning News A compulsively readable portrait of women as incandescent artists and intimate collaborators. - Elle Smart, funny, and vibrant, beautifully capturing the intricacies of friendship . . . a vital read. - Nylon An engrossing, exuberant ride through all the territories of love-familial, romantic, sexual, love of friends, and, perhaps above all, white-hot passion for the art you were born to make . . . I wish I'd written The Animators . -Emma Donoghue, author of Room and The Wonder The Animators is a heartbreakingly beautiful, sharply funny, arrestingly unforgettable novel about love and genius, the powerful obsessiveness of artistic creation, and the equally powerful undertow of the past. Kayla Rae Whitaker writes like her head is on fire. -Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author of The Great Man [A] tender, lively début . . . [Kayla Rae] Whitaker's nimbly created characters are as vibrant as the novel's title suggests. - The New Yorker Abiding friendships . . . are rarely portrayed with such nuance and humor as in this first novel, a nimble comedic turn edged with shadow. - O: The Oprah Magazine Memorable, sure-handed, and absorbing. - The Boston Globe Brimming with electricity . . . Whitaker has crafted one of 2017's first page-turners. - Paste Well-wrought and evocative . . . [Mel and Sharon's] partnership, which is at once fervent and wonderfully unsentimental, gives The Animators its soul. -The Washington Post This novel is the holy grail; it's the rare novel that explores and examines the deep friendship and professional lives of two women [and] keeps that focus. - The Baltimore Sun Difficult to forget long after finishing the last few pages . . . [This breakout novel] fills a literary gap, which has been waiting for a tale of millennial female friendship and love without tacky genre borders or stereotypes. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [An] outstanding debut . . . Whitaker skillfully charts the creative process, its lulls and sudden rushes of perfect inspiration. And in the relationship between Mel and Sharon, she has created something wonderful and exceptional: a rich, deep, and emotionally true connection that will certainly steal the hearts of readers. - Publishers Weekly (starred review) Unexpected and nuanced and pulsing with life . . . Sweeping and intimate . . . Empathetic but never sentimental; a book that creeps up on you and then swallows you whole. - Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Kayla Rae Whitaker writes breathlessly and beautifully about the power of deep, true friendship and the ways in which people-and friendships-change over the years. . . . Mel and Sharon jump off the page as sakriti opis