Jazzed, Jill Dearman
Jazzed, Jill Dearman
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Jazzed

Author: Jill Dearman

Narrator: Orlagh Cassidy

Unabridged: 9 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/14/2023

Synopsis

Academic geniuses Wilhelmina “Will” Reinhardt and Dorothy “Dolly” Raab become roommates at Barnard in the early 1920s, a time when college for women was a rarity.Socially awkward Will, grieving her mother’s death, is fascinated by Dolly, a beautiful, charming rebel with an insatiable taste for adrenaline. Both musicians come alive at Harlem jazz clubs and Prohibition-era speakeasies.Dazzled by the world they are discovering together, their romance ignites. But while Will is obsessed with Dolly, Dolly is obsessed with crime. The power dynamics keep shifting as Will agrees to commit petty crimes with Dolly in exchange for sexual favors.When the University and their rich families unite to split them up, passions escalate. To strike back at those who deny them the right to be together, they plot another crime: murder.A gender-swapped take on the infamous “Leopold and Loeb” case, Jazzed is part historical fiction, part true crime. Juxtaposing the thrilling scientific breakthroughs in quantum physics and artistic explosion of the Harlem Renaissance with the pseudoscience of eugenics and anti-immigration fervor that also defined the era, the novel mirrors today’s polarized world and moves with the fast-paced rhythm of jazz itself.

About Jill Dearman

Jill Dearman is the author of Bang the Keys: Four Steps to a Lifelong Writing Practice; The Great Bravura, a novel; Feminism: The March toward Equal Rights for Women; as well as Queer Astrology for Men and Queer Astrology for Women. She is a part-time professor of writing at New York University, a writing coach, editor, and astrologist. Visit: JillDearman.com

About Orlagh Cassidy

Orlagh Cassidy, an American actress of stage, television, and film, is an audiobook narrator who has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration, as well as many AudioFile Earphones Awards. She is a graduate of SUNY at Purchase and a recipient of the Princess Grace Foundation Scholarship. She has been seen on and off Broadway and in films, including Definitely Maybe and Calling It Quits. Her television credits include roles in Law & Order and Sex and the City and as Doris Wolfe on Guiding Light.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily on February 15, 2024

An interesting and energetic reimagining of a real life crime fueled by injustice and passion. Fast paced, seductive, and defiant, Jill Dearman tells a story of rebelling against societal restraints, and finding security and courage in the love of another. A very rewarding read. Thank you so much to......more

Goodreads review by Tim on June 08, 2022

Like some brilliant amalgamation of Patricia Highsmith's best work, Mary McCarthy's The Group and the Jazz Age tabloid-crime musical Chicago, JAZZED is a frenetic, scary, erotic, funny and darkly moving thrill ride with two mismatched anti-heroines who completely break the mold of their time and pla......more

Goodreads review by Korey on June 22, 2022

Thank you to BookSirens for the ARC! Jazzed is based on a true-crime story from the 20s about secret lovers, Leopold and Loeb, who committed petty crimes to prove themselves to each other and hatched a grander plan to commit the perfect murder. The author swaps the genders for the re-telling of this......more

Goodreads review by (straw)mary ♡ on June 02, 2022

Thank you to Booksirens and the publishers for providing me with a free digital arc, to leave a voluntary and free review. TRIGGER WARNINGS: homophobia, conversion therapy, racism, misogyny & bigotry, violence, death, obsessive behavior. Disclaimer: This story follows a gender-swapped version of the......more

Goodreads review by Cassandra on July 01, 2022

I’m grateful to BookSirens for the opportunity to review this fascinating work of historical fiction. The twist on the Leopold and Loeb case was an interesting premise and I enjoyed how their personalities remained close to their counterparts despite their characters being portrayed as gay women. Th......more

Quotes

“Dearman’s Jazz Age melodrama…set in a richly atmospheric panorama of New York in the Roaring ’20s…A wildly entertaining and energetic period thriller.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Orlagh Cassidy delivers a strong performance of Jill Dearman’s captivating novel…[and] captures the frenetic Jazz Age and the compelling nature of obsessive love…As Dolly’s compulsion for increasingly risky behavior escalates, Cassidy gives her an irresistible intensity…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” AudioFile

“Rife with authentic period detail and sizzling with complex and obsessive psychological realism, Jazzed will rivet you right through to its haunting final pages.” Tim Murphy, author of Christadora

“An unforgettable duo brimming with murderous passion and lusting for revenge on the society which won’t accept them.” Steven Powell, author of Love Me Fierce in Danger

“[A] thrill ride of a novel. Dearman deftly creates a wild, sexy, and poignant world of Jazz Age Sapphic love, sisterhood, prohibition, booze, freedom, Harlem rent parties, Barnard classrooms, and wealthy Jewish homes.” Carley Moore, author of The Not Wives

Awards

  • AudioFile Earphones Award
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