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Book: “Better Than Revenge” by Bea Fitzgerald
Publishing Info: Sourcebooks Landmark, August 2026
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from the publisher
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: Their feud made them iconic. One decision made them infamous.
After all, where’s the fun in rivalry if there’s no bloodshed?
Nadine Heywood and Harper Moore have been rivals since their first days at drama school, a feud that has consumed them. A feud more passionate, more clawing than the gossip magazines ever note. Hollywood’s It-Girl versus the acclaimed starlet, caught in an obsession that can only lead to one someone’s downfall.
After beating out Harper in every category for best actress, Nadine believes she has finally done it. She’s won – completely and irrefutably. So why are thoughts of Harper still tormenting her? Why doesn’t victory taste at all sweet?
When a knock at her door reveals Harper covered in blood, Nadine realizes this could be the ultimate opportunity to bring her opponent down. Or change them both forever.
With flashbacks to Harper and Nadine’s infamous in-fighting building toward a murder that makes them iconic, and excerpts of an interview with Nadine for Harper’s upcoming true crime documentary, this is a salacious tale of scandal, ego, and infamy about two frenemies who may be more to each other than they would ever like to admit.
Review: Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark for sending me an ARC of this novel!
Throughout the years I can think of numerous pop culture/Hollywood based ‘feuds’ between famous women that were rooted in some truth but were probably manufactured to an extent to drum up press and attention. For my elder millennial self I think of Hilary Duff vs Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears vs Christina Aguilera, and Jen vs Angelina, all having a grain of truth but all splashed on gossip sites and magazines to the point that SOME of it had to be made up or at least exacerbated. Probably in part due to misogyny and the constant need to pit women against each other. Hell, even today we see people commenting on modern starlets and who is or isn’t in their photos, or how they stand when near each other. I was thinking about this a bit as I read “Better Than Revenge” by Bea Fitzgerald, as two talented young starlets capitalize on their decades long rivalry, the lines between hate and love blur, and one of them ends up murdering someone and seeks out the other for help. How delightfully seedy! I was, of course, on board.
I will say off the bat that this is less of a thriller and more of a soap operatic character study in fame, jealousy, sexism to an extent, and rivalries and how the public LOVES a good rivalry. Our protagonist is Nadine, a movie star whose entire acting life has been entangled with Harper, a former classmate at theater school who is ALSO a huge star…. and whom Nadine has hated for their entire lives as they have been constantly pit against each other by others AND each other. It’s over the top in its constant needling and cattiness, with both Nadine AND Harper being generally insufferable but also just vulnerable enough that I was invested in their entire soapy journey from rivals to enemies to beyond. It is also an interesting take on the way that Hollywood gossip and fame loves a salacious story that will only bring MORE eyes to a person or topic, and how sometimes people take a narrative and lean all the way into it. It’s not really revelatory that celebrity culture and worship comes with perceived heroes and villains and the public enjoys watching a fight, manufactured or not, but this story is still fun watching Nadine and Harper be completely vicious to each other while they very clearly NEED each other in more ways than one.
I kind of wish there was a little bit more on the thiller angle. We don’t get the aforementioned ‘Harper goes to Nadine whilst covered in blood asking for her help’ until we are more than halfway into the story, and while we do get little sprinkles of hints about it throughout the narrative (mostly in the ‘true crime doc’ description interludes, which I did really enjoy), this is first and foremost a book about two women who will do anything tear the other down but who also are dependent on each other as their rivalry spirals and evolves and creates something passionate and incredibly toxic. It’s fun, but the parts around the murder and the cover up were a bit rushed as the story went on and started cyclings towards its conclusion. It’s fun and entertaining but the murder and the fall out takes a back seat to all of Nadine and Harper’s other drama. Not to say that it isn’t enjoyable, because it is. But if you want more of the murder and less of the Sapphic toxic back and forth, just know it leans more into the latter.
Overall, I found “Better Than Revenge” to be fun and the right amount of soapiness that I enjoy.
Rating 7: Soapy and catty with incredibly compelling and unlikable main characters, “Better Than Revenge” is a bit sleazy (in a good way) and a fun thriller, even if there isn’t much of a mystery to be found.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Better Than Revenge” is included on the Goodreads list “August 2026 Queer Releases List”.
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