Seduction Theory, Emily Adrian
Seduction Theory, Emily Adrian
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Seduction Theory
A Novel

Author: Emily Adrian

Narrator: Jennifer Pickens

Unabridged: 5 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/12/2025


Synopsis

When two married professors tiptoe toward infidelity, their transgressions are brought to light in a graduate student’s searing thesis project.

Simone is the star of Edwards University’s creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. According to Simone and Ethan, and everyone on campus, their marriage is perfect. That is, until Ethan sleeps with the department administrative assistant, Abigail, and the couple’s faith in their flawless relationship is rattled.

Simone, meanwhile, has secrets of her own. While Ethan’s away for the summer, she grows inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta “Robbie” Green. In Robbie, Simone finds a new running partner, confidante, and disciple—or so she believes. Behind Simone’s back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor’s marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail, and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may—or may not—be the truth.

Simultaneously provocative and tender, Seduction Theory exposes the intoxicating nature of power and attraction, and is a masterful demonstration of how love and betrayal can coexist

About Emily Adrian

Emily Adrian is the author of several novels, including Everything Here Is under Control. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Emily currently lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with her husband, her son, and her dog named Hank.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jessica on June 15, 2025

3.5 stars. I can already tell this is going to be one of those reviews where I enjoyed the book but everything I say is a criticism. Apologies to this book. Its greatest strength is also a weakness. There is a playfulness to the perspective and structure that makes it a real page turner in the first......more

Goodreads review by lauren‎♡₊˚ 🦢・₊✧ on August 28, 2025

this is one of those books where you either get it or you dont. i absolutely got it and LOVED IT! the author definitely has a very unique way of writing and it starts to make more sense as you read the book. the story is told from the pov of the student, robbie, since it is her dissertation paper, a......more

Goodreads review by Jill on July 06, 2025

Seduction Theory at first glance appeared to offer a checklist of things I like in a book. Academic setting? Check! Student-professor infatuation with infidelity thrown in? Check! Psychological complexity in the form of a toxic student who becomes obsessed with her advisor and absorbs details of her......more

Goodreads review by Meagan✨ on August 13, 2025

Audiobook 🎧 This one was… complicated for me. The premise pulled me in right away a layered exploration of relationships, boundaries, and the messy, blurry places in between but the execution didn’t completely land for me. I appreciated how Adrian isn’t afraid to tackle uncomfortable topics head-on, a......more

Goodreads review by Greekchoir on August 27, 2025

While reading this book I kept remembering how last year there was a twitter thread that went viral saying something along the lines of “Okay everyone complains about all these MFA novels about academics sleeping with their students but name ONE” and people named more than one and this, too, is one.......more


Quotes

“Adrian’s clear sighted, blistering prose always leaves me out of breath, nervously laughing and turning the page, excited and a little scared by what she's going to say next. Seduction Theory nails the campus satire with savagery and grace, and it’s clear that Adrian is a major talent."—Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen and Margo's Got Money Troubles

"Seduction Theory is a deliriously smart, funny, sexy, page-turner in which Emily Adrian upcycles the postmodern love triangle plot into a novel of ideas. Her wayward academics raise provocative questions about truth, desire, power, obsession, and what it really means to live a shared life. There are welcome resonances with novels such as Andrew Martin’s Early Work and Christine Smallwood’s The Life of the Mind, with enough Nabokov in the mix to keep you on your toes to the last page, at which point you’ll likely do what I did: let out a shocked and gleeful scream."—Justin Taylor, author of Reboot

"With sparkling wit and striking formal ingenuity, Emily Adrian's Seduction Theory gives vibrant new life to the marriage-in-crisis novel. I was completely hooked from the first page, and couldn't sleep until I finished it."—Andrew Martin, author of Early Work

"A ferociously clever, funny and compulsive read. Seduction Theory is an absolute gift of a novel, playing with form and expectation in the most exhilarating ways. It's by far and away my favorite book of the year - and probably next year, too."—Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall

"So emotionally honest, clever, and sexy, I really enjoyed Seduction Theory." —Charlotte Mendelson, author of Wife and The Exhibitionist

“Emily Adrian's Seduction Theory is so classy, so cool and so funny. You'll pick it up and find yourself five hours later putting it down finished. It's completely insightful about midlife and marriage, and propulsive too.”—Naomi Wood, author of Mrs. Hemingway