In Blue Angel, Jamie Brenner ventures into bold new territory, exploring desire, performance and the transformative power of self-discovery. At the center of the novel is Mallory, a young woman whose carefully mapped future begins to unravel after a visit to a burlesque club that challenges everything she thought she knew about herself. Through a cast of unforgettable women, Brenner examines confidence, intimacy, ambition and the courage it takes to break free from expectations. We spoke with Brenner about creating the world of the Blue Angel, writing a sexual awakening without rules and the characters who surprised her most along the way.
The Blue Angel burlesque club is a place that reveals who people truly are. Was that always your intention, to make the club a kind of mirror for Mallory’s inner life?
The Blue Angel is, for Mallory, a wake-up call. (We all need one of those every once and a while.) It’s a place that initially makes her uncomfortable. She’s annoyed, wondering why her boyfriend brought her. But once the dancers unfurl on stage in all their costumed glory, she’s intrigued. She’s thrilled in a way that shocks her. Mallory walks in the door of the Blue Angel a person and leaves another. I believe certain places can have that power over us, and I wanted the club to be an Alice in Wonderland/down the rabbit hole experience for Mallory and the reader.
Mallory begins the novel as a rule-follower shaped entirely by her family’s expectations — debate team captain, law school, and a carefully planned future. What drew you to writing a character whose self-discovery comes not through a career reinvention, but through her own body and sensuality?
Sex scenes can advance character and plot as much as any other tool in the writing kit. I learned that by reading books by Judith Krantz and Jackie Collins. But sexual awakenings aren’t something I feel “allowed” to fully explore in commercial women’s fiction. I wrote Blue Angel without thinking about rules, and that freedom led me to Mallory. Her evolution is unlike any other character I’ve written in over a dozen novels.
Bette Noire is a fascinating figure. She never reveals her real name; she speaks of love like it’s a myth, and yet she becomes Mallory’s most transformative relationship. How did you develop her, and did you always intend her to remain somewhat unknowable?
Bette Noire is a composite of all the performers I met at burlesque clubs in New York City and LA. I interviewed many of them and even spent time backstage just like Mallory. (But unlike Mallory, I never made it on stage.) Collectively, these women represented audacity, creativity, self-possession, and fearlessness. For Blue Angel, I needed a character with endless confidence to contrast with Mallory’s self-doubt. Of course, no one is endlessly confident. For Bette, I simply chose not to show that side of her. And that’s why she seems mysterious.
Poppy LaRue begins as almost a villain and ends up finding genuine love with Patricia, of all people, while also becoming Mallory’s unlikely champion. How did you develop her journey, and when did you know she’d end up where she does?
This happens almost every time I write a “bad” female character: I fall in love with her, and she changes from pit bull to Goldendoodle. Poppy is driven by insecurity and jealousy — two very destructive emotions. And these feelings make her behave badly. But love can be the antidote to those dark impulses, and that’s the power of romance — and romance novels.
Mallory’s relationship with Alec is complicated throughout — she loves him deeply but also feels unseen and not enough for him. The resolution comes not through a grand conversation, but through a shared erotic experience. What does that say about how you see intimacy functioning in relationships?
Sex can be the greatest bond or the biggest wedge. Either way, people should never compromise what feels just to hold onto someone. And that’s what Mallory grapples with when Alec starts pushing her sexual boundaries. When she turns the tables on him – becoming more adventurous than he can handle – it threatens their relationship.
Agnes, the former Warsaw ballerina who runs the Blue Angel, is in many ways the novel’s moral compass — she has the strictest rules and the most exacting standards, and she’s the one who ultimately offers Mallory a home. What does Agnes represent to you in the larger story?
Every book I write has an older woman. She is the holder of wisdom — the “mother” character. We all need Mother, but we often don’t listen to her until doing it our own way fails. Agnes is the standard-bearer. She reminds all of us that performance is a craft, burlesque is art, and life is what we make of it.
