The Golden Spoon

Stella Velasquez enters Bake Week at a crucial turning point in her life. After surviving a sexual assault by her employer, Stella quit her job as a journalist and turned to Bake Week to escape from financial pressure and emotional turmoil. The TV show reminded her that she had been comforted as a child in foster care by Betsy Martin’s cookbooks. Stella hopes to connect with Betsy during the competition, fantasizing about becoming friends with her hero. However, the strange setting of Grafton Manor and the pressures of the competition exacerbate Stella’s anxiety.

Stella struggles with breads and pies, staying in the competition only because Peter and Gerald are sabotaged. After witnessing the seduction of a fellow contestant named Hannah by judge Archie Morris, Stella becomes enraged over the similarities to her sexual abuse and finds a renewed purpose in exposing Archie. Emboldened by her newfound drive to protect survivors of sexual abuse, Stella confronts Archie and defends Hannah physically. Stella and Hannah bond over their shared trauma as survivors and their shared role in Archie’s death. Meanwhile, Stella comes to terms with the fact that everything she had admired about Betsy was an act—a realization that frees her from some of her baking anxiety. Through the competition, Stella rediscovers her passion for journalism and learns to manage her anxiety with a new sense of self-confidence.

Twenty-one-year-old Hannah Severson travels from Minnesota to Vermont to accomplish her lifelong dream of winning Bake Week and escaping her small town. Despite her boyfriend Ben’s support, Hannah longs to live independently and vows to achieve her goal of fame and success by any means necessary. Determined to accomplish her goal and unhappy with her current life, Hannah proclaims to herself, “I am so close to becoming just who I want to be” (129). She enters the competition with no desire to forge relationships with the other contestants and views them as rivals. Hannah views Stella in particular as a source of her main competition regarding her attractiveness. Consumed by her need to maintain a perfect external appearance, Hannah performs for the cameras and attempts to sway her perception in a positive light. When faced with the opportunity to advance in the competition through an inappropriate relationship with judge Archie Morris, Hannah pounces on the opportunity without considering the manipulative nature of this relationship and its power imbalance.

After acquiescing to Archie’s advances, Hannah grows more desperate to begin a life with Archie whom she believes will offer her a guaranteed road to success. Upon discovering Archie’s manipulation of her, Hannah becomes distressed and learns to accept the help of Stella, a fellow survivor. The two women defend themselves against Archie’s aggression and build an unbreakable bond that unites them as sisters. It is through this relationship with her foil character Stella that Hannah learns the power of sisterhood and escapes The Allure of Fame and Success. Through this newfound vulnerability, Hannah accomplishes her goal of independence and moves to New York to begin her new life as a YouTuber.

A successful entrepreneur, Pradyumna Das travels to Grafton Manor without any particular desire to win Bake Week. Pradyumna seeks only distraction from the depression and boredom that occupy his life. Filled with shame over his easy success early in life, Pradyumna grapples with the greater purpose of his life. He maintains distant relationships with other people and relies on baking as a temporary form of distraction. However, through his growing closeness with fellow contestant Lottie Byrne, Pradyumna begins to realize the power of intimate relationships to find a new purpose in life.

As Lottie attempts to discover the truth about her mother’s disappearance, Pradyumna volunteers to help. While initially motivated by the distraction this quest will provide him, Pradyumna quickly realizes how his relationship with Lottie forces him to confront the ways he has numbed himself with activity and alcohol to avoid addressing his depression. He undergoes a journey of self-discovery that leads him to join Lottie at Grafton Manor and help manage it. By the end of the novel, he finds love with Lottie’s daughter Molly and begins a new life filled with love and purpose.

A former nurse, Lottie Byrne returns to Grafton Manor, her childhood home, to uncover the truth behind her mother’s mysterious disappearance 50 years earlier. Throughout her time at Grafton Manor, Lottie hopes to revive her childhood memories and unlock a deeper understanding of her mother and her origins as a child born out of wedlock. Nurturing and wise, Lottie adopts her role as a maternal figure for her fellow contestants. She values the traditional baking methods of her mother and uses her baking in the competition as a means of reconnecting with her roots. Reserved, Lottie conceals her true identity from Betsy Martin, her childhood playmate and now judge. As the novel progresses, Lottie emboldens and confronts Betsy about their past and her mother’s disappearance. This confrontation leads to Betsy’s confession to Lottie’s mother’s murder and Lottie’s discovery of her father’s identity. As Betsy’s half-sister through their shared paternity, Lottie serves as a foil character to the ambitious and depraved Betsy. While Betsy operates from her desire for fame and success, Lottie follows in her mother’s footsteps and embraces her role as a nurturer. In the end, Lottie finds her place at Grafton Manor as the new owner and ushers in a new era focused on family, community, and love.

A high school math teacher, Gerald Baptiste thrives on preparation. He attacks every challenge with steadfast and meticulous dedication. Ambitious, Gerald enters Bake Week with a desire to win but not for his own glory. Gerald hopes to prove that his methods of preparation and systematic execution are effective. When faced with his abrupt exit from the competition due to sabotage, Gerald chooses to go against his characteristic ways and seek answers to the sabotage that led to his dismissal from the competition. Without a clear plan, Gerald camps out at Grafton Manor for hours to catch the saboteurs in the act. His plans are thwarted by a fall from a crumbling balcony, which leaves Gerald’s quest for justice unresolved. In the final chapters of the novel, Gerald finally finds resolution by receiving justice and discovering the identities of the saboteurs.