Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Come & Get It by Kiley Reid

8 reviews

zombiezami's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Racism, Sexual content, Grief, Car accident, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, Eating disorder, Death of parent, and Cultural appropriation

hiddenfallacies's review

challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This novel is hard to describe. Even harder to sell to other people as a recommendation when all you can think to say is "it's really good." So I'll try my best to do so here. 

Come and Get It follows three perspectives over the course of an undergraduate fall semester, with glimpses into the past added as necessary to explain how they got into their current situation. Agatha, a mid-30s journalist working a year of residency at the University of Arkansas. Millie, a super senior RA looking to finish her degree, land a job, and buy a house. And Kennedy, a junior looking for a fresh start as a transfer student. As the innocuous moments of their lives intertwine, a descent towards their ruin begins. Its arrival is sudden and swift, the kind of downfall that makes all too much sense in hindsight. 

The greatest strength of this narrative lies in these characters, who are written so realistically that they feel as if they walked out of your life rather than the mind of Reid. Crafting this kind of realism is supremely difficult, so the fact that even minute dialogue and quirks feel true-to-life is an accomplishment. This makes you, as the reader, feel as if you've truly participated in the scene rather than acted as an observer. 

Rather than construct the plot around traditional forms of conflict, Come and Get It is propelled forward through the interpersonal lives of its characters. At no point does it feel like a scene is wasted, even if it only serves to capture simple moments of life such as dorm conversations or a trip to Target. Although this structure might not work for everyone, I found it a natural extension of its focus on the inner lives and decisions of its main characters.

Themes of class, race, sexuality, and gender are all on display within this novel, engaged with in the same way you'd talk about the subjects with friends - without formality and with a certain level of disdain towards the world. What it has to say is layered and worth discussing. 

If none of this interests you, I urge you to at least give the first chapter or two a go. The writing pulled me in before I realized it - it might do the same for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Self harm, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Professor/Student Relationship

franklola's review against another edition

funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Drug use, Racism, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

sydapel's review

funny lighthearted tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I think Kiley Reid's writing and characters are extremely sharp and insightful, and I enjoyed reading this. However, I agree with other reviewers that there are too many characters in this for the message to come across really clearly. While the interrogation of financial privilege on college campuses is really compelling and something I haven't seen discussed in fiction too much, I think this misses in taking an almost satirical direction with some of it's characters and plot points.  This really creates an ending that feels almost confused and incomplete, which is a shame. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Chronic illness, Infidelity, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and Car accident

emilyatthelibrary's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, and Death of parent

librarianjennifer's review

challenging reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Car accident

kayleighr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! Sadly, this story did not meet my expectations. There were three main characters, and way too many side characters. I kept forgetting who people were and most of the time it didn’t matter because many of the side characters just felt like confusing filler. With so many characters, back stories were introduced that seemingly did not connect to anything at the end. Storylines that had potential to be impactful were introduced so late in the book that they fell completely flat. I did not expect this book to be dark, and I was surprised by some of the character’s choices. I enjoy reading about characters that are do not always make the best decisions, but this fell flat. I enjoyed the diverse characters and the themes related to money, race and sexuality. I think these were well thought out and pushed me to keep reading. I think others may enjoy this book, but overall, it fell flat for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, and Car accident

marinabkat's review

dark reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Come and Get It covers queer and academic race-conscious antics in Arkansas. For fans of Mean Girls, The Colour Purple, Mona Lisa Smile, & Conversations with Friends. The main three characters feel like people I understand deeply, and the hypothetical narratives of situations they all craft are poignant and relatable. This one was definitely a page-turner too! Boiled down a lot of societal dynamics into relationships, in such a way that did feel like I was in on some real gossip. Great job Kiley Reid. 

SPOILERS:

There’s no way that Millie would have told Peyton to put the dishes on Kennedy’s bed. The step in that situation is to actually draft a roommate agreement and get it signed and hold all roommates to it—RAs are trained in mediation strategies like this, and at the time she did it she still cared enough to adhere to helping Peyton, especially. 

The ending scene with Agatha and Tyler in the car pissed me off. I feel like it took a lot away from both of their characterizations though I liked the end product being that Agatha funded her dog being pretty apt/funny. 

I do wish that all the suite mates were pinpointed by where they were in the suite at the beginning of the book—I kept forgetting Jenna and Casey, and then they were really important. 

I wish Aimee’s motivations were fleshed out more—no one would care about an RA this much without some rationale.

ARC NOTES:

In Chapter 5: “The drink like a shot put, deeply lacerate her hand” doesn’t make sense 

In Chapter 5: “Agathas fifty items fit in two” is missing an apostrophe for the possessive 

In Chapter 6: Is brown leg a type of spider or is it literally three legs of one spider? Confusing 

In Chapter 8: “My blood is on cocaine right now” is intended to read immature, but it reads weird and off instead… drug use could be a theme without this 

In Chapter 11: All three words “to be like” should be italicized because that’s what’s distinct and makes the sentence make sense without those words—emphasizes all three words Colette is adding (right now only ‘be’ is italicized) 

In Chapter 16: Consider swapping OB tampons for applicatorless… branding seems unnecessary and the people who don’t know what OB tampons are won’t know that they are applicatorless 

In Chapter 22: When talking about the mom with MS there’s a missing space in ‘been living’ so it’s currently ‘beenliving’ 

In Chapter 29: See? Bad RA. has two periods after it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Fatphobia