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izzy_v's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Pedophilia, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
aksmith92's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The setup: Casey Peabody is struggling. It's 1997 - she's in debt from a prestigious school where she intended to play golf on a scholarship, but that fell through. She's now working as a waitress at a fancy restaurant where many Harvard folks go and eat and talk, which usually makes her life a bit challenging. She's also wholly unraveling from her mother's death and a rather love bomb—a fallout from someone whom she developed feelings for quite quickly and thought was reciprocated until it wasn't. On top of that, she's trying to be a writer and seems to be just scraping by.
Casey is battling with the idea that you can be a creative and live happily - she's watched many friends give up their goals and dreams to do something to earn money or continue a status quo. We watch as Casey goes through life navigating the grief of her mother's death, her very complicated relationship with a distant father, working at the restaurant to ensure she pays her bills, trying to write a novel where she seems to get stuck, and navigate dating and falling in love after a rocky relationship. We see Casey trying to get her life together, even as she begins dating two different men and begins to conclude a book. It's about Casey's fictional life; I ate this one up!
What I loved: Lilly King can write a book, that's for sure. I was engrossed in Casey's life, particularly her writing journey and the idea that even back in 1997, living creatively can be painful in America. King could intersect grief, love, family, and mental health very well while still making a realistic story. It was nice to have more of a literary and contemporary fiction novel end on a relatively good note. While this was not a happy story, this book made me feel good, and I appreciated all the nuances King gave Casey and her little bubble of a life.
Lastly, it was satisfying to read a book about a thirty-something who navigated her youth and continued working through some past traumas and journeys as someone more mature. As someone around her age, that felt relatable, and overall, it was done well.
What could've made it five stars: This novel was a trope in itself—a white, sad, broke girl who takes on the city and tries to make it. These types of stories are really hit or miss for me, and while this hit, I still kept thinking about this trope/subgenre. I can't articulate it well, but we've read this story before. However, I will say that just because it has been done before doesn't mean I hated this book by any means.
Additionally, there were times when the writing tried to be a bit too profound, and Casey would go on with metaphors, similes, and analogies. Sometimes it was just a lot.
Lastly, while there was a focus on Casey's mom and how her death impacted her and continued to impact her, I felt disconnected from that narrative a bit because we didn't get a ton of information about the memories with her mom other than a bit of abandonment. It's a minor qualm because overall, I felt that everything was done well, including Casey's grief, but at times, it felt like King put this subplot in there to make Casey even sadder. While acceptable for a novel like this, its execution didn't always feel right.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and look forward to seeing what King puts out in the future!
Casey is battling with the idea that you can be a creative and live happily - she's watched many friends give up their goals and dreams to do something to earn money or continue a status quo. We watch as Casey goes through life navigating the grief of her mother's death, her very complicated relationship with a distant father, working at the restaurant to ensure she pays her bills, trying to write a novel where she seems to get stuck, and navigate dating and falling in love after a rocky relationship. We see Casey trying to get her life together, even as she begins dating two different men and begins to conclude a book. It's about Casey's fictional life; I ate this one up!
What I loved: Lilly King can write a book, that's for sure. I was engrossed in Casey's life, particularly her writing journey and the idea that even back in 1997, living creatively can be painful in America. King could intersect grief, love, family, and mental health very well while still making a realistic story. It was nice to have more of a literary and contemporary fiction novel end on a relatively good note. While this was not a happy story, this book made me feel good, and I appreciated all the nuances King gave Casey and her little bubble of a life.
Lastly, it was satisfying to read a book about a thirty-something who navigated her youth and continued working through some past traumas and journeys as someone more mature. As someone around her age, that felt relatable, and overall, it was done well.
What could've made it five stars: This novel was a trope in itself—a white, sad, broke girl who takes on the city and tries to make it. These types of stories are really hit or miss for me, and while this hit, I still kept thinking about this trope/subgenre. I can't articulate it well, but we've read this story before. However, I will say that just because it has been done before doesn't mean I hated this book by any means.
Additionally, there were times when the writing tried to be a bit too profound, and Casey would go on with metaphors, similes, and analogies. Sometimes it was just a lot.
Lastly, while there was a focus on Casey's mom and how her death impacted her and continued to impact her, I felt disconnected from that narrative a bit because we didn't get a ton of information about the memories with her mom other than a bit of abandonment. It's a minor qualm because overall, I felt that everything was done well, including Casey's grief, but at times, it felt like King put this subplot in there to make Casey even sadder. While acceptable for a novel like this, its execution didn't always feel right.
Overall, I really enjoyed this novel and look forward to seeing what King puts out in the future!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Minor: Infertility, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
vanesst's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Pedophilia and Sexual violence
Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Medical content, and Abandonment
efsimpkin's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
Wow. This blew me away. I’m not normally a huge contemporary romance fan and when the two love interests weren’t immediately “book boyfriend” material I was a little taken aback. But that’s on me, and what I loved about this book is how raw and unflinching it was. We all have our foibles and no one is perfect. I really just loved this and was thinking about it a lot when I wasn’t reading it, which I think says a lot about it. The last 10% was just poetry in motion and I was so happy for Casey. Ahhh this is so good.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Medical content
Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual content
ktdaugherty's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse and Pedophilia
miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Hm theres a lot a didnt like about this: mainly the start (it was boring and i didnt care), i dont really have any strong feelings toward any of the main characters, it felt like there were too many characters it took me a hot minute to remember who people were and why did you have to make her life so suddenly problematicLike we went from hm yeah im very in debt and my mother died and im grieving, fair enough. To im very in debt, my mother died, debt collectors are after me, im about to be evicted, no one will publish my book, i have no friends, i have a endo, i have breast cancer, i have skin cancer, the chef at work if sexually harrassing me oh wait i got fired, i cant sleep, my father is a nonce who wants my dead mothers ring back and both the men i might be into are being weird.
Like, babe, what? You didnt need to go that hard fr
All that being said for some reason i didnt hate it and vaguely even enjoyed reading it?
‘you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them. Sometimes you mix the two up in a terrible tangle that's hard to unravel.’
Like, babe, what? You didnt need to go that hard fr
All that being said for some reason i didnt hate it and vaguely even enjoyed reading it?
‘you get trained early on as a woman to perceive how others are perceiving you, at the great expense of what you yourself are feeling about them. Sometimes you mix the two up in a terrible tangle that's hard to unravel.’
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
robyn1998's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
To be fair, I don't think this is my kind of book at all but I'd read so much praise for it that I thought I'd give it a go.
It was SO AMERICAN to the point I couldn't understand a lot of it and had to Google words and phrases almost every page. There were too many boring sequences about waitressing, likewise I couldn't understand a lot of the waitressing-related Americanisms ("I fire my six-top on the computer in the wait station" - wtf does this mean?)
There were also so many characters, I forgot everyone's backstories shortly after reading them.
I liked the story overall. I found Casey an interesting and relatable character, the writing was skilful, the plot was engaging, but the above points stopped me from being properly absorbed.
It was SO AMERICAN to the point I couldn't understand a lot of it and had to Google words and phrases almost every page. There were too many boring sequences about waitressing, likewise I couldn't understand a lot of the waitressing-related Americanisms ("I fire my six-top on the computer in the wait station" - wtf does this mean?)
There were also so many characters, I forgot everyone's backstories shortly after reading them.
I liked the story overall. I found Casey an interesting and relatable character, the writing was skilful, the plot was engaging, but the above points stopped me from being properly absorbed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia
catslippers's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Loved: King's description of places and emotions, the theme of misogyny
Meh: a slow middle section with an unnecessary love triangle. I don't think Silas added much to the story.
Meh: a slow middle section with an unnecessary love triangle. I don't think Silas added much to the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Grief
Moderate: Sexual violence
Minor: Pedophilia
questingnotcoasting's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this. I liked the writing style and I flew through it. I was really rooting for Casey throughout and it always felt hopeful even as she dealt with grief, debt and her struggles to write her novel. Her journey felt cathartic and I found the ending really satisfying. I also loved that it was set in the 1990s because it meant that the relationships were much less immediate, often relying on answerphone messages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer
Minor: Pedophilia and Rape
kristenreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer and Pedophilia