Oh dear. I did not really like this book. I felt like it had potential, but then it seemed not to live up to it. It started out intriguing, but I really didn't understand the ending, was that her father or some stranger who called her co-worker names? It looks like many people enjoyed the book, but I didn't. I won't post a negative review online. Thank you and good luck with it.

“Hello, my name is Esther. I am calling on behalf of Krippler Incorporated, a market research institute. Today we are conducting a survey on feline diabetes. Do you, or any member of your household, own a cat?”

They hang up.

“Hello. My name is Joan. I am calling on behalf of—”

They hang up.”

Dark, satirical novel, «Oh Honey» is definitely not a book for weak-hearted. Jane is a telemarketer. And she calls one man every single day. But it’s not random at all. She has a purpose.
This novel made me laugh at the darkest situations, which in turn made me question myself. Witty and deep, clever and profound, «Oh Honey» was a binge-read from the beginning till the end.

HHAHAHAAHHAHAHA

I loved it, this book made me laugh my you know what off. The main character is a pistol, she kept me in stitches through the whole book which I read in one sitting. She used so many names I'm not sure what it truly is but she pops pills and just keeps on calling. I hate to have that job but she makes it funny. This poor guy she keeps calling is funny too. Strange he doesn't change his number but if he did how would we get the laughs? Some parts are pretty dark like her relationship with her mother and fellow co-workers and friends. Great writing and characters. Is there going to be a part 2 in the future? I hope so.

Thank you Net Gallery and Holland House for this side splitting ride through Jane or is it Peppermint.

Cherie'
#netgallery #hollandhouse #emilyraustin

Aw, this is good and pitch-black. Jane is pretty much terrible but she’s had a terrible life (childhood neglect resulting in a maelstrom of mental health issues) so lying and taking drugs to get through the days doesn’t seem like the worst idea. Plus her friends - Keats and Ivy - are terrible too. She does have a heart the only problem is she uses it torment a man who has been cruel to her co-worker. Needless to say it doesn’t end well for any of them.

Funny, heartbreaking and weirdly relatable (call centre, shitty jobs, making mistakes, terrible friends…).

It’s also short but not too sweet. Loved it, loved it, loved it. More please.

Another book that I just couldn't get into. Perhaps because the concept seemed a little bland to me. It could have been something that I really enjoyed, but the writing style was such that I struggled to really connect to any of the characters. At times it also felt a little pretentious.

I wasnt prepared for this book. I mean, I couldnt stop reading it but I was pretty disturbed throughout.
Jane is a telemarketer. A jaded, traumatized, drug addicted telemarketer. The whole book is Jane doing drugs with her paranoid roomate, being sarcastic, reliving her horrible HORRIBLE traumas, and incessently calling some angry guy.
I liked the writing quite a lot. Its charming in a way, and kind of just follows Janes train of thought.
The content was pretty triggering though, and if I hadnt of liked the writing and the charecterizations so much, I dont think I wouldve been able to finish this.
TW; Drug use, abuse, rape
Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In the vein of 'Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, this is a darkly comedic look at the results of dysfunctional childhood, mental health and mundane work. Surprise in store.

Loved it, utterly loved it. It's funny, it's gritty, it's smart. it's unapologetic.

As someone who struggles with mental health, I love that this wasn't the classic "feel-good, watch me conquer my demons" story. Life isn't like that and mental health isn't like that. Often, you are self destructive and often that is amusing to those around you who don't recognise the struggle.

It's an authentic broken character, rather than a caricature of one.

Oh Honey. Brilliant title for Emily Austin's in-equal-parts-hilarious-and-deeply-disturbing novella.

Jane is mentally-ill and as unreliable as it gets as a narrator. She is also witty, sarcastic, reckless, caring and totally endearing. She works a soul-sucking job in a call center making outbound calls to gather data on cats. She changes her name with every call. For kicks, she repeatedly calls the same man every day. Sometimes up to eleven times a day. We can only assume she takes pleasure in his apoplectic responses to her calls, but she remains composed and sticks to her script despite his insults and threats. When revealed, Jane's motivations provide a glimpse of yet another dimension to her psyche.

Jane got under my skin, in a good way. I'll admit … I wanted to save her. I wanted someone to save her. I prayed it would be the nurse who murmured those two words that speak volumes … "Oh honey." For me, the ending came to a screeching halt and left me reeling.

Oh Honey is a solid quick read, made even quicker by frequent repetition of phrases and scenes. Bravo to author Emily Austin, and thank you to NetGalley and Holland House publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wacky and dark, Oh Honey left me seriously considering my mental state after reading this. It's humorous but gives you the chills at certain parts and leaves fear and disgust rattling in your bones in a good way. Intriguing and award-worthy is the least I can say for this book. I love Jane, an unreliable storyteller with a drug addiction and her two friends, Keat and Ivy. The stories Jane told of her life and her interactions made this short read wanting more. Emily Austen is an author that needs to be published tenfold. I went into Oh Honey without knowing much and came out with a new favorite book!

First, I love the cover. It easily attracts my attention and the blurb, though vague looks interesting. At first, it was so hard to connect to Jane. She seemed to be a difficult person to deal with. But as the story progresses and Jane's past started to unfold and reveal a distressing life she leads, I can't help but feel an utmost sympathy towards her.

The writing style is good but I find myself skipping the repetitions and there's a handful of it. I can't say I like the ending, either. It happens so fast, so abrupt. It's such a dismay knowing how short the novel is and to end in a cliff-hanger just when you're starting to enjoy the story. Despite it being dark and disturbing, I still find it a solid read. Though clearly, this is not the type for everyone's liking, if you don't mind reading about such theme, you should give this one a shot.

Written by: Emily R Austin

Release Date: July 1, 2017

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Rating: 4 hostile hangups

Recommended for: telemarketers, people who hate telemarketers, people who have lived with strange roommates

NOT recommended for: people who are triggered by depictions of excessive drug use or self harm

Jane works in the soulless field of telemarketing, surveying people about feline diabetes. She shares an apartment with a man named Keats who she constantly lies to. Jane is also on probation. As Jane drifts along at work, she frequently calls one number over and over, using a different name each time and progressively angering the man at the other end of the line. What could possibly be her motive?

Sometimes funny, often dark, the story of Jane begins to emerge from behind the compulsive lies and incessant drug use. Austin’s debut novel is edgy, well crafted, engrossing and disturbing. It might make you think about being a little nicer to the person at the other end of the line, or it might make you really grateful for caller ID.

This story took me completely by surprise, not at all what I expected. You start off thinking Jane is a total bitch, but as the story evolves, she's just a troubled soul. The author managed to get a large chunk of information across with minimal storytelling, which is always an impressive feat.

I requested this book on NetGalley based on the reviews on Goodreads. I would give it 3.5/5 stars

Although I enjoyed the story, and the way the author revealed Jane and her story to us, I found that I really did not enjoy the ending of the story. For me, it felt too abrupt and more of a cliff-hanger than an ending. I felt like I had just found out a lot about Jane in the previous few pages and was looking forward to what was next ... and was quite disappointed that the book ended, in the way it ended.

Thank you to NetGalley, publisher and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Well written and interesting, but a little too dark for me right now. I will read another of Austin's books.

A zippy novel that packs an unexpected punch, Oh Honey by Emily R. Austin took me a day to read, but I don’t think it will leave my brain anytime soon.

The intriguing story pulls you in immediately, led by Jane, a mysterious telemarketer who takes us on a journey through her brain via prank phone calls, drug trips, and terrible walks down memory lane. Austin’s prose is beautiful, and perfectly fits Jane’s erratic way of speaking, and behavior.

The plot weaves through time, but since the writing reads like poetry, it was easy to follow and I enjoyed how Austin did that. It is a heartbreaking story, and perfect for someone who loves a good twist at the end. It’s not an “out of nowhere” twist, but it brings a shocking end to the book. It is one that truly made me sorry that book was already finished, because in a way, it could have also been the start of the story. And maybe it was!

Seems like Canadian author Austin is one to keep an eye one. Would love to see a longer novel from her in the future, and her other unique character creations.

Jane is a telemarketer. Although sometimes she's Sabrina. Other times she's Nancy. But she's almost always phoning the same person. And with each call he becomes angrier and more threatening. But she persists. And the more she phones this man, the more she reveals about her reasons, her past and why it may not be all she says it is.

Emily Austen's debut novel, Oh Honey, is an interesting portrayal of mental illness. Jane is a bipolar pill-popper, on probation for drug possession, attending regular meetings with her probation officer, to varying degrees of success. I liked her as a character. She's witty and sarcastic (definitely my kind of person), and she's the kind of person who says out loud what everyone else is afraid to.

In saying that, she's not a particularly likable character. But you feel for her. She's a product of the problematic system she's in. Oh Honey shows the problems that come with the rehabilitation process and how it's not always helpful to the people it's trying to rehabilitate. Jane's probation officer doesn't even notice when she turns up to a meeting completely off her face on 'ladybugs', a drug given to her by a co worker. Of course, Jane isn't completely without blame, she doesn't help herself in a lot of situations. But she's not helped by the system she's a part of.

I read Oh Honey in a couple of hours. It's definitely a strange book, but I couldn't help enjoying it. It's got a bit of everything in it; sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes makes you think. I felt bad about laughing at times, it's a dark book and laughing seems like an insult to the subject matter. But it's a funny book, and it adds to the realism of it. Even when life isn't going well funny stuff still happens, and it's still okay to laugh. It might even be necessary to get through the bad stuff.

This book won't be for everyone. I know a lot of people weren't happy with the lack of resolution in the ending. I can see how that can be annoying, but I do think it works for Oh Honey. I see this book as a snippet of Jane's life, it's not her full story so there's no reason for it to have a proper resolution. Even the reason behind why she phones the same man every day is given in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of thought. I enjoyed it and I know a lot of other readers will as well, so why not give it a go?

I raced through this in a morning, which I shouldn't have because it is BRUTAL. I felt genuinely upset and indignant about the protagonist's life, and it's not often I have such an emotional reaction to a book. I don't usually like realism, and I definitely don't like books about call centres (I worked in a call centre, selling PPI – I apologise if I ever sold you PPI, which is unlikely as I was rubbish at that job). But there's something about this book. The narrator's voice, the repetition, the wry pop-culture jokes in how she cold-calls (Hello my name is Hilda, Hello my name is Zelda, Hello my name is Sabrina). It's hard to say I love it because by its nature it's such a cold and harsh book. But I thought about it for a long time, and I'm still thinking about it.

This book was dark. We meet a telemarketer with mental issues. Maybe a call center is not the best place for employment. Jane does not have a great life. She is a liar, has not many friends and makes people's lives around her Hell. During her time at the call center, she calls one customer repeatedly and as the story goes on, we find out why. The ending was not one I was expecting. I am not sure this book is for everyone. It has some funny points, but, it is very dark. Jane, the main character has lots of issues. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review.

First and foremost, I really did not 'get' this book. It just didn't make an awful lot of sense to me. It concerns the main character, Jane, a telemarketer, and her daily (often multiple) calls to the same man, who becomes irate at her incessant calling. The storyline does not seem to go anywhere at first, and the plot seems kind of pointless, so to speak. The blurb for this book is very vague, and I think that adds to the intrigue of the book. As the story goes on, we come to learn that Jane is someone who suffers from mental health problems and has a difficult past. It's a great topic to touch upon, as anything that reduces stigma around mental health is a positive thing in my opinion. However, there did not seem to be a climax to <i>Oh Honey</i>, as the story did not seem to go anywhere. I was just waiting and waiting for something to happen, and it just didn't.

As the main protagonist, Jane is not at all likeable - she is irritating, dry, and abrasive, particularly to the poor man she repeatedly calls.

In short, for me this book left a lot to be desired, and the whole plot was just odd. It was a very short read (a little over an hour), but one that I probably could have done without if I'm completely honest.