This novel was both unexpected and hilarious. I enjoyed the author's style of writing. There is an effective way to make such an unlikeable hero actually sympathetic and Dunthorne achieves this. I noticed a similar style with his previous book, Submarine.

If you're looking for sympathetic or likeable characters, you won't find them here, at least not with the main character and his equally insufferable wife. Upon finding that his spouse is seeing another man, the main character sets himself on a path of dwelling upon what went wrong in his life and how his self-involved attitude ruined his marriage and most of his friendships. Even though the plot is interesting and often humorous, the ending gives no real chance or time for character growth, and it just leaves a sour taste for readers who were seeking a more circular story.

I was left feeling strangely unfulfilled - which may very well be the purpose of this book. Quirky, offbeat, fun in equal measures I expected it to veer off in a completely different direction than it ended in. Not quite swingers, not quite the grass is greener. Karma? Do you get what you have coming in the end? Felt the main character got he short end of the stick!

I tried. The first pages of this were interesting and a chuckle but then I put it down and when I went back to it, I just found everyone irritating. I did not, contrary to the blurb, find myself rooting for Ray. Ultimately, I put it down again and I DNF.  Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

I rarely find a book that I will literally 'laugh out loud' reading, but this one did the trick more often than not. The jacket blurb calls Dunthorne a 'British Dave Eggers', but I'd say the more apt comparison is to Tom Perrotta - and this bears more than a little in common with 'Little Children' in its dissection of screwed-up (and screwing around) suburban young marrieds. The book never quite went where I was expecting, and that teeter-totter quality certainly added to my enjoyment. I COULD have done without some of the more gruesome details of the caesarean section late in the book, but even that had a few laughs amongst the grossness.

My sincere thanks to Netgalley and Tin House Books for the ARC, in exchange for this honest review.

Found this hard to relate to. What a mess of childish relationships for people in their mid to late 30s. 

 I did feel a bit bad for Ray, he certainly got the short end of the stick here. Not a bad read but not a good read either.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  From the publisher - 
Ray Morris is a tech journalist with a forgettable face, a tiresome manner, a small but dedicated group of friends, and a wife, Garthene, who is pregnant. He is a man who has never been punched above the neck. He has never committed adultery with his actual body. He has never been caught up in a riot, nor arrested, nor tagged by the state, nor become an international hate-figure. Not until the summer of 2011, when discontent is rising on the streets and within his marriage. Ray has noticed none of this. Not yet. The Adulterants would be a coming-of-age story if its protagonist could only forget that he is thirty-three years old. Throughout a series of escalating catastrophes, our deadpan antihero keeps up a merciless mental commentary on the foibles and failings of those around him, and the vicissitudes of modern urban life: internet trolls, buy-to-let landlords, open marriages, and the threat posed by more sensitive men. But the wonder of The Adulterants is how we feel ourselves rooting for Ray even as we acknowledge that he deserves everything he gets.

This book was kind of hard to get into and I almost gave up --- but once I did, I was happy that I finished it. Ray's sense of humour resonated with me and I laughed out loud at times, although I never quite got used to his wife's ridiculous, hideous name. (I apologize to the author if he has a close relative with that name as it sounds like a made up one!) You could not help but stick up for him and want to see where his journey took him and wish him the best in his messy, silly life ... totally enjoyable!