A rambunctious, intelligent novel about a budding novelist and her lovers and her craft, "Writers & Lovers" is one of those books that can leave general readers cold, but anyone flirting with creativity should enjoy it greatly. A Boston refugee from love and her mother's death, Casey flails at her restaurant job while writing and falling in love and, in general, leaping at life. Lily King is a gorgeous stylist and every page is chock full of prose delights and humor. Maybe the plot, as mechanistically assessed, is old, but the treatment is fresh and lovely, and I enjoyed the read. Writers and Lovers is a treat for lovers of sparkling literary fiction.

Four stars for Writers & Lovers by Lily King. This book snuck up on me. Somewhere around halfway through, I realized I was in love with the storytelling, the characters, and the prose. I wanted to spend as much time as possible in the head of Casey, a thirty-something writer who feels lost in a world that continues to move on despite loss, grief, and uncertainty. She’s barely hanging on as she gives every piece of herself to finishing her novel, because she can only imagine a life where she is a writer. She dates two men and can’t quite synthesize the life that each one offers to her. And she struggles with the unbearable grief of her mother’s sudden death. I loved being immersed in this story, and I can’t wait to return to some of Lily King’s earlier works.

At first I was prepared to dislike this book, at least a bit. I thought it was yet another novel about an Ivy League twenty-something suffering from existential angst, working a shit job while working on his/her novel and lamenting about relationship with parents/unfairness of the world/creative blockage/a lost love affair. However, let me join the chorus of those who loved it - I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

We meet Casey, nee Camila, Peabody an incredibly talented thirty year old, former golf prodigy, speaker of a number of languages, with an MFA in creative writing when she is in her blue period, working as a waitress, covered in debt and she has just lost her mother. She's struggling to finish her novel, and, also to move out of her rut with dead end relationships (though "it's good to get whacked open at least once, though. You can't really love from inside a big thick shell.") and to find her way through the rest of her life, though she often seems to engage in self-sabotage.

The book is delightful, wonderful words like "nethersphere" and observations like "It's a sense of despair about writing itself, a sort of throwing up of hands, as if to say I'll put this down on the page but it's not what I really mean because what I really mean cannot be put into words." Sublime. I loved it.

"Lily King" is a nom de plume (or crayon) and I recently saw it suggested that one possible author might be Stephen King. I would be totally and completely shocked if that were true. I don't hear him here at all. Just my two cents.

Writers and Lovers is a story about a writer struggling to eke out a living in Boston, working odd jobs by evening and writing her novel by day. For me, the plot was too slow and the novel too interior.

The story moves slowly in the first half and picks up slightly in the second half. I liked the complexity of the characters, many of whom were not who they seemed at first.

Like King’s other novel, Euphoria, the book explores how men and women are treated in their careers. One passage of the book that I loved talked about how some men felt so certain they were destined for greatness while no women the main character knew believed this about herself. Through the characters, King teases out toxic masculinity and the insidious ways it can operate just under the surface of an interaction.

If you like slow moving books exploring messy characters, you may like this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Even if time is scarce to read these days, I could have finished this book in two days.
But I didn’t want to. I made it last, oh yes, I made it last as much as I could because I didn’t want it to end.
I went back to highlighted paragraphs and reread whole sections, savoring the quality of King’s writing, the familiar echo of her protagonist’s voice, the fear and angst reverberating underneath the humorous tone of her thoughts. It all sounded so true, so valid, so spot-on.

Novels like this one are rare.
Novels that are obviously written with as much heart as talent.
King possesses both besides the double quality of being a careful observer and a passionate reader. Her love of the written word is elating. Her need to express life through art, through writing, can’t be separated from the way she lives it.
And so does Casey, the narrator of this story, a 31 years-old aspiring writer that faces the end of a phase in her life and stands hovering over the abyss of uncertainty, not sure of her value or place in the world, not wanting to let go of her youth but knowing deep down that time is running out to make the right choices.

Buried in debt with no healthcare plan like too many Americans, working endless hours at a restaurant, struggling against the sudden death of her mother, torn apart by two potential lovers, overwhelmed by anxiety and fear of the future, the only thing that keeps Casey standing is the novel she has been writing for six years. A novel she is too afraid to let her best friend and published writer read because she is terrified it might be rubbish.
“I don’t write because I think I have something to say. I write because if I don’t, everything feels even worse” Casey responds to her egotistic landlord when he sneers at her for trying to write a book.
That’s precisely how I felt when I spent time with King’s novel. I felt better when I opened the pages and buried my nose in them. I rooted for Casey to succeed at her attempt to have her voice listened to, not only in her novel, but also in her real world after so many let-downs starting with her own father.

“Writers & Lovers” is a book about finding one’s way staying true to the things that keep one’s world turning. It’s about discerning what it’s important from what it is not. Infused with droll wit, it’s also an elegant caricature of the artistic scene dominated by egocentric writers, editors and male wannabes that channel their competitivity through art without really listening to what others have to say. Last but not least, this is also a book about craving love, family and learning to trust one’s instincts.

Geese have a new acquired meaning to me after having been in Casey’s head. I can’t help but smile at King’s craftmanship. At her rhapsodic justice. What an end. Some readers might have felt a bit deflated by it. I admit it might be the one part that doesn’t ring true in the book, but I couldn’t help but feel elated for Casey, she is the kind of heroine that deserves such an outcome in a world that is brutal, specially for those whose position in it is brittle and yet they dare to hope, to defy the odds and give a shot at what they know deep down they should be spending their life doing. Live, write. Live.

“I can’t go out with a guy who’s written eleven and half pages in three years. That kind of thing is contagious.”

This is Casey Peabody speaking, a 31-year-old aspiring writer struggling with a novel she’s been working on for six years while grieving the recent death of her mother. She is burdened by debt, living in a potting shed, has no health insurance exactly when she needs it, and is juggling a relationship between two writers. Oh! and she has a terrible job at a restaurant in Harvard Square.Pretty much everything is uncertain in Casey’s life.

Her story would be considered one of many coming-of-age novels if not for the fact that at 31, she’s way past this stage, or should be, I guess. Instead of her indecisiveness and insecurities getting on my nerves, I felt sympathy for her. It’s impressing how Lily King generates the feeling that you are inside Case’s mind. You can feel your head spinning and spinning along with hers. This experience alone makes this book worthy. Thank you @groveathantic and @netgalley for making this book available to me.

Casey’s life is a disaster. Failed love. Writer’s block. And deep in grief over her mother’s recent death. Life is messy. Casey’s unfolds as we awkwardly bounce back and forth between scenes involving writing, geese, men, waiting tables, more geese, and random medical appointments. At times the writing is too quirky, and there is a missing depth to the scenes. But overall, the book gives perspective to the journey through life’s mundane, which in the end can be quite lovely.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Burdened by her mother’s sudden death and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody arrives in Massachusetts without a plan. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

I enjoyed reading about Casey’s struggle to become a writer and never giving up. This book is an inspiration to young people struggling with the same creative ideas. Losing her mother was a very sad and troubling topic. A little romance thrown in helped the novel.

Thank you Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for review.

Reading Writers & Lovers was like living with Casey for an extended period of time. The credit for that goes to Lily King, the rightly much-lauded writer of the award-winning Euphoria. That's next on my TBR list.

Coming back to W&L, the book follows Casey and is devoid of any large plot, or a lot of drama, or a lot of soul searching. What is rampant through the pages of the book is an unflinching, honest and at times brutal look at Casey - a barely-there adult, who is struggling to make ends meet - in every sense of the way. She has not recovered from the death of her mother, her education loans are closing in on her, her dead-end job as a waitress is not her future, she can't seem to settle down to any stretch of normalcy and happiness - and in the middle of all this, is her attempts to writing her first novel.

Nothing resembling the "Great *** Novel", this is supposed to be Casey's masterpiece nevertheless - or at least it better be, given how long and how much she has persevered over it. Between her shifts where she is yet to master how to always get good tips, and walking her landlord's dog so that he would give her a break on the rent, and sleepless nights and haunted days, she is sort-of-sleepwalking through life, one day at a time, but without knowing where she is really going, or where she even wants to go, or whether she wants to go anywhere at all.

She is yet to figure all that out. She was hoping she will have some time with her Mom - the Mom who sort-of-gave up on her and her Dad - who has issues and a history of his own. Now her Mom's dead and Casey is estranged from Dad. With no one to give her life lessons, she is learning - on-the-job. That's a nasty way to live and learn living, as Casey is finding out.

She has friends, and people who care for her, but she finds herself unable to respond in kind to their kindness. Be it the absentminded Silas or the somewhat overbearing Oscar - Casey finds it hard to reciprocate appropriately or promptly, or sometimes at all. She is 31y/o, not really on the cusp of adulthood, yet for all her behavior and world-wisdom (or lack thereof), you'd imagine she was 19 or 20 y/o.

All said and done, the book paints a very intimate, sensitive and painful portrait of Casey - while she oscillates between her moods, while she makes up her mind, while she learns to actually focus on the good and figure out how to actually count her blessings, and stop being afraid of everything.

When I started reading it, I felt the character and the writing was not going to be to my taste, and that I'd have to struggle to finish it. By the time I was in the closing chapters, I was literally grinning and dabbing my eyes - that's how close I felt to her by then. King does a fantastic job of making her seem so vulnerable and by taking us so close to her over the course of the pages, that by the time things start to take a turn, you feel the energy and hope.

The writing is breezy, the scenes and conversations easy to imagine. None of the characters are shown as especially shallow or evil - which in some books would end up making the story hollow, but not here. The story has enough going on, and everything is disarmingly genuine. There's depth that makes you realize this is a slice of your life, a conversation you may have had, with someone you may have known, at a place you perhaps have been to - maybe recently. Or not.

Either way, by the end I felt a genuine connect with the story and Casey and was sorry to have to see the book end.

Would definitely recommend it to everyone. Will definitely read other works by this author.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic and Lily King for providing an electronic copy through NetGalley, in exchange of my honest feedback.

this book is why I have a 50 page rule.

before I DNF a book, unless it’s egregiously terrible, I give it 50 pages. this is usually why my ratings lean higher- I have no problem giving up books that aren’t for me about 59 pages.

on page 38 I almost gave up- I didn’t care about the main character. but there was something that happened in those 12 pages that made me want to know how her story unfolded.

I think what connected me the most to this book wasn’t her goal of being a writer, the loves in her life, or her despondency- but it was her grief.

you learn early on that shes recently lost her mother. most of you know that earlier this year I lost my papa. he’s the first person this close to me that’s passed away. and gosh it’s hard. the way that Casey describes missing her mom makes sense to me in a totally new way.

this was a v popular book for a good reason. I’m glad it gave it its 50 pages

A book about grief and happiness. The main character is mourning the loss of her mother, while trying to deal with it she seeks happiness in her professional and personal life. I really liked the book and to follow the whole journey of this incredible woman.

Thoughtful near-time capsule capturing the experience of being a struggling writer while also pursuing love and happiness in unlikely places. A lovely read.

I’m always a sucker for any title that somehow has to do with books / writers / librarians / bookstores, and this one just sounded incredible. I was so excited to have the chance to read it with all the hype and attention it was getting. How many of us struggle with keeping the hope of our dreams alive, while also stuck in that place of needing to do something with our lives, show that we somehow made it & are adult enough.

I had really high hopes for this one, but it’s slow-burn didn’t really work for me. What should have been a relatable character for me fell a little short, and I just didn’t like it as much as I thought I was going to, but was still worth reading for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this title in exchange for my personal review.

Writers and Lovers
By Lily King
September 27, 2020

“You don’t realize how much effort you’ve put into covering things up until you try to dig them out.”

For me, the beginning portions of this novel lumbered along with a few too many random happenings that seemed to try to capture my attention or startle me. And I wasn’t certain I wanted to stick around for the journey.

But I’m glad I hung on. When the pace picked up, I got swept up in Casey’s story and problems and dreams. A confused, aspiring writer and down-on-her-luck waitress in late-nineties Boston, Casey struggles to figure out what to do with her life and who she wants to do it with.

Like many of us, Casey desperately needed “something to go right,” and I rooted for her every step of the way. Once we let go and begin to believe in ourselves, those “somethings” often happen.

Thanks to Net Galley, Picador, and Macmillan for the ARC of this book.

I loved this book. It was a hard but realistic journey that kept me page turning. I also loved her book Euphoria.

If you love food or have worked in restaurants, I think you will find a special place in your heart for this one, like I did! It was beautifully written (I knew I was a Lily King fan after Euphoria), and even though the story was slower moving, it had a real sense of place and the characters were well developed. I already bought a copy for my mother, and she is having her book club read it!

Writers & Lovers is one of those books which doubles up as writing advice, atleast for me.

Casey Peabody lives in Boston, waits tables at Iris and writes in her room which really is just a potting shed. She has recently lost her mother and there were no goodbyes. Thirty one, in a huge debt and sleep deprived, she is the last person from her friend group to be still holding onto the idea of publishing a book and writing full time. Casey is not good at dating, takes poor decisions but is good at heart. Despite her trauma and sorrow, she tries to be cheery, she is smart, observant and confident.

The book is written in first person and you get glimpses of what's goes on in a writer's head. Casey is struggling to retain her job and write at the same time. It's hard to make ends meet and time is slipping through her hands, no matter how hard she tries to hold on. Whatever choices the author made while writing this book, all of them hit just right. She goes on to tangents about difference between attitudes of men & women in writing, attitude of people towards servers, dire living conditions and struggles of the solitary job writing is. It's an effortlessly feminist novel, funny without trying and written with such passion for writing, I sometimes felt I am reading Lily King's own experiences. (possibly true)

Do pick this one up for a balanced dose of humour, despair, intrigue, glee, grief, love, longing and more. It's the perfect book for these trying times. Casey's achievements make readers happy and I did smile, giggle and laughed out loud multiple times.

This book has a special place in my heart despite being simple, plain and an easy read. It all wraps up nicely in the end, as I was told it would. I enjoyed it thoroughly and would carry some of Casey's writing advice with me.

It's just the nature of the beast, working in the creative field, so it's no surprise when Casey, a writer wanna-be is going through all the hardships - she's in debt as she works at a minimum-wage job to make ends meet, she has no family nearby and her mother just passed recently, not so lucky in love but eventually meets 2 men who are opposite ends of the spectrum, and so on. This was a departure from my typical thriller but IDK, something about it was enjoyable, living life with Casey, despite her hardships I was definitely rooting for her life to turn around!

Casey Peabody is an aspiring writer that is dealing with more things than she (ar any other person) can handle.
Her mother's death left her unsettled, as if the ground beneath her feet had disappeared. On top of that, she is unable to write and pay her debts, so she has to work waiting tables at Harvard Square.
As if that were not enough, she falls madly in love with two men, at the same time.

Casey struggles to maintain her original life plan, one that allows her to live off her writing and lead a happy and creative life, without giving in to the pressures imposed by "real life" and one, as a reader, cannot avoid rooting for her, hoping for the best.

I saw this book a lot this year but I don't know why I didn't read it before. It's a beautiful novel, with a very compelling plot and the writing is phenomenal and the ending unexpected.

I would highly recommend it and I can't wait to read Lily King previous novel, Euphoria.