Grown Ups is kinda hilarious, kinda sad, and kinda educational for those of us still trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Between the main characters and the her friends, so much of the story is funny, but heartwarming.



4.5/5 Stars

Perhaps it is because I’m older but I had trouble identifying with Jenny’s insecurities which she so freely shares online. And yet as a teacher and a librarian, I am always aware of stories with a strong voice and Jenny’s voice is strong. Its filled with humor along with the pathos. Her need to run every problem through social media was tiring, but true to the times.

Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth is the story of Jenny McLaine who is dealing with a break up and essentially having a breakdown. Jenny’s life is falling apart, her friendships are losing stream, and she lost her job as a columnist at a feminist online magazine. She is a woman obsessed with social media. She constantly checks the likes on her posts, during work meetings, during every possible moment even during sex. As she deals with her ex and his new girlfriend, she must deal with her mother is moving in. After leaving home at eighteen to be a self-sufficient millennial but now as a woman in her thirties, adulthood isn’t all what she thought it would be. The story is told in a series of texts, emails, and social media messages, Jenny must decide how she will pickup the pieces and learn how to grow up. Will she have the strength or willpower to take such a leap?
Grown Ups was described as Fleabag, a British comedy series which ran for two seasons, meets Conservations with Friends, a 2017 book by Sally Rooney about the relationship between four people. While I have not seen the show or read the book, I was intrigued because Fleabag has received high praise. Unfortunately, Grown Ups was not what I thought it would be. I expected a humorous, gritty story about a woman who must deal with the life she has instead of the one she thought would have. It was boring. It wasn’t humorous at all and I couldn’t connect with Jenny at all. She was completely unrelatable and by the end I felt she hadn’t changed very much, if at all. Even though social media is a large part of everyone’s life now, the social media angle in books how has been overdone, in my opinion. Grown Ups is the millennial version of Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996). While it is not something I enjoyed, audiences who enjoy Fleabag may enjoy Grown Ups.

Poor Jenny is having an epic clusterf**ck of problems and the chances of not relating to her in some way seems almost impossible. An adjustment to just about everything in her life makes this a crazy ride that you just can't resist watching unfold. Definitely enjoyed this one and an appreciation of not only getting the 'joke' but also being it at times along with her.
I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley for my honest review.

I really liked this. A glorious portrayal of a woman in all her imperfections as she struggles to figure out what she wants and where she wants to go. Honestly being a grown up is hard. Being a female grown-up is even harder as we juggle all the balls that are expected of us. Check it out. The writing is solid and the story relatable. Happy reading!

Jenny McLaine lives her life through the lens of social media – and it’s a disaster. She’s on the verge of losing her job, she broke up with her boyfriend and her mother just moved into her flat. Her existence couldn’t get any worse. But if she can appear to have it all together online, that’s all that matters.

She quantifies success in followers and unfollowers while true happiness slips even further away. It’s going to take an intervention of epic proportions for her band of mad friends to convince her to put down the phone and see the wild beauty of the real world. Because they know for Jenny, the road to growing up is going to be a bumpy one.

“This often happens. I ponder the words so long, thinking how they might be received, wondering if they could be better, that they lose all their original momentum. I get stage fright. The rest of the world has fallen away around this small square of existence. It’s like that bit in Alien 3 where Ripley says to the alien: You’ve been in my life so long, I can’t remember anything else. I used to think it was about motherhood. Now I know it’s about social media.”

Grown Ups is a hard look at what it’s like to be an adult in the age of social media. Jenny McLaine is far from being a typical charming heroine. Her inner monologues are tedious at times and completely self-absorbed in others. I found myself wishing that someone would pull her aside and just scream “Wake Up!” But that’s really what this book is all about.

Emma Jane Unsworth doesn’t pull any punches with her writing style. She’s frank. Perhaps even to the point of making the book challenging to read. Even still, I found real substance in female friendships forged by each of the characters. It's their wit and never-ending encouragement that ends up saving the day. Both for Jenny and for me….

Funny or frustrating? 2 or 5 stars?

Definitely funny, Obsess..ss..sive moments are scripted as our gal Jenny McLaine decries life and all relationships in general, online. Inventively stealing others stories to make them her own ‘cause her own life’s in tatters even as she possessively clutches her one true prop, her phone—even during sex (and then wonders why her boyfriend Art moved out!)
Working for an online magazine that sounds more like some sort of pop-up than a stayer, adds to the transient, ungrounded feel of Jenny’s life.
Then there’s Jen's relationship with her mother, one that seems to have parented our 35 year old obsessor into being locked into inaction and stuck Alice like in a somewhere-too-young place on the never ending merry-go-round of life.
I felt I was watching Bridget Jones on steroids. The angst and worry is EXHAUSTING!
The urge for recognition, the attention to who’s following you on Twitter, and then maybe not, watching for those little microcosm boosts of acceptance. 👍 Be it likes, or hearts or whatever!Oh my!
I was overwhelmed, as was Jenny.
I really liked the switches between writing modes from descriptive to texting and somewhere in between.
And just maybe in between is how I feel about this novel. I didn’t really relate with Jenny's world but I do accept the brilliance of its description. So depending on your point of view this will be either a two or a five star read.
I’m giving it 2 for my ability to relate (which I suspect is more a comment about me) and 5 for the amusing, frenetic writing style. All that psychedelic energy!So I’ve landed in the in between 3 star zone. Mmmm! There’s that 'in between' concept again!
I did love the piece of writing around The Croissant! Great!! I was actually transfixed! Maybe I was hungry?
I’m sure others are going to just love this book and find it a wonderfully cynical comment on life in the Millennial Lane! or maybe it's just Sex in the City moments updated?
The big question is, "Does our Jenny come of age?"

A Gallery Books ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

This book is about Jenny, a 35-year-old living in London who is obsessed with social media. She’s a bit of a mess, neurotic and flaky and barely hanging on to a job She has a complicated relationship with her mom and goes through a difficult breakup that she is trying to understand.

This book has a lot of humor and I think many people can relate to some aspects of Jenny. I understand why the blurb says that this book is for fans of Normal People. If you enjoy character-driven stories of flawed and real characters then you will enjoy this one.

The obsession with social media can create mayor problems. I had a hard time getting through this book. Actual stopped reading it for a month after 20 % into the story. I did better the second time around. I think I know what the author was trying to get across but trying to prove the point in it excess was losing some of the debt of the story. The relationship with her boyfriend seems to portray two self-centered people. Interaction with her mother was strained. Her lack of self-esteem became a problem for anybody else to deal with her. I would have given it a four star because some of it was pretty good and I liked how it ended but some things should have been toned a bit. This read more like a satire which I don't think the author meant it to be.
This might have worked better with a younger Jenny, 35 seems to be too old to act this immature. Maybe it is just me that am too old and out of touch with today's 35 year old women.

I really wanted to like this book. I liked the whole description and premise of this book as well as the creative way the author told the story. The problem though was I really did not like the main character Jenny. I found her whiney and not relatable. I think the book had some good points in looking at how social media rules our lives but with the story I felt that it was the same chapters just repeating.

I thank Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this advanced copy.

What did I just read?

I thought I was an overthinker.. but then I read this book. Holy moly, this was a lot, and often just odd. I liked it enough to finish, but honestly if it was any longer I probably wouldn't have. I wouldn't recommend this unless you really just need to fell like you're completely normal.

📌BOOK REVIEW📌⁣
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Omg this book. I just finished Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth and it was a riot. Do you like terrible people? Ya know, shows like Alway Sunny in Philadelphia, Fleabag and Difficult People? Then this book is for you, because the main character Jenny, is truly terrible. ⁣
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Jenny is a 35 year old Londoner with a swank magazine job, a high profile boyfriend, a (semi) celebrity mother and an OBSESSION with social media. Quickly her life heads off the rails and she needs to figure it out. Her boyfriend leaves her for another woman, her best friend doesn’t want to be around her and she’s struggling with her job. All she has is her mother and her booze- which are both unhealthy. Think Lucille and Lindsay Bluth. 😂⁣
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This book really shows how people are influenced emotionally by their social media. It’s seriously sad. I always tell myself that that’s not me but I do feel a small boost when someone new follows me. I get it. I wonder what life would be like these days WITHOUT it. Probably better. 😬⁣
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Relationships between partners, best friends and family is also a major theme. I will say Jenny is really hard to put up with sometimes. She seems like an immature millennial brat, but I ended up liking her as the story went on. I pictured her being played by Natasha Lyonne in a Focus Feature film. ⁣
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This book is totally not for everyone but I really liked it! Thank you @netgalley and @gallerybooks for the advanced digital copy of this book! This one comes out August 18! ⁣
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Where to start! A "messy, unlikable heroine" book that gets it right. This was my first Emma Jane Unsworth read, but I will be seeking out her other work posthaste, because the sort of funny, sort of dark, borderline rambling, often totally unexpected writing style is exactly up my alley. Some of the very short chapters even reminded me of Richard Brautigan's poetry in a great way. I kept laughing out loud and reading bits to my wife, and then had to stop because she decided she wanted to read it herself.

I also really enjoyed the book's focus on non-romantic relationships between women, whether it's your mother, your best friend, or that too-cool girl you stalk on Instagram who means way too much to you. I loved the nuance in those relationships, how they were such a realistic mix of flawed and toxic, yet intense, meaningful, and worth keeping.

I will say I think this is marketed a bit oddly, as I wasn't expecting such a huge emphasis on social media. It reminds me a lot more of Ingrid Goes West, as far as the themes and vibe, than the other things it was compared to.

Anyone else out there addicted to social media? No, just me?! The book realistically (and hilariously) depicts social media addictions and the pressures that we put on ourselves for it. As I was reading it, I kept laughing out loud and thinking how absurd this chick was and then realizing… wait… this hits home. Oops. It does an excellent job of showing the negative effects of social media on our mental health and the consequences of ignoring problems in our “real” lives for it.

Jenny is a hot mess. Everything in her life is turned upside down and it takes her a while to take a step back from counting the likes, comments, and followers to realize it. She’s not a likable character by any means, but that’s what makes the story so real and compelling. There’s not much of a plot, which usually drives me insane, but for this one it worked for me. As soon as I read that it’s for fans of Fleabag, I think I tried to view it from that perspective and it definitely helped.

In the spirit of this book, I’m just going to take the opportunity to remind everyone that social media is a highlight real. You are only seeing 3-5% of a person’s life, and usually only the good moments. Another reminder that there are real people behind these accounts with emotions and feelings. The comparison game is a toxic one to play, but I know it’s easier said than done.

I have gone back and forth on how I wanted to rate Grown Ups. It's a very well done depiction of Jenny, a thirty something woman, adrift in her own life, addicted to social media and desperate to obtain the approval of strangers online to the detriment of her real life responsibilities and relationships. Grown Ups is a microcosm of the ubiquity of social media and obsession with our devices and our online selves and is prescient and relevant. Unsworth's writing style is very readable and Grown Ups was a quick read.

The issue is that I struggled with the first 3/4 of the book because I found the main character so incredibly grating. I struggled to connect with Jenny as a character because she's so incredibly narcissistic. I know that there are plenty of people who are obsessed with getting the perfect Instagram shot vs. enjoying the moment as it happens, but I frankly do everything in my power to avoid those people. I appreciated Jenny's ultimate redemption and that it did not revolve around a new love interest as stories with female main characters so often do. I appreciated the surrounding cast of characters, but probably would have preferred reading a book focused on one of them where Jenny is a peripheral character.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy of this book.

This book had a unique format of texts, I sent emails, and snippets of the story. The book centered on Jenny, an early 30s woman and her life. She was recently dumped and doesn’t have the best job. She navigates through the rough patch of her life.

This book really brought me back to my 20s, that chaotic and uncertain time. Living with people you don’t really want to, dealing with friend drama, and her weird mom reminded me of a friend’s mom.

I flew through this book and although the character annoyed me sometimes I really enjoyed it! May not be for everyone.

Grown Ups by Emma Jane Unsworth is a book that explores the toxic and consuming relationship we can have with social media and how that can impact our relationship with ourselves and those around us.

This character-driven novel centers around Jenny, a 35-year old journalist who is, for lack of a better term, a hot mess. Nothing in her life is going right and most of it is of her own doing, though she lacks the self-awareness to see this,

I appreciate Grown Ups for what this book attempted to do, but unfortunately the execution didn't quite deliverer for me. This book doesn't seem ot fit very well in it's billed genre of women's ficiton- to me it reads more like a satire piece, though I'm not sure it satisfies there either, There were a number of parts which had me chuckling, but even with my dry sense of humor I was more annoyed with the character than anything else.

Most of the characters in this book were unlikable, particularly Jenny. This isn't something that's necessarily a negative factor for me, but it this case it made the book hard to get through, Being that the book was so character-driven- there was excruciating level detail into the thought process behind liking an Instagram post- it made it hard to enjoy and there wasn't enough growth or transformation in the end for Jenny to redeem herself.

Still, there was a glimmer, and overall, the writing was solid so for the reader particularly interested in these themes and looking for a darker read with difficult characters, this may be worth the read.

Many thanks to Gallery/Scout Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Jenny has a social media addiction and I really had trouble relating to her. I think this book would be enjoyed by someone much younger than me. .

Thank you to the author, Gallery Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Slogging through the trials and travails of an utterly self-absorbed and unlikeable protagonist was tiresome in the extreme. The story is at times brutally honest, and there are flashes of great wit, but these kind of went under in the general murk. The only thing that compelled me to finish this was my sense of responsibility viz. the publishers and NetGalley, having received an ARC. Well that, and the vague hope that the story would at some point turn a corner - the ending was actually fairly upbeat, but also rather implausible given what came before.

I don't buy the premise that you can't care about a character or a book when the main character is self-centered and self-absorbed and generally unlikeable. This book proves that. In fact, though, I don't find the character unlikeable. She is broken, in some ways not dissimilarly to many people, and her way of working through it may seem self-absorbed and "wrong," but it's her way. I found this book to be pretty brilliant, actually. It's insightful, a study on grief, a glimpse at the relationships women have including the relationship we have with ourselves. I'm very impressed with the writing and ended up flying through the end (first half was a bit slower to grab me). Great piece of writing this.