This was so very true to my experience as a millennial who got doubly screwed — first a recession at college graduation that left me in forever-intern limbo with a delayed real-job start, then the pandemic just as my friends and I were hitting our career strides a decade later. There is a certain work and life and mental health perspective (and burnout!) enmeshed in this experience that’s hard to explain in a way that isn’t brushed aside, and this book nails it.

Great take on what happened to millenials and how they came to be this way.
This books also allows the millenial reader to reflect on their parents' context and how to go forward n a constantly changing world.

This book spoke to something I'd felt but couldn't articulate for so long. I bought 10 copies and gave them out as Christmas presents and invited AHP on my podcast AND added the book to our book club. Can't recommend enough!

A very informative and clear look at how burnout is impacting Americans today. I thought the author did a great job at exploring the many facets of burnout and the connections between work, home, and social life. A useful book to read for any Millennial and even Gen Z.

Absolutely loved this one! I have been burnout in my own life as a millenial and this was a great guide. I think we all know that we need to take a moment back but sometimes we need to read this.

It was not like a guideline but a well written flow of stories on how it can affect you to overwork yourself. Signs you wouldn't even imagine.

I feel like all millenials need to read this in life!

This book is everything and more I’ve wanted as a millennial. I initially discovered Anne Helen Petersen’s viral BuzzFeed article upon its publishing, and when I heard she was writing Can’t Even, I knew I had to get my hands on it.

Petersen aptly surmises the millennial experience today and all that has made us the burnout shells of human beings we are from student debt and parenting to technology and our own upbringings.

It’s by no means an uplifting read, but it is a necessary one. I think everyone, certainly every millennial, should read this book once if only to have a better understanding of why we are the way we are.

Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I heard this book referenced on a recent podcast, and then remembered I'd downloaded it a while ago! I jumped in, and honestly, I was enthralled. Petersen's take on the millenial life, burnout and the factors that contribute make SO MUCH SENSE. I appreciated her honesty, the data interwoven with personal stories, testimonies from millenials with a variety of experiences and history. I also appreciated that Petersen didn't try to offer solutions to the problem, but simply said - this is how it is, this is how this phenonomen of burnout has become so common, and this isn't how it should be. She acknowledged how great the problem is, and it was honestly freeing and refreshing to know the expectations of the workforce, social media and parenting are to blame for the way so many of us feel - we can't just fix it with more self care, better scheduling or turning off our phones. The honesty, transparency, humour and seriousness of this book make it an absolute must read.

I hate the term "millennial" and this book is helping us take it back. As an elder millennial, it's refreshing to see content that deconstructs my generation so accurately and with care. This is a must-read for any millennial, or for anybody who loves one.

This book was amazing! I've been a fan of Petersen's writing for a long time; as an older millennial as well, her work on pop culture and current events feels like it's speaking to me directly. And that's never been more true than in Can't Even. I found myself highlighting something on nearly every page; Petersen's findings have made their way into my work and personal life. I've recommended this book to everyone I know!

Informative and well researched book.
Many thanks to both net galley & the author for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This book started out as an article with the same title authored by Helen Petersen. I read the article so many times when I first saw it's title because it rang so true and felt so incredibly validating! When I saw there was a book, I went and requested the ARC as quickly as I could.

So much of this novel resonated so deeply with me. I found myself compulsively nodding my head along in agreement, and then shaking my head in disbelief! The chapter on millennial parenting, I read 3 times over. If you have been around me at all this year, I have probably found some unnatural segue to bring this book into the conversation. It is something I want to read again to fully absorb all of it. I found this book to be both educational and morbidly entertaining-- it felt entertaining at the cost of my generation which makes for a funny-because-its-true sense of entertainment, rather than a funny "HAHA" kind of entertainment.

My only real complaint is the book seemed a little bit padded. Some of the content felt stretched a little farther to make up a whole book, but honestly this minor flaw won't keep me from reading it a time or two again. If you are a millennial, or someone who wants to understand millennial, I highly recommend this. I learned so much while also feeling so seen!!!!

From year-end column in Shelf Awareness for Readers:

In the spirit of accomplishing more each day--more work, more chores, more errands, more self-care--I've read countless books on time management. The one that changed my relationship with work more than any other, though, was not about doing more, but about doing less. In Do Nothing (Harmony, $25), Celeste Headlee invites readers to reconsider the role of rest in work, all while placing our modern understanding of work in its historical context. We must rest, she argues, or we burn out.

This concept of burnout is the crux of Anne Helen Peterson's Can't Even (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $26), which expands on her viral Buzzfeed article. In Worked Over (Basic Books, $28), sociologist Jamie McCallum draws important connections between this culture of burnout and constant work with persistent inequalities in American society. When I picked up Wintering (Riverhead, $24) last month, I encountered yet again these themes of work and rest and burnout, woven into Katherine May's story of her own forced rest and what it taught her about the nature of her work.

These books about the culture of work (and rest) have me thinking in news ways about how I relate to my own daily work in the nonprofit sector, how I show up and how in turn I encourage others to show up. To that end, my first planned book for the new year is You Belong (HarperOne, $27.99), in which meditation expert Sebene Selassie explores how our sense of belonging and connection shapes the world we live in. Before I start that work, however, I will take time to rest on these shortest days of the year and embrace that I am--and we all are--more than what we can produce in a given day. As we stare down the uncertainty of a new year in this strange time, I invite you to do the same. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm

I initially wanted to read this book because of Anne's article. So many relevant chapters. As millenials we were never destined to win and it was so nice to read stats and words of why I feel that way. I do wish there was more intersection of race and class, but the author would probably write on what she didn't know. Overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend to any millenial in your life.

This book explains so much about millennials and how much this generation has been misunderstood.
There were certain things at the beginning that I didn't relate to - the parenting approach of the American Boomers is not similar to my Indian parents’ techniques, but on a personal level I related to almost everything else mentioned in the book. From the effects of gig economy on finances and well being to the effects of social media contributing to burnouts, this book hit a lot of issues and did justice to them. I also appreciated how the personal experiences of different people were examined.
One of the most interesting things in the book was how the concept pf overworking is seen as something to be proud of and how long hours are considered equivalent to overworking.

This concept sounded so interesting to me, but the book was a bit dull.
It had great points and good ideas, but it was a pretty tedious read.

This book didn't give me anything new. I felt like it was an exercise in rumination without any sort of payoff or guidance to help me manage through it all.

I mostly enjoyed reading the last chapter, but up to that point I frequently found myself asking why I was reading the book at all. Perhaps I went into it with the wrong expectations. As a millennial, this book was a history lesson I didn't need in my life - I've lived through it all, and it does me no good to simmer in the annoyance and uncertainty.

A great book, if not for teachers to teach (it would be helpful in a high school health class!) but for teachers to read to understand burnout.

This is incredibly cathartic. I'm not sure this books brings anything new to the discussion of millennial burn out, but what it does do is explains it so clearly. I'm not sure I've read a more succinct overview of American work culture as I've experienced it - as a 31 year old millennial that's held dozens of jobs since they were 15 (paid, unpaid, underpaid). I wish everyone I've ever worked with would read this book, and I wish all American workers would realize how badly American labor has been getting fucked over by employers everywhere since the 1970s. It doesn't have to be this way!

I feel like this book conveys everything I've tried to explain to the adults in my life as I grew up, and what I try to convey to older generations now -- or those that haven't been on the job search in decades, those without student loans, those who are financially or occupationally secure, those who could pay for college just by working over the summer. This book conveys the stark reality really well.

I found the first half of the book to be stronger and meatier than the second half. It pulled me in immediately and then kind of slumped half way through. Nevertheless, I'm glad to have read something that expresses so succinctly what all millennials I have been trying to explain to the world for the last... I dunno, 15-20ish years? If this book doesn't make you more pro-union and pro-labor I don't know what will.

Thanks to #NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for sharing a copy of the book with me in exchange for an honest review.

i have used this in every class and every research report that I have done on generations in the past several months. petersen's book is invaluable.

Not my usual type of reading material. However, the subject matter felt too relevant to pass up. Overall, I definitely recommend the book to anyone interested in a broad sociological survey of how we came to this unpleasant point in our (that is, Millennials) lives. And there's a profound feeling of vindication that comes from learning about large scale cultural shifts and other forces way beyond the individual's control that lead to modern life feeling so impossible and difficult and stagnant compared to generations before us. I'm just not over the moon for this book. It's the same issue I have with a lot of non-narrative nonfiction. I just feel like I could have gotten the necessary information from a 30 minute podcast or an article. What can I say? Time is short. I'd rather be lost in a novel or at least compelled by some narrative structure. Can't Even actually addresses this kind of thing. Where people read and watch and otherwise consume the kind of stuff that they think they should instead of what they really like. Anyway. Read this book, if you want! It certainly got me thinking a lot about self care and dedicating my precious leisure time to the things that really fulfill me.