This book was wild and disturbing but I loved it. What a unique and horrible idea that I couldn't put down.

"This is why help is so rarely sought: It takes too damn long. When your suffering is moment to moment, second by second, what possible use is help in a fortnight?"

From the get-go, Dawn Winter promised an absolute riot of a book, and she absolutely delivered. What I wasn't expecting, however, was for it to pack such an emotional punch, too. Conversations about abandonment and resentment and obsession and longing were layered with care around a hilarious central plot—either storyline by itself would have been enough to build a book on.

While I don't think this book was without its flaws, I do think it was a strong debut. I will absolutely be looking forward to more from this author, and will be recommending it to fans of Dolly Alderton, Ainslie Hogarth or Sloane Crosley.

I'm not always a synopsis reader. Sometimes I base my decisions on books by cover, or title or I simply enjoy other books by the author. Out of all those reasons...I'm not sure how I hit on this one. I started it and was flowing along thinking this is a weird little book. Then the author hit a home run with that ending. I also am notorious for NOT dnf'ing books. I always think they will get better...my own kind of FOMO. This book made me stick to my guns on that.

Frances and Elaine started out as a one-night stand, or so Frances thought. But Elaine just kept showing up and Frances let her. Frances needs money to pay her dealer and comes up with a plan to get Elaine to move in with her and ask for the money as if it's rent and then once it's paid, maybe break up with her. But once she moves in she is overwhelmed with ALL of Elaine. She is exuberant and loud and touchy feely and just too much so then she decides maybe she can drug her into a sleepful state to get her through until "rent" is due. There's a whole exchange with Elaine's parents and multiple run ins with the dealer trying to collect as well as her ex and supposed "one true love" Adrienne. This book is funny and poignant.

This was quirky, fun, and interesting. It was exactly what I needed in the moment and I really enjoyed it! I bought myself a physical copy.

Seeing the paltry 3.26 (!!!!) Goodreads’ rating after taking a looky-look at the synopsis of this one I was sure everyone was just being a hater. Buuuuuuuut now that I’ve read it and am only awarding 3 Stars myself, I get how it came to be.

The problem here is that are actually TWO potentially really solid (talking 4 Star minimum) stories in Sedating Elaine. The first would be the one that coincides with the title. Dear Frances finds herself with vivacious rebound girl Elaine.

Frances owes a significant amount of money to her weed dealer so she bites the bullet and asks the wealthy Elaine to move in with her in order to ask her for the dough rather than a loanshark. Immediately upon cohabitation, Frances comes to realize there’s no way she can keep up with Elaine (and that’s in generic energy levels, actual physical activities such as running or her sexual appetite). How to solve the problem? A little sedation and a truly laugh-out-loudable dark comedy.

The other half of the novel is a maudlin tale of Elaine’s inability to move past traumas (sad ones, but thankfully not anything sexual or abusive) that happened when she was a child. She spends as much time as she can at the restaurant job she loves – but is unwilling (or feels undeserving) of moving beyond basic KP duties. She has no real friends (although well liked by her co-workers) and spends all of her time alone except when she is engaging in meaningless sex until she meets the too-goo-to-be-true Adrienne. The writing in this portion is hauntingly beautiful at times.

The problem lies that these two stories do not comingle well. Good news is this was Dawn Winter’s debut novel and she has proven to have some quality writing chops. I’ll definitely be looking for what she comes up with next.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book fell flat for me. Unfortunately this landed in my DNF pile. As such, I chose to not share a review or rating of this title outside of NG.

Very interesting and unique read. While I did enjoy some parts of the book, I just did not feel attached nor engaged in it much.

I’m not sure if I can recommend this to anyone I know but I think it might be interesting enough for many out there!

This was my first Dawn Winter book and I was pleasantly surprised! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this book—even the synopsis sounded wild and that’s exactly what this story was, but in the best way! The characters were deeply flawed and that’s what made them so interesting. I liked the characters and the sense of humor throughout the book—dark, dry, and exactly my type of laughs! I enjoyed this book, but I also don’t think it’s for everyone.

📄 This is one of the weirdest books I have read. At first I got some major Holden Caulfield vibes, but then it just morphed into this weirdly chaotic mess of several days in the main character’s life. Let’s see if I can sum this up… Frances is coping from a horrible breakup with drugs and alcohol. She is dating someone new (who she seemingly cannot stand) and has fallen deep into debt with her drug dealer. She comes up with an insane plan to get the money for him—to ask her crazy girlfriend to move in with her & contribute to the “rent.” But… her girlfriend, Elaine, is too much for her. Frances can’t handle daily life together and decides to use her last favor with her dealer to slip Elaine a drug that will sedate her for a few days until she gets the money. Chaos ensues.

💭 The main character Frances is deeply disturbed, but I couldn’t help but feel for her. I went back and forth between grimacing in horror and feeling my heart breaking.

👉🏻 A lot of this book was a bit difficult to get through, whether it was the depressing portions or uncomfortable moments or just the nonsense that was going on. But the ending redeemed itself and made it all worth it. I loved seeing the healing and understanding and misunderstandings of the ending.

This one was a wild ride from start to finish and I completely see why its being made into a movie. Get ready to go on the madcap adventure of Frances. Everything that could go wrong for Frances does and it was so fun going on this wild and crazy journey with her. This is a fun and quick read that is just so fun and unique.

Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for an ARC for an honest review.

I was looking for dark and come dry and couldn’t find either in this book. I tried to finish this book for 3 weeks now and cannot finish it anymore. This might be more to the liking of other people but I don’t think this is for me.

I get why people don’t seem to like or are dnf-ing Sedating Elaine. This book is about a dysfunctional and unhinged main character who is committed to her confused consciousness. The theme is different which can be insatiable, dark, and slightly unlikeable with dry humour. I still found this unique to read tho! If you are one to question morals and norms, you might find this story with sapphic characters interesting.

Thank you Knopf Double Day for the reader’s copy.

Nope, no, nada. I am going to go against popular opinion here and say I didn’t really care for this book.

What sounds like a pretty good story line — Francis has a tough upbringing with some serious abandonment issues. After losing the love of her life in a devastating breakup , she fools around a lot until one clingy fling moves in. When she finds out said fling, Elaine, comes from money, Francis tries to get said money out of her to pay her drug dealer the what she owes him. Only Francis just wants some peace and quiet in the meantime, so she decides to drug, or sedate Elaine until she figures out what to do moving forward — falls very flat for me.

Honestly, what I wrote above is the gist of the book, so you don’t need to read the other 257 pages. There is so much filler and rambling that made this one very difficult for me to get through. I think at one point there were 3-4 pages that had no breaks, it was one big long paragraph that didn’t seem to end.

Again, the premise of the book is unique and interesting, there’s no denying that, and if you like all the rambling fluff then this book is for you! Unfortunately, I just didn’t love this one.

I'm sorry, but I just cannot get into this book for anything.

Frances is having an affair with Elaine who is insatiable. Most lovers would love a partner like that, but Elaine is exhausted. She also owes money to a drug dealer who has some barbaric acts he'd order if Frances does not pay up. Since she is broke and has no sign of any money coming in anytime soon, she invites Elaine to move in with her. Elaine, who has money, is so thrilled that she moves tons of stuff in the next day and is over the top with excitement. Frances feels the walls closing down.

What to do? You can only go into work early so many hours so she gets the idea of sedating Elaine so she, Frances, can get some sleep.

Along with paragraphs that stretch for pages, or maybe just seems that way, we also hear about the last lover Frances had in more detail than I cared for.

The content was not offensive, just boring. I did not find them the least bit likable and just thought it all rather stupid.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

This was a wonderfully dark book. The main character is going through a dark time in her life and I felt she was very relatable (at least for me).

Was this book hilarious? No. Was it dark? Yes. Too dark? No.

This really isn’t a book that could (or should) be read in one sitting. The writing is so thought provoking and beautiful, you’ll be taking a look at your own life and coping mechanisms. There were paragraphs that were like pages long with such well written heartbreak.

I’m not surprised this has been picked up for television. It will be such a great show! I’ll watch it for sure.

Also- Elaine is impossible not to love.

A unique & sometimes funny look into one person’s overwhelmed existence.

MV Rating: 6.5/10
•Frances is in over her head I’m literally every aspect of her life - nothing excites her, her dealer is calling in her debt, and her stifling girlfriend is moving in.
•Elaine is overwhelming, but is she also Frances’ way out of this mess? If only she could get some peace, some alone time to think….
•The descriptions of the characters, especially Elaine were so funny to me - the entire book is mildly cartoonish at times, which paired well with the tough emotional landscape.
•90% of the dialogue occurs between Frances and her subconscious, and it’s bitingly realistic - I truly felt tension & anxiety of Frances’ situations, and her “flat” feelings of the world.
•Overall, I found this to be beautifully written with a dark humor undercurrent. You truly were rooting for Frances to overcome her black cloud and turn things around, and you even rooted for Elaine sometimes.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday & Dawn Winter for this story and the ARC access!

Sedating Elaine has bitingly funny writing and a tale like a car crash you won't be able to look away from. I really enjoyed the plot, although I found the unlikability of all the characters to be somewhat of a hinderance. Even though I was aware coming into the novel that the character would be unlikable, my enjoyment definitely decreased when I found there was truly nothing I could root for. However, I still enjoyed reading about the main characters adventures, and the very funny writing was enough to keep me reading. I'd definitely recommend this to people who enjoy reading books about unlikable characters, especially queer ones!!

Unfortunately, I had to DNF this title.

The quirky and fun description is what drew me in. Two dysfunctional dating women, one with a drug dealer debt problem that leads her to invite her actually regretted, annoying, over-the-top girlfriend to move in with her with a plan to sedate her and handle the debt problem and just get a dang break.

I was even more excited to read it when I saw it was being made into a television show. I was taking a bet on this when I requested the ARC through the publisher, straying from my normal go-to genres, so maybe this was my own mistake.

I always feel bad DNFing a book, whether it be an advance review copy I committed to read and review or one I choose to read on my own, but life is too short to waste time on books you don’t personally enjoy. I am sure there are folks out here who would enjoy this style of writing with highly unlikeable main characters and a wackadoodle storyline, it just wasn’t for me and I headed straight back to my usual genre. I would probably view a tv show about this, though.

Unfortunately I just couldn't get into this one. The premise sounded dark and funny, and while there definitely were some funny moments, the characters were so unlikeable, and the main character continued to make such poor decisions, that I found myself not really caring. I think if you really enjoy reading about unlikeable characters and want a book that brings some dark humor, you might enjoy this one, though!

I did really like the writing, and look forward to seeing what the author comes out with in the future, but this one just wasn't for me.

This is a very interesting book. Elaine was recently dumped by the charismatic Adrienne. Nursing a broken heart, Frances meets Elaine one night. Frances thinks their connection will be fleeting but instead Elaine sticks around. When Frances finds herself with a debt she can't pay, she decides to invite Elaine to move in as a way to get her to pay rent. Very soon after Elaine moves in, though, Frances finds it too much to tolerate and decides to take a radical step -- sedate Elaine. While Frances thinks this will give her some peace and quiet, she finds that it instead it leads to more trouble and stress as she struggles with what she has done and the ongoing challenges in her life.

A story that is both a dark comedy and an emotional examination of one person's struggles, this is a compelling read.

Highly recommended!