Imagine running into an ex every time you go out; in my opinion, that sounds kind of horrible. Especially if there is a cult involved, pulling the strings behind the scenes. This story combines elements of rom-com and science fiction verging on fantasy in a way that I found intriguing. It took me a while to get invested in the story, but once I did, there were some twists that sucked me in. Exploring Lola’s previous relationships show how she had grown and changed from college to the present, as each interaction led to some reflection. Each is a piece that makes Lola into who she is in the present day. And all of this leads back to her current relationship. Lola's journey asks you to reflect on where you have come from and as a result of that, where you are going.

My only complaint about this book is that the writing style is a little pretentious, but in a way that a lot of readers tend to enjoy. I had to go back and re-read some parts a few times to understand what was going on. But more often than not, the flowery language added dimension to the story.

Overall, a very clever and fun read!

I liked The Clasp. I love books about cults. This one is such a smart mix of creep and romance and also comedy- and I never find books to be funny! The main character, Lola, is a writer for Modern Psychology magazine and a serial dater. She likes her life just fine until she runs into one of her exes. Then another. And then another. Coincidence no longer covers what is happening to her and Lola finds herself at the center of a contemporary cult’s actions. This writing is so engaging and feels like you're watching a movie. I couldn’t put it down. I can't believe how I enjoyed this self deprecating and odd humor. There are many characters in this book and at some points I did get slightly confused, but it didn’t take away from the overall impact.Furthermore, this is one of the best book endings ever. I don't want to say much more and I'm being vague on purpose as to not spoil. I really enjoyed this though and now consider Sloane Crosley an auto-buy.

Cult Classic follows recently engaged New Yorker, Lola, who keeps running into her exes in Chinatown. As these - supposedly - chance encounters keep happening, Lola is forced to contend with her feelings about both her romantic past and the future of her current relationship. Later, when she meets with her best friend and former boss, she realizes these "chance encounters" aren't "chance" at all...

This book was pretty w e i r d. The concept is really intriguing, but ultimately the story fell flat, it felt rushed and the plot was too vague to be engaging. The ending pulled it together for me, but it felt way too sudden. The writing was incredibly introspective, but pretty dull... Parts of the story will stick with me because of how bizarre it was, but I didn't love much about this one besides its potential.

Thank you #NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the arc!

Lola is haunted by the boyfriends of her past... or are they haunted by her?

Sloane Crosley explores relationships, memory, and how we construct our stories in her new novel Cult Classic.

I loved Crosley's writing in I Was Told There'd be Cake and was very excited to dive into her second novel. Crosley's writing remains filled with keen, cutting observations.

There were times toward the middle where the book dragged a bit for me. Though the novel isn't long, I wondered if the same effect could be achieved a little more tightly. Also, there is a cynicism bordering on coldness throughout that might be polarizing.

Still, the book has a clever premise that follows through to the very end. For the right reader at the right time, this will be a fantastic read!

loved this - the writing was so interesting and the plot kept me on my toes while still taking time for me to be introspective about love, relationships and the value of closure

I gave this book the best chance I could, but in the end, I just could not keep reading. I was bored.

Weird. Fascinating. I loved it and also…didn’t love it? The concept of it was intriguing, but I think I was hung up by the writing style (thank god I can easily look up words on my kindle). The ending was great but also felt rushed. I’m so conflicted on this one, but overall I’m glad I read it.

Lola keeps running into her exes forcing her to get closure by thinking about her previous relationships and what went wrong. She is currently engaged and this also causes her to look at her current relationship. Is running into every single one of her exes a coincidence? Nope. She’s been involuntarily drawn into this weird cult.

I don’t know how to review this book. I liked it I think but didn’t love it. It was a strange book with a unique plot. I liked the writing and the plot but also wished more been explained as far as the cult goes. I don’t know. I wouldn’t have wanted the book any longer though as the length was just right.

I can’t really explain more so read the book if this one sounds like your style.

Entertaining.
Many thanks to Farrah, Straus and Giroux and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Crosley's latest takes a look at what it means to commit through examining the main character's past relationships in a social experiment of what it looks like to have access and run into everyone you've dated -- and how that might also impede the ability to move forward. Really good book with Crosley's signature wit!

What a ride. First of all, hats off to the author because this writing style is punchy af. I swear I had to read slower than most books because I feel like I'd miss something (a joke, a whip smart reference)

Plotwise, I love it in theory, but it definitely dragged in the middle before an oh-so satisfying ending!

2.5 stars.

The premise for this novel was intriguing and I was curious to see where things might go. Unfortunately, it was just too dry for my tastes. There is a distinct literary feel about the writing, which was fine, but the tone came off as pretentious. The voice became too introspective, focusing on the meaning behind everything rather than actually delivering plot, and that made it overly clinical rather than fun. There were some good ideas and the ending was well-played, but mostly I was just bored.

—c u l t c l a s s i c—⁣
Who is an author you have been reading for a long time?⁣
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I stumbled on one of Sloane Crosley’s hilarious essay collections when I was 25 or so and let me tell you- it was like listening to that song that you SWEAR was written just for you because you feel it so deeply and profoundly. I am a decade+ older and have not read another author who can speak as well for me generationally (elder millennials, unite). ⁣
—⁣
Cult Classic is Crosley’s second novel and like her essays, it is deeply wacky, often hilarious, and sometimes deeply felt. It follows a thirty something New Yorker, Lola, who is recently engaged and begins strangely running into all her exes. These “chance” encounters force her to reflect and consider these moments in her life and ruminate on her current relationship. There is more than meets the eye, of course (I won’t spoil).⁣
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This book is capital W weird. In all, I enjoyed it. The concept and plot are pretty bonkers but Crosley’s writing is (to me) so delicious. The story didn’t totally work for me but I loved the character development and there are particular parts of the story (the part with the wedding Lola attends was so bizarre and funny)that will stick with me. ⁣
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In all, super strange and novel little novel.⁣
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Thank you @netgalley and @mcdbooks for the chance to read this! ⁣
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#bookreview

Sloane Crosley's writing is beautiful and I was intrigued by the blurb that I read but after reading the book, I felt underwhelmed by the plot. This one didn't stack up to some of her other books. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I had such high hopes for this book. The concept seemed like it could be a very interesting read. Unfortunately, this one fell a little flat for me.

Lola is at a reunion party and when she goes to get a pack of cigarettes, she runs into an ex boyfriend. Just a chance meeting…no big deal. Then she ran into another ex and another. Somehow I’m a city as overcrowded as New York City, Lola keeps running into ex boyfriends.

She meets with her best friend and former boss and finds out that all of these blasts from the past might not be coincidence after all.

Lola is newly engaged and has been rethinking whether or not she really wants to give her future to her fiancé or if she might want to revisit her past.

The characters in this story were very boring and dull. I thought we would have more interaction between Lola and her exes. This was called a comic mystery, but I didn’t get the comic part. There was a twist I didn’t see coming but at that point, I already didn’t really care about Lola or any of the other characters.

I received this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I had a fun time reading Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley. It's a quirky love story that definitely kicked up nostalgia vibes. Funny commentary on modern dating and relationships. Culty manipulation of social media. IDK what else to say other than I had a great time reading it, laughed a lot, and was rooting and identifying with the main character a lot. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Cult Classic is definitely about a cult. But it's not the cult that you're thinking about (and maybe not even the actual-maybe cult that appears in the book, cult leader who wants to be called the Prophet and everything). It's about the cult of marriage. And the cult of New York City, specifically Manhattan and even more so Chinatown. It's about having friends who are coworkers who are sometimes frenemies. It's about love and what it means if you've had prior loves, and how to let go of the past to seize the present. It's also about choosing to let go of the cult of memory to be present.

That's a lot and sounds dry, but this book is hilarious! I loved Sloane Crosley's writing which is witty and snarky and acerbic just like our heroine. I adored her, misanthropic though she sometimes seems. I liked that she literally deteriorates through the book as she is confronted, over and over, by every lover she's ever had. It is truly nightmare stuff, and the nightmare deepens throughout the plot- but this is more scarily funny than scary.

Five full stars for the entertainment, and for being so glad I didn't get roped into this experiment. I've never been so happy to have already fallen into the cult of marriage!

https://www.elle.com/culture/books/g40013806/best-books-summer-2022/

Anyone who’s been captivated by Sloane Crosley’s essays will recognize a similar puckish sense of humor undergirding this novel, a Cultish-meets-Christmas Carol-like exploration of what it’s like to confront your past (that is, if Ebenezer Scrooge were a Gen X woman with a colorful roster of exes.)

**I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review **

You know that feeling after you read an incredibly immersive, bingeable book where you sort of bask dazedly in the afterglow of it like a seal in the sun? That’s me right now.

From the moment I first heard of the concept of this book, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and it lived completely up to my expectations.

The narrative style was reminiscent of a cross between Maggie Stiefvater and V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Just soft and decadent, a portrait of humanity and relationships at once romantic and corrosive.

I adored the characters, particularly Clive who gave me antihero vibes. His persona and influence over the main character sparkled. He especially felt classic, that mysterious, charismatic nemesis that appears to have it all under control. That the story is tailored and narrated specifically for him was perhaps one of my favorite aspects. Like this is the truth Lola could never tell him.

And Lola. I’ve been at her point, where you’ve dated so many people you just want to stop believing in love but it’s still out there and it still exists. I loved reading her journey, working through all those past loves that she’s been clinging to, for fear she’s missing out on something better. She was both vibrant and dry and I never got tired of her.

And the ending was so enormously satisfying, the perfect closure, exactly what I wanted that this is easily one of my favorite books and I feel like it could be read many times over, always discovering new layers.

Masterfully done, all the stars

This was one of my most anticipated new novels for 2022, but <em>Cult Classic</em> was a mixed bag. The narrator Lola is a 37-year-old woman who's engaged to a man she refers to only as "Boots," who's a reliable, stable, and compatible partner. As Lola grapples with whether or not she should move forward with the relationship, she starts running into her exes in New York's Chinatown. It seems coincidental...but its turn out the run-ins with Lola's numerous exes have been orchestrated by her former boss Clive Glenn as part of an experiment for a cult-like organization he's trying to get off the ground. Lola must come face-to-face with her dating past and decide if she can get the closure she needs to move forward with current relationship and make a decision about whether "Boots" is the right one for her at this moment in her life.

The Good: I think Sloane Crosley's observations about dating and relationships are so astute, feminist, and refreshingly candid and relationship. Lola is not looking for a "fairy tale" romance, and she's a completely independent, intelligent and cynical woman. While of course running into her exes causes Lola to fixate on her dating life, she's under no impression that she needs a man to complete her. I liked that Lola really used her experiences in the novel to assess her compatibility with "Boots" and determine if he was a good fit for her. Lola's perspective on dating is something I've rarely seen in fiction, and I liked how real it is. For Lola (and as is the case in real life) dating isn't about finding "the one," but rather about finding a partner who makes sense.

The Bad: The book was too long for the concept it presented! It dragged, particularly in the last half. I was, quite frankly, bored in the last 50% or so of the book until it came to a rapid-fire, twisty conclusion in the last 10% or so. Ironically, though, then I found the ending rushed. Crosley's writing style also was pretentious at points; the novel uses a number of $20 words when $5 words would do. I think some of the passages were overwrought. And while yes the novel makes some good points about modern dating and relationships, some of the more grandiose moments fell flat. I also was not particularly interested in Clive's character or his cult the Golconda. I found Clive irritating and creepy but not truly interesting.