Catchy title. Cool cover. Compelling story. Crappy prose.

This book seems an extension of an earlier essay ostensibly about her obsession with collecting toy ponies but actually has more to do with her relationships. I liked that original story. It had some depth!

The main character here is a writer on the cusp of getting married and getting cold feet because of the mismatch between her strum und drang personality and her partner’s complacency.

She runs into an old flame on the street—the first of many encounters with old flames.

Thankfully there’s a cult involved, which is why I wanted to read this book. Fortunately the cult is integral to the plot and ties it all together. (Who in their right mind ever says “thankfully: there was a cult!)

I was too impatient to continue puzzling out the relevance of over-written, clunky, abstruse, and tedious sentences like “The city was chock-a-block with genetic winners who still had to pay for their own meals and wait in line at the DMV.” I would have quit out of complete disinterest, but I promised to review the novel.

Here you go. I recommend this to very patient readers who don’t mind a self-centered protagonist that confuses being “self-absorbed” with being “self-aware.”

I was given the opportunity to read a preview in exchange for my opinion..

Sloane Crosley has made a name for herself with three books of essays and one novel. Cult Classic is her second novel, and it centers around Lola, a woman who is engaged to be married, has lived and dated in New York for years, and is starting to run into all of her ex-boyfriends for some reason. One random ex is weird, two is a coincidence, but the third random ex-boyfriend makes her start thinking something might be going on. And of course she is right. Her best friend and ex-boss turned TV guru, whom she worked for at a now defunct magazine, Modern Psychology, have a vested interest in Lola running into these ex-boyfriends and how it affects her.

Lola has dated many men for short periods of time. With every breakup, even amicable, there are feelings that are usually left unresolved. They stay unresolved but they also shape the way a person continues with new romances. When confronted with these people, does Lola feel a sense of healing and closure for all of the wounds that never fully heal? The idea is that every relationship, no matter how long or short, changes the person, and that love is all we seek and the biggest motivator. Lola is being asked the question of whether closure of previous relationships will make her current one stronger.

Sloane Crosley’s writing is easy and funny and the novel moves at a quick pace. She is known for her humorous essays, especially the collection, I Was Told There’d Be Cake, so her humor shines, especially in the character of Lola. As the novel progresses, I like the Lola more and more, especially her dialogue and the way that she interacts with those around her. I like Lola better than the story. I know the ideas behind Cult Classic are kind of interesting, the structure and the story itself is a bit dull. Some of the choices for scenes and structure that Crosley makes seem to drag down the pace of the story. The biggest example of this is that after the first big reveal about what is happening to Lola, the next chapter is about Lola and Boots, her fiancé, going to a wedding out of the city. Crosley has the story right where it needs to be but then immediately removes the characters with a chapter that has very little bearing on the rest of the novel. We are then reintroduced to the things happening between Lola and her random ex sightings. There are a few smaller instances that do the same thing. There are a more than one moment when Crosley takes us out of the story with a chapter or even scene that is irrelevant. which makes her job harder because she has to reel us back into the plot. Even though Crosley has written a great character with some very funny dialogue and a book with an interesting concept, there are choices that she makes with storytelling and structure that make portions of this novel fall flat.

I am not one that looks up the artists of book covers very often, but June Park, the artist, deserves some attention. This could be the best cover of the decade.

I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you are a Sloane Crosley fan, I think you will love this book. If not, I think this is for readers with a very particular appetite. The book focuses on Lola and the serendipitous way she runs into her string of ex-boyfriends. In classic Crosley style, the writing is filled with stunningly sharp observations and I found myself writing down quote after quote thinking, “wow, YES, exactly!”

That said, the book has fairly little plot so if you are driven by fast paced activities, don’t expect that here. (I would also note that I know the book is pegged as a mystery, but I definitely would not put it in that genre.) Personally I found the crux of the book to be a little outlandish and it wasn’t completely my vibe, but I can appreciate how well written it was!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

There are very few authors who get to jump the queue in my TBR. There are very few books I'll round up a 4.5 to a 5 star rating for. But Sloane Crosley is that writer for me.

The premise was interesting--is the protagonist, a late-30s New Yorker, just having cold feet about getting married whilst running into ex-boyfriends around town, or has her charismatic ex-boss actually started a cult with her as its test case? Lola is avoidant by nature, which I totally relate to, but it did feel a little strange how little we learned about her family of origin or non-work friends in the context of her troubled relationship history. Not to give too much away, but I was actually surprised by the ending--I had fallen for the 11th hour red herring, and thus was not seeing the forest for the trees. However, there were some threads that were not tied up (what about the ring and the shelf the fell down? Were there no consequences at work for Lola's downward spiral?), so as noted above, this is a 4.5-star read for me.

There are some stunningly beautiful passages--I was highlighting away on Kindle. I'll leave you with just this one:
"My worries were more abstract yet more pernicious. I worried about the betrayal of memory and belief. I worried my former love life was a bomb waiting to go off or, worse, that it would never go off. That I would wake one day, having buried the past so well I’d find myself unrecognizable, having moved to a city I hated, slowly losing touch with my friends, then with the culture at large, until the only books I read were the ones I read about in nail salons, the only art I knew was presented to me through my phone, and the only plays I saw were the ones that had been adapted for the screen. And I’d have to pretend there was nothing wrong with this because there was nothing wrong with this. Not for that version of me. But is this what all my romantic dramas had been for, their natural conclusion? A life of palliative television?"

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a well written book. It has some fine lines, a few well conceived set pieces, a fair share of perceptive and insightful observations, and lean dialogue. That said, try as I might I found neither the characters nor the overall narrative engaging enough to arouse or hold my curiosity and attention. As a consequence, it doesn't seem fair to write much more of a review, apart from encouraging interested readers to give the book a try.

I will read absolutely anything Sloane Crosley writes, and this is no exception. In some ways, this reminds me of Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking About This, because it pokes fun at things in our lives today that feel extremely culty - for Lockwood, it's the internet, for Crosley, it's romance. As Lola romps through an unsettling experience of interacting with every single ex she has ever had over a span of multiple dinners at the same restaurant, we get let into her (unreliable) stream-of-conciousness.

Sloane Crosley is hilarious, and this book is so fun - read it!

Having read Sloane Crosley's essay collections, I was already expecting CULT CLASSIC to be funny and a bit wild. It did not disappoint. It wasn't a classic romance, but rather a hilarious meditation on what we need from our partners and from our past. I was thoroughly taken aback by the twist ending, which I did not see coming. I wasn't sure Crosley would be able to craft a longform narrative with the same spark and punch as her humor essays, but she did!

Cult Classic is a marked improvement over Crosley's debut fiction novel The Clasp. It's very chatty/internal/ stream of consciousness, and it reads a lot like her essay collections (which I loved). The blurb is a bit misleading, as it sounds like Lola (our MC) is running into all of her exes in one night, when it's actually spread out over a longer period of time. The reveal of who is pulling Lola's strings and why all of her exes are crossing her path is very interesting, motivation-wise, while also requiring a significant suspension of belief.
I really enjoyed this weird little novel, and as always, I'll be looking forward to what Crosley publishes next.
Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with an advanced copy for review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley is billed as a "comic mystery" that combines suspense and humor. The story involves Lola, our heroine who unexpectedly keeps bumping into past boyfriends and exes one night. Why is this happening? Is Lola the victim of cosmic forces beyond her control? Is this book a comment on love in a postmodern age? Or is this just surrealism?

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 1 so you can see the author's writing style:

"Toward the end of our relationship, I felt a reactionary love for all the things Amos hated. Not just Manhattan, but streaming services, nature videos, expensive toiletries, pop music, smartphones, beaches, throw pillows, bottled water, alternative milks, kitchen gadgets (a strawberry destemmer—who knew!), and cats. So completely did I commit to these things (was this the first time anyone adopted a kitten out of spite?), I convinced myself they were more indicative of who I was than the deeper things Amos and I had in common. I became resentful of the books and politics and niche references that had brought us together, as if they had betrayed me by leading me into the arms of a man who diagnosed Clive as a charlatan and my friends as “morally impoverished.”
Our relationship never would have lasted for the two years it did were it not for Kit. Amos had a twenty-something cousin named Kit, a Hollywood starlet with a penchant for filters and quotations. But she was a blood relation, which made her tolerable to Amos, which, in turn, made him tolerable to me. When Kit was filming in New York, the three of us went out to dinner. Amos was delighted by her. She ordered food as if she and the waiter were working on a project together. She recounted stories from Amos’s childhood and demanded our conversion from tequila to mezcal."

Overall, Cult Classic is supposed to be a psychological thriller meets romantic comedy, according to the synopsis I love both of those genres. This sounded like a really unique book, and I was so excited to read it. Unfortunately, once I started, I realized that this book is more literary fiction. I'm not sure this book had much of a plot. I was confused from the beginning, and I did not enjoy my reading experience. It reminded me a bit of Waiting for Godot. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of surrealism, you can check out this book when it comes out in June.

i really wanted to enjoy this book, but it was just not for me. it was too far fetched for my enjoyment. but sloane is a great author and you should still try this one out when the time comes.

I"m a longtime fan of Sloane Crosley, so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to read "Cult Classic." It did not disappoint, and I think may be Crosley's best book yet. "Cult Classic" follows the story of Lola, who is engaged to Boots but isn't really sure about their relationship. It starts out like a fun, easy read then takes a quick turn into uncharted waters. The story is wholly original, with an ending I never saw coming. But what makes this book shine is Crosley's witty, quick style that brings humor to even the least funny situations.

I’ve only ever read non-fiction by Sloane Crosley before, and I was so excited to find out she was writing a fictional novel. It did not disappoint! As with her non-fiction, her writing here is sharp and funny, her metaphors and analogies uniquely interesting. The overarching plot was a bit confusing at times, and I wish she had explained the way the cult manufactured results more clearly (the way around that lack of explanation was by never letting the narrator learn, though as the reader I was desperate to know how the meditation room worked). However, I still enjoyed this fun, contemplative novel very much.

I didn't enjoy this book, I thought it sounded really cool, but the writing was tough to get through and I found it pretentious. I DNF'd at 65 pages.

This book had a clever premise and felt so quintessentially New York, which I loved! Very few books have felt as New York to me as this one.

However, considering the plot was about the main character bumping into her ex-boyfriends and trying to find closure, it felt like the entire story and characters lacked emotional depth for me. Even though the exes all had discreet almost cartoon-like personalities, I kept mixing them up. I wish there had been a bit more focus on the character development and the effect of each of the exes on Lola's psyche.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. This is one of the funniest writers through three books of essays and now here with her second novel. Lola lives in New York City with her boyfriend who she loves but is not sure she wants to marry and spend the rest of her life with. At a dinner with old work friends in Chinatown, Lola runs into one of her old boyfriends and is surprised how many emotions this meeting causes her about love and failed romance. The next night she’s back at the same restaurant with another old friend and runs into another old boyfriend. As this keeps happening, the source of these meetings is revealed to Lola and she has time to visit all these old loves and question what she really wants from a partner. This book is great on modern romance, but is also, page for page, one of the funniest books I’ve read in years.

I’m just really into cults. Theoretically, that is. The subject fascinates me. In fact, put a word cult in the title or a description of a novel and I’m there. So, that was the main attractor with this book. I’ve heard of the author before but haven’t read any of her work, she seems to oscillate between fiction and nonfiction and, going by the quality of the writing in this book, probably does so excellently.
This novel for me turned out to be one of those things where you can really appreciate something intellectually without engaging with it emotionally all the way. Which is somewhat ironic, because the book is all about emotions, specifically of the romantic persuasion.
Its protagonist, a 37-year-old woman named Lola (Lo lo lo lo lola) who after a lifetime of fairly aggressive dating and equally aggressive obsessing over her exes might finally be ready to settle down with a nice tall man named Boots who adores her. The question is does she return his affections or is it just, indeed, settling? Lola’s much too addled to decide, her cupidity for cupid’s arrows has rendered her an indecisive mess. She’s a fun (and glibly funny) mess, but a mess all the way. If only there was some way to help her…oh, wait…
There is, there absolutely is. A cult (which of course doesn’t want to be known as that) lead by her former boss (a once upon a time respectable publisher of Modern Psychology turned a once upon a time tv shrink personality turned into…no one of notice), a cult dedicated to assisting people in getting past their relationship trauma and PTSD by helping them confront their exes. There’s actually a complicatedly ludicrous new agey way in which they go about accomplishing that by concentrating their mental powers, etc. but we won’t go into that.
Instead, we can focus on Lola, much like the cultists do, since this is very much the Lola show. Lola starts coming across her exes, in a succession most would find alarming, and reevaluating her past relationships, obsessions and motivations. It’s all quirky and kinda sorta charming and oh so quintessentially New York and yet it is much too clever to be dismissed as a romcom or chicklit or some such crap.
For Croskey is such a clever writer. The way she turns out sentences sparkles. I read them and wish/dream of doing the same. Her characters are giving such terrific dialogue lines, they spar and joust with verve and panache and snappy pop (and otherwise) culture references that would make a Gilmore Girl swoon. And yet for all of that cleverness, they come across as superficial. Or maybe not superficial per se, but not entirely relatable or likeable, staunchly maintaining emotional distance. Maybe it’s because they are such stereotypical New Yorkers, the kind of people that overthink going to the same trendy restaurant two days in a row. Maybe it’s because they are so hopelessly self-involved. Maybe it’s because they are so thoroughly buttered in first world privilege.
At any rate, they read like slick glib clichés, albeit darkly humorous and clever. So, while intellectually I was so into this book, emotional engagement just wasn’t there. The only character I kinda sorta enjoyed was Boots, the guileless steadfast Boots, who as it turns out has a surprise of his own to reveal.
Is cleverness enough to win the day? Well, yes. It certainly beats the alternatives. I’ll take a smart emotionally distant book over a twee schmaltzy heartwarming tale any day, but it does leave something to be desired. Maybe it’s just the millennialism of it all (the characters are on the very end of that spectrum), maybe it was the tedium of their inherent NewYorkness.
Nevertheless, this was original, smart, very well written and a most auspicious introduction to the author. Plus, there was a cult. And a very good ending. Thanks Netgalley.

What a witty romp: 37-year-old Lola, our narrator, is about to get married, but she doubts whether Boots is really the man she wants to spend her life with - from this romantic trope, Crosley extrapolates an over-the-top fantastical story in which our protagonist keeps on bumping into former boyfriends. Witnessing the insanity are Lola's former co-workers from "Modern Psychology", a prestigious periodical (so Lola claims; the articles she later mentions seem to have been less-than-reputable) that, amidst the crisis in print journalism, had to be shut down. While Lola is now working for Radio New York, a website compiling arts and culture news and a pet project of a venture capitalist (media criticism! after all, Crosely is a print journalist), her former boss Clive has become some kind of rich alternative psychology guru - does he have anything to do with Lola suddenly meeting a whole string of former lovers?

While the backstory that details the mystery of what's behind our protagonist's maybe-not-ro-random sightings of exes is clearly not meant to be believable and only mildly interesting (although it does dish out some points about The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power and new age hysteria reminiscent of the alternative facts hype gang), the real star of the book are the numerous vignettes in which Lola interacts with her exes and ponders relationships. Lola has dated quite a lot of very different guys, and the backstories, often told in a funny tone (even if they're not funny in themselves) are just a pleasure to read. Lola is an unrealiable narrator, but she is open about her human flaws, which makes her quips and misadventures entertaining.

"Romance may be the world's oldest cult." - the novel states at some point, and yes, Crosley works with familiar ideas, but twists them. "Love leaves a neurological footprint. A search history of the soul." - and this is the more serious core of the text: What does our relationship history say about us in the course of time, and what does it accumulate to?

I had lots of fun reading this book, and I want to see it nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction.