Thanks to Putnam and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I didn't get to Reid's first novel, Such a Fun Age, despite the fact that I definitely stole a copy from someone's laundry room, so I went into this not knowing Reid's style but hearing good things. And I get all of the accolades. Reid weaves a story of people at a university given options and so often choosing the wrong one as they make their way through the year. I read somewhere that this book is about the need to consume and I'm not sure I see that. It felt like all of the characters were just lost, and lost in that way I distinctly remember from college. Surrounded by people but feeling alone, even when in the dorms, all made worse by not knowing how to read people. Ultimately this comes to a head in a tragic event that, while clear to the reader, never gets fully clarified for the characters and that's probably for the best. None of these people are really equipped to handle the repercussions of pettiness. In the end, no one is really likable, no one is a hero, and maybe that's the point. Either way, I appreciated Reid's prose and mostly just wished there were three fewer characters to keep track of in this. The story was both complicated but clear, in that way that people making bad decisions is always clear to the reader.

Amazon insisted that my review could not be published as submitted. I rewrote it in only a couple of sentences, leaving my star rating but deleting 90% of the review below.

I might as well say so right up front--I did not like Come and Get It. I disliked it intensely. This is the first novel by Kiley Reid that I have read, and this one was a struggle to finish. I am a retired professor. I thought I would find this novel interesting or engaging. I loved academic life and cared deeply about my students. I found Agatha's behavior to be the antithesis of professional campus life. Taking advantage of a student, whether that student is enrolled in a professor's class or not, is so strictly against all professional rules that find this novel's representation of a professor's behavior impossible to accept. I do know that some professors do behave badly, although more often in graduate school than undergraduate, but doing something so unconscionable is deeply disturbing. I don't want to provide a spoiler, and so perhaps readers should stop reading now.
--Agatha is not punished for breaking every ethical rule imposed on the behavior of a professor. She should have been. In reality, professors cannot be fired in most cases of bad behavior--except for sexual misbehavior with a student.

The characters in Come and Get It are mostly developed and do, in some instances, reflect the reality of college life, but only to a small degree. Although they like to think they are all grown up, in many ways college students are still children. They need to be protected, even when they make bad decisions. I know that college students make bad choices, but that is reason enough not to take advantage of those bad decisions. None of the students depicted in Come and Get It make appropriate adult choices. But, of course, college offers opportunities for students to mature and grown into the adults they hope to be at some point. But not at the college described in Come and Get It.

Come and Get It needs a character readers care about, which was one cause for the struggle in reading this novel. Although the characters are nicely defined, at the same time, they lack depth, with the kind of development that readers need in order to care about what happens to them. In one obvious choice, a character is so obnoxious that I no longer cared about her, except to worry about the dog. Even the central character, Millie, is a train wreck waiting to happen.

In reading Come and Get It I kept waiting for the terrible outcome I knew was eventually going to happen. In a sense, I was sitting on a ship and watching the iceberg get closer. It was inevitable that the ship would sink, and that one character would pay the price for the bad behavior that a non-functioning adult had created. There are no happy endings at the conclusion of the novel. And, yes, I do recognize the different analogies that I have employed in writing this review. I am struggling to find one that I is bad enough to choose.

I thank Putnam for sending this ARC for me to read and review. I wish I could be more positive, but I have never lied in a review and am not going to begin now. I know that some reviewers loved this novel, but I feel the need to be totally honest. Maybe I should have stopped reading as did so many others, but I kept hoping that novel would transform into something better. Unfortunately, it did not.

Thanks Netgalley for an ARC of this book. I definitely didn’t enjoy it as much as this author’s debut novel, Such a Fun Age. This book centers around Millie, an RA at a southern university, and Agatha, a professor who has come to the university in the wake of a breakup. I definitely enjoy Reid’s writing style but this book just meandered and didn’t seem to have an actual plot. There were far too many characters- it was hard to keep them all straight. But I would still definitely read her next novel.

Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed Such a Fun Age, so I had high hopes for this one. Sadly, my hopes were misplaced.

This wasn't a bad book - it just wasn't for me. There was no plot to speak of and nothing really happened. I found myself forcing myself to keep turning the pages, while longingly eyeing the other books on my to-read list.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I honestly can't say with any degree of certainty that I know what this novel is about. I kind of feel like it's a social commentary on University, and the many ways it costs us. For students it's the financial cost, the emotional cost, the pressure, the cost of finding the right social fit...and for professors, the cost of having to publish, the cost of crossing boundaries...I could go on.

The plot sort of circled around the relationship between a professor researching students who have "fun money" and how they obtain it, what they use it for, and an RA who allows the professor into the dorm to secretly listen in on student conversations. Their friendship is innocent at first, but then turns inappropriate. I'm not sure why the story had to take place in 2017? Perhaps because the lines between student/prof were blurred then? Either way, parts of it were interesting, and parts were just downright confusing.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 30%
I realllyyy wanted to like this but at 100+ pages in i felt like i had no idea what the plot was or who the characters were. just a whole lot of nothing tbh.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via NetGalley

In 2019, I read and reviewed Kiley Reid’s debut novel, Such A Fun Age, so I was pleased to receive a copy of her second novel, Come And Get It (thanks to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review. I found Such a Fun Age to be “full of humor and well-developed characters exploring several potential sticky topics,” and this is true of Come and Get It as well. Chosen as a “Good Morning America Book Club Pick,” an “Indie Next Pick,” and a “LibraryReads Pick,” I had high hopes for this one, although I went into it knowing next to nothing about it.

The story is set in 2017 at the University of Arkansas, and revolves around a senior resident assistant, Millie Cousins, who just wants to do her job, graduate, and buy a house. A visiting professor named Agatha Paul is spending an academic year to do research for her next book, and she offers Millie what seems like an easy way to increase her saving-for-a-down-payment fund. Ostensibly about weddings, Agatha’s project becomes more about college students and their relationships with money, and Agatha soon turns it into a less-than-academic bit of research and more of a voyeuristic look at several students for whom Millie is their RA (in a less-than attractive dorm situation).

TBH, I was quite surprised to read the negative reviews of this one. If you are looking for a complex plot, be aware that this one is pretty much totally character-driven, focused on Agatha and Millie. Agatha is an out lesbian and Millie has been cis, but is clearly open to being with people she is attracted to, regardless of gender/sexuality. Not extremely experienced, Millie viewed sex with her ex Dominic as “…a little like going to the gym: a chore at first, but halfway through, she was happy to have gone.” Things DO happen, and the story goes deeply into each character’s thoughts and emotions.

Reid’s genius is in writing dialogue that is revelatory of her characters, and as the story goes on, more and more of each character’s back story is revealed. I actually loved it, despite the fact that “nothing happened.” (Seriously? Who wrote that review? A LOT happens, and it is beautifully written.)

Happy to give this four stars, and looking forward to listening to the podcast from Slate’s Political Gabfest of February 17, which is titled “Race, Money and Fictional Life at the University of Arkansas” and features a discussion with Kiley Reid herself.

Come and Get It is a fantastic, amazingly well written campus story. Reid writes the characters in a way that feels so real, at times I forgot I was reading fiction. I really enjoyed this book and enjoyed the storytelling style that Reid wrote it in.

Come and Get It is a smart, funny, and all-too-real campus novel that explores the relationship between college students and money. It’s been a handful of years since I graduated, but Come and Get It brings me right back to the horrors of dorm living. Reid writes characters that are so believable that reading the book feels almost voyeuristic, but I couldn’t look away. I loved this book!

I went to a Southern college in the SEC. I was active in Greek life and in the community. From that perspective I enjoy reading other’s interpretations of what co-ed life is like in the south. Come and Get, It is a character driven novel, (I was unaware of this before diving in) which is a sweet way of saying the plot sucks. Kiley Reid can write some amazing characters and she did in this novel. However, with all the details, history, trauma or complete lack of with each character, I kept waiting for all of their stories to come together. Yes, I understand not everyone’s ending can come complete with a tidy bow, but damn! ALL of those characters, and we only have a satisfying conclusion for 2? I think the most upsetting was Millie’s ending. She is an intelligent young woman with a college degree and a nice sized savings. Why was she not smart enough to see past college life and leave the school, the town. Go back home or anywhere else. There are much bigger things in life than staying there, becoming a townie and university employee just because it is comfortable and what you know.

Wonderful story, great character development, great writing! Highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it

Centered on a group (loose defintion of group) of women at University of Arkansas, Come and Get It was nothing if not a deep character study. Through discussions of class, sexuality, and race, Reid writes these detailed, rich, gorgeous characters that I fell in love with slowly, then all at once. I was crying over papers on a countertop and the biting jabs of best friends in a fight and wondering when I got to be so invested. I enjoyed the subtlety of the details and allowing the characters and plot to grow together and reveal itself so slowly. It felt a lot like living life in their world. And most of all, I loved Kennedy!!
I requested this book soley because it's set at University of Arkansas and my hottest and most misunderstood opinion is about how much I love the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers area, so it was delightful to have my own experiences with the landmarks of the book :) Woo pig!
Despite relating to Kennedy on a level I'm coming to terms with, I also absolutely needed the book to end with that transcendent and smart line from Colette!
Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for the ARC!

First time I've had the experience of finishing a book and immediately wanting to read it again from the beginning.

When I see tons of reviews describe a book as "plotless" or "nothing happens", it's like a buzzword for me. I instantly hit the want to read button. I find that readers often use those words to describe books where yes, fewer things happen, but those few things are described and analyzed in great detail. And that is exactly the type of book that I love.

For some books that I think are comparable, not in plot, but in 'nothing happens' vibes - Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater, The Cleaner by Brandi Wells, The Guest by Emma Klein, Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, and Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas.

The only author who has ever left me utterly unable to write at least something about a book is Kiley Reid. Same goes for Such A Fun Age. I am so impressed I'm catatonic. This is the ultimate character driven book that ends so unsatisfying that it's almost perfect.

Sorry to Netgalley and the publisher, I surrender and admit defeat with this e-arc.

This was an interesting character study of a time and place and young people finding their way in a confusing world. It felt a bit all over the place though and I found myself reluctant to pick it up. It had moments of brilliance as it considered how race, money, and privilege intersect, but it fell short of the mark for me.

Absolutely loved this. Loved the complex interwoven stories, loved how authentically residence life it was.

After I finished reading this book, I really thought it was a book about nothing. Not much that is noteworthy happens. However, I did love the characters or Mille and Agatha. Both were exceptionally developed and demonstrated strength through difficulty. I loved when the characters intersected in a more prominent way. Kennedy, whose story and character was also developed, was a little more difficult to like. But I also didn't really connect with her or her story.

I loved Such a Fine Age and was very excited to read this book. I was not disappointed because Reid really can write beautiful words and has a way of making me connect with the characters. If you loved the last book like I did, you should definitely read this one as well.

Come and Get It proves to me that Reid is a master storyteller. Her characters and their interactions are so rich, complex and spot on. On the whole, I didn’t love this as much as I loved Such a Fun Age, but it’s for mostly minor plot points. I will wholeheartedly recommend this book (and have already!) to friends, colleagues and patrons.

Kind of a let down after Such a Fun Age, but still worth picking up if you enjoy character driven stories. Especially those focused on privileged youth and their faux naivete.

I’m marking as “DNF.” There was not much of a plot line, and the book dragged on.

I was disappointed because I did enjoy Kiley Reid’s debut novel, Such a Fun Age.

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the eARC.