Come and get it tells the story of a resident assistant, some very interesting students under her tutelage, and a visiting professor. The characters are stereotypical college students. The plot ebbs and flows, so much so that it can be hard to follow and maintain interest. As someone who works in higher ed, I wasn't overly thrilled.

When I started the book, I had high hopes for it. I loved Kiley Reid's other book Such a Fun Age. I mean, I loved it. I gave it five stars without thinking about it. It had important commentary without preaching to the reader and there was a plot. At the beginning, I was enjoying it. Reid has a knack for details, which was present in Come and Get It, and for language. That was the thing I liked most about it.
As I continued to read, I realized that there was really little plot. Nothing happened. Now, I do enjoy character driven novels but there has to be some plot, even if it is loose and not encompassing. I also had trouble connecting to the characters. They did not seem very likeable and I am all for unlikeable characters but I usually like to see one that I like or one that is mixed (after all, the very best characters are not all one thing or the other). I found myself thinking that I could easily get along in life without ever meeting one of them. All of this made me a little bored and if it was not for the language, quite honestly, I might not have finished it.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the Arc! I really enjoyed this book. It followed students at the University of Arkansas. Most of the book felt very mundane. It was filled with bickering roommates, the weird relationship with your RA, and a questionable relationship with someone much older than you. However, you felt tension bubbling throughout each page. I think the drama and anticipation was the best part of the book.

I was a big fan of Reid's debut novel, Such A Fun Age, so I was excited for her next book. In a nutshell, Come And Get It follows a professor who is conducting interviews for her book on weddings, and after interviewing college students, she becomes interested in their thinly veiled white privileged outlook and racial comments, such as using the word "ghetto" to describe their Black RA, while quickly saying, "but I like her though."
She then starts hanging out in the RA's dorm room to eavesdrop on their conversations, and then uses their conversations to create interview style exposes for Teen Vogue, while taking some liberties with the truth. And then begins taking liberties with the RA....
My reaction and impressions of have changed over the past few days. While reading, I put it down for a period of time because not a lot was happening. The pacing was slow, and while the character development was great- and I have MANY strong feelings for the different characters- I couldn't see where it was going. The plot was taking a long time to solidify, and at one point focus seemed to change from one topic- the micro aggressions of college roommates towards their Black RA, to another- the queer awakening of Millie (the RA) with a professor on campus. While the RA is older having taken time off for various reasons, I am never a fan of professor(or teacher)/student relationships (I am an educator and that is not a favorite topic.)
There was also a character, Kennedy, who had some sort of traumatic event at a previous school that seems to be the driving force behind her eccentric behavior. The incident was sad, and I'm sure traumatic, but it was not what you would think.
After 3/4 of the way through, everything sort of exploded at once. The plot came together, chaos ensued, and it was a lot to process. I think had the build up to the events been structured differently, I would have been more invested instead of just yelling 'WTF!?"
However, this book really got me to think about dynamics in friends groups, how daily subtle microaggressions can build up, and how incidents that don't seem traumatic to us can lead to lasting consequences to others. Racism doesn't need to be blatant and overt to be dangerous.
And also, college students make really poor, poor decisions.
3 stars.
Thank you NetGalley for my copy.

Maybe I'm just not the target audience for Kiley Reid's work. I read Such a Fun Age and while I enjoyed it, I felt like it was trying to be significant and just didn't quite get there for me. Her new book Come and Get It was harder for me to get through and again it just didn't click for me. That doesn't mean it's not a good piece of writing, just that it isn't the right book for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of Come and Get It in exchange for an honest opinion.

I was very excited for this book because I enjoyed Reid's previous novel. However, my expectations fell short. I found the main character Millie to be immature and generally not enjoyable. Agatha Paul was also a disappointing character. It seemed like the characters crawled toward an avoidable problem throughout the book. Which was ultimately resolved in an unrealistic way. Although some of the characters are interesting (I really enjoyed Kennedy) the story line did not do a good job at holding my interest.

This is a solid 3 stars for me! I really enjoyed the vibe, characters, and academia setting but the story and details fell a little short. I don't feel like a lot happened and I kept waiting for more.
I struggled to keep engaged and wanted to love it, but I didn't find enough substance. It's very character driven and not a lot more, so if that's your thing, you'll love this!

Thank you, NetGalley and Putnam for allowing me to review this book.

Kiley Reid is out with a new book after Such a Fun Age. It's a life on campus novel that is very funny at times and also is a mirror or what is going on in the world in the 90's and today. The novel doesn't really have a flow through plot. It's mostly the main characters Millie (a student) and Agatha (journalist/professor) telling us how they got to be where they are. We also meet the Millie's contemporaries Tyler, Kennedy, Casey and Peyton. Each comes from a different walk of life and they all deal with the issues affecting them. It's an easy read but at times frustrating because you are waiting for things to kick in and become soemthing more than just voices telling you their stories. I hate to be a grump with this novel but just expected more from the author. I usually love campus novels and especially ones that take place in 80's and 90's. Thank you to #netgalley and #randomhouse for the ARC. Look forward to what the author will publish next. Love her voice and what she has to say about the state of things!

This didn’t work for me. I can recognize what the author was trying to do, but the execution wasn’t well done.

This lacked plot- the entire story was mainly dialog. All the characters were unlikeable and insufferable. This was a short book, only 291 pages, but yet i struggled to get through it.

10 points for the stunning cover colours

Come and Get It is the story of three women on the University of Arkansas campus: a professor, an RA, and a dorm resident. Their lives intersect when Agatha, the professor, visits the dorm to interview women about weddings. After talking to several interviewees, Agatha is intrigued by how they talk about money. She pivots her research and decides to write about that topic instead. Millie, the RA, helps her out, giving Agatha access to the dorm, where she's able to listen to conversations between the roommates next door to Millie, including Kennedy, a socially awkward woman who left her last college because of an incident that's hinted at but not disclosed until later in the book.

Chapters alternate between the three women, revealing their backgrounds and their current journeys. I found the novel's first quarter to be quite slow, as Reid takes her time fleshing out her three protagonists. As the story progressed, I enjoyed it much more, though I ended up disappointed by the book's resolution and wished the characters were more interesting.

There are moments in Come and Get It where Reid shines, particularly during humorous scenes. Reid can be darkly funny, and she has thoughtful commentary on class and race, but those thoughts were more potent in her debut, Such a Fun Age, than in this novel. I liked this book, and I'm glad I read it, but the slow pace and the lack of character development will deter some readers from loving this one.

Millie is a hardworking RA at an upperclassman dorm in Arkansas. She takes her job seriously, cares about her students, and is saving up responsibly for after graduation. But after a mean prank by some of the girls living in the dorm, some misguided advice from friends, and a possibly inappropriate offer from a professor experiencing a midlife crisis, could all her hard work be in jeopardy?

This is a character driven with characters who are, at times, incredibly real and, at other times, caricaturized. I love the authors astute observations on the power dynamics present among these young adult women. The way the other dorm mates artfully exclude Kennedy, usually without actually being mean to her, and Kennedy’s anxious inner monologue responding to this are all so perceptive and truthful. I also noticed this in how Millie felt she was only regarded as an RA, and not a person, by the residents.

Millie was an incredibly lovable MC. She’s so genuinely nice and her mixed up thoughts were very relatable. But the other characters didn’t feel as fleshed out. They were portrayed in such a caricature way, most of the time, that it was hard to understand their motivations or see them as multifaceted characters. Agatha just constantly keeps making bad choices to the point you want to just shake her and the trio of popular girls were so annoying. Peyton and Kennedy seemed more two-sided but it was still very hard to nail down their personalities and motivations.

Overall, there were some really insightful moments but I wanted either more plot to this book or a better understanding of the characters. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

First off, you must understand this was a character-driven, slow-moving story. This was not a book that hit the ground running. This was a book you read on a slow weekend where you just want to sip a warm beverage while wrapped up in a blanket with a pet on your lap.

With that being said, the characters and the world in which the characters existed in were well developed. The characters were real with flaws and bad decisions. The world was tangible and nostalgic; I was immediately brought back to my college days. As a person with a sociology minor, I was fascinated with how this story unraveled and the characters interacted with one another. I found the ending to be rushed, and I’m not sure I was satisfied with all the consequences that happened or the lack of discussion around a certain situation.

I would classify this one as fitting into the New Adult genre. It read a little young at times because we were following college-aged girls, but I found that to be nostalgic.

If you are a fan of character-driven novels, college settings, and/or books that transport you to a past experience, you will enjoy this one.

Ughhhhh, I hate that I didn't enjoy this one much after how much I enjoyed Such a Fun Age. I think this book heavily relied on a fostered connection to each of the characters that never bloomed for me. I applaud how unique the setting was (modern and relatable, but I've never read a story based on the collegiate experience of an RA and residents), but it just couldn't make me care. That really seems to be the feeling that Come and Get It left me with overall: I really don't care.

To the heart of it: the book lacks a plot. As a literary and plotless story FANATIC, I can really vibe with this - especially when sitting inside a character's head is SO much more interesting and chaotic than a storyline. While I appreciated the diversity represented by the characters (LGBTQ+ rep, socioeconomic differences, and exploration of patterns of racism), the lack of connection and chemistry between the characters' and their storylines left something major to be explored and desired.

Unfortunately this was a bit of a flop for me compared to the author's first book. It settles at 2 stars for me.

I loved Such a Fun Age, Reid’s 2018 debut so much so I couldn’t wait to get her second book! Set in current time and not a sequel, it is about college and dorm life in Arkansas. Millie is the RA who is hard-working, independent and wants to buy a house. She helps Agatha, a visiting professor, get in contact with several dorm residents who provide information for a book Agatha is writing. The book is supposed to be about weddings but instead Agatha finds the young women focused on money so she switches gears. Agatha ends up eavesdropping from Millie’s room to get fodder for her Teen Vogue articles leading to a cringy relationship between Agatha and Millie. A crazy dorm incident changes everything for everyone. It’s about nothing and everything and Reid’s writing is perfect for this. 4.5/5

Kiley Reid is an incredible storyteller and writer. Such a Fun Age is a story that stayed with me long after I finished it. And I have a feeling that this will be the case with her latest, Come and Get It, which is out on Tuesday.

On its face, it’s a novel about several women at the University of Arkansas, balancing different roles, backgrounds, and identities. There is Millie, the second-year senior who is an RA and trying desperately to save for a house and get ready for life after college. There’s Agatha, a visiting professor and journalist whose personal life is spiraling by the time she makes it to Fayetteville. And then there are the other RAs and residents on Millie’s floor, who each are wildly different and bring their own baggage and perspective to the school.

It’s a fascinating look at money, privilege, ambition, temptation, and the complications when these all mix. Reid is such an accomplished writer, and it turns the story of these women into a powerful social commentary. I finished it last night and even though I’m halfway through another book, I’m still thinking about these characters. A true testament to Kiley Reid’s talents and craft.

A massive thank you to Net Galley and Putnam Books for this advanced copy. Make sure to add to your TBR lists and pick up on Tuesday!

Will post on goodreads, my bookstagram @scottonreads and retail sites.

First I’d like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the ARC. This book was a solid 3 stars for me. I really enjoyed some of the characters and I really do love a university/collage/academia setting like a lot of other reviewers mentioned not much happens in this book.

Sometimes I found myself struggling to pick it up because it was just a little slow for my liking. This is a very character driven book and if that is your thing then I definitely think you should pick it up. I was just wanted a little more to happen by the end of the book. #netgalley #comeandgetit

I don’t think I liked any of the characters in this book but I was invested in their stories and seeing how everything turned out.

I enjoyed getting some of the backstories of the characters and how they ended up where they were. The way most of the characters talked drove me nuts but maybe it’s because they are college aged and I’m much closer to Agatha’s age.

I love Kiley Reid's writing. What an interesting novel this was about listening in on conversations and finding your way - bending both your own and other's rules. I love a novel with a college setting where a diverse group of people live together and meld their lives in a forced way. This book was filled with deceit and cliques and feeling left out as well as what we do to be part of something. It's character-driven. Most of the plot unwinds slowly which may frustrate some. This will be a great choice for book club because there's so much to talk about (I could write 10 papers on different topics from the book). I loved how Reid was able to meld all of this in one book. Brava.

I’ve loved Kiley Reid ever since reading SUCH A FUN AGE four years ago. Slow burn of a novel. I related most to Agatha, the 38 year old, but also to the college kids - I’ve never forgotten the loneliness of being a new college student and struggling to make friends. I rarely see homesickness depicted so well in literature, and Kiley Reid does it well. The cliques in dorms. Passive aggressiveness of roommates. Assumptions about others without knowing them. The thin walls and pranks on RAs. Crushes. Being too old for the environment but here we are anyway. I love this book.

I loved this book so much. The writing is brilliant. I admit I didn’t really know where the plot was going there for awhile but I didn’t care because I was so immersed. And then it became clear and I couldn’t put it down. I will read anything Kiley Reid.