4.5

Setting: Arkansas
Rep: Black queer protagonist; white lesbian protagonist

I picked this up based on the blurb and the hype and I enjoyed Reid's last book, and I was stoked to realize while reading that this is a queer book with a side focus on the budding relationship between Agatha and Millie. I loved their dynamic; I loved them as individual characters; I pitied and related to Kennedy (unfortunately) and I happily would have read more.

Will update with link to full review post closer to pub date! I enjoyed the characters in this book, but I felt like the plot was a bit lacking. I do enjoy stories taking place on a college campus, and I liked seeing all of the relationships play out. I think if you enjoy in depth character studies/character driven via plot driven novels then you’d really enjoy this one though!

Thanks @netgalley and @putnambooks for the advanced copy and @librofm for the audiobook!

Synopsis: The lives of three college students, a resident assistant, and a professor become entangled in unexpected ways during a semester at the University of Arkansas.

Thoughts: This was a very well written character-driven story. Following the lives of college students, it focused heavily on life in a dormitory. I would definitely classify it as coming of age, and it explored female friendships extensively. That being said, the plot was pretty slow up until the very end of the book. I would recommend this one for anyone who really likes character driven storylines and also enjoys college as a setting. I had both the ebook and audio, and I definitely preferred this one on audio, as the narrator brought the characters to life really well and there was a lot of dialogue.

Read this if you like:
🐷 college
🐷 character-driven stories
🐷 coming of age stories

I really enjoyed Such a Fun Age when it came out, so I was excited to read Come and Get It…and it’s a bit of a falter. Reid’s sharp prose and solid characterization flails in the complete absence of plot - a plotless novel isn’t bad, but there was a lot of tension and nothing happening. Such a Fun Age was more focused, while Come and Get It stumbles in its own vagueness.

It has lots of great elements: set in a university residence, it follows Millie, an RA with big plans; Agatha, a journalist and visiting professor; and Kennedy, a transfer student trying to get away from her biggest mistake. But there isn’t really any substance at all, and it needs something.

Kiley Reid’s novel revolves around a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas and the dorm students she is tangentially involved with as part of her research. It doesn’t shy away from focusing on the ugliness and messiness prevalent in society.

Come and Get It is primarily character driven fiction touching on issues of race, class, selfishness, and bad decisions. A few of the characters are simply detestable in a people-are-really-like-that way. Others are heartbreakingly damaged and ruled by their insecurities. As in real life, the broken are no match for the predatory.

The story unfolds slowly and in a seemingly disjointed way, but ultimately reaches a crescendo where the pieces come together. This is an interesting read reflective of real life, including issues related to mental health and societal norms. Plot driven readers may be disappointed, but those drawn in by character studies will find this book to be a satisfying read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Come and Get It is a book written by Kiley Reid and is told in the voices of a professor, an RA, and a student, all at University of Arkansas. Each character has their own story, and at the same time they are all entangled together to different degrees. This story talks about grief, wealth, disparities between individuals, racism, friendship, and writing.
This is the second book that I have read by this author, and I really enjoyed it! There were parts that I found hard (trigger warning for animal death and discussion of self harm,) and I also wish things were a little more resolved by the end of the book, but sometimes that’s how life is! I definitely recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher and author of this book for a free ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

▪︎ Complex and flawed characters
▪︎ Razor Sharp
▪︎ Cleverly Written
▪︎ Character-driven

I was super excited to get an advanced copy of Come and Get It. I loved Such a Fun Age. Unfortunately, it didn't quite meet my expectations. A heavy focus on characterization and exploration of challenging, unlikable characters there was no real plot to move the story along. Kiley Reid does a masterful job bringing to life real, flawed and dynamic characters. I just felt there wasn't anything to sink my teeth into, making it a struggle to get through. I did root for the main Millie, and wanted to see her succeed. I think there is a fan base for this novel, not sure it will be the same ones that loved Such a Fun Age like I did.

I really enjoyed the approach of showing the reader the same world from a few different characters’ perspectives, all of them colliding with one another. The last quarter of the book kind of veered into a completely different direction for me, and there were bits at the end (specifically with Agatha) that felt out of place with the characterization built up throughout the rest of the story. But overall, this was an enjoyable read, and I really loved the bits of backstory given for Millie, Agatha, and Kennedy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

While I really liked Reid's debut hit, Such a Fun Age, her newest offering doesn't strike the same notes or sing in the same octave. Come and Get It seeks to offer a satirical take on wealth, affluence, and the pursuit of success. While timely racial topics come into play, Reid doesn't offer them up with the same pointed meanings as in her previous book, allowing them to simply flit in and out of the narrative.

In 2017, at the University of Arkansas, Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, seizes an unconventional (and potentially problematic) opportunity offered by visiting professor Agatha Paul, hoping to secure her future. However, her pursuit is complicated by her new friends, dormitory pranks, an oddball scandal, and an event that borders on hijinks.

Almost from the outset, which was clunky and posed a flow that only served to interrupt itself, there was a quality of the style that was difficult to name...a choice of Reid's that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but which perpetually halted the forward motion of the story and made it difficult to read at a steady pace. Instead I found myself having to shutter through the beginning in a nearly word-for-word fashion.

If I look at Reid's characters from a short, summarized description, they look enjoyable and interesting. But within the story, Reid built her characters based on things they wear or own that would define them. As satires go, that's pretty standard, but instead of working it more organically into the story, the delivery instead reads like lists of things, clothes, and identifying objects. It's the kind of commentary you can have with a close friend with whom you’ve invented this almost secondary language, that you two alone can speak. Outside of that relationship, no one knows what you're talking about or cares to remain engaged long enough to decipher any meaning. Additionally, and maybe most simplistically, the sentences were so short. With every new character — and there are many — this resulted in a sort of visual assault. Introducing people into the narrative was like a quickly administered report on a suspect whose only crime was to be heretofore unknown.

"Robin was twenty-eight years old. She'd graduated from Fordham University and she'd been dancing since she was three. She was from Chicago where her mother, her brother, his wife, and their child also lived. They all convened every other Sunday in the house where she grew up. She was funny and direct. She owned approximately thirteen small duffel bags, each filled with clothes, half-soles, Tiger Balm, and tape."

Reid's satire teetered between farcical and boring — the latter of which was largely due to the style in which it was written. She neither went hard enough into the satire nor wrote in a way to accommodate the irony. Ultimately, I thought her message, presuming it was there, got lost along the way. While I will see what she does next, I'd have to stick with recommending her debut instead.

Having been a fan of Reid's previous novel, Such a Fun Age, I was excited to have new work from her. Sadly, this one was not a big hit with me.

Come and Get It was a book that felt like a long random story being told to a friend over coffee as it interwove the lives of our two MC's, Agatha and Millie. The bulk of this book feels like random interjections into the story by your friend as they have ADHD and interrupt with little kid bits and side stories before getting back on track.

Millie is a 24 year old Resident Assistant (RA from here on out) at The University of Arkansas repeating her Senior year as she took a year off to help her mother with her Glaucoma diagnosis. Millie, being older than the other RA's as well as the students in her dorm room, has a unique perspective compared to most due to the life she has lived and struggles she undergone. While on her year long sabbatical works at the cafe inside a Barnes and Noble, drives her mom to her appointments, and fosters a closer connection to her mother that was previously lacking before. Now returning to the old dorm she RA'd before and immersing herself with the younger students, she finds that their trivial lives and interactions set her apart in ways she didn't realize before. She also has decided that she wants to save up money to buy a house in the area and set her sights on one in particular that the Resident Director of her college has ties to. Trying to be an adult, Millie takes whatever she can get monetarily wise to save up to purchase this dilapidated first home. Millie is also one of the only black residents on campus and besides on other RA, Josh, the only black RA on campus.

Agatha is a black woman in her late 30's who has had 2 books published and is looking for source material for her third which she thinks will be about weddings. She has a semester long adjunct professor job lined up in Arkansas and moves there to do her research. Previously to moving, she was in a long term relationship with a younger woman named Robin who is a dancer and has no concept of money or long term goals. The couple eventually have a fight and break up but once Robin comes down with an illness, they agree to marry so that Robin can use Agatha;s insurance. Agreeing to be together in an open relationship concept, Agatha moves to Arkansas to start her job with the agreement that once she returns they will sort out their issues.

Upon interviewing a couple of the residents within Millie's dorm, she realizes that her topic should switch to how students view money and the socioeconomic impact of money on students. She offers her interviewee's money for their time and even Millie for the use of her space. Millie is saving for her house downpayment and eagerly accepts Agatha's money each session. Soon, Agatha is no longer interviewing students, but sitting in Millie's room on the floor and eavesdropping on students private conversations. She gets an opportunity to write articles for teen vogue and begins altering students names and even their answers to submit pieces for the magazine in exchange for compensation. The lines begin to blur and soon Agatha is ruthlessly changing the original purpose of her articles into something that will gain views and likes in hopes to draw attention to her future book.

This book touches on several sensitive topics such as race, racism, socioeconomic status, grief, growing up, and sexual identity. While a lot of things happen, nothing is happening at the same time despite the length of the book. I found myself interested in the book for the one liners by side characters or simple college experiences that unfolded in the story but otherwise, nothing of real substance felt truly addressed for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC and PHR Audio for the advance listeners copy in exchange for my honest review.

i’m all for the “no plot, just vibes” books and this one definitely enters that category for me but at the same time it left me wanting a little more, usually when there’s no plot i ask a little bit more of the characters you know? personalities, background stories, complex decisions and all that, but this one felt very flat. don’t get me wrong, it was entertaining and felt like a gossipy little book but that was all.

are the characters super complex and interesting? not really, they’re just you’re classic college students who give no idea what to do with their lives and they’re little asswholes to everyone.

the professor and millie’s relationship? here me out, (and probably spoilers here) for some reason the whole thing at the beginning didn’t seem like a bad decision for me but when it all exploded i found myself thinking “was i gaslighted just now?” i felt icky and weird and i think that was the point of her character, millie was played and used and she thought she was ok with it but overall we all knew it wasn’t and when they started to explain why it all made sense but also how did i not notice it before? why did i find it normal or even fun? personally i think it was because i’m still young and a little naive (like millie) and think that everyone just says the honest thing and won’t do anything wrong but at the same time i know i should not trust everyone at first glance.

3.5 stars

I adored “Such a Fun Age” so this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024! I am obsessed with the way Kiley Reid is able to take huge social issues and bring it into the messy granular with very compelling characters. “Come and Get It” was an absolutely stunning work and I would have read hundreds more pages enveloped in this world, but Kiley Reid is all the smarter for leaving the reader alone with their spinning thoughts at the ending. Highly recommend!

COME AND GET IT
Kiley Reid

Kiley Reid has luster. I admit I wasn’t always ready for her bright light. What a shame. But we can talk about that later. For now, let’s talk about COME AND GET IT.

In COME AND GET IT we are following Millie and Agatha, mostly. Millie is approached by Agatha who offers Millie a unique opportunity to help her with her latest writing project. With thoughts of buying her first house in her mind, Millie accepts, and we get to be flies on the wall. It’s so fascinating what we experience.

This is my second attempt at reading Kiley Reid. My first experience was a DNF. I was intrigued by the plot but felt it was jumbled and difficult to read. I’m coming to learn that that is part of the aesthetic of Riley’s writing. It’s not always smooth, it doesn’t always take the well-lit path (in fact it often doesn’t) and that writing style isn’t always successful for me as a reader.

This time it was.

Reid has a masterful touch at creating memorable characters that shine off the page. The narrator choice (Nicole Lewis) in COME AND GET IT is perfection. Combine the two and you get a big win. Two minutes in, I was hooked and in it for the for the windy path it took.

Reid has an exciting voice and it’s so needed. Experiencing different creators’ interpretations of our united life experience is one of my favorite parts about reading. And it’s great to experience that here with COME AND GET IT.

This is your reminder to give authors, this day, and this life a second chance. They all are worthy.

Thanks to Netgalley, Libro.fm, Penguin Random House Audio, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, and G.P. Putnam's Sons for every single advanced copy, I used them all.

COME AND GET IT releases on January 30, 2024. Make sure you pick up your copy!

COME AND GET IT…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Though I saw <i>Such A Fun Age</i> all over Goodreads a couples of years ago (it was the 2020 Goodreads Choice winner) I never got around to reading it. Seeing Reid’s second novel pop up on NetGalley was exciting. I thought I could be one of the first to review what could potentially be another super popular and beloved book. Unfortunately, I was not 100% wowed by what was delivered here (but I’ll admit, I didn’t quite hate the reading experience either).

The plot for <i>Come and Get It</i> is pretty much non-existent. This usually isn’t a huge deal for me, as I adore character-driven novels. And yet, well… this just wasn’t what I wanted? I found myself simply not caring about most (if not all) of the characters presented.

Essentially, this is a novel about an RA at the University of Arkansas who gets herself involved in an affair with a visiting professor all while dealing with the struggles of finishing college, trying to plan for her life after college, and dealing with annoying residents. The novel actually begins with the readers meeting said annoying residents as they were being interviewed with the aforementioned professor. Over the course of the year, we see how the research slowly changes and becomes pretty unethical. Pranks turn to some serious events, and ultimately, things really just do not go according to plan. There were times I was like “huh?! What just happened?! Seriously??” which is fun, but also some of those outbursts were due to the fact that some of events were too unbelievable.

This book covers socioeconomic issues, race, power dynamics, ethics, and there is LGBTQ+ representation, but I don’t feel like she dove into these ideas enough. There was too much focus on surface-level and silly things, and I wish she would have leaned into some of the ideas more. The whole novel felt just <i>slightly</i> unsatisfying.

Thank you NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the advance reading copy!

Kiley Reid has a really beautiful talent for weaving vital representation into her stories. She did that again on so many levels in this case. I was surprised by this type of book from Reid. This was very much a "slice of life" type of book. It was entertaining and I absolutely enjoyed the depth at which we grow to know the characters (another skill of Reid's skills). However, it just felt a bit like nothing was going on. I loved the writing, as always, I just hoped for a bit more "action".

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I've DNF'd Come and Get It from Kiley Reid. I've had a hard time getting into it and haven't felt pulled in by any of the characters. The dialogue between the characters feels a bit juvenile to me with very little happening in the plot, and unfortunately, the way some words are misspelled and written in the dialogue is unfortunately a turn off for me.

This novel takes place on a campus so there was plenty of opportunity for both rich plot lines and intricate characterizations, and there are early hints that something was coming that would pull all the pieces together and make this read worthwhile, but it took so long to get there that when it finally did, I felt letdown. I didn’t feel like the characters were realistic, believable people with motivations I could understand and there were also a lot of odd descriptions and language that just felt off. I kept searching for a way to feel connected to this story, to understand what was going on but this didn’t happen. The author built up a lot of good will from me because her debut novel was both fun and thoughtful, but this one? Not so much.

Happy Pub day to Come and Get It!
I wasn't the hugest fan of Such a Fun Age, but I did enjoy Reid's writing. When I saw this up for review I grabbed it.
So what I like best about this book was the characters. If there is one thing Kiley Reid is fantastic at, its her character development. Those characters that are meant to be unlikeable come across that way but in a way that you have to respect them. Her likeable character...written perfected.

What I didn't really enjoy was how slow the story was but I think that is because the focus of this book was really on the characters vs the story.

Thank you so much to #Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Thank you to NetGalley, Putnam and Kiley Reid for a digital galley of Come & Get It in exchange for an honest review.

I will be honest - the only reason I wanted to read this book is because it took place at the University of Arkansas, which is where my daughter currently goes to college and is a big deal here in Arkansas. I cannot say whether or not I would have picked it up without knowing that.

With that said, I feel like the author bit off just a little bit more than she could chew on this one.

We alternate between Agatha (a journalist), Millie a young RA and Kennedy an extremely insecure student in Millie's dorm. There are other side characters - Tyler, Casey, Peyton, Jenn, Robyn and some other, but the main storylines are those of Agatha, Millie and Kennedy.

Within the alternating character chapters, the side characters also weave in and out of each storyline and they're all interconnected. This was written in such as way that it was not confusing and it was easy to follow the story for each MC.

The Good: I like that we are given a realistic (only in parts) glimpse into college/dorm life and what the RAs and students deal with. I loved that this is an LGBTQ friendly book and that it also gave us a glimpse into mental health issues.

The Bad: I thought Agatha was a HORRID character only out for herself even though the author tried to redeem her at the end. The exaggerated Southern "twang" given to several of the character, especially Casey, was over-the-top and came off more as an insult to Southerners. Not everything got resolved or tied up at the end and I do not think that was the intention. The ending just left some holes and felt a bit messy.

From reading other reviews, it looks like I am not alone in my thoughts. Many compare this book to Reid's previous book, which was apparently amazing. I have not read it, but it looks like I chose the wrong book to be my first from this author.

I have definitely read worse books and I didn't hate it, but wasn't really a huge fan either. I am rating it down the middle with 3 Stars.

I will still run a feature on my IG (without the negative portions of my review), mainly because of the U of A factor.

come and get it is a confusing novel. at first, we are introduced to a cast of characters, seemingly connected at random, and reid appears to want us to care about them. but as the novel goes on and the characters interact with each other (and no plot develops whatsoever), i never really cared.

i don’t hate a plotless novel. i love a character study if done well. at times, it was done well here, but i fear that the good parts were overshadowed by the really bad parts. i think this book could have been edited into a better result. less characters, less perspectives, less meandering backstories.

for 60% of this novel, i had no investment in continuing if not for the fact that i had to write a review (netgalley ratio always holding me accountable lol). i didn’t care about the characters. their backstories were not compelling. and even the campus setting couldn’t keep me hooked.

it wasn’t until things started unraveling in the last third of the novel that i felt hooked, but it felt cheap. the chaotic nature of this novel’s completion did not feel believable or even satisfying. too much was wrapped up without explanation and i was left with many questions.

i will say that millie is a compelling narrator. i enjoyed the chapters we got from her perspective most among this cast of unlikable characters. unfortunately i spent much of this novel wishing for her to get a backbone. she was nice to a fault and i so badly wanted her to express some (rightfully earned) anger.

i feel like this book is worth a read if you, like me, love a campus novel. i was really impacted by some of the isolation of college depicted in these pages. if you don’t mind a slow-paced drama, you might enjoy this one. i don’t think fans of reid’s first novel will necessarily feel the same for this one, but maybe a new audience will appreciate it for what it has to offer.

also agatha deserved jail time ok bye!

I will be the first to admit that I find a lot of character-driven novels boring. I need a plot. I need action. When I started reading reviews and seeing that this was heavy on the characters, I had a tiiiiny bit of dread going into it. But I LOVED this. Absolutely devoured Kiley Reid's writing in a way I was not expecting whatsoever.

Maybe it's because I am feeling especially nostalgic about college these days, but I was obsessed with the way the author transported me back into a dorm setting. The nights getting ready, the tensions with roommates, the sights and sounds of communal living. The character-driven side of this made it so visual and immersive, I couldn't stop reading.

Millie Cousins is a resident assistant for a transfer and scholarship dorm at the University of Arkansas. With an ambition for being a great RA and moving up the residence life staff, she throws herself into helping her residents and keeping the peace.

When visiting professor Agatha Paul asks for Millie's help getting access to observing the students, Millie happily obliges, finding Agatha magnetic in a way she can't quite describe. But as Millie gets pulled closer into Agatha's orbit, her role as super RA finds itself in jeopardy.

I will say I hit a slight slump in the middle, but the plot quickly picks up in a highly redeeming way. If you, too, are looking to relive your college years, Come and Get It is a highly recommend novel for me right now.

Thank you to Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!