Kiley Reid is a master at the subtleties of character development and can write a gen z character better than anyone. Come and Get It has strong recurring themes of privilege and the undertones of the class system found within a college campus. While the plot of the book may not be immediately apparent as some have mentioned, the way Reid wove these characters together to form this story was really something special. I enjoyed this book very much!

Super super character driven book! Sure there is an overarching plot but it isn't very strong and just kind of fizzles out at the end. I don't know another way of saying it. I didn't like how the plots were all left so untidy, so untidy! As for all the character development, the characters really didn't seem to grow during the course of the book. They did things. Things happened to them. But were they changed? Did they learn? I am not so sure. But, if you want a close look at how different life can be for different students in college, this is a great look! And I did enjoy reading about the various girls, and boys, but wanted the a bit more drama to the plot and when drama happened, I wanted more focus on it and the subsequent fall out.

Ms. Reid's sophmore novel takes us to 2017 and the college town of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Come and Get It is a strong character driven novel, and at the head is Agatha, a published author in her 30's who arrives at the university for a one year contract. She quickly meets Millie, an older Senior and RA when she sets up a small focus group for research she's conducting for her next book.
There are almost too many characters in this book: Millie and her fellow RAs and their two managers; Agatha and her wife; and then the three young women in the dorm (and their friends). Ms. Reid did delve a bit into their lives, but seemed to do a deeper dive into Kennedy's story (one of the three roommates) which was very poignant. There is a slow moving storyline that reached a somewhat predictable and yet, over the top at points, crescendo.
Come and Get It features a wealth of information about being an RA and the life of a college student and made me wonder if the target audience would be more YA. This was one of the strengths of the book - you really felt like you were in the middle of a college dorm. Ms. Reid did a wonderful job of portraying the lives of the students and the RAs and especially their awkwardness with trying to fit in with their peers. She touches all kinds of storylines and difficult subjects (some more deeply than others): LGBTQIA, socioeconomic differences/challenges, racial discrimination, divorce, and suicidal ideation. It might have benefitted the book if some of these themes were pared down and more focused.
Thanks to Netgalley and GP Putnam for the opportunity to read Come and Get It in exchange for an honest review

A subtle, sometimes searing and messy book about campus life, relationships and all that go wrong (or right). I consumed this book over the course of a weekend and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys character driven novels. While some of the plot points felt a bit far-fetched, overall this book was a fun ride that kept the pages turning until the end.

I struggled with this one and following the plot. I do think there were a lot of significant dynamics that were explored. Overall, I enjoyed this read and am excited to read more by this author!

it’s been awhile since i’ve read a great campus drama, and this scratched the itch perfectly. I was a bit hesitant going in, because I’ve seen a lot of negative reviews for this so far and I was lukewarm on Reid’s debut, but this was right up my alley. I love Reid’s writing style, propulsive drama and interesting fleshed out characters with just the right amount of wit and absurdity.

it can also be a challenge to write this kind of novel because it often either leans too much into YA territory or ‘how you doing fellow kids’ territory and i felt like Reid did a great job of keeping this sounding and feeling like an adult novel.

Come and Get It, Reid's second novel, is a character-driven, coming-of-age story about a group of female dormmates and their RA. A visiting professor offers the RA money to provide access to students to talk about wedding traditions. The real story begins when dorm pranks go awry and tensions rise, culminating in a near tragedy. This book starts off painfully slow and I started to wonder what, if anything would happen. About halfway through, the story begins to take off. The writing is engaging and the characters are very well-developed. However, when comparing this novel to the author's first, Such a Fun Age, it was a disappointment.

Thank you netgalley and Putnam books for this eArc in exchange for my honest review.

‘Come and Get It’ follows the perspectives of three women from very different backgrounds but whom nonetheless cross paths in a life-altering way at the dorms of the University of Arkansas. The first woman we meet is Agatha, a writer and a professor at the college, who has just moved to Arkansas after separating from her wife. We also follow Millie, a hardworking resident assistant at the dorms, and Kennedy, who has just transferred to the college after a bad incident at her previous school. We learn about these women as they navigate friendships and relationships and learn and grow from their mistakes along the way.

Overall, what I liked most was how relatable all of these characters were. I think it’s really difficult to write about young people in a way that captures the way they talk and act so accurately without being cringey, and Kiley Reid has definitely mastered the art of bringing to life these characters. I also think Reid did a really good job of reflecting the fears and thoughts a lot of us have in our early twenties, when we feel so unsure of ourselves and don’t have a full grasp of our place in the world yet. I will say that for the first two thirds of the book, it didn’t feel like there was really any real plot going on- I felt like I was just alternating between seemingly random snippets of these women’s lives. If you prefer character driven books and don’t necessarily need a strict plot structure, then you would really like this. Personally, I kept waiting for some event to happen or for the plot to pick up for me to become more invested in the story. The last third of the book was where the storyline really picked up for me and I definitely think was the strongest section of the book. While I do think this book could have been a bit shorter, I do really like the way that all of the perspectives came together at the end in a way I never expected.

Reid has really come in to her power as a writer in this thrilling follow up to Such A Fun Age. This is the next great campus novel of the 21st century and will leave book clubs reeling. I can't wait to follow the career of this promising writer. Awesome!

I enjoyed COME AND GET IT by Kiley Reid. I had read part of her first book and enjoyed it, and I was surprised by the difference, in some ways, in theme/setting--though of course race and class are themes here, too, and they're explored with a deft hand. I was super refreshed by the depictions of queerness with Agatha and her partner, and also by Millie's relationship with her mom. This book wasn't what I expected, but I enjoyed it!

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is only the 3rd book I’ve read this year, but it’s an early favorite for sure. I loved <I>Such a Fun Age</I>, so I was really excited to read this and it did not disappoint. I’ve read so much “dark academia” lately, it was nice to read about college students NOT murdering each other and just…being idiotic college students.

Although we follow some others, the two main characters are Agatha, a visiting professor, and Millie, an RA. Millie has just returned from a gap year taking care of her mother, so she’s older than all of her peers, and saving for a house. Agatha is writing a book about weddings and wants to interview some students, and a mutual friend puts her in touch with Millie (Aimee, Millie’s boss). But while she’s talking to the three girls, Agatha starts to realize that there’s something WAY more interesting to mine here than just wedding culture. The girls surprisingly all have fascinating things to say about money - how they’re making it in college, what they plan to do to make money in the future… she sends the interview transcript to her agent, and ends up on tap to write some “money diaries” style profiles of college students. She starts by just piecing one together from that initial interview, but then an idea takes shape. Millie’s room shares a wall with the suite occupied by Tyler (one of the 3 interviewees), Peyton, and Kennedy. The three interview girls all hang out in there all the time getting ready to go out. Millie and Agatha hatch this plan where Agatha can sit and listen in and…just use that information however she wishes. It’s completely ethically murky - Agatha lets Millie believe this is still somehow for the original book (not profiles being published in Teen Vogue), and for her part Millie is at first just happy to take the weekly $40 Agatha pays her for letting her sit and eavesdrop. But then it starts to turn into something more, and both of them just go down this wildly destructive path of selfish choices.

Millie is pretty likable, and I felt like all of her actions in the end were more forgivable. Agatha, on the other hand, is kind of hard to root for. She’s effectively exploiting these girls, and publishing their conversations without their consent (although she does at least change the names). And she does the wishy washy thing where she knows it’s wrong, and she promises she’ll find an above-board way to get the material…but then she keeps going back to see Millie. And yes, Tyler and her friends are kind of The Worst in the way that all college students are. I shudder to think what my own transcribed college conversations would have sounded like.

We also get a touch of the drama happening in the suite with Tyler, Peyton, and Kennedy. I guess Kennedy is the other POV character here? She’s the one I want to talk to someone about! I feel like in the end she’s kind of the only innocent victim of all of these terrible people (I do wish we’d gotten perspective from Peyton too - she’s kind of made out to be a bit of a villain and I don’t think that’s necessarily what Reid was going for). But also…why is she here? I liked her a lot, and minus the tragic backstory, she’s the one I related to HARD, but I kind of feel like she’s only there for that one big moment (trying to avoid spoilers!), which in the end is really just about bringing Millie and Agatha to their own epiphanies, which don’t really have anything to do with Kennedy specifically.

Minus some quibbles, I genuinely enjoyed this SO much. I’ve seen a few reviews lamenting that there’s no real plot, and while it’s certainly more character driven, I liked these characters so much, I didn’t mind.

I don't think this hits _as_ hard as Reid's last book, [book:Such a Fun Age|43923951], but it's still compulsively readable (I tore through this over a commute and a few lunch breaks) and has some interesting things to say about money, power dynamics, and class.

This is a novel that's definitely more of a vibe than being plot-driven - we only cover about a semester's worth of events, but I loved how Kiley Reid went deep on each of these main characters, giving us time in their heads to see where they're coming from and sense where things are going to clash further down the road. It gives a lot of depth, and helps the microagressions that affect its characters clear without needing to completely hammer home every time they're happening.

The end felt a little too neat, and a little over-the-top, but it's a farce, y'all. That's allowed. Reid's 2 for 2 in my book, so I'm excited to see where she goes next.

Reid’s debut novel was an absolute standout with the way that she candidly discussed white fragility and coming of age in your mid-twenties through an unforgettable cast of characters. Come and Get It is set in 2017 at the University of Arkansas and follows Millie Cousins, a residential assistant in her senior year who just wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. However, her tidy plans are thrown into upheaval when a visiting professor offers Millie an unusual opportunity and her dorm is beset by vengeful pranksters.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and GP Putnam's Sons for this e-arc.*

Oooof. I did not like this one. Although, I didn't like Such a Fun Age that much either. I really did want to love both of them though.

I listened to the audiobook, which was probably my first mistake. The Southern accents of the side characters were so over-wrought and cringe-y that I could hardly bare to listen.

Millie is working as a Resident Assistant at the University of Arkansas and has big dreams for where she wants to go in her life. When famous writer and professor-in-residence, Agatha Paul asks her for help with her latest book project, Millie is happy to help. However, the book starts taking a different, less ethical direction, drama breaks out among the students and RAs, and Millie begins a fraught new relationship as everything seems to slowly fall apart.

I did like Millie, our main character and rooted for her. This book does a good job on confronting racial and economic privilege and those parts were always thought-provoking.

There's not just a ton of plot here so it can be hard to sort of grasp onto the story as you're reading.

The last 20% of this book is nothing but the chickens coming home to roost, basically just hashing out everyone's mistakes and misdeeds. It's tense. There's a lot of beating-around-the-bush conversations. It was exhausting.

Firstly, thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I read this in one day it was so good. Kiley Reid is such a brilliant writer and she does things with complex topics that a lot of writers just can't do. I can imagine how great this will be as a bookclub discussion. Well done!

I rated this 4 stars but I’m still digesting this book.

There’s a lot to digest in this book! There are a lot of different storylines that are woven together and all tie to one incident but I feel like I’ll be compiling my thoughts for a while!

Loved the subtle nod to Kacey Musgraves’s Christmas album.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

This is a difficult book to review. While the characters were so vivid and detailed, I had a challenging time connecting each piece of the story together. There were times, especially during the beginning of the book, where it felt more like interconnected stories than a novel. And although it did come together in the end, I struggled in the first half to even understand who the main character of the book was.

I do really like Kiley Reid’s writing style and there were many parts with wonderful insights and thoughts on college life as well as status and class, but it took me awhile to finish mostly due to the lack of plot in the first half. Again, I loved the character studies and their back stories but it was hard to bring it all together.

And thank you Netgalley for another advanced copy. I always love the chance to preview a book that I’m excited about.

I was beyond excited to get an ARC of a new book by Kiley Reid, the author of "Such a Fun Age". It is a campus novel, sort of coming of age story. Unfortunately, "Come and Get It" did not entirely strike a chord with me. Here are the reasons why:

- It is 100% character-driven book. There is almost no plot in here. Under ordinary circumstances this is totally my cup of tea, but I guess this book is somewhat extraordinary in this regard.
- The dialogues read very YA. I am in my twenties and really did not care to read through the student gossip. I can't see a mature reader meaningfully connecting with the plot or characters.
- This book is pretentious in a simplistic way. For example, characters constantly do something random like going for a shopping trip to Target as a therapy or talking about dogs all the time and those little behavioral patterns are supposed to tell us a lot about them without saying much. Clever, you might say. But is it really so?

All in all, the story still delivered a decent commentary on racism, microaggressions, class, power and money. It is not a forgettable book but based on the mixed reviews I have seen so far, this will not land well with majority of the readers. As for myself, I am still trying to pinpoint whether the author has overdone this book or did way too little with it.

𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘊𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬.

Kiley Reid is SUCH a talented writer.

This book had me feeling so uncomfy. Everyone was doing things just a little bit sketch. The characters were real and problematic and the whole time you’re like noooooo whhhhhyyyyyyy stoooop 😂.

In a few different interviews, Reid said she was drawn towards hyper realistic, almost awkward dialogue and inner monologue. And we totally get that in this book.

This jumps around to a few different characters, and if I remember correctly from a Q&A I watched with the author, the topic of money was a conversation between her and her editor in Such a Fun Age, and how they didn’t like how much she was using like, dollar amounts with Emira, which is wild because that character was a recent college graduate and in her early/mid 20’s and money was constantly in the forefront of her mind like actual people that age.

And now Reid has a book where one of the main focuses is undergrads and the way they talk about money. But really that’s just the START of this book’s story 😂.

One criticism was I feel like it took awhile to figure out where the story was going. I got to like 60/70% and I was like okay, what are we doing.

I liked Millie, despite her making some questionable decisions. And Agatha 👀. Ma’am 😂.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this. The author, like I said, is a very talented writer. The ending was WILD, and after it was over I was like damn, and had a serious book hangover. This would make the perfect book club book, there’s a LOT to unpack here. I feel like it needs two read-throughs and some discussion 😂.

Thank you @putnambooks and @netgalley for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, giving it a five-star rating. Naturally, I was excited to receive an advance reader copy (ARC) of Come and Get It. However, my enthusiasm turned to disappointment upon reading it. The book features numerous characters, which could be fine, but unfortunately, they all come across as rather dull. While there is plenty of information about each character, the lack of excitement in their individual storylines is glaring. The narrative would have greatly benefited from a more focused approach, concentrating on fewer characters and delving deeper into their stories for a more engaging experience.