This was a very character driven story but I found the plot lacking. I enjoyed the start of this but then became bored because nothing was happening. I kept reading and waiting for things to take off but it took too long to reach that point and by that time I just wasn't invested in the story anymore.

Wow. This was really intriguing and thought provoking. It touches on a lot of sensitive topics and focuses them all within the microcosm of a college dorm. Like Reid's other book, "Such a Fun Age," she has a way of writing in a really believable and engaging way while creating a commentary on a lot of intersectional issues. A major one on this book was power dynamics within social circles and Co workers and how the ethical lines sometimes get confusing when work and life overlap in so many areas. Very interesting and uncomfortable portrayals of privilege, racism, mental health problems (including suicidal ideation), consent, and money accessibility. Well done.

i think everyone who loved such a fun age will be really let down but this one. ultimately nothing of note happens since there isn’t even a plot. very character driven which i like but honestly none of them were overly fascinating or relatable. i did feel very nostalgic toward the college dorm life but like?? do people really do these things?? i feel like as i write this it may even be like 2.5 rounded up.

I wonder how I would have perceived this book had I not read, and loved, Reed's first book, Such a Fun Age. I loved Such a Fun Age so incredibly much, and my expectations for this were pretty high. Unfortunately, Come and Get it didn't quite do it for me. I was honestly just completely confused about where this book was going for probably the first 80% of it - there was a lot of character and world building and, and it was just never clear where this was all going. And in the end, all this build up just sort of fell flat - the stakes never really felt all that important, and it ultimately felt like the incidents would just be a blip in these characters lives. I ended it feeling very underwhelmed.

While I really enjoyed the early character work in this, that was really all I enjoyed about reading this book. It felt at the beginning like really vivd characters were being created in an interesting setting. As the novel dragged on with very little plot though, the characters were not enough to hold my attention. You weren't learning more about the characters, and when you were it didn't feel like it fit what was already portrayed. Then as the plot did start to happen, it was just bad. I also personally felt that the suicide plotline was handled distatefully.

Millie is a senior resident assistant at the University of Arkansas. She just wants to save money, get a job, and buy a house. When she meets Agatha Paul, a writer and visiting professor, she’s offered an unusual opportunity that she jumps on.

I enjoyed this so much more than Such A Fun Age; don’t get me wrong though, I loved that one as well, but this was my favorite! I loved the college dorm setting and the discrepancy between Millie as an older RA and the students. I got a kick out of their conversations and the entire journalism aspect. Despite the humor, there were some deep issues within the plot but they is still a majorly entertaining story that I really connected with.

Come and Get It comes out 1/9.

The lives of several individuals intersect at the University of Arkansas: Millie Cousins, an RA with dreams of life after graduation and home ownership, Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, and Kennedy, a new transfer student struggling to connect with her suitemates.

There are some interesting themes of money and influence, and a thoughtful exploration at the role of an RA in a campus dorm. Aside from that, this book wasn't really for me. It had too much going on, with so many side characters and names to keep track of, that it actually lessened the overall impact. I found the ending to be unsatisfying.

This was definitely not my type of book- it was mostly a character-driven plot. So if you enjoy that, you will most definitely like this!

The book follows quite a number of characters all centering around a dorm at the University of Arkansas. A lot of the book is getting to know them both before and right after entering the dorm. I was ready to DNF the book after about 60% into the book, but the catalyst for the “major event” toward the end of the book occurred and hooked me enough to keep reading.

All of the characters in this book are unlikeable to some degree, some a lot more than others. There are such cringey moments, but that is the point.

Essentially, this book was just watching a slow moving train wreck that I was mildly interested in.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an e copy of this book. This review was left voluntarily.

I gave this book 2.5 stars but rounded up to 3.

The main thing that sticks out to me about this book is how clunky it feels at the beginning and how nothing really happens for the majority of it. I appreciate that Kiley Reid tried something very different than her previous book, but I think a lot of readers will be disappointed.

There are a few sets of main characters in this book: Millie, an RA, Agatha, a professor, and a trio of students who live together in a dorm. These characters interact in different, often immature ways which makes sense because they are all in their 20s besides Agatha. The story kind of jumps around until you’re about 20% into it and things start to make more sense (at least that was my experience).

There are a lot of themes floating around: racism, classism, popularity, self-esteem/confidence, etc. There is somehow too much and not enough going on in this book. I’m interested to see what others think once it’s published.

Thank you Penguin Group Putnam and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was not my usual genre but I picked it up because I heard great things about Reid’s book Such a Fun Age. I was very pleasantly surprised. From the first chapter, I was hooked by interview of the three girls, just the way Agatha was. Throughout the book I was intrigued by the dynamics between each character, in addition to the ways they were similar and different. It helped that I am usually drawn to an academic setting.

A lot of the negative things I’m seeing in reviews are things that I actually liked about the book. I liked that it didn’t have much plot for 60% of the book, instead letting the interesting character dynamics carry the novel. A lot of it was characters, even the main ones, judging each other and laughing at each other and I liked how satirical that was and how it made even Agatha and Millie morally gray. The switching between the characters with their separate stories didn’t bother me; it made me wonder how their stories would all intersect at the end.

Reid’s writing style is refreshing. It shows that purple prose is not necessary to have a literary novel, and a matter-of-fact style can actually be better for some stories.

My main qualm that I immediately identify after finishing the book is the lack of closure regarding Agatha and Kennedy. I think they needed that.

I really love the way Kiley Reid writes. It is very matter of fact. No unnecessary words.

I was a fan of ‘Such a Fun Age’ but had more trouble getting into this one. I had no idea what was really going on for the first half of the book. By the time the plot is materialized—it felt like the book was almost over. And I say this as someone who loves books where nothing happens. It just didn’t quite work for me.

First of all, thank you so much to the publisher for my eARC!

Wow - I really liked this one! I went into it blindly and am so glad I did. The first half was a littleee slow but I could easily see the potential and kept pushing through. Around 60%, things really started to pick up. Kiley Reid is a wonderful author. I can't wait to see what others think of this. It's a perfect example of a character-driven novel; much less plot-heavy than Such A Fun Age, IMO.

Release date: January 30, 2024!

As she eavesdrops on the conversations of college girls, Agatha becomes sort of intoxicated by what she hears, and Kiley Reid manages to extend that feeling to the reader. With shifting perspectives and multiple timelines, it takes time to see the ultimate collision course taking shape, but the chapters breeze by and the ending is worth it.

I was pretty lukewarm on Such a Fun Age, but I decided to give this one a go anyway. But ultimately, I feel pretty similarly about this one: not bad but not for me. If you really loved SaFA, I think you’ll probably like this one too — Kiley Reid is very good at what she does — but at the end of the day, what she does is train-wreck plots, and those make me want to run away instead of drawing me in.

It’s impossible not to compare Reid’s two books to one another, and if I’m being honest, I think SaFA is a stronger book. It’s more of a focused, electric train wreck, whereas this book is more like several different trains on different tracks all headed toward each other, but with more to keep track of and a murkier outcome. Adding that complexity put a damper on the impact, IMO. I also felt less compelled by these characters, but that could also be a symptom of the “a little too much going on” thing too.

People will be watching this book for prize noms after SaFA’s Booker nod, but tbh, I would be surprised to see her there this year.

Such a Fun Age was a big buzzy hit in 2020 and the author’s second novel continues to poke at privilege and power, particularly as they pertain to race and class/mpney, but does so in a much more enjoyably nuanced and complex way.

Agatha Paul is a well-respected and successful white author who is a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas to teach and to research her next book about marriage rituals. But while interviewing three young white female students, she discovers she’s much more interested in them and the texture of their lives. Abetted in this research by Millie, the black RA for the floor these young women live on, Agatha realizes she has stumbled on a gold mine of social research.

Though Agatha is clearly the villain of the piece - she uses her money to buy her way out of difficult situations without much thought of the lives she has exploited and used - she is written much more subtly than Alix from the previous novel. Similarly Millie, while the victim of Agatha’s ambition, is much more dimensional and ambiguous than Emira.

The three girls, other students, and the other RAs are vividly developed characters and their motives and attitudes are realistically still amorphous and mixed. They have privilege in some respects, but in others they are still naive children.

The one plot strand that didn’t quite fit for me was that of Kennedy, a transfer student with a past, who rooms with one of Agatha’s subjects. Her lonely plight feels very authentic (perhaps a little too much for me, the mother of a child about to be a transfer student) and plays out thoughtfully, but just doesn’t seem to mesh with the rest of the story and seemed more of an adjunct than an integral part.

While the author is still ruthless in the depiction of the careless and carefree way that Agatha wields her privilege, I found her much less caricatured than Alix which made the novel a more satisfying read. Will this make it less successful than Such a Fun Age? I hope not and highly recommend it for book clubs and individuals looking for a book to provoke meaty discussions.

Thanks to Putnam and Netgalley for the digital review copy..

Too many side characters that were irrelevant. Didn't really get what the point of the story was, seemed like author was trying to tackle too much and in doing so, tackled nothing

Just finished Come and Get It, and I am of two minds. Part of me feels like there was not really a plot and it felt disjointed with unclear time shifts, but the other part of me sees the pieces of the plot that were dropped in the early chapters and were allowed to grow and mature in their own unique ways.

I do not think readers will connect with this book the same way they connected with Such a Fun Age. The characters, including the RA Millie, the professor Agatha, and the main dorm girls Peyton, Kennedy, and Tyler, felt like caricatures of the worst things that a person might do in situations. Example: My RA was definitely not great, but I have a hard time imagining him suggesting I passive aggressively put dirty dishes in my suite mates room if they didn't wash them within 12 hours of using them. Also, considering Kennedy's major incident at her previous school, wouldn't the RA on her floor be made aware that she needed check-ins? At least by the parent? Maybe I'm being too logical.

I have a feeling that many readers might DNF this one, but I stuck with it.

Agatha Paul is a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas doing research for her next piece about weddings. Millie Cousins is a (second-year) senior RA who just wants to graduate, find a job, and buy a house (totally normal for a 24-year old). When Agatha asks Millie to arrange a sign-up sheet in the residence hall for her research, neither of them realizes the journey they’re about to embark upon.

Juggling multiple POVs, Reid provides readers detailed backstories for Agatha, Millie, and, eventually, Kennedy’s characters. Money, influence, desire, and loneliness are the main forces propelling this cast forward as we watch them make poor decisions that will continue to stack up and completely bottom out at the climax of the novel. Don’t worry, though, there’s somehow still a satisfying and realistic ending to these messy stories.

Reid masterfully weaves her character’s storylines together in a way that is unbelievably realistic. For those who have attended a small-town college, you know what it’s like to have everyone in your business and for word to get around like wildfire! Reading this was like stepping back in time to my senior year of undergrad, relating to the struggle that was balancing every aspect of life at that time.

This book had me gasping out loud, dropping my jaw, and exclaiming “WHY” over and over again, so if you want a similar experience, check this one out!

3.5 Heavy character driven coming of age novel about a group of women at college and their challenges and conflicts as well as a visiting professor. Overall, way too many characters and it became too drawn out for me. Overall, just ok. Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for an advance e-copy in exchange for my honest opinion, Come and Get It will be available on 1/30/24.

I thought this book was really interesting. I liked the three main characters it followed, Agatha, Millie and Kennedy but I almost feel like I would have liked it better if it only focused on one of them. I thought she captured the voice of college girls very very well.