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.

i was excited to read this book since i really enjoyed Kiley Reid’s Such A Fun Age. this one was a bit different but it was like a guilty pleasure… i am not one to love reality TV but a lot of this was really like watching True Life: I’m an RA or something, but with juicy drama. i’m a big fan of campus life and loved living in a dorm at another SEC school (Go Dawgs!), so there was a lot of nostalgia here too. there were a ton of characters to keep up with but i thought it worked very well. it took me a while to get hooked on the story (i started it about a month ago and didn’t have much time to get into it over the holidays but picked it back up yesterday and couldn’t put it down); there was a lot of weaving back and forth with the timeline and i had to go back several times to figure out what was going on. i ended up really enjoying it though; i thought Reid did a great job with the characters, their drama and their snark. thank you netgalley and penguin group putnam for this ARC!

Millie, a senior RA, wants to graduate, get a job and buy a home. When Agatha, a visiting professor, offers Millie an unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. Her side hustle quickly becomes jeopardized by new friends, dorm pranks and illicit intrigue.

Unclear what this book is actually about. It is a pretty quick read, with likeable, relatable characters, but nothing actually happens. There is no plot, just a bunch of stories about different women living on a college campus. There are also a bunch of macro and microaggressions throughout the book, but they aren't actually addressed by the author.

Thank You NetGalley and Penguin for the free e-galley.

Publication Date: 1/30/24

Kiley Reid's sophomore novel is such a slam dunk that I can barely review it. Frankly, I think publishing did her dirty with the marketing of her first novel, which was set up as a searing literary commentary on race relations when it was actually sharp-as-hell contemporary fiction. (SUCH A FUN AGE got constant comps to LUSTER by Raven Leilani -- both books are great, but they're doing very different things in different genres! It turns out smart, young, Black women can write books about smart, young, Black women in totally different ways...on purpose.) In COME AND GET IT, I would say that we're once again in the realm of contemporary fiction (or even women's fiction, to use a term that has fallen out of favor) and absolutely killing it. Reid's take on race and class at a Southern state school is just impeccable, and I shrieked with laughter throughout. The characters are TERRIBLE and compelling, and I wanted to read about them behaving badly for a million more hours. But Reid isn't without heart--I ached for poor Kennedy, whose anxiety was absolutely brutal to read, and Millie, whose love affair with her own sense of being capable, competent, and grown, leads her to make so many poor decisions. And AGATHA! What a TERROR who takes shirking responsibility to an entirely new level. The hero of this book is Colette, who consistently made me cry-laugh and was somehow both actively bullying a college student AND the only character with a consistent moral compass. Oh man, I already want to reread this book just to laugh at so many razor-sharp lines. ("And she'll graduate with a major in like...petroleum. ... And she'll fall into a deep sleep under a little wooden sign that says like...I don't know...'Live, laugh, police.' is seared into my brain.)

I love this book - a page turner. One of the reasons I love Kiley Reid’s books is because they read like “chick lit” but you leave with a much deeper and profound knowledge of the human condition amidst the difficult, messy lives we all live.

Kiley Reid does it again with her masterful writing style! I love how the story is character driven, but I find the plot, not nearly as strong as her previous book. I definitely wanted a bit more, as I expected, more twists like “ such a fun age.”

Loved the author’s first novel, Such a Fun Age. And, in this one, there is a lot of the same micro aggression cringe that was in the first. However, this novel was more disjointed and hard to follow initially and didn’t quite give me tge same satisfaction reading. Although, the style and messiness made it feel very lifelike.

For fans of Such A Fun Age, Kiley Reid’s newest novel, Come and Get It, comes out later this month! I don’t think there’s a book I’ve seen on more 2024 anticipated releases lists, so let’s get into it:

Now, I absolutely loved Such A Fun Age. It made my 5-star reads list the year it came out. CAGI is a pretty sharp divergence in terms of setting and tone and was not at all what I was expecting from Reid’s sophomore effort.

Come And Get It is a campus novel, written multiple POV style, in which a visiting professor, a resident assistant, and a trio of mismatched dormmates collide. It’s clear from the opening chapters that a conflict is building and it’s a slow, tense burn until the clusterf*ck of a crescendo. It’s a subtle study in power imbalances and human indiscretion.

Two special things I admire about Reid’s writing:

💫 She is the master of writing cringe. My face looked like this 😬 the whole way through, in a good way. Her scenes are riddled with microaggressions, social awkwardness, and missteps that feel so visceral and make you want to burrow your head underground.

💫 Her dialogue is so true to real life. It’s fast paced and shows you so much more about her characters than a narrative voice could tell you. I felt like I was sitting cross legged on a dorm room bed, eavesdropping on real conversations.

Overall, I ended up enjoying this and it’s satisfying to see an author try something different and show off a broader range of skills. But I do wonder/fear how this will be received for readers expecting SAFA. I would categorize SAFA as contemporary fiction… CAGI leans hard into literary fiction. SAFA is more plot-driven… CAGI is more character driven (and there are A LOT of characters). If you’re open to quieter books like Real Life by Brandon Taylor or Normal People by Sally Rooney, I think you’ll like this.

Read this if:
✔️You loved Real Life by Brandon Taylor
✔️You, like me, have a weird obsession with those GRWM vlogs from the University of Alabama sorority women
✔️Your genre of choice is literary fiction and/or campus novel

after reading this books description, I thought this would be an interesting plot. i was wrong. this book was not good. i really had to push myself to get through this. for such a character driven book, there was no plot and i didn’t understand the point of this book. the writing is excellent but the author sometimes tried a bit too hard and i had a difficult time understanding what exactly was happening.

thank you NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penquin Random House for an advanced copy of this book.

Nobody writes characters like Kiley Reid. Each person she writes is dynamic and memorable. I still remember the characters in Such a Fun Age as if they were old friends. I think I’ll carry the characters in Come and Get it with the same admiration. As I was reading this book, I kept wanting to know more. I became invested in each person and couldn’t wait to see how their stories connected and what I could learn from these characters.

Since this a very character driven book, it does lack a strong plot, but that’s ok. It’s literary in nature but that doesn’t mean that it dry. The writing is excellent. The dialogue is smart and I think this is a well done book. A compulsive read that really explores the depth of race and privilege against the backdrop of higher education.

Those who enjoyed Real Life by Brandon Taylor will really enjoy this one!

Reid is tackling many themes here, the biggest two being money and accidental grief. While I enjoyed parts of this book (it ended up in the "it was okay" rating to me), and definitely the last 10%, I wished Reid had distilled her focus to one of the major themes and fewer characters.

I kept waiting to see how everything would come together, how the action would pick up, or understand why she was introducing so many threads and characters. And some of it comes together in the end. But not enough, in my opinion, which left me feeling that it was too meandering and sprawling.

I read this for book club, so I think there will be plenty to discuss with a group! And I'll continue to be interested in seeing what Reid writes in the future.

Thank you NetGalley, Kiley Reid, and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for providing me with an ARC of Come & Get It.

I’ve had my eyes on this book for quite some time because of the cover. It looked interesting and I was intrigued on reading it. Unfortunately, I’m rating this book 3 stars. Come & Get It does not appeal to my senses. I found it lacking in emotional depth; the stories didn’t move me, and the characters failed to capture my interest. I skimmed a lot within these pages. The narrative fell short of creating a meaningful connection, making it a less enjoyable read for me.

While I found myself really interested in the events of the book and in the lives of the characters, there was no real plot to the novel. It felt more like a portrait of a college dorm in the south, and maybe that was the point of the book. But there was no real plot propelling the book forward. I think the writing style itself was well done (and I enjoyed the audiobook's narrator a lot). I just wish there was an actual plot or that it was made clearer to the reader.

Kiley Reid is one of the very few modern writers who writes like people speak - it's part of what makes her books so readable. Also, she so excellently delves into her characters complexity without it feeling dense or overdone; it's portrayed just like people actually are, faults and all. This book is a little bit slice of life (up until the climax) and it's so fun to dig into such different characters living such different lives. However, when everything hit the fan, I felt the characters' anxiety as if it were my own. Both Such a Fun Age and Come and Get It are such layered books - you can read everything at the surface, but Reid is writing a pointed commentary on so many of our modern issues just underneath. It's worth the effort to dive just a little deeper when reading.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP PUTNAM/G. P. Putnam’s Sons for the ARC!

I enjoyed Reid's debut Such A Fun Age so I've been anxiously awaiting her newest novel Come And Get It! One of my most anticipated reads of 2024, I am glad I started the year off reading this one.
Reid is a very intentional writer. I found Come And Get It to be very character driven and the characters really stole the story. As we are introduced to each character, a sense of unease and excitement took over. This felt like I was watching a Real World episode on MTV and the drama was plentiful! Her writing is so good I really felt like I knew these characters and that I lived just down the hall!

I've seen a few critiques of this book stating that there is a lack of plot in this book and I heavily disagree. This book is a deep look at classism, privilege, race, and micro aggressions. All of this comes crashing together at the end in a very dramatic and shocking way.

This book was wild and I urge readers to pick it up with an open mind a willingness to dig deep and to embrace the roller coaster of emotions. If you've ever lived in a college dorm so much of this will be relatable to you. Thank you Reid for starting my year of reading on a strong note!