Like so many other readers, I was all in for Kiley Reid's sophomore novel, after devouring Such a Fun Age. Reid shows her range, as Come and Get It, while retaining its piercing look at social issues, is a huge departure from her first novel. Reid's writing is clever, insightful, perceptive, and her themes deep and compelling. She gives readers a glimpse of college life in 2017 that is both unique and disturbing. Many thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion. 3.5/5 stars.

A cleverly crafted coming of age story. Very enjoyable.
Many thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Putnam and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wow. What a tense, uncomfortable, slow burn of a book. This is a departure from Such a Fun Age in a lot of ways, but the sharp, thoughtful underlying commentary on race and class remains. The characters are mostly unlikeable, the plot is slow, and if you can believe it, I mean all of that in a good way.

The mixed reviews had me skeptical, but ultimately I think this book is really unique and absolutely worth the read. Rounding up from 3.5 stars.

Millie Cousins is a senior RA at the University of Arkansas, saving to buy a house and build a home. When visiting professor Agatha Paul has an unusual job offer for her, Millie is all in. This is a portrait of modern day college life — wealth, desire, indiscretion and bad behavior. It’s a slice of life and I was sucked into the story. The writing is really stellar and the characters are well done.

I gave it a good shot, but this is the first book I had to DNF out of over 175 e-arcs. I made it to 40% and just could not keep my attention. Thank you for the opportunity to give this a try. 1 star

I was personally unimpressed by the unremarkable characters and plot. I am quite sure there will be others who enjoy reading about the goings-on at a southern college but this book fell short of my expectations for Reid after the success of her debut novel.

Every character in Come and Get It—save for maybe one, Kennedy—is a complete caricature. They’re all crude sketches of different types of people that Kiley Reid wants to… satirize? Is this a satire? The emotional peaks in the story are so earnestly written that I’m inclined to think Reid wants them to feel somewhat believable and they’re just not. I like reading unlikable characters, but I don’t like the almost seething tone of this novel. It felt like on almost every page I was meant to think “aren’t college students just the worst?” Well yeah, when they’re written this ungenerously and unsympathetically, sure.

I realized a little over half way through that I was enjoying the chapters from Kennedy’s perspective so much more because she was the only character in the novel that Reid hadn’t written with utter contempt. She did more than just say clunky dialogue meant to annoy the reader and actually had depth and interiority (unlike Millie, who is allegedly the novel’s protagonist).

Just awful all around, unfortunately. I was so sure I would enjoy this because of how much love Reid's debut novel received (I've yet to read Such a Fun Age myself) but this sophomore novel is a complete misfire.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. I really enjoyed following the lives of everyone at the college. There wasn’t a typical story arc which some people might find annoying but I liked it.

I think I just didn’t “get” it. I can understand the appeal of a novel that takes a broad, rambling approach to the ins and outs of college life, but there was nothing that kept me interested or compelled by any of the central characters. What could have been messy and complicated just became a series of scenes where I didn’t much care about the outcome. I liked Millie best as a narrator and could have spent the whole book in her head.

The protagonists, Millie and Agatha, were likable enough, but most of the book seemed to be about a grown woman posting pointless stories and interviews on social media. The whole book was written in some kind of code that possibly only cool kids would be able to decipher.
38 year old Agatha was supposedly gathering information at a college in Arkansas about wedding traditions among young people, but it never went any further, so I imagine it must be meant ironically? She had a complicated marriage of convenience with a young dancer who needed her health insurance.
Agatha met up with Millie, an ambitious student, who supported herself and her mother with 3 jobs, one of which was a RA at the the college. Millie's goal was to buy a house and Agatha paid her to "help" gather information about the students in her charge, which was so confusing and unethical that it was kind of funny, but also weird and disjointed. The endless student conversations about nothing other than themselves was mildly amusing, but became tedious and I was glad to finish reading this book.

This novel should be marketed as Young Adult. As a mature adult (a/k/a senior citizen), I found nothing interesting in reading about dormitory residents at the University of Arkansas. Topics of conversation include Halloween decorations, dirty dishes, what they eat for breakfast, and balayage hair. Only one of the students was nice enough to care about, but even she is motivated by money. A visiting professor takes advantage of some of the co-eds in a cringe-worthy manner. I had to force myself to finish it.

Thank you to the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this read. I really enjoyed this read. This is not like her previous book. It reads a lot more deeper and you also have to be thinking for this one. This is not a book to fall asleep while reading. I think if you go into the book without comparing it to her first book, you will enjoy it more.

Nope....nope...nope...no story line and the race and class is pretty much racist against white people. I don't like books that attempt to make me feel bad for being white.

I was given an advance reader copy of this book by the publisher In Exchange for an honest review. I certainly like the author’s writing style and thought the plot had merit, however, the execution fell a little flat for me. There were low points in the story flow where I lost interest in the characters.

It’s 2017 and Millie is a second year senior working as a RA, lining up a post-grad job, and hoping to buy a house (✨the dream✨). Agatha is a visiting professor interviewing students for a book, trying to heal from a breakup, and blurring ethical lines in her writing. They are 2 people making questionable decisions surrounded by many others also making questionable decisions, because isn’t that being a human? Like SUCH A FUN AGE, this book tackles issues around race and privilege in a can’t put it down writing style. While this was enjoyable and thought provoking (without feeling like a sermon!) I do think her first book was more cohesive overall.

It’s not that this book is bad… it’s just that there is no point. Most literary fiction that I read is character based instead of plot based but they still usually have A PLOT.

Every chapter I would read would leave me more confused to where this was all going. And the answer is “Nowhere really”.

Thanks for the ARC Netgalley! This sophomore novel by Reid is out 01/30/24 - and I think it will be very polarizing. I’m seeing a lot of advanced Goodreads reviews that say that “nothing happens” in this book, which I vehemently disagree with. Yes, it’s VERY character driven but explores complex themes like authority and class against the campus backdrop so well. But I know this book will not be for everyone.

Mille is a 24 year old RA at the University of Arkansas, trying to pinch pennies to buy her own home and leave the dorm life behind. It’s hard living next to young underclassmen, especially when she can hear everything they say through her wall. She meets Agatha, a sophisticated professor who’s working on her latest book while teaching. Agatha sees that Millie is sitting on a gold mine with her proximity to these undergrads and they come to an understanding. One that becomes complex over the semester…

The novel alternates perspectives between Millie, Agatha, and an undergrad named Kennedy. (We get flashbacks from their lives before the semester along with the current timeline.) What Reid does SO WELL is capture authentic dialogue/opinions of different age brackets of women- ranging from 19-38. This novel is like an intense character study of these ages, divided by race and money. While seemingly slow pace, the back half of the novel was incredibly tense as things started falling into place. This book was a bit like watching a car crash happen from miles away and I’m still thinking about it.

***FYI!!!!! There is a very upsetting dog death scene that is hard to read. It’s not gratuitous or a torture scene and is integral to the novel, but very difficult.

✨Trigger Warnings: Animal Death, Racism, Injury (Graphic Detail), Suicidal Thoughts, Classism

Spoiler-free: Come and Get It covers queer and academic race-conscious antics in Arkansas. For fans of Mean Girls, The Colour Purple, Mona Lisa Smile, & Conversations with Friends. The main three characters feel like people I understand deeply, and the hypothetical narratives of situations they all craft are poignant and relatable. This one was definitely a page-turner too! Boiled down a lot of societal dynamics into relationships, in such a way that did feel like I was in on some real gossip. Great job Kiley Reid.

Spoilers: There’s no way that Millie would have told Peyton to put the dishes on Kennedy’s bed. The step in that situation is to actually draft a roommate agreement and get it signed and hold all roommates to it—RAs are trained in mediation strategies like this, and at the time she did it she still cared enough to adhere to helping Peyton, especially.
The ending scene with Agatha and Tyler in the car pissed me off. I feel like it took a lot away from both of their characterizations though I liked the end product being that Agatha funded her dog being pretty apt/funny.
I do wish that all the suite mates were pinpointed by where they were in the suite at the beginning of the book—I kept forgetting Jenna and Casey, and then they were really important.
I wish Aimee’s motivations were fleshed out more—no one would care about an RA this much without some rationale.

I read Such a Fun Age and loved it. This one did not engage me. I like the character Millie but wasn’t interested or cared for the other characters. I found myself not wanting to pick up the book and was distracted by other things I was reading. I still think Reid is a great writer, no doubts there. I just felt the plot and characters did not engage me enough.

I will not be posting a review of this book. I did post a rating on goodreads, that was mostly influenced by Reid's previous novel.