Reid's skill as a writer is in depicting real life right now. Her writing isn't spectacular, but she's very good at serving up a slice of modern life and building a tension-filled plot. She's most interested in the cringey bits people don't like to look at or talk about, and because of this and her aptitude for realism, her books are uncomfortable reads. Worthwhile, but squirmy.

I genuinely was never sure where she was taking this one. I appreciate books that surprise me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

This was a VERY character driven read. Typically, I can be okay with that style of book but I found majority of the characters (there are like 8 main characters too) unlikable which made it harder to endure at times. I also found the dialogue hard to read at times. I understand it was meant to be realistic for the way college students spoke, but reading it on the page did not translate well for me. I was so excited to read this one since I loved the author’s previous novel but it did fall short for me unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first novel by this author, and I really enjoyed it. My favorite stories are the ones that show people in their best and worst moments. Humans are full of mistakes, and the characters in this book experienced plenty of them. The story follows multiple viewpoints but there are two characters who the story centers around the most. I didn't find it confusing to read at all. Sometimes when there are multiple narrators, I find myself dreading reading certain chapters. This wasn’t the case for me.

This feels like a book where nothing extraordinary happens. Instead of reading towards a big climax where the story peaks, I would describe it more as a breaking point. All characters sort of reach this moment at once. I think some people might find this book boring, but I tend to enjoy these books the most.

I will say that there is a moment in this book that was hard for me to read. I tend to be sensitive to any overly descriptive imagery, and there was a scene involving blood and a sensitive topic. I had to skim past it, but I still find myself thinking about it when I reflect on this book.

I was a big fan of the author’s debut novel, Such A Fun Age, and although I enjoyed Come and Get It, it didn’t quite hit me the same.

I will agree with other reviewers that there were a few too many characters - sometimes they all got tangled and I had to go back to remember who was who. But I actually did enjoy the storylines and how all of the character’s lives became intertwined in the end when they seemed so separate in the beginning. The book was a bit slow for me and took a while for me to get into it, but I did enjoy it.

This one wasn’t my favorite but was still pretty good. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!

College in certainly a time of making mistakes and growth and making more mistakes. And this book is deeply representative of that. The writing was straightforward, descriptive, and the dialogue felt so accurate to the voices on young adults in college. I felt transported back to undergrad in many scenes, particularly anything related to the RA experience as I was one myself.

Millie and Kennedy were standout characters. I loved Millie's determination, and reading her stream of consciousness as she figures things about herself out. Kennedy was a character that I felt I had met many times before, the person you know is not quite okay and wish you had pulled into your friend group. As for Agatha, I'm not sure if she's intended to be the antagonist of the book but she certainly is in my mind!

My only difficulties with this book were that the build-up was very slow. I felt like I was reading about mundane, unconnected events for about the first 40% of the book. However the payoff with everything connecting in the end was well worth it. A tense, but great, read!

I really wanted to like this book because I loved the author's work in "Such a Fun Age". This book was nothing like that one. The book takes place at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and centers on the dorm for transfer students ("Belgrade"), which is apparently not a desirable place to live. Millie is the RA and Peyton, Kennedy, Tyler, Casey, and Jenna are students in the dorm. Throw in visiting professor Agatha Paul, fellow RAs Collette and Ryland and Joanie, Residence Life staff Josh and Aimee and I think you've got everyone.

Which leads to my first gripe with this book. There are too many characters. I was so confused who was who. You get a lot of background on the characters, but it's all essentially meaningless because there's no plot bringing it all together. The story goes back and forth so much too that by the time you get back to someone you've forgotten who they are.

Second, these characters were all completely unbelievable to me. I had to keep reminding myself that this was supposed to be taking place at a college. The students were so immature and scattered, it seemed much more like a high school setting to me. I just couldn't connect with any of them.

Then there's the dialogue. I don't know what it was, but I felt like I actually couldn't follow some of the conversations. I didn't understand what they were saying and I couldn't tell who was talking sometimes.

The book started off promising with visiting professor Agatha Paul interviewing three of the students in RA Millie's dorm. Agatha learned a lot about the girls and became intrigued by their attitudes toward money and their seemingly privileged lives. But then the book veers off and never really gets back on track.

This was definitely a miss for me, but I will keep an eye on this author as I think she shows a lot of promise. Thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Was so excited for Kiley Reid’s next novel (after loving Such a Fun Age) and she delivered! A wonderfully written book— her way with words is so magical and I find myself falling head first into every story she writes. That being said, this book is all vibes and character story (and less plot). It’s a slow meander of a book, set in a college dorm with a variety of characters of different backgrounds and personalities. I had fun but definitely felt a bit lost at times! 3.5/5 rounded up!

I am a huge fan of Kiley Reid's debut, telling everyone I know to read it, and this sophomore work did not disappoint. Fierce and poignant, examining society through an intriguing plot and characters.

LOVED! Without a doubt a five. I’m drawn to books that have what some would say “no plot” very “character driven” … some books this had me thinking about were Flores and Miss Paula, Prep, and All Adults Here. The personalities really jumped off the page and I felt like I knew each one of these characters as well as place like it was real.

I felt like a Big Brother camera was placed in and around a University Dorm and we just watch the year play out. You get to know each of the characters. Very well told from back history to what’s happening in their lives now. A great look at college dorm life and those that are experiencing it.

You get POVs from visiting professor, RA as well as students and I was excited for each one when the time came for narration change. A coming of age that feels unique and buzzy. Excited to see what Reid shares with us next!

Thank you G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Releasing 1/30

I absolutely adored this novel. I love books that are more character than plot driven. I also love really unlikable characters. It also helps that my cat is named Millie. I wanted to keep diving into this story and I could not put it down. I understand why some might find this novel boring but life is boring. This novel felt like it could actually happen and I love that. This is my second Kiley Reid novel and it definitely will not be my last.

Following a professor and several college students through their messy, intertwined narratives. There are some really conformable, hard to read situations with lots of important commentary and representation. Extremely slow and character driven with little to no plot for most of the book. I admit it started to lose me towards the middle (one can only stand so much description of daily life in a college dorm) but I’m glad I stuck with it.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

I really wanted to like this one but I think the author falled into the "Sophmore trap" with her esecond book. It's just not as good or interesting as the debut book. It felt like there was no story and I put it down.

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-ARC. Unfortunately, despite my anticipation, this book left a lot to be desired. As many have previously mentioned, the lack of plot did not work for me. I adore her writing style and her vivid descriptions took me right back to my dorm days in college but unfortunately even after 70%, there still was no greater thematic connections or plot driving this along. I found myself skimming the last quarter of the book for any hint of something happening. Unlike Such a Fun Age where the characterization gets revealed after a momentous incident in the beginning of the novel, this one hints and something that never comes to fruition.

This is a character based novel set mostly in the college dorm setting. We have multiple points of view, many characters and a few uncomfortable situations. This book was not often an easy book to read. I found myself trudging through it but also fascinated by it at times. Once you get through some of the background and really get into the heart of the story it’s worth it to keep going. Inside I was screaming at the bad decisions of some of the characters. But I think what is important here is good books do not require like-able characters.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts are my very own.

At 432 pages (kindle) and due for release January 30, 2024, author Kiley Reid's sophomore novel (Such a Fun Age was her first) is based at the University of Arkansas, in the Belgrade dorm for transfer students. The novel centers on Resident Assistant (RA) Millie, and visiting professor, Agatha, as well as Agatha's spendy partner, a dancer, and several students in Belgrade dorm.

The book is touted/promoted in pre-release materials (I read this as a NetGalley ARC in exchange for my review) as "a fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion and bad behavior", which is technically true, but it comes together as a book written largely as a collection of themes in a university setting:

theme 1: gay/bi representation;
theme 2: mental health issues and loneliness;
theme 3: racism/Black people as students and RAs and implications on job placement/scholarships;
theme 4: boundaries/morals of relationships between professors and adult-age students;
theme 5: professional codes of conduct of professors going through personal life drama;
theme 6: southern state school representation - accents, dorm decor, intelligence of students;
theme 7: MONEY - who has it, who pays who for what, what are people willing to do for it.

That's a lot of themes! As a result, the plot is very character based - good in theory - but comes across as meandering, and not particularly interesting. In fact, I had a really hard time getting into this book and put off reading it for months, but am committed to closing out my NetGalley shelf by year end, so made myself finish it.

Things that bothered me: Why was such a smart lady - Agatha - with her partner with no serious discussions about expenses or money? Why did Agatha make such poor professional decisions? How could she possibly believe no one would find out about the articles she wrote? And why didn't Millie share more about her life with her RA friends? Also, as such an empathetic person, I would have thought she would have seen Kennedy's sadness a mile away. Why did anyone involved agree to the pranks? And most importantly, why was not one single person asking how did it happen - that dramatic scene near the end involving a pizza cutter?? That really bugged me, as did Millie not doing something with the knowledge that Kennedy had written that application to Agatha's creative writing program.

These and other decisions made by the characters felt inauthentic to me, and made me not really trust the narrative. Anyone can write a book about people making very bad decisions, but it is another thing to have the reader really care about those people and the decisions, and demonstrate a meaningful life arc with gratifying resolutions. I wanted these characters to evolve in a more serious and insightful way. 2.5 stars.

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The one thing that was satisfying to me was the part of the ending where Agatha uses her money to help Millie in 2 different ways. Good for her. I would have prefered there be one final chapter where Agatha dumps her partner and agrees to mentor Kennedy as a writer for free, and recants her published articles to make everyone whole.

It's really slow and anti-climatic. Way too many characters for no reason at all. I had to go back and reread the description because I thought I was missing something. The excitement from the synopsis did not translate to the text.

After reading and loving Such a Fun Age, I was excited to see a new novel from the insightful Kiley Reid.
Millie is an RA at a college in Arkansas, Agatha is a professor/author conducting research about wedding culture. The two first meet when Agatha interviews some of the dorm residents for her book. There is a large cast of other vivid characters and it all mostly takes place on the college campus. While this book attempts to say a lot about micro aggressions, racism in academia, and homophobia, those nuances got lost in heavy descriptions about clothing, room decor, and a bunch of other seemingly pointless details that bogged the pace down to a crawl. While I cared about some of the characters and was interested in their backstory, I became antsy to move it along.
Reid is obviously a talented author but this one fell short for me.

3.75 rounded up.
Okay, honestly? I hadn’t realized before reading this how popular ”uptalk” was, or that it even had a name. It is utilized frequently in this book in the dialogue of the college students.
This is a character driven book (with a lot of main characters and a lot of side characters also) with maybe not a ton of plot but more into these character’s connections to each other, how they view money, and their status in relation to money. The characters are incredibly well fleshed out. The dialogue is witty and Reid is clearly a master of observation and cataloguing “what might this type of person say.” The language especially surrounding “white nature-y Christians” and how they gossip was so accurate I really felt 20 again and back at life group 🫠 (see my highlights) lol anyways!! This book did have a slow start, but by halfway in I was invested in finding out how everything resolved, and reading on to see what my new favorite quote from a character would be. While reading this I did find myself asking “do I like any of these characters?” “Do I know people like this in real life and like them?” Ultimately I’m glad I read this and also glad I never lived in a dorm.

Thank you to NetGalley and especially to Bloomsbury for the much appreciated ARC in return for an honest review.

I was a huge fan of Such a Fun Age and have been eagerly waiting for Reid’s sophomore book. As usual, the writing is exquisite. This was much, much different from her other book. In the vein of Seinfeld, this truly felt like a book about nothing. I think I just expected more. And I generally am a huge fan of character driven stories with no discernible plots. They’re kind of my thing. But something just felt lacking here. I don’t necessarily need to like a character, but I do need to feel invested. I just didn’t really care about any of the characters. I really had to push myself to finish this one. Bummer because, as I said, Reid is honestly a fantastic writer and is great at putting sentences together. That feels dumb to say considering I didn’t love the book but I just want to highlight its merits.

Even though this wasn’t for me, I’ll definitely check out her next book.

This one fell a little flat for me. I loved Such A Fun Age so I was looking forward to me. It kind of just felt all over the place with a few too many characters and not quite enough focus on most of them. It took me longer than usual to get through this one because I just didn’t quite care about any of the characters. The writing was beautiful though, as I expected it to be.