This book was miss for me. It contains several points of content that I do not enjoy reading about. I should have done more research before picking it up. I did care enough about one of the plot lines that I did finish the book and the writing was well done. I did enjoy how the pop culture references woven in. But this was miss for me.

Millie Cousins is back at the University of Arkansas as an RA for her senior year. She'd taken a year off when her mother had some health issues. Millie really enjoys her job and is a conscientious and dedicated advisor to the students on the floor of her dorm. When she gets a request from a professor to help find students to interview for a project, she has no idea that this will set into motion a series of events that will have a profound impact on all their lives. Agatha Paul is a successful writer who is a visiting professor at the school. She is just coming out of a complicated relationship and is happy for the space she has from her wife Robin to distance herself from their problems. After speaking with the students Millie helped to recruit, Agatha begins to see a new project forming, one which will require her to get more involved in the lives of the students in the dorm -- some of whom will not be aware of or consent to her continued observations of them. Kennedy is another student in the dorm who has Mille as an RA. Kennedy is a transfer student from Iowa who came to Arkansas after a traumatic event at her last school. She is a fan of Agatha Paul's writing and hopes to be accepted into her creative writing workshop. Kennedy is still not over what happened in Iowa and as an outsider, she feels completely isolated, even though she lives in a suite with two roommates. Tensions between her and the others continue to escalate to a boiling point.

The story took a long, long time for anything to happen. It's really a slow-burn with the action not really happening until the final third of the book. Before that, there are many meandering pointless stories and anecdotes that don't seem to add anything to the story and really slow down the pace. I kept waiting for something, anything to happen that would make me feel wading through all of that was worthwhile. It took forever. I also didn't understand the purpose of all of Agatha's articles about the girls in the dorm and why anyone would find them interesting. The events were eventually tied up in a satisfying enough way, but it was a marathon to get there.

This was somehow both exactly what I expected from Kiley Reid's sophomore novel, and not what I expected at all. I think this comes down to the pacing; while SUCH A FUN AGE was plot-driven and maybe a bit heavy-handed with its themes (not necessarily a criticism), COME AND GET IT was more subtle and character-driven.

The book follows three women navigating a single semester at the University of Arkansas in 2017: Millie, an RA who is saving up to buy her own house; Agatha, a writer and visiting professor who is researching her next book; and Kennedy, a student in Millie's dorm who is just trying to overcome past mistakes and find her way in the world. All three become caught in the orbit of another student, Tyler, who does not receive any POV chapters and whose characterization is accomplished chiefly through the eyes of others (but who definitely gives off epic Popular Girl Energy). The connections and relationships that develop between these women and the myriad people around them constitute the book's plot, all building up to a devastating conclusion.

I've never minded character-driven stories, and I was fully invested in all of these women for the majority of the story. The ending, however, left a lot to be desired, and felt like the narrative equivalent of making an illegal U-turn on significant character development and growth. What was the point of the rest of it, then?

It pains me to say this... but I just couldn't do it. I was so excited for this book, but it didn't capture my attention from the beginning. I kept pushing through to try to get in to it, but was still only 25% of the way through. I don't know if this is a true DNF, I may try to pick it back up in the future, but for right now it is.

I really loved this book -- although parts of it made me cringe and feel so uncomfortable! Despite that I couldn't put it down and had to know how it was going to wrap up for all the characters.

Each character in this book is so unique and well written -- and so quirky. I really loved all the descriptions of the suitemates, and I adored Millie and Agatha -- I wanted the best for them even while they made decisions that made me want to shake some sense in to them.

I thought the way Kennedy was written was so sincere and thoughtful - it felt so true and realistic for someone in a situation like that -- so heartbreaking.

I think Millie was my favorite character, and I loved her ambition and dedication as she worked on the house and tried to better herself.

I could have read many more pages of all these characters and loved being inside their world. I'm a sucker for a campus setting and this one did not disappoint!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

I read some other reviews talking about how this had no plot...and I would love to know what book they were reading that was different than what I read? It had a bit of a slow start, but I was glued to this in the second half! I love drama :0

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. I have to be transparent and say I DNF at 55%.

I was very excited to book another work by Reid, as Such a Fun Age was one of my favorite reads in 2020. However, this book fell flat for me. I found it to be very character-driven, almost to a fault. At 55% of the way through, I still felt like we were getting to know the characters and there wasn’t much of a plot to carry the book along. It was a struggle to even read as far as I did. I would just hope that by over half way through a book I’d have connected with at least one character I cared about, but I didn’t find that to be the case. Not only was I left longing for a character to root for, I struggled to understand the point of the book over half way through.

I did like the campus and dorm setting and felt like Reid did an excellent job describing college life. All of the students’ interactions felt real and believable.

Overall, super bummed to have DNF this book, but will look forward to Reid’s next novel.

Hmmm. Okay. We have three main characters here: Agatha, Millie, and Kennedy. I felt like the story didn’t really start until page 119, when Millie and Agatha start interacting in a more meaningful way. There was a lot here that I liked - the characters were interesting, the campus felt true-to-life, and the situations felt mostly realistic - but the book didn’t feel completely cohesive or fully fleshed out. It almost felt like it would have worked better as a series of interconnected vignettes. I think I just wanted a little bit of a tighter narrative. But don’t get me wrong - I am still a big Kiley Reid fan and will be supporting everything that comes next!

I had high expectations for this book, and unfortunately, I was left wanting more. I understand that it's very character-driven, and I do love a campus novel, but the plot felt meandering most times. I didn't particularly get invested in any of the several characters that we get to follow. Some interesting things being said, but I just felt bored most of the time.

This was a very unique and original story! I’m not actually quite sure how to summarize it. It’s almost like watching one of those college, coming-of-age shows on the CW where the adults are featured almost as equally as their children/students.

There was no cohesive overarching story, but rather anecdotes and characters we followed throughout one semester at the University of Arkansas. It’s a really interesting depiction of class, privilege, and race. There’s a fairly large cast of characters, some of whom have their own POVs, and the plot alternates through them while advancing in time. I really enjoyed the unique perspectives, but the abrupt ending left me feeling unsatisfied. It was amazing how invested I became in the chacters’ lives and want to see where they go next. Come and Get It was unlike anything I’ve read before, but the writing is superb and it’s definitely worth checking out.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam/G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved Kiley Reid’s debut SUCH A FUN AGE, so I was incredibly excited to receive an ARC of Reid’s sophomore novel, COME AND GET IT.

COME AND GET IT follows the story of three women at the University of Arkansas in 2017: Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant who is focused on saving as much money as possible to buy a house next year; Agatha Paul, a visiting professor who is doing research for a book about weddings; and Kennedy, a transfer student who lives in Millie’s dorm and has trouble making friends at her new school.

This novel is truly a character study. As with SUCH A FUN AGE, most of the characters are unlikeable, expect for Millie who I found to be if not relatable, at least someone I was rooting for. The novel feels realistic, like an accurate depiction of what is happening in dorm rooms around the country, especially on a southern campus.

The story is well-written and has well-developed characters, but I wanted a little more to happen; it felt like the story arc was fairly flat, although I do think there was some growth in Millie's character development by the end. That being said, even with little plot, it did hold my interest for the most part. I would characterize this as a coming-of-age story and a commentary on microaggressions in a higher education setting. If either of those things seem appealing to you, or if you enjoy reading character-driven stories about college campuses, COME AND GET IT is probably for you. I'm not sure it was for me, although based on her debut, I would be interested in reading more by Reid in the future.

Thank you to Netgalley and Putnam Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It’s all of the details about mundane residential life that make this like being a fly on the wall in the dorm halls of a southern university. Characters, not plot, are central and Reid captures their mannerisms and habits with microscopic detail. Their issues are small, often petty, and yet reveal so much about their socioeconomic status. There is a lot here for new adults to pick apart, from the way money is discussed to transactional relationships to indicators of class. I couldn’t put this down, just because it felt incredibly real and voyeuristic.

I was eager to read Kiley Reid’s next book after I loved Such a Fun Age. I enjoyed the college setting and accurate details about the life of an RA. However, I struggled to complete this book. I found several story lines confusing with the timeline unclear between chapters. This is primarily charactered-driven with very little plot development. I appreciated the nuanced look at race, socioeconomic status, and friendship.

The first half of this book was eclectic and all over the place, but I think it set the stage well for the second half. Reid’s writing is stunning and she developed fascinating characters that fit together in odd ways. The spiralling that let to the penultimate moment picked up quickly and the ending was unsatisfying in a way that felt like it was supposed to be. Kennedy’s character in particular will stick with me for a long time, but I really enjoyed Millie and Agatha’s point of view the most.

I really wanted to like this book because I loved “Such a Fun Age” but this really fell short for me. It felt disjointed and the characters are so unlikeable.
It was a struggle to finish.

This was very character driven. I liked the characters, but it kept switching the characters we were following, and I got bored. It was slow. I did like the writing, but not enough to keep reading. However, I would like to give it another chance at another time. It's not a true DNF-but at this moment, I need something quicker and more plot driven to satisfy my reading. This to me felt like a bunch of short stories stuck together, and short stories are not my jam.

This book is for the girls that get it, truth be told... I'm not sure I do? Normally I might think that this is a bad thing... like the book set out to do something and it failed to accomplish that. Here... I'm not sure that it set out to do something, nor did it really fail, an the experience that I had in all of that was overwhelmingly positive, but having finished the book and slept on how the story played out so much of what happened feels as though it has dissipated. In some ways adjacent to cotton candy, but definitely more thought provoking.

The book is set at the University of Arkansas and we follow five women as their lives converge on the campus in various ways. We have Agatha Paul a new professor and celebrated author, Millie Cousins the RA at the least attractive dorm on the campus; and Kennedy, Tyler, and Jenna three girls who live in the dorm that no one wants to be in. The way the novel brings these women together, and the exploration of their lives is interesting. It's not quite slice of life there's a little something happening. If anything book toes the line of commentary, all of the pieces are present for that to happen but then it's mostly left on the reader? Not a bad choice, one that I think works at most points in the novel.

For the most part I think the book tells you where it's going to go. Agatha is here to teach yes, but is also working on another book and so the direction her writing is going does dictate the direction that the book overall goes in; with the other characters serving as the muses essentially. Even with a generalized idea of how the book was going to play out after the first twenty or so percent, Reid still managed to keep me invested. Up until the end, which felt very abrupt? A lot of that has to do with how the characters behaved overall, and the way that the story itself unfolded. It realliy did feel like there were missed opportunities.

Overall though the reading experience was really positive. I spent a lot of time highlighting passages of the text and feeling really connected to hose these characters were interacting with one another. If anything I think the book being just a little longer might have helped. As someone that really enjoyed their debut I didn't feel let down by this at all, and I do look forward to purchasing a copy for myself when the book comes out in January. I do have a hard time knowing how else would enjoy this though, as recommending this feels slightly harder than knowing who to suggest their debut to.

Come and Get It is an in-depth character study of the many people and myriad of experiences that convene on a college campus. The plot takes a back seat to the personal narratives which drive the loose plot. Reid's descriptions of the characters and the setting transports you into campus life and at times feels so realistic it brings back awkward college memories.

This book was very character driven, with not much plot involved, but I still enjoyed it. I think a big part of the reason I enjoyed it as much as i did was because it’s set in the town I live in, so it was fun to recognize the coffee shops and restaurants they went to. It was super different from Such a Fun Age, but I really like Reid’s writing style and I’m excited to read anything else she has to write.

I couldn't put it down!

Reid's follow-up to her stellar debut doesn't disappoint. Like "Such a Fun Age," "Come and Get It" follows a youngish adult woman struggling with romances, jobs, friendships, uneven power dynamics, race, and class. Reid has an astute understanding of why regular people make flawed choices, and she transforms the subtle drama of being a dorm's RA into Greek tragedy.

We get to know the 24-year-old RA, some of her most problematic residents, her best friends, and a visiting writing professor who's recently broken up with her wife. The tension slowly builds as we see how the gap between the characters' inner and outer lives results in misunderstandings and manipulations. Small cracks in the characters' morality widen, getting deeper and more dangerous. Then it all blows up on one unfortunate night, forcing the women in the dorm to reckon with the consequences of their actions.

This is an incredibly well-executed slice of modern life. Reid is phenomenal storyteller, and she's got important things to say. Don't miss this one!