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I had high hopes for this book. After reading until about 50%, I had to relegate it to my DNF shelf. It seems a bit redundant and honestly, boring. There seems to be 3-4 separate stories and they just seem to be circling, but never landing on anything in particular. It reminded me more of an anthology script just watching in on peoples lives instead of a fiction story taking you on a journey.

Unfortunately, I would not recommend.

Come and Get It was a DNF for me. I gave it the good college try, but after 30% in with no discernible plot I just couldn't force myself to continue reading, say nothing of the unlikeable characters. At age 40, maybe I am past the target demographic for this book, but I just couldn't get myself interested in any of the 8 or so main characters. It's a jumbled mess with no standout characters. In need of a good, judicious edit and maybe some reorganization of thoughts before this book is ready for prime time. Sorry, Kiley Reid - loved Such a Fun Age, was so hopeful for your sophomore effort and excited to receive an ARC!

I am dyyyying to talk to people about this book. The reviews on Goodreads and Storygraph are so mixed; you either love it or hate it.

Come and Get It is NOT Such a Fun Age. Yes, they both center around race and racism/micro-aggressions. However, Come and Get It has zero plot… it’s purely character development. It’s not boring though, because Kiley Reid is a good author and she has you waiting for the other shoe to drop. You don’t know what’s going to happen, or who it’s going to happen to, but you know something is going to happen and you’re on the edge of your seat waiting. It reminded a lot me of the way The Guest by Emma Cline was written.

I loved Such a Fun Age (clearly) and also really enjoyed Come and Get It. I found the characters to be interesting, but I know that won’t be the case for all readers. The main characters are mostly college students, so the language and slang are spot-on (I say this as a 32-year-old, like I have any idea what college kids say these days). IE; “an Aerosmith song came on from the overhead speakers, the one where he doesn’t want to miss a thing”.. this made me laugh out loud. Honestly, I think the dynamics between the characters were my favorite parts. The author really made it feel like you were in the college dorms, observing and understanding them, getting in their head.

Even without a plot, there are a lot of uncomfortable situations to unpack. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s a heavy book at times.

Highly recommend going and getting Come and Get It when it comes out on January 30, 2024 (and then coming to get me so we can discuss it)! Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for this eARC.

The story of Millie Cousins was so touching and heartfelt. Her return to the University of Arkansas after spending a year at home to help out with family members started off with the best of intentions. After meeting a visiting professor, Agatha Paul, her world turns a bit upside down. Decisions she would not have made in the past have consequences that might have been avoided. The supporting characters in the novel were tragic, maddening and also young, decisions were made without a lot of thought to the potential outcomes. At times, I wanted to yell out WHY....and had to stop reading for a bit.

If you read the book description and it doesn't make you want to start reading immediately then there is something wrong with you. This book was stunning. I loved every word of it.
I just reviewed Come and Get It by Kiley Reid. #ComeandGetIt #NetGalley
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For most of the book, I was not sure where this story was going, but I was totally enthralled anyway. Reid's character development is flawless and sucks you in even with little plot.

DNF. After reading over a third of this book, I'm still trying to figure out if there was a point to the story, and I seem to be missing it. Set on a college campus, Millie was the most memorable character. Working as an RA in a dorm, she has college graduation in her sights. The rest of the characters were a jumble. No one person stood out.

I rated this book a three and felt generous. Perhaps other people will be able to see what the author is driving at, but as for me, I just could not find anything or anyone on which to focus.

Thank you to the publisher, PENGUIN GROUP PUTNAM / G. P. Putnam’s Sons, and Netgalley for providing me with an early copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.

I throughly enjoyed this book, much like I did with Reid's previous book, Such a Fun Age. This book is super character focused and isn't really plot heavy, which is something to keep in mind. All the characters felt super flushed out and complex, as well as the decisions they faced. there was no point where I felt like any of the characters were morally perfect or that I could fully agree with all of their choices, which I really enjoyed.

The timeline of the book is sort of nonlinear, which can be really hard to follow especially when no dates are given. With this book though, it was easy to tell where in the story we were and who we were following, because every character had such a distinct voice and each time was clearly pointed to.

One of the things Reid did so well in Such a Fun Age was create these situations that make you so uncomfortable, but aren't necessarily outright anything, and this book was the same. The setting of this book is drastically different to Such a Fun Age, but Reid was still able to impart those underlying societal differences to create a really interesting and complex environment.

I was given an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am also a librarian at the University of Arkansas, which may or may not have had something to do with how much I loved this book, and how excited I was to get my most anticipated read of 2024 a few months early!

After reading and loving Such a Fun Age, my favorite thing about Reid's writing continues to be how completely well-rounded and realistically flawed her characters are. Her dialogue in this was spot on, particularly with the student interactions (again, professor and librarian at the U of A here) and it was an absolute blast to read something that hit so close to home. As someone that shares the point of view of a Chicago native turned NWA transplant, I found the descriptions of Fayetteville to be really spot on for me, though I'm interested to read this with some of our library's book clubs to see if native Arkansans agree. Her writing continues to provide astute observations about human behavior that are instantly relatable and that completely suck you in, whether you have a connection to the setting or not.
I do feel like it got a little lost in itself in the middle, and some plot points that were introduced didn't wrap up as much as i wanted them to.
Overall, I was hoping that this book would deliver on setting and Reid's now trademark morally grey characters and their messy interactions, that often adeptly address things like microaggressions in such a realistic way. So excited to add her to my list of auto-buy authors.

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam for the eARC! This is a character driven novel set on a college campus which sounds like my cup of tea but unfortunately all of the various characters (upwards of 8 in total I believe) left me confused. I enjoyed some arcs more than others such as Agatha’s - but overall I wasn’t as satisfied as I had hoped. I certainly recognize that this just may not be my cup of tea and can see how this would be ideal for others.

Enjoyed this much more than SUCH A FUN AGE. With such a large ensemble I was impressed with Reid's ability to keep the characters relatively interesting even tho sometimes I would get confused with names but that is more of a me problem. Saw some less than favorable reviews talking about the lack of plot but I implore people to NOT make plot the be-all and end-all for how you enjoy art! I see this argument happen in film circles but I digress.

What personally kept me interested in this story was the surveillance and ethics aspects of Agatha's arc. In a time where we are seeing people post videos of private conversations for clout on TikTok, I would have loved for the book to explore this a little more. We live in a surveillance state so for us to essentially spy on each other hinders our ability to build trust within communities and as this story unfolds, eventually ends in a mess.

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC!

This was an interesting deep dive into the lives of a Black college student and a Black professor at school in the south. I was intrigued by the way the author played with cliches, and turning things (like adults sleeping with younger girls and money and basic white girls) on their heads for new perspectives. There wasn’t a huge plot here, but I was interested enough in Reid’s characters to not mind.

I unfortunately found Kiley Reid's newest book to be pretty disappointing. I love a campus novel, I love character-driven stories - but this just didn't work for me. With 8 different characters featured, it felt like you couldn't get to know any of them well enough as the reader to feel any sort of investment in how their story lines played out.

I gave up on this at 41%. I couldn't really find any discernible plot. My favorite characters were Agatha and Millie although I found each of them grating at times. I also was confused by the way the characters were alternated... there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. We met Agatha, and then flashed back to when she wasn't at the school yet, but the rest of the characters were in the present? And not interacting together? I loved KR's first but was disappointed by this.

I couldn't get into this book - it was the writing, plot, and frankly, the other reviews. If I was already not liking it, adding more characters, not much of a plot, etc. would not have helped.

************3.5 stars***********Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. I read Kiley Reid's other book, Such a Fun Age, and enjoyed it enough to request Come and Get It. Its been decades since I was in college and I didn't live on campus so this was a chance to get a look at living on-campus life, even in fictional form. Come and Get it was an entertaining read - I got to know and like the characters and even though I'm a lot older than everyone in the story, I was still able to relate in some ways. Come and Get It is a light read for anyone looking to pass time or relive their college days.

This turned out to be fairly complex, and maybe not quite believable. As in "you can't make this up?" It was very hard to like most of the characters, except for possibly the RA's as a group. They seemed the most real and struggling. I found Agatha very difficult as a character, and I wonder if I would have liked or disliked her as a teacher. There was some cute conversation in there, but the book felt remote somehow.

Review: Come and Get it by Kiley Reid
Release date: January 30th, 2024

Basically: a gay! Sally Rooney-esque! No plot just vibes (and some plot??)! Book!!

Come and Get It follows a cast of 3 characters, set at the University of Arkansas. Agatha, a professor and author, is researching for her upcoming book. Millie, a resident advisor who works at the dorm nobody wants to be in, is saving up to finally start her adult life. And then Kennedy, a transfer student who lives next door to Millie, and shares her room with her roommates.

I know from the sound of it there seems to be no plot, but the girls that get it get it, and you need to just read it and enjoy the ride. The book is so funny, a bit violent at times, and packs in so much social commentary on money, race, power, and the lengths at which we go to get what we want. The writing is so effective too because everything is written so starkly, that the contrast in the tone of the writing to the actual subject of the writing makes everything so shocking to read. I was consistently left with the “what wait??!” feeling (in a good way of course).

I’m also a bit confused by how many people say the book follows so many characters, when it really doesn’t. We only read through the perspectives of 3 girls, and every single supporting character is super fleshed out and memorable. The only part of the book I was a bit confused by was the end. It just felt too abrupt and out of place considering the pacing of the story. I also felt like sometimes the book left a bit too much to unsaid and up to the readers interpretation, but that was definitely an intentional choice and I still really enjoyed the book regardless!

This is for the people who love a slow book, and I’m so excited for everyone who still gets to read it for the first time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Putnam Books for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐

I'm having a hard time with this book because, while it is written leaps and bounds better than the average book, I didn't particularly like it. I think Kiley Reid is very perceptive and can write the human condition, human emotions, human subtlety very well, I just don't think this was executed as well as it could have been in this book.

By the end of this book I hate almost all of the characters. The whole thing felt disjointed and no one's motivation made any sense. I wanted to like this book because I really liked Such a Fun Age, but I just didn't. I do think Reid captured how lonely and weird young adulthood can feel even when you're surrounded by people, but most of the characters just felt stereotypical and contrived. Sub-plot seemed to appear out of nowhere. And what kind of college dorm suite would have one single and one double. That doesn't make any sense.