This is definitely a character driven book. That being said, I don’t really understand the reviews saying this book has too many main characters. The story really revolves around three women:
Kennedy, a transfer student living in Belgrade dormitory
Millie, an RA in Belgrade and one of the few Black students on campus
Agatha, a professor and journalist “researching” the lives of wealthy college students

There are a bevy of secondary characters: Kennedy’s mom, her two roommates and their friends; Millie’s fellow RAs and her boss, and Agatha’s ex and a few colleagues. While that is a lot of people to keep up with, they’re all distinct enough and there are enough context clues that I didn’t find myself getting the side characters confused once I got into the story.

I will say I agree with the reviewer that said Kennedy’s back story came too late into the book. The fact that there was an incident before arriving in Fayetteville was alluded to a lot but when we get the details, they feel kind of absurd. What a weird freak accident. Sure Kennedy didn’t make the right choice but a lot of teenagers in that situation wouldn’t. I’m not sure her actions would result in an entire campus bullying her relentlessly though. Before the incident was revealed I just assumed she had severe social anxiety and spent too much time with her mom. She kind of reminded me of someone I went to pharmacy school with. She just wanted to fit in but she was too uncomfortable to make connections and be herself.

Agatha is pretty unlikable and shady. She’s incapable of taking full responsibility for her actions. She uses her status to get what she wants and she certainly doesn’t have a problem lording her power over people. The fact that she comes out unscathed minus a few grand (clearly chump change to her) is not at all surprising since that’s how the world works. We see it time and time again with rich and powerful men and I’m sure someone like Agatha would go on a talk show and say something to the effect of “Men get away with this all the time. Why shouldn’t women?” Rather than understanding no one should and that power structures within society need to be broken down rather than reinforced in the name of equality.

After I finished reading this book, I realized the way Tyler, Casey, and Jenna talked and thought is exactly how me and all of my friends acted in college. College in the south is rife with internalized misogyny, racism, and classism and religion is a tool used to prop up all of those ideals. Most satire books with the overarching theme of racism are set in the Northeast where there is a lot of liberal elitism. Racism has a different tone in the South. There are A LOT of micro aggressions and especially in the aughts and 2010s, most young people were too ignorant to recognize just how racist they were. I HATE that that’s how I was but I’ve done a lot of work to correct those thoughts and behaviors. Many people my age have not.
All that to say, many people in the south will recognize these girls and these scenarios immediately.

Well, that was a lot. Nothing light about this one.

Come and Get It is the second book I have read (and enjoyed) by Kiley Reid.

The cover — ha — I wondered why there was a pig, and I soon found out it was because of the University of Arkansas. Pig Soo! (Or something like that.)

So, I don’t know where to start. There was a lot going on with this books and a lot to digest.

Millie is an RA at the Belgrade dorm, a dorm for students on scholarship, upper class men, and transfer students. There is a suite next door to her with three girl — Peyton, a peculiar girl who likes cleanliness and order, Tyler, a girl who goes out with friends and is obsessed with dogs, and Kennedy, a transfer student from Iowa, who has a troubled past and doesn’t fit in.

Agatha, is a writer from the big city, who leaves her partner at home, to do research for her next book and work as a professor at the University of Arkansas.

Millie has two close RA friends, Colette and Ryland. Tyler has two close friends at the college, Casey and Jenna. Agatha has Robin. Peyton has Simi. Kennedy has her mama. As you can see, there are a lot of characters in this book!

There is a mishmash of stories interwoven throughout the book and a lot going on. It’s kind of all over the place.

I did enjoy the book. I wish Kennedy had spoken her truth at the end. I wish Peyton had too. I wish girls were not so cruel to each other (in the book and real life!).

I wanted to find out what happened, and it kept me turning the pages as quickly as possible. I wish there was a little more resolution in the end.

This one is ⭐️⭐️⭐️3/4 stars. Rounded up to 4️⃣⭐️.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this advanced readers copy of Come and Get It by Kiley Reid in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed reading this book, as I felt I had a front row seat in the room of a current college dorm. It was easy to read through as I was excited to see what was going to happen next. That said, I usually read to learn something or to go places I won’t likely see in my lifetime, and this story had a ‘been there, done that’ vibe for me. The entitled characters were grating to me. The mean, catty characters seemed to win, and the hard working nice characters got hammered. The predatory professor, that wantonly used others for her gain made me wince. The author writes very well about those unfortunate circumstances, but I have been too close to those behaviors to enjoy this read. I watched a YouTube with the author and liked her very much. I know life is messy and we all make mistakes. Reading about them in this book was hard for me.

Come and Get It was slow to develop and slow to happen. The premise of the book is intriguing - straddling adulthood in a college setting. A bit disconcerting at times, the behaviors are difficult to reconcile.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The author of the widely acclaimed “Such a Fun Age” strikes gold again. This time her characters are in college and creating chaos in every direction you look. “Come and Get It” will ring true in part to most everyone who lived in a dorm in college and had a R.A. (Resident Assistant) who always seemed to be in your business or trying to make life more difficult. This is one book I found hard to put down. Keeping up with all the action almost required a mental map. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who ever wondered about the secret lives of R.A.s.

This novel has a bit of a slow burn quality. It can feel like a compilation of conversations and moments that seem rather aimless until you get toward the end and understand why Reid constructed and layered these details the way she did. Fans of SUCH A FUN AGE expecting something similar may be disappointed because this novel is more subtle. COME AND GET IT is a nuanced story looking at race and class with Reid's trademark wit.

This book was so busy, I really wanted to like it but it went too far in depth with too many characters. I feel like there wasn't a clear cut plot.

Thank you #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

This read follows a residential assistant (RA) trying to find her way into adult hood. After taking a year off for family matters, she comes back as an older student and RA at the University of Arkansas. Her ultimate goal is to continue saving money to purchase a home. When a professor approaches her needing access to students for research, she obliges and eventually develops a relationship with her along with money associated with allowing her to learn more about her residents. This book follows a few of the students, Millie the RA and Agatha the professor. All the entanglements and secrets eventually come to head after a tragic accidental situation in the dorms.

Plot was a bit slow compared to Kiley Reid's previous book but overall an enjoyable story. I was a bit disappointed because I loved her previous book but this one was just "ok" for me.

I have so many feelings about this book. This was one of my most anticipated new releases after reading Such a Fun age but I ended with mixed feelings. Starting with the positives I really loved how character driven the book was and felt like each highlighted character was given a depth storyline that brought up a lot of feelings. Similarly to Such a Fun Age I really liked how the author addresses topics of race, class, and privilege. I also think that she really effortlessly taps into the way college students/20 year olds speak without it seeming like she''s trying so hard. The reason I struggled with this one was because I felt like the plot was hard to find and follow. This book has a lot of characters that all have a lot going on and the plot isn't super clear. I felt for most of the book that I was just trying to figure out why I was reading about the characters. I think if there were less characters I might've walked away with a clearer understanding of the book. Overall I liked this book and really love Kiley's writing style, I just didn't like it as much as Such a Fun Age.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

I mostly enjoyed the story, it kept me interested. I just have two complaints.

1) There were so many characters. I read in spurts here and there when I have time and it was hard to remember who was who with so many characters.

2) It felt like the phrases “Yeah, no” or “No, yeah” were used excessively. If I search my kindle, it shows 21 instances. Listen, I’m from Michigan. I say those phrases, but this seemed like a lot for a book.

Other than that, I did like this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this author's debut novel, Such a Fun Age, and was looking forward to her sophomore novel. Sadly, this one missed the mark for me. Having worked on a college campus in the 90's I enjoyed the setting, and the plot potential. After reading over 50% of the book, it had been mainly character studies of the story's characters, and how each of them ended up where the story takes place. Plot development occurred around 75% of the way into the book, after which the story and its ending seemed abrupt and dissatisfying. The story is told from several perspectives and like Reid's first novel, brings attention to ethics, microaggressions, and white privilege. I like Reid's writing and will definitely read future books, but this was not one of my favorites.

Thanks to NetGalley, Putnam Books, and the author for an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you @netgalley and @penguinbooks @penguinrandomhouse for this advance copy.
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I know this doesn’t publish for awhile, but it felt like perfect timing with the start of school and football season. The story follows a professor, a resident assistant and students living in a dorm at the University of Arkansas in 2017. The publisher describes this as “a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior.” There are a lot of characters, and this is a more character driven novel, but I found it compulsively readable. Reid creates fascinating and distinct young women, all from different backgrounds, who come together through dorm life. It read like a more literary, college version of Mean Girls. If you love an academic setting, do not miss this one! I enjoyed it even more than Reid’s Such a Fun Age (a Reese’s book club pick).

This is the story of a college professor and several college students. Honestly, that's it. It didn't work for me because I love character-driven works, but I needa bit of plot. If you love books where nothing much happens and it's all about the characters, this will work well for you. Reid is a fantastic writer.

I wanted to give this a better review (and I did on GoodReads) because I feel like there is some edits that need to be done before this is published. I found a few grammar or just mistakes overall throughout this book (periods in the middle of a sentence, words combined together like "beenliving" or extra words added into a sentence.)

I felt like the story was good but a lot of the times when there was dialogue, it just overall did not make sense, especially between Collette and Ryland. I even read it out lout and it completely did not make sense. It seems like there was multiple conversations going on and the responses from them overall just didn't fit into what was happening. I think rethinking some of that would be a good idea. I didn't feel like there was enough development when it came to explaining the "dorm room" which seems more like an apartment. There was a double and single but then the double had a door? this was just confusing to me. I also felt like the development of the girls in the dorm was lacking. I had to refresh myself on who was who every time they were introduced. Lastly, all the sudden at the end of the book Joanie is reintroduced as she is barely mentioned throughout the whole book, besides the beginning.

I did feel like there was an actual story here, which some other reviewers did not think so. But I felt like how each character was so intertwined and twisted into each other.

Overall it was a good story with some many moving parts and different points of view, I did enjoy this and finished this within about a day.

Man, Kiley Reid sure has a way to add TENSION to her novels. While I didn't enjoy this one as much as Such a Fun Age, it still had that foreboding quality that makes it unputdownable. I also loved the college setting, and how it makes the reader examine the judgements we pass on people and how everyone struggles with things under the surface that we may never know.

This book was only ok for me.

The story felt choppy to me. The stories and characters didn't flow like they could've.

Millie was the most likable character in the book, by far, but she didn't really seem to be her own person. I can't put my finger on why but the author could've fleshed her out a lot more to add to the story.

The author also could've put less of the eavesdropping in and wrote more from a different perspective instead. The eavesdropping part seemed really overdone.

The students in the suite were all a mess in their own ways, as most "kids" are not I didn't feel for any of them, not really, which is such a shame.

The title doesn't make any sense with the book either. I kept trying to connect it while I was reading but I came up empty handed.

So much more could've been done with this book. I don't think I'd recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

A very weird reading experience where I felt like I was just reading words? I know that’s what reading is, but I just felt nothing toward this. It read like a first draft with some intriguing ideas here and there but not much else.

This book was more literary than what I usually read. It's the kind of book where I hold my breath throughout because you can just sense that things are going to go wrong, often for characters you care about, while the ones who are jerks are likely to get through unscathed,

I'd describe it as keenly observed with many wonderful details. There's a specificity to the language that make the novel authentic and relatable. It made me glad I'm older and not experiencing dorm-life, that's for sure. It also made me think about interactions in my own life where I should have been kinder to someone.

It feels hard to summarize the book and I'm sure those smarter than me will do better at analyzing it. But for me, I think it was about how money and power -- every day power that an educated white woman has -- can shape how you see the world. And how the world sees you.

It's been a while since I read Ms. Reid's Such a Fun Age, but while I liked Come and Get It, I preferred her first book.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book early.
This book focuses on Agatha, a visiting professor at University of Arkansas and the various students she comes into contact with. Millie is a RA with a plan of wanting to finish school and immediately buy a house (she’s already putting money aside for a down payment). There are a lot of characters (students at the university) and it can be tough to keep characters straight. The last third of this book picks up.
I’d rate this between 3-3.5 stars.