It pains me to write this review - I’m still a tremendous fan of Kiley Reid’s but was disappointed with her latest novel, Come and Get It. Part of what I loved about Reid’s debut, Such a Fun Age, was the dialogue element. Reid is masterful in how she uses interactions between characters to confront difficult, nuanced topics. Highly recommend Such A Fun Age for the complexity of the characters and how they evolve (or don’t) over the course of the plot.

Unfortunately, Come and Get It doesn’t succeed in building three-dimensional characters. Reid almost gets there with Millie and less so with Agatha, but it feels like a light version of what the book needs. We only skim the surface, and typically what we find is a character who is either unlikeable so you lose interest or they become so much a caricature of themselves that it’s hard to connect with them as people. I understand Reid’s choice to purposely make the characters cringeworthy but it almost became too unbelievable (e.g., some of the lingo overheard in the dorm… I just don’t believe Gen-Z is saying any of that. Ryland translated, everyone else fell flat). Also, the pop-culture references didn’t feel like a great match either.

Adding to this, the plot and conclusions for each character are not sturdy. The entire handling of Kennedy’s character and plot was a flop. The climax to her storyline was steep and then its reveal was mildly ridiculous. I also thought that the crumbling scene between Peyton and Kennedy was corny and again, not something I believe would happen. There are major holes - how is Agatha known to be at the scene, but somehow Kennedy is led to believe it was all a figment of her imagination (and that entire incident itself, like the gravity of the behavior vs her conflicting pre-meditation/lack of memory post, is almost insulting). The ending, in general, felt lazy to me.

The whole time I kind of wondered if I was reading YA. That’s the best way I can summarize the vibe.

Again, highly recommend Such A Fun Age, but would pass on this as a recommendation to fellow readers.

After I finished this book all I could think was: That was a waste of time. A coming of age character study set in a southern college, this felt like someone was making a list of possible characters and ideas for a future book. Normally I love a book with no plot and just vibes, but even the vibes here weren’t good. We follow so many characters that it feels a bit jumbled, and I didn’t really enjoy my time with any of them. I don’t need a character to be likeable, but I do prefer them to be original and interesting. There were so many ideas brought up, but nothing went into depth. It felt like a bunch of subjects were introduced and then nothing compelling was said about them, they were just there. The worst part was the dialogue, it was so cringey and unrealistic that alone almost made me DNF.

ARC provided by NetGalley.

LOVED this book! So Much! Kiley Reid has the kind of writing style that just drew me in from the first page. This is the story of an event that happened in a Dorm at University of Arkansas. Millie, a resident advisor in Belgrade Dorm, gets involved in the lives of her fellow residents, as well as in the life of a researching professor. Chaos ensues. People pay for their mistakes. Life moves on.

I loved dorm life when I was attended a major University in the South, and this story could have so easily have happened in my dorm. Reid knows how to write the way teenaged college girls from the South speak. Reading the dialogue in this book was just as fun and engaging as the story itself.

Highly recommend - I can't wait for Reid's next one!

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Come and Get It.

Kiley expertly explores issues related to class and race among college aged students on a southern university campus. The characters are well developed and intriguing. This was a fantastic, thought provoking novel that I couldn't put down.

⭐️⭐️ (2 out of 5 stars)

I was so excited to receive an ARC of Kiley Reid’s sophomore novel, Come and Get It. I loved her debut Such a Fun Age and found it so compelling and fresh. Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me, and I didn’t really enjoy it - but I’d still urge you to try it out if you were a fan of Such a Fun Age! Reid’s sharp wit rings true here, I could just not get interested in this story.

My major issue here is that there is no discernible plot. There are EIGHT main focal characters and even more supporting characters. So much happening and it all felt rather meaningless? Literally, I had no idea what was happening or where the story was going until like 80% of the way in.

Kiley Reid once again looks at class and race in an off-beat way that oftentimes feels rather satirical. I really enjoy this about her writing! I think this had good potential, but needed more focus and a driving storyline to keep my interest.

I loved this book and this author. It was perfection. The cover really grabs you in. 5 star read for sure.

There were too many characters, which made the plot hard to follow. It had potential, but don't think I would recommend to my fellow reader.

not necessarily the follow up to Such a Fun Age that I hoped for. there are interesting moments in this book, with some intriguing ideas and beautifully written passages- but I don't think it ever found its footing or even decided on what it was trying to convey. too many characters and too little plot. a lot of very natural dialogue and character development, so if it was trying to capture 'real life' it was successful...but sometimes real life is boring!!

I reviewed an e-arc and will be intrigued to see if any changes are made between now and Jan 2024.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Circus for sending this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was excited for this as I have heard lots of hype for this author & am originally from Arkansas so the setting at the U of A seemed like a fun element. This book follows Millie, an RA for a transfer students dorm at the University of Arkansas, Agatha Paul, a lesbian professor who has recently moved to the university from New York, and a suite of three female roommates who come from various backgrounds to transfer to the university later in their college career. The relationship between these women, the university, and themselves is explored throughout the novel. This book was incredibly well-researched with the author nailing key locations in Fayetteville and the story moved along well. It may bother some but I enjoyed that from chapter to chapter the focus was on different characters. It felt like each chapter was each own little story that ultimately weaved together with the rest of the book and provided a nice pace. This book also raises important questions around race, power, forgiveness and coming-of-age. Overall I enjoyed it, but I had two main issues. For a book written by someone not from the South, the descriptions of Southerners and the South while sometimes accurate felt surface level, not nuanced, and leaned into negative stereotypes. Second, there were some small details that did not add up. For example, the book appears to be set fairly modern day but the RA's income as an RA and house sitter were not in line with what I would expect someone in those roles to make currently. I really enjoyed the story and if the depictions of the characters were a bit more nuanced and less stereotypical, this would've definitely earned at least 4 stars from me. I'm sure these minor issues will not hinder this book from having widespread appeal upon publication.

I loved Reid's debut novel which was a five star read for me. I was very excited to get my hands on a copy of her latest book. For me, Come and Get It wasn't as good as Such a Fun Age. The story is character driven (with a lot of characters) and it is hard to follow the plot (if there is one). While Reid's sense of humor does shine through which I appreciated, I struggled to get through this. I am not a fan of character driven stories or multiple characters. I just find it hard to follow. While many will enjoy this book and the topics it addresses, it wasn't for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for digital ARC.

i have mixed feelings about this book. it was a really fun read, but it was plotless most of the time and the climax and abrupt ending was unsatisfying. the drama in this book and the look at racism/microaggressions was really interesting, but it wasn’t enough to save it from feeling unfinished.

I devoured SUCH A FUN AGE and was so excited for this one! Unfortunately it missed the mark for me. It dragged on and nothing really seemed to be happening throughout the majority of the book. I couldn’t relate to or bring myself to care about any of the characters. I also can’t stand when characters have their accents spelled out (a la Hagrid in Harry Potter) - something about spelling it as “mah” instead of “my” just really gets under my skin and breaks the immersion for me.

I was excited to learn that Kiley Reid was authoring a new book, because I really enjoyed “Such a Fun Age.” Similar to Reid’s previous novel, this book manages to keep a subtle, yet somehow urgent, pace, which I enjoyed. I went into this book with no knowledge of the plot, just trust in the author’s writing and a curiosity about the cover art and title. Funny enough, I spent my undergraduate years at a large university in the South. It was interesting to see similarities between the culture of my undergrad experience and the depiction of University of Arkansas in this book. I recognized portions of characters like Tyler, Kennedy, Peyton, Millie and others on campus. The academic character, Agatha Paul, was the least recognizable character to me. And, by the end of the book, her somewhat alien presence at the campus (ironic since her role necessitates proximity to a university) had really large consequences. And then they didn’t. It makes me think of the university semester system, or even an academic calendar year; so much time is spent with a particular set of people, doing coursework, learning from professors, planning and attending events, and then it ends.

Reid's writing here is often funny and aptly describes things like a boy's laugh or a facial expression in a way I understand, but didn't know another could write so well. Overall, "Come and Get It" was an interesting commentary on privilege, race and shame in a particularly unique setting.

I could not wait to read this!!! Kiley Reid is an auto read author for me - Such A Fun Age is one of my favorites and Come and Get It has now joined that list.

We meet our cast of characters at the University of Arkansas in 2017 - Millie, an RA who took some time off and is now back at Belgrade, the dorm for transfers and scholarship kids, Agatha, an author and journalist who is a visiting professor for the semester, and the kids who make up the rest of the residents and RA staff.

Come and Get It is a thoughtful, tension filled character study that explores coming of age, sexuality, micro and macro aggressions, and money. I loved it. I thought it was so unique and masterful in how Reid followed so many characters and allowed us to understand them all so deeply.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC. Come and Get It is out 1/30/24.

DNF. Gave it til 25% but the story hadn't started and the details of these people I can't care about were excruciating.

This book contains a lot of Reid’s humor and well-crafted lines that I enjoyed so much from Such a Fun Age. The characters are unique with their mannerisms, and you can tell there’s a lot bubbling under the surface. For pacing, I felt that things really picked up towards the final quarter of the book and would’ve loved to feel that same propulsion earlier. Still, a smart book with some fascinating characters!

This is one the worst books I have ever read. There was little to no plot. It made no sense. The writing was… not great. The “ohmygod” … I’m pretty sure there was over 100 of them in this book. There were too many characters, the plot was non-existent, and the end was like, what? I really liked the author’s debut and had high hopes for this one. No such luck.

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

I had started this one without even reading the summary or what it was all about as I liked the author’s previous book. It introduces us to Agatha, a visiting professor, Millie, a student and a bunch of other students. It started off to show how each of the student’s lives shaped their college experiences and in turn their life. How their socioeconomic status hones their personalities and Agatha is working on understanding it more. I constantly felt like there was another shoe ready to drop until half way in the book but the majority of the book was really slow. It will keep making the readers wonder what was going to happen. After such a laggy pace, I wished it at least had a better ending.

So...I went in to this book, completely blind. I had absolutely absolutely no idea what the book was about. I liked the set up, I was happy to read on. I was about 40% in and still wasn't quite sure what was going to happen. You know what happened? Nothing. There's an event that takes place but it happens in the last 10% of the book. I was hoping that the ending wold justify the time I spent reading, so I stayed up late to finish it. Nope. I think the book had potential, and the character development was interesting for some of the characters, but it wasn't really literary....I don't know what it was, but it was a long uneventful, non satisfying book that I kept reading only to see if something was actually going to happen.

I don't entirely know what to make of this, but here we are with the review. I liked Kiley Reid's first novel Such A Fun Age so I was excited to receive this ARC. Come and Get It doesn't really have a plot until about 75% of the way through the book. Instead, it reads more like a series of vignettes about a visiting professor, an RA, and some students in a dorm at a university in Arkansas. Reid devotes long chapters to each character's backstory, and then their lives intertwine in various ways towards the end—seeing it all come together was satisfying, but the ending was also real depressing. Reid's characters represent a range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, and it's clear the novel is meant to be a reflection on how that shapes the college experiences of the young women in the book. Also, the characters fall roughly into tropes: Visiting professor Agatha Paul is interesting and complicated and a somewhat shady journalist, Millie is the do-gooder RA, Tyler is the stereotypical spoiled sorority girl, etc. I was most moved by Kennedy's story; she's a transfer student with a traumatic event in her past, and Reid's portrayal of her isolation and struggle to make friends at her new school was heartbreaking. But I'm ambivalent to a tee about this book.