Class by Stephanie Land is the follow up to her wildly popular memorize, Maid. It follows her through the journey of motherhood and college and all of the systems that challenge her journey. After devouring Maid, this book didn’t connect as quickly and powerfully for me. Maybe it was the timing in my own life and needing a lighter topic. I think it could be a wonderful read for a bookclub, opening up opportunities for digging into the topics and having rich discussion.

In the follow up novel to Maid, Class examines Land’s life in college and raising her daughter. My biggest issue with this book was that if felt the timeline jumped frequently without note, making the timeline difficult to follow.

This is a book I was looking forward to, and I was so excited to receive an eARC of it earlier this month! It was, as was the first one, a relatively quick read - I devoured it during my morning and afternoon commute, and was done in two days.

After reading it, though, I made the terrible mistake of going online to see what other reviewers were thinking - naively believing that most of us would have interpreted it in a similar way. I was sorely disappointed, when instead of five-star reviews - which this one is, by the way - I found quite a lot of negative comments, complaining, mostly, about the “graphic” sex scenes and Land’s “bad decision-making” skills.

Let me just start with the first point : the sex scenes. Honestly ? You’ve probably seen worse in your latest favorite TV show. Land doesn’t write very detailed, graphic sex scenes, no matter what some reviewers seem to have read (did we get the same eARC ? Were pages missing in mine?).

Yes, this is a book destined for an adult audience. Yes, it will talk about things that matter in an adult woman’s life - including, but not limited to, her relationships with others. Just because it’s a woman writing about it doesn’t make it inherently vulgar or useless in a story. 

Secondly, on the topic of “bad” decision-making… Who are you to judge ? 

Land’s difficulties with the world of academia are real, and show us the barriers between poor citizens and higher education. Those that would judge her for trying to achieve something bigger than what she originally had - trying to get into the MFA program, for example - seem to have no comprehension of the intrinsic dilemma of higher education for low-income individuals : in order to try and grab our “chance at a better life” through a college or university diploma, we must make unsound financial decisions, like getting an insurmountable amount of student loans, or quitting a full-time job to try and get some classes part-time in a semester.

Yet, if we do not try our very best and aim to change our situation by getting a post-secondary degree, we are seen as lazy, unwilling to work for better living conditions, and, ultimately, deserving of our situation. 

This book asks us : Who has the right to go to college? Who has the right to have dreams and hopes for the future? Who has the right to want things for themselves?

Unfortunately, it seems some readers’ answers to those questions are, “not you. Not the way you’re doing it. Not those choices.”. 

Land’s memoir shows us the reality of what she had to go through to get to where she is now, in all its complicated details and heartbreaking turns. Yes, she may have made choices you personally don’t agree with, or that don’t seem to make sense to you, and it might make you uncomfortable - that’s the point of reading this book. Don’t let your discomfort prevent you from feeling empathy. 

This is a beautiful book that I believe will be eye-opening for a lot of people, and I wish it just as much success as the first one. It deserves it.

I was super excited to get an ARC of Stephanie Land’s new book Class. As I think about it upon finishing the book, I find it hard to review.

Class is a continuation of Land’s life after moving to Montana with her daughter. As she completes her senior year of college and works to get into a MFA graduate program at her school, she talks about the hardships she endured, from raising a six year old on her own, food insecurity, her frustrations in the higher education world and a few other unexpected surprises along the way.

I’ve seen a lot of reviewers talk about how many bad choices she made and how she doesn’t deserve our empathy because of that. I just don’t feel like I can judge Land in this way. They are the decisions she made at that point in her life when she was desperate to stay afloat. I feel the best way to talk about this book is to focus more on the writing itself and how the story is told. What I’ve always appreciated about Land’s writing is the realness of it. She’s been through it between dealing with domestic abuse from her ex (and how he uses it to manipulate their daughter into thinking her mother is a bad person) and the way she’s been treated by the system. I don’t feel like Land sugarcoats it at all. She tells us the good and the bad, showing us the real ups and downs of life.

Did I need the numerous graphic sex scene descriptions? No. Did the story always flow well? No, not always. Did I feel for her though when the decision on whether she deserves food stamps, or just her daughter does? Yes. Did I feel for her when the decision on if she would get into the MFA grad program came down? Yes. The heartwarming moments were wonderful and the tough ones did make my heart ache a bit. I did find myself a bit teary by the end.

Like Maid, there are parts of this book that are tough to read. I ultimately am glad though that Land is sharing this story with us though. Living below the poverty line is no joke and I hope that her story will help someone who needs to hear they’re not alone in a fight like this.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There are two sides of my review: the side of how much I enjoyed the story and the side of how much I enjoyed the author.

The story itself was very interesting, a year in Land's life taught me (someone that she would see as a privileged white collar white female, never mind that I'm a first generation immigrant child of a Holocaust survivor but I digress) a hell of a lot about being a single mom in America living squarely in the heart of poverty. Land's writing is easy to follow, easy to identify with and profoundly educational and evocative, if her intent was for the reader to get a taste of that life and come out with distaste for the welfare system, she met it,

However, I couldn't stand Land herself, her choices made zero sense to me given her situation and her existing child, and perhaps as someone she'd like see as privileged and write off as judgmental, I don't get a vote and that's fine, it's her life, she can do with it as she pleases. But as her reader, i honestly didn't understand why someone so financially and emotionally strapped would choose to add a baby to a life puzzle she herself called almost unsolvable. I don't know understand why she'd write friends off as being not friends without giving more context to individual situations.

So the story gets five stars and the rest 1 star, so call it a three.

I was a HUGE fan of MAID so was super excited to receive this ARC. I guess I was confused where the author was during this book. I thought that she had ended her last chapter of her life in better circumstances but it seems like she was still struggling just as much here-though I did read later in the book that this was all before MAID became a hit so that would make sense. It is still as sad as MAID, watching her struggling for the smallest things like food and housing and trying to raise a child. I don't think she always makes the best choices but she did what she could with what she had. Interesting story but I did feel like it ended so abruptly. I was thinking things were going to be more resolved or tied up. Will read more of her story if she writes another book! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I read Maid quite a few years ago and did really enjoy it. This book promised this in the description: “ Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties”
I work in higher Ed, often teaching students under the poverty line. I was HERE for this. Tell me how I can better support these students!
That is not what I got. This was a story of a woman (a fully grown adult woman) making extremely questionable choices and then being angry at everyone else about them.

All but one of her professors that she spoke of, and most of her classmates, friends and roommates were EXTREMELY accommodating.. like above and beyond. But it never seemed to be enough for her.

She makes the mind boggling decision to continue a pregnancy in her final year of college as a single mother while wanting to continue on to grad school. Look, I can’t put myself in someone else’s shoes when it comes to that type of choice, but it didn’t make things easier on her.

Class: A Memoir of Motherhood Hunger, and Higher Education by Stephanie Land.
The author of the bestselling MAID and the subsequent Netflix series based on the book, describes the endless sacrifices and fears involved in cleaning houses, caring for her young daughter, and going to college to fulfill her dream of becoming a writer. Her fights for child support, food stamps, and subsidized childcare with a system that doesn’t believe she deserves to go to school make the reader feel her hunger for food and learning and her wishes for her daughter to have moments of joy. The prejudice shown her as not deserving of being in college ring true. Her stories should awaken readers to the realities of poverty. Land is a talented chronicler of hardship and determination. It’s a magnificent book that is impossible to put down.

Thank you to NetGalley as well as Ms Land for the opportunity to read and review “Class” in exchange for my honest feedback.

While I applaud Ms Land, for the courageous and tedious task of crafting a second novel, it really was just a continuation of “Maid” that was honestly quite boring and repetitive. In many ways it seemed like the writing was rushed and jumbled together. To be brutally, honest, I feel like a deadline was approaching that was continually extended and this was the end result.

This novel would be an interesting book club selection in addition to “Maid” as !s Land’s story is poignant, but “Class” could be summed up into a second edition of “Maid” with an updated epilogue.

Class by Stephanie Land has a publishing date of November 7, 2023

Thank you to Net Galley for the advanced copy.

Class is a sequel to Maid, a book made into a popular Netflix show by the same name. Class is a memoir, which begins with Stephanie struggling to complete an undergraduate degree and raise a child with limited wages and no support. The book would have been shorter if the redundancy of never enough money was not on never ending repeat. It is not that I don’t have empathy but some expenditures seemed unnecessary such as $10 for Netflix, when she had no idea how to buy the next meal for her child. Toward the end, Stephanie was debating on having a second child, when there was no steady and reliable income and she was trying to complete an MFA.

The book does a good job of describing systemic failure to provide women and children healthcare, childcare, contraception, and accommodating jobs for single parents. But to be honest, there were some poor decisions made on the authors part. I finished the book but was not a fan as I was for the author’s initial memoir, The Maid.

The writing was excellent, but I felt so much of the book was a repeat of The Maid. 3/5 stars.

Class
Stephanie Land
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
Atria 0ne signal
* memoir
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I enjoyed Maid, so when I saw Land wrote a memoir I was excited to read it. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me, monotonous and self serving. The writing was good. The content wasn’t,
3 stars

I didn’t read Stephanie Land’s previous memoir so I can’t compare them, but I got bored reading this. The writing was good but I just didn’t see why she had a need to write a second memoir. It just didn’t really hold my attention or offer anything different.

I was really excited to get an arc of Class by Stephanie Land. I really enjoyed Maid and wanted to see a continuation of her story.

As someone who grew up in poverty, Land does a great job showing what this experience is like. College was a struggle and I often too would have no extra money for things like coffees or the occasional treat and I didn’t have a child. This story did cause me a lot of stress to read, possibly because I related so much and it brought me back to some difficult times in my past. I found myself struggling to read at times because the content was too relatable.

I really liked Land’s writing, she draws you into the story and makes you want to keep reading. As a fan of short chapters, the chapters felt pretty long at times but did have some break points within the chapters.

Overall, if you have never experienced poverty this would be a good book to read to explain some of the nuances such as how the systems work against you or just how tight budgets are or how one big event can break you. I think it is a great book to help people hopefully have less judgment towards the poor. I hope people won’t be judging her on her decisions because poor people are also allowed to make mistakes and have messy love lives or get their haircut. I think we as a society are way too quick to judge the poor. People are not taking into account her years of trauma when reading about choices she makes that are less than ideal.

This story was one that will stick with me for a long time!

Thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

Class, by Stephanie Land, is a follow-up to Maid, her debut novel, about Land's journey as a single mother, living in poverty, and doing everything she could to keep a roof over her head.

I listened to Maid on audio and read Class. While I believe this would have been preferable as an audiobook, I did find the printed version to be semi-enjoyable; however, there was a lot repeating and long-winded stories about her experiences. I particularly recall one about a fire escape ladder injury while out on a date.

I don't know if it's just my current age and inexperience with situations Stephanie found herself in that made me not relate to this very much, but I do commend her for writing about her truth and exposing all of the failures we make as a society. We all need to do better and I appreciate Stephanie's memoir for sharing the rawness of poverty and her experiences in college as a single mother.

#netgalley #stephanielandclass

I am always grateful for memoirs. It takes a lot of courage to share your truth with the world. That being said, this one didn’t hit for me. I didn’t read her first book, so maybe that contributed, but I didn’t find her story particularly compelling. Thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A very good account of Land's life as a single mother furthering her education. A continuation of her previous book, Maid.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing a preview of the book.

I read Maid and couldn’t wait to start Class. Stephanie is such a great writer and when reading her work, you really get a sense of how she and her daughter lived through all of their struggles. Both books were great and I wonder if Class will give us a second season to Maid on Netflix.

CLASS picks up where MAID left off, as Land enters her senior year of college. She’s hopeful that she’ll be accepted to an MFA program that will allow her to pursue writing professionally, but is also acutely aware that the odds are stacked against her as she struggles financially, balancing cleaning gigs with classes and raising her daughter.

Although I didn’t read MAID, I was familiar with Land’s story from the Netflix series. In CLASS, Land does an excellent job at detailing her college experience, and I loved reading about her passion for becoming a writer. She’s clearly very talented — CLASS is engrossing, and often hits strong emotional notes.

Land does a particularly good job conveying the challenges of being a poor single parent who is trying to do what she believes is the “right” thing (getting an education that she thinks will change things for her family), while facing judgement for her decisions. In fact, that feeling of judgement is one of the things that I found incredibly thought-provoking about this book. I found myself questioning some of her decisions while reading, but then I found myself wondering why I was questioning them. This book is particularly illuminating in highlighting inherent biases and making the reader think about why someone in Land’s position should be granted the opportunity to take risks and go after things they’ve dreamed of.

Where I struggled with this book was in the level of self-awareness. Land writes a lot about the people in her life during this time, and it often feels like she thinks of everyone as a bad friend or unsupportive, without ever showing anything she does to reciprocate for those friends. I’ve never been in a situation like Land’s, but the way she portrayed her involvement in these relationships was frustrating.

A fascinating look at privilege, poverty, and the way the higher education system treats mothers.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishers for this Advanced Readers Copy of Class by Stephanie Land!

3 stars

I thought Stephanie’s first memoir, Maid, was eye-opening, so I was interested in reading her second story. This one was also eye-opening, but for some reason, I had a harder time empathizing with Stephanie. There we some decisions she made that I felt like weren’t in the best interest of her daughter, because it would have effected her “dream” of being a writer. I feel like there are several avenues to become a writer, but only one avenue in Stephanie’s eye. Ultimately, what she did worked out, so it’s not up to me to pass judgment.

Stephanie’s writing in this book was once again very strong. There were a few times I was unsure of the timeline - it seemed a little jumpy. And despite not always agreeing with some of the decisions Stephanie made, the experiences she wrote about were eye opening. Life shouldn’t be this difficult for people. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book!