DNF at 18%. It’s incredibly wordy without really going anywhere. Feels like something I’d enjoy reading an article for, I don’t need a whole book. Some funny parts, just not enough for me to want to keep going

The subject matter felt so pertinent and had a lot to offer, but the pace is so slow that I just did not care about any of it.

In fact, I tried 3 separate times to pick this book up and it never caught my attention.

DNF

As a fan of Kate Kennedy’s Be There in Five podcast, I was overjoyed when I was able to read an early copy of her upcoming book, One in a Millennial. This is memoir meets essay collection focuses on Kate’s experiences growing up in the 90s, her teen and college years in the aughts, and life as an adult in the 2010s, with each chapter focusing on parts of millennial pop culture. As an early Gen Z’er myself, it was fun reading the slight overlap between millennial and Gen Z culture (i.e. Limited Too, Hilary Duff, Full House). There is a ton to unpack in Kate’s book, but I especially enjoyed the analysis on how young girls and women’s pop culture interests, anywhere from boy bands to TSwift, should be valued more. I love Kate Kennedy’s writing and her voice shines through, as it’s very similar to her podcast style. Yet, the only struggle I had with the book is that much like her podcast, the chapters are quite lengthy and has a longer/near run-on sentence writing style that made me disengage at times. Overall, very worth the read if you’re interested in pop culture and/or a Be There in Five listener. My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Unfortunately I did not think this one was very good - the essays were fun pop culture references but I'm not sure there was much of a takeaway there.

What a nostalgic read for a millennial! I was such a fan of this book and loved reading about some of the 90s trends I’d forgotten about- this felt like a conversation with a good friend!

***Thank you, Kate Kennedy, St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for the ARC. Opinions are my own***
Release Date: 01.23.2024
I want to preface this by saying I never listened to Kate’s podcast and did not know who she was prior to this book. I went in totally blind.
I am a tried and true millennial. I was born in ’93 and reading this book has made me realize there is NOTHING original about me. I LOVED reading this, Kates cheeky writing really packed a punch. I loved the nostalgia, the reminiscing, albeit sometimes rambling. There was not a single thing mentioned that I was (unfortunately) not (at least a minor) part of. A few things especially poignant for me:
Part I - The 90's:
The late 90's mall culture … oh my god. The best analogy of the entire book - bath and body works = teenage cracker barrel. Then there were the sleepovers with friends on trundle day beds and somehow it was decided that Scream = pipeline to true crime? UHM. YES. How did I not realize this sooner? The best part of the second freezer growing up? THE LUIGIS FROZEN ICE AND THE FUDGE POPs. For real, nothing original has ever happened to me. Then let’s go to our AIM life – trying to find a “boyfriend” while also trying out different versions of yourself, however these “boyfriends” were never always more emotional dumping friends with no real romantic value. AND DON’T GET ME STARTED ON PURITY CULTURE – damn, between the Disney starts with their purity rings to how dress code also plays a role into purity culture. SHIT. The best quote of the entire book: “I lost my religion because I wanted to sleep in.”
Part II - The 00’s:
Another non-original thought – how everyone loved dolphins or whales and wanted to become a marine biologist. I’m pretty sure there’s a yearbook circulating somewhere that said I wanted to be a marine biologist / dolphin trainer. On the same topic of school – Mead 5-star notebooks – I STILL use one at my current job, writing my daily reports in them in morning meeting – nothing compares. Handwriting also was something I never thought much on until reading this but there definitely was a way to identify who was mean vs who was nice based off how some of their letters looked. Then comes college and the debate of going out or going out out, really made such a difference. While pregaming for going out it was ALWAYS 99 Bananas, the night ruiner for many. As we get older our bodies change, and diet culture becomes the enemy. Bathing suits become the enemy. Society will always prioritize skinny culture. The chapter on mental health really hit home – I always felt anxious and never knew how to express it and as I got older the feels added to depression.
Part III – Today (2010s?)
Adulthood. Its much different than what we expect, and in some aspects, better. The “she believed she could so she did” quote – UGH. I had this on my nursing school pin and so did half my class. Again, not a damn original thought in my head. Kate mentions the awkward time in life when your entire social calendar is things for your friends - weddings, showers, birthdays and i feel like I just got past that stage of my life

I've been a huge fan of Kate Kennedy and her podcast Be There in Five for years, so I was over the moon to get an early copy of her upcoming book. It definitely didn't disappoint! Funny and rambling (in the best way) and full of nostalgia.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free e-copy.

This was such a fun read! It was like talking with my childhood best friend. Kate has so much humor and personality, I'm definitely going to check out her podcast after reading One In Millennial. This book was meant for 90's babies who are now in their 30's but still love Lisa Frank and have a 90's Playlist that they still shamelessly blast.

Kate Kennedy is the unifying thread for millennial women everywhere. Her writing feels both nostalgic and like you're having a conversation with your best friend. Whether you're a longtime fan of "Be There in Five" or just stumbled across this book, you'll love "One in a Millenial" (and Kate!).

Full disclosure: I am an avid fan if Kate’s podcast and was excited to see this available on NetGalley.

The good:
- Excellent level of nostalgia: The milky pens! The away messages! Loved taking a trip down memory lane.
- Very thoughtful analysis of important topics related to feminism and pop culture

The areas of opportunity:
- The introduction was extremely long, I had to put the book down and come back to it a couple times just to get beyond that.
- Sometimes this book felt more like a research paper than a memoir, which I wasn’t expecting. Maybe it isn’t really supposed to be a memoir.
- I found myself skipping a few pages here and there to get through the “bonus” pieces at the end of some chapters.

All in all, a great dose of nostalgia and I am happy to support Kate in this journey. I am worries that I may have DNF’d if I didn’t have previous familiarity with the author’s work. Thank you St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read an e-ARC of this book.

Excellent. Kate Kennedy is the voice of our generation and I'm here for every word! The way she so eloquently puts words to our shared experience of growing up in a time of mixed CDs and American girls is exactly what I look for in a trip down memory lane!

After hearing friends rave about her podcast, I was excited to see Kate Kennedy's boom available as an ARC. While the nostalgia is fun, it was unbelievably wordy and overwritten. Not every sentence needs a minimum of 97 words, 4 of which were on someone's SAT study list.

I love Kate’s podcast so it’s not surprising that I love her book. She writes just like she talks, so it’s a fast-paced, pun-filled, almost-but-not-quite unhinged delight. Her book validates the “basic” among us, and explores the experience of millennial women, and since it’s written by one of us, it rings true and lacks condescension. I particularly recommend this book to the seventeen magazine, one tree hill, Taylor swift loving millennial girls girls.

“One In A Millennial” has been on my bookish wishlist for some time, so I was quite happy to discover that it was available as a read now ARC. (Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this opportunity to provide my honest opinion.)

My younger sister and I are technically Xennials (the “cusp” group whose members are born during the late seventies and early eighties), We grew up in the eighties and the nineties, so many of the early chapters in the book truly resonated with the experience we had. The pop culture, the early internet (AOL!)….I also remember it “all too well.” I enjoyed all the fun and quirky references and witticisms. Despite being a little older than the author, I found a lot to relate to throughout the book. Lots of nostalgia and thoughtful coming-of-age essays make this a must-read for anyone who enjoys that genre.

As a millennial myself, albeit one with quite different life experiences than the author, I really enjoyed this book. While it is wordy at times, the word play and references (esp all the Taylor Swift lyrics) truly delighted me. Though I am a bit younger, am the eldest child to the author’s youngest, am short and fat compared to the author’s “plain and tall,” and was raised in California compared to the author’s Virginia, we still both were part of the same shared straight, cis middle-class white girl culture and liked many of the same things, from Limited Too to Spice Girls to boy bands, and who can forget the Forever 21 going out top. What’s more, the way she connected her past interests to her current musings on feminism, equality, and becoming an adult in American society were pretty insightful. The author knows that she represents just one type of lived experience and expresses that clearly. For me, the first sections of the book were perhaps the most fun to read, as chock-full of said references as they were, but I did also enjoy reading about her path to motherhood and her take on the “love-marriage-baby carriage pipeline” in the latter section as well. She doesn’t speak for every millennial, but I’ll take Kate Kennedy over Hannah Horvath any day (not a reference she makes, though she does appear to watch HBO, as she did give us Sex & the City allusions). I loved it, 5 stars from me.

DNF at 18%. It’s incredibly wordy without really going anywhere. Feels like something I’d enjoy reading an article for, I don’t need a whole book. Some funny parts, just not enough for me to want to keep going.