You’ll either love this or hate it. If you can connect with the characters and the writing, as I believe I have, you’ll feel this really deeply. No other book has ever captured the actual stream of consciousness as this has.

We Were the Universe is ultimately about grief. A stay at home mother has to accept the death of her sister, while attending to her 2 year old. Skimming back and forth, past to present, we learn about a childhood and teenage years with her beloved sisters, as well as her current day to day.

It's a complicated story, and a refreshing look at motherhood.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Kit is a very compelling character. Even though I didn't relate to Kit as a married mother of a toddler, her stream-of-consciousness narration made me feel like I was right there with her. The way her sister's death and the past haunted Kit, almost as on a loop, felt very real and it was understandable that Kit was looking for an escape in others, even if what she really want to escape was *not* her child or her husband. Reading WE WERE THE UNIVERSE by Kimberly King Parsons felt like I was adrift with Kit; I found myself turning the pages quickly to see if Kit would reach some kind of landing or, at least, some kind of anchor. The end of the book was not what I expected; however, it felt right. Kit does not have a typical "character arc," but there is movement. That movement felt far more satisfying than a neatly tied-in-a-bow character arc. I'll definitely be recommending this to my (adult) writing students.

Let’s just call this my favorite 2024 release so far.

WWTU centers on Kit, a young mother in Texas who is trying to keep her shit together. She spends her days at home with her exuberant kid, navigating playground politics and trying to find pockets of time for a little adult distraction and relief. She’s screening phone calls from her hoarder mother who has always been a strained, less-than-stellar parent. She’s constantly haunted by memories of her dead sister, Julie.

On a trip to Montana to help her best friend get over his recent heartbreak, a little psychedelic chemistry fuels a full-blown trip of Kit racing back in time to see where it all went wrong with Julie. In the second half, the previous glimpses of the past become all-consuming as Kit can’t escape thoughts of her sister. They are recklessly intrusive, bombarding her mid-thought. In a life of dabbling in drugs and vices, this is one she can’t give up.

WWTU is filled with sex, drugs, and music, but also grief, shame, and exhaustion. Kit is juggling the frustrations and joys of motherhood as she navigates parenting when she never had strong parental figures growing up and so clearly still has an acute desire to be mothered herself. Kit is one of the best characters I’ve read in a minute. She’s messy and makes questionable choices but she’s raw and tangible. I don’t necessarily relate to her specific desires and thoughts, but I fully empathized with the tone of it all.

I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't relate to Kit and didn't really like her.
I think that this will be liked and talked about, but I didn't love it.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

DNF at 30%

The main character is kind of insufferable. Some of what she's feeling is super relatable (mom exhaustion is REAL, and undealt with grief is quite haunting), but a lot of what I read is her fantasizing abut screwing people other than her partner and wanting drugs. I really wanted to read the Montana portion because I'm from there, but it was difficult to even get through the first night there in the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

After reading Kimberly King Parson's collection Black Light, I was curious to read what she would do with her debut novel We Were the Universe. Kit is a young mother who is struggling. She stays at home with her daughter who it appears she both caters to and is resentful of. Her husband is involved and they appear to have a pretty good marriage, though she thinks he cannot provide for their daughter like she can. Underneath this, is her continued grief about her younger sister Lisa's death that happened just prior to her daughter's birth. She also has a challenging relationship with her mother who has turned to hoarding after Lisa's death. While Kit sees a therapist, she is not open with him about her declining mental health. She is invited on a trip to Montana with her friend, which is sold as a way for him to get over a recent breakup. On the trip, Kit finds herself with night terrors and keeps feeling Julie's presence. It probably does not help that Kit enjoys psychedelics.

While this book explores some tough topics: grief, mental illness, motherhood, and guilt, I found it not really moving forward in plot. I had to triple check the length of this book because it was a slog to get through for me. I found Kit to be a frustrating character, and I did not get the description of this book that sold it as "darkly funny", as I found little to no humor in it.

Thank you to Knopf, via NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

brilliantly written, wonderful story, everything is well thought out and the characters have great dimension
motherhood is such a fine line of a thing to discuss especially in the way this book has but it did SO well. sisterhood is also a kind of tricky, icky, sticky situation to write about and once again this author did so beautifully. i will be looking for more items published by this author.

This took me a while to pick up but i read it super fast. It’s about Kit, a young woman dealing with new motherhood and the loss of her sister and everyone’s problems falling to her. Loved gilda’s voice (her daughter) Loved kit. I started this on the train home from Ilana Glazer’s show and on the tail end of The Mother of All Things which are about adjusting to new motherhood and the constant labor that it seems only you’re able to perform but it was not repetitive at all and very well written and understandable. The one thing and this is just unlucky is I feel I’ve read sooooo many books with mothers who are hoarders and I feel like it’s becoming a big plot device but didn’t take away.

Love this Am so excited for what’s next from Kimberly King Parsons.

Thank you to Knopf and Netgalley for the Arc!!

This one didn't totally work for me, unfortunately! The premise sounded so interesting, and Parsons is clearly such a talented writer. I also tend to love "sad girl litfic" about messy, sometimes unlikable characters, so this seemed like it'd be perfect for me on paper, but I'm not sure why, I just couldn't fully get into the story. However, I would still recommend WE WERE THE UNIVERSE to fans of the types of books I mentioned—I definitely think it will resonate with a lot of readers! Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC.

This one just didn't land for me, but I hope that others find something to love in it. THanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read it early.

What a phenomenal story. I am impressed with how steady and measured Parsons is with her words while sinking us into Kit's world of motherhood and grief. A story with a lot of heart that lands in the perfect spot. I had to go back and re-read the last chapter once I realized what it was doing, and it was perfect. Parsons understands grief and sisterhood and it shines throughout.

Loved the motherhood aspect of this book - also liked how you kind of knew her age but didn't really. Wasn't a total favorite of mine unfortunately but had some good aspects

I tend to finish books if I started them, but I have tried to read this over several months. Getting to the halfway mark was truly a challenge, and I cannot finish this.

It has an interesting premise. I was looking forward to how grief would be navigated and how the story would play out.

Honestly, having an unlikeable protagonist is not a problem, but I would hope the narration to be interesting. However, this was so dull.

I simply cannot believe this was a debut novel! Parsons writing was brilliant and the narrators voice was eloquent. The feelings this book triggered for me were organic and natural

This book is really good at expressing anger, resentment, bitterness... The prose is sharp, lovely, compelling, and the story covers interesting ground, with a self-destructive mother grieving the loss of her sister while raising her toddler and figuring out how to be happy with her vegan husband. Sometimes the book was so good at what it´s doing, it felt hard for me to read--I worried about little Gilda, how she might experience her mother´s disinterest, but that´s just the book being the book. I feel like parents especially will find the voice and story relatable and valuable, as it´s brave and unafraid of making readers uncomfortable or taken aback.

I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting from this book, but it wasn't quite that. It wasn't a "queer friends on vacation" story the synopsis suggested it may be. There are queer friends on vacation at a certain point, but to me it's much more about Kit's internal experiences and reckoning with her past and grief than any present experience she may have.

Kit is messy and honest and raw and real. She is struggling, has been struggling, and often resists the supports in her life. She is an unreliable narrator with a self-awareness that makes you want to shake her and hug her and maybe do some drugs with her, depending on the day. I like her. I think we'd be friends.

I'm not exactly sure why I liked this book as much as I did, maybe I just really appreciate how at times painfully and hilariously honest it is, but I am glad I read it and I look forward to Parsons's future work.

I'm blown away by King Parsons writing. I related to so much in this novel, despite not having much in common with the main character. Will probably be one of my favorites of the year.

I don’t know, I just didn’t connect with this one as much as I thought I would. It seems right up my alley on paper, but I wasn’t crazy about the main character Kit and I felt the story was a bit disjointed and depressing (for me, at least!) I definitely see this working for a lot of people, especially within the vein of sad, weird girl lit fic.

I did feel for Kit, juggling raising an adorable but precocious 3 year old, grieving the loss of her sister 3 years earlier, and dealing with a hoarder Mom. But I felt the plot was weak and it was sometimes a slog to get through. I think I’m in the way minority though, according to Goodreads! Might have just been the wrong book for me at the wrong time.

We Were the Universe is a darkly humorous story of grief and motherhood with sharp writing and characters that will stick with you. There were some truly memorable scenes, and I found the parts about motherhood and domestic life to be the most compelling. My one qualm is that the first quarter felt like reading an entirely different book and then it shifted in a way that felt a bit disjointed for me.