Forgive me for making comparisons, but I had a bit of a flashback to the breakfast club while reading this novel. Without spoiling anything, this novel concerns a group of disillusioned millennials during a heat wave in London in 2019. Perhaps it was the set up of this novel, or perhaps it was the way in which these characters were portrayed, it just has that same vibe of listening to people tell you where things are going wrong in their lives, you can't fix them--because they're fictional, but they feel so real and you just want to reach out and reassure them that things will change as time progresses.

This novel doesn't shy away from discussing sex, sexuality, or engaging in the Zeitgeist of late 10's millennial culture, and I found that quite refreshing. This work is clearly by and for Millennials. Or for people who might know one of those artsy folks in the city who just can't seem to figure out the trajectory of where life is heading versus where it should be or deserves to be going. I'd classify the characters as exhausting in a relatable way, and yet they're still endearing. I genuinely think this book is prime material for discussion in literary circles and I hope my review will implore you to give this novel a chance.

Thank you to the author and Mariner books for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The characters in this book are so vividly rendered that you feel like you know them, which is both marvelous and tricky - I read at night before falling asleep, and one evening in the midst of this novel I switched to reading something else because I was just not in the mood to hang out with these exhausting people. The younger generation in this novel includes some of the friends you have in your twenties, especially as a queer person, that you just want to sit down, your hands on their shoulders, and shake them slightly while telling them, "please, get it together, for your own sake and for the sake of everyone who loves you, please, oh my god," which makes this a bit of a frustrating read but also makes the conclusion that much more profoundly satisfying in a way that real life with people like this is sometimes(/often!) not.

Oisin McKenna is great at writing the agonies of being a human being in their twenties and on the other side in their fifties/sixties, which makes me very interested in seeing how he'd tackle the forties. One thing I loved about this novel is how completely secondary everybody's jobs were, to the point that I often forgot what they all even did for work - this may be why most of them are broke, but, same. Overall this was an immersive, somewhat overly crowded experience, but an unforgettable one. McKenna has real talent and I'll be interested to see what he writes next.

My thanks to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a good story, but difficult to follow at times since there were so many characters and complex dynamics.

The cover made me want to read this book. I wanted to see what the story was about because of the cover. I found a ton of characters and a heatwave in London. There were trials and relationships explored. I thought McKenna had a great idea for a novel. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book follows a large group of friends/family/acquaintances through their hectic and (somehow) mundane lives in London. The city itself is another character added to the roster; its intensity is palpable. At a certain point, the sheer amount of characters became a bit hard to follow. I felt like I needed to write down a cast of characters to keep track of who knew whom from what. I also wanted the whale metaphor to be resolved in a more satisfying way, though it certainly added to the chaos of the London setting. 3⭐️, I liked it.

An interconnected group of millennials get drunk, hook up, and reveal their secrets over the course of a heatwave in London in 2019. Not much actually happens, but people come together and split apart and while no one gets a storybook ending, everyone has learned and grown. Sensitive topics around sexuality are handled with respect and a lack of judgement.