DNF at 50%. This one was just not for me. This was so unrealistic I just could not get on board with this one. Better luck next time.

Marcy Dermansky writes just the kind of unhinged, messy WTF books that I love, so I was very excited to get my hands on her newest book.

Hot Air begins as Joannie and Johnny are on a first date, drinking wine in Johnny’s backyard. Suddenly, a hot air balloon starts falling from the sky–and lands in Johnny’s pool. The balloonist happens to be Joannie’s childhood crush (and present-day billionaire) Jonathan, and Jonathan’s wife, Julia. From there, things unfold. Decisions (mostly bad ones) are made, and the reader is just along for the ride.

Compared to Dermansky’s last book, Hurricane Girl, Hot Air feels a bit more tame. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded if Dermansky had cranked up the crazy a few more notches. Instead of thinking "WTF is happening?!" I found myself wondering "WHY are these things happening?" The narrative didn't keep me completely on the edge of my seat, which allowed me to notice the author's presence in the story—like I could feel her pulling the strings a bit too obviously.

That said, I read Hot Air in a single afternoon and enjoyed this entertaining romp. Readers who appreciate quick, unpredictable stories will likely find this one satisfying.

3.5 stars

Joannie hasn't been on a date in over seven years. Her ex is the worst and she's struggling to make ends meet, but she has a gorgeous, precocious daughter, Lucy. When one of the dad's in Lucy's class asks Joannie out, she reluctantly accepts. As kids play in the basement, he cooks for her. Just as she thinks she could fall for this guy, he envelopes her in the world's worst kiss. As Joannie attempts to figure out how to extricate herself from the situation, a hot air ballon crashes in her date's backyard and pool. And, the man is Joannie's camp crush from her teens and a billionaire.

If this premise seems bizarre, buckle up. This weird piece of fiction takes place over the course of a long weekend Unlikeable characters. Commentary on wealth, it's pull, and motivations of those with it. Every single character has a few POV chapters adding to the propulsive nature of the book and a window into their incentive. This is a quick read at 200ish pages, and I really enjoyed it.

]. These people are a mess. So much to enjoy about this short, fast-paced, awkward little story. All the characters were pretty terrible in a people-behaving-badly kind of way that was entertaining af. Lots of thought provoking commentary on money - the haves and the have nots.

Beautiful cover. I felt like I was reading someone's email about their idea for a book. Everything fell flat. I'm not looking forward to more from Dermansky.

The plot of the book is simple, but very very weird. Joanie and Johnny are on a first date, their children playing in the basement of Johnny's home, when a billionaire and his wife crash their hot air balloon into Johnny's pool while he and Joanie get to know each other. Hilarity ensues. The book is told from alternating viewpoints of all four adult characters, and from the perspective of the billionaire's personal assistant Vivian, and Joanie's daughter Lucy. It's probably not surprising that a book that opens like this one is filled with unexpected twists and turns and I never knew what was going to happen next, but even that would be an understatement. This book was weird and dreamlike, but I have to say I enjoyed it. A great palate cleanser of a book.

Got about 20% of the way through and stopped reading. Writing was disjointed and the story was just so strange and unbelievable.

This was unhinged. I have read Marcy’s work before (“Very Nice”) but I was younger then and her style was more entertaining to me. This won’t be for everyone - it’s a quick read full of seriously messed up people doing messed up things. I enjoyed the quick pace and multiple person POV, but the bad behavior of literally everyone was obnoxious. I also disliked the Covid pandemic being such a presence, it’s not something I want to revisit in my literature. All in all, entertaining enough but not for my taste personally. (Seriously amazing cover art though!) Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC in enhance for an honest review.

This book was an absolute surprising delight from start to finish. Funny, intelligent, original, it grabbed me from the first pages when a hot air balloon carrying an obscenely wealthy and cranky couple crash-lands into the swimming pool where Joannie is on her first date seven years after getting divorced. It was a great ride and, by the end, unexpectedly moving. Loved it!

I flew through Dermansky's newest novel with its short, snappy sentences and multiple POVs. Johnny and Joannie are on a first date at Johnny's house when Jonathan and Julia (yes, everyone has a J- name!) crash-land their hot air balloon in Johnny's swimming pool. This is a messy, fun, quirky story with flawed but interesting characters. The story spans a long weekend and examines love, desire, and money in an engaging style. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for a digital review copy.

A delightfully, weird little book that was the perfect escapist read I needed at the right moment.

Classic Dermansky.

When Joannie and Johnny are in the middle of their date, a hot air balloon fall out of the sky. In it is billionaire, Jonathan, and his wife, Julia. Jonathan also happens to be Joannie's childhood crush. To add to the overall weirdness of the events unfolding, Julia suggests they swap couples for the night.

It's all very outlandish and weird (why do I keep saying weird?) and I literally just said whatever and sunk into it all. It's short - 208 pages - and when I finished I wouldn't say I was blown away, but I also wasn't mad about it.

This is a book that mainly follows 4 characters that all have J names and their life/relationship problems. I thought it would be interesting, but I didn't get engrossed in this book. All of the characters felt dull and flippant to me, and I didn't really care about their problems. They were insufferable and I didn't really care for the quirkiness of this book.

Did not like this. I didn’t realize it was a book about the pandemic. A lot of weird choices and none of the storylines or characters felt adequately fleshed out.

I found the writing of this aimed at a different type of audience than myself. Maybe it's my sense of humor, but I just didn't vibe with this.

A hot air balloon crashes into the backyard of a couple on a first date. The billionaire and his wife in the balloon end up staying with the couple, and their lives become momentarily intertwined.

This was a fascinating premise, and I loved the inciting incident. But overall, I only liked the rest of this book. The four main characters all had names that started with J and I found it very confusing and completely unnecessary. I also didn't like one single character here and the story was a little snapshot of time and really didn't go anywhere. It was at least short and had some good action, but I mostly loved the beginning and the fun cover. Shrug...

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy for review.

"Hot Air" is full of odd people behaving badly. The cast of characters includes a tech billionaire and his philanthropist wife, their young and beautiful assistant, a divorced mom who's also a struggling novelist and a sex-crazed divorced dad. When the billionaire couple crashes their hot air balloon into the divorced dad's beautiful swimming pool, a chaotic few days of sex, travel, lust and bad parenting ensue. Author Marcy Dermansky drops the reader inside each character's mind, allowing you to see just how shallow, lustful and worried each of them is. There's no moral to the story here, unless it's that our materialistic society is corrosive in every way and to every person, no matter how rich.

I enjoyed swimming around in this quirky little book. The characters are all over the place morally, the setting is so fantastical you can’t help but suspend disbelief, and the writing is somehow matter of fact yet vivid in its world building through character development.

It’s not going to be for everyone; the characters are not always endearing, but I liked how subtly wealth inequality, especially during the pandemic, is highlighted through each of them. For some, all problems can be solved with money, and for others, not so much.

At first I was not super convinced that I’d like this story, but I hesitated to put it down because Hurricane Girl is an absolute favorite. I’m glad I stuck it out because once I reached the second half, I was completely hooked. This is a small glimpse into the wildest random interaction your brain could conjure up. You know those people you meet in a bar bathroom and have a wild night out until 6 am with only to never speak again? Hot Air is like that but on steroids. None of the characters are great people, but they’re well done. It’s just an intriguing story. The scandal, the drama! Yet it’s done in an understated way which makes it more palatable.

40/100 or 2.0 stars

I understand what the author was trying to do with this, but it was all over the place. I really tried to get into this.
I was hoping it was unhinged like the synopsis and some of the review on Goodreads were saying. Unfortunately, this was not unhinged and rather a combination of unrealistic and straight up creepy (Julia's obsession with Lucy made me so beyond uncomfortable and not in any way shape or form in a good way). It was reading fast, but after Julia kept talking about Lucy and not wanting to leave the house, I had to stop. I got to about 46% before I DNFd this one.

this was light as hot air - occasionally funny, mostly annoying with unbelievable characters. very hard to suspend my disbelief. appreciated the concept but a miss on execution.