Early Thirties felt like a mixed bag to me. I appreciated the honest, sometimes humorous take on navigating adulthood and the struggles of that age, but at times the pacing and character choices felt uneven, which made it harder to stay fully engaged. It had moments that resonated and made me reflect, but overall it didn’t quite leave a lasting impression.

Early Thirties is a debut novel about Victor and Zoey, two best friends living in New York City, navigating transitions in their romantic relationships and professional lives, and also a shifting dynamic in their own friendship.

I would say Early Thirties is character-driven relationship fiction. I’ve seen it described as a coming of age tale about people in their 30s, which sort of makes sense because Victor in particular has a lot of growing up to do. His character can be pretty unlikable at times, so if you can’t stand unlikeable main characters, this book is not for you. I don’t mind them typically, but he even pushed my buttons. But, several other characters have their moments as well, so I shouldn’t put all the heat on Victor.

My main issue with this novel was the alternating POVs. Most of the chapters focused on Victor or Zoey, but there were a series of interconnected characters that sometimes got one-off perspective chapters. I wish the narrative either focused tightly on the friendship between the two main characters, or, if the author wanted to have a series of overlapping narratives, I think he could have played with presenting the narrative more evenly across a few more POVs or in sequence across several one-off perspectives. It just felt like it was half of two different approaches, instead of committing to either one.

As for what I enjoyed: I liked the overall writing style, and I thought the dialogue was particularly sharp. And I do think the author was able to create complex characters, whether or not any specific reader finds them relatable.

I would recommend Early Thirties for fans of relationship fiction and readers who enjoy relatable but unlikable narrators.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing an eARC for review!*

Victor and Zoey have been each other's ride-or-die in New York City for over a decade, navigating failed relationships, questionable jobs, chaotic nights out, and post-hangover brunches. But as they enter their early thirties, everything starts to shift. Zoey’s questioning her engagement. Victor’s reeling from a bad breakup and leaning into his work as a celebrity journalist. Their friendship, once their anchor, starts to fracture after a personal tragedy hits close to home. Will they find their way back to each other, or is growing up also about growing apart?

Tropes
* Found family
* Messy millennial adulthood
* Unbreakable friendship turned complicated
* Grief, growth, and identity
* Queer love and platonic soulmates
* New York City as a character
* Quarter-life crisis, but make it thirtysomething

Early Thirties is a raw, reflective, and razor-sharp debut that perfectly captures that terrifying, beautiful space between who you used to be and who you're trying to become. Josh Duboff balances biting humour with emotional depth, offering up a love story that isn’t romantic but still absolutely heart-wrenching. Victor and Zoey feel like people you know or are. Their dynamic is messy, codependent, loyal, frustrating, and deeply real. It’s Girls meets One Day with a queer, contemporary twist. If you've ever mourned a friendship, doubted your path, or wondered how the hell you're supposed to be a full-grown adult by thirty… this one will hit you in the gut.

Beautiful, breathtaking enticing and wonderful in glad to have read this and miss the way reading this for the first time made me feel, thankyou for this chance and this world

It takes a little while to get into the groove of this story, which is ostensibly about two best friends from college navigating adulthood, but also features vignettes from the perspectives of other characters. Once the story gets going and the reader starts to get a sense of the characters, things pick up, at least a little. More character-driven than anything, this slow-burn novel is more interested in the flaws of the people who inhabit the pages than anything else. The book's strongest moments are scenes between main characters Zoey and Victor, and the novel's nods to being someone who is extremely online. The result is an uneven, but not unpleasant, read. Strong writing and an interesting point of view - an author to watch.

3.25 stars rounded down.
This had a bit of a Love Actually vibe (but not romantic) set in NYC, following a group of early-30s characters who all seem pretty unhappy—and not exactly trying to change that. There were moments that felt painfully, even impressively, real.

But my biggest issue? The entire story takes place over less than two years. And in that tiny window, these characters go through so much: huge career highs and lows, multiple major relationships, marriages, divorces, dramatic life shifts—you name it. At times it felt totally unrealistic. No one has the space to reflect or grow when all of that is crammed into such a short time frame.

If this had taken place over five or six years instead, giving everything time to breathe, I honestly think I would’ve bumped my rating up a full star.

3 star review - it was a decent read. Read well and it kept me engaged. Thank you for the author and tea, for the chance of an arc.

I was lucky enough to have an audio of this from Simon Audio and it is truly well done! Unfortunately I wasn't connecting with the characters so I decided to DNF. I found it difficult to read about a cast of characters who are all dissatisfied with their lives and feeling various degrees of aimlessness. The narrators did a fantastic job though so if a book about characters finding their place in their thirties sounds like your type of book I'd recommend reading it that way.

The book was okay but didn't live up to the hype that people have put on it, thought it was sad and emotional and the characters could be annoying at times. But it was well written and I liked how different chapters were told from different characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the e-ARC of this title to read and review. Since I'm in my early thirties myself, and previously come from the world of celebrity entertainment magazine journalism in a big city, I thought this one was going to be a relatable and effortlessly-readable easy smash hit. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a tough one.

There are definitely parts of this book that are going to linger with me and that's a great sign, to be thinking about passages later. But ultimately I felt there were just too many characters to keep track of, and they are all *so* tangentially related to one another's stories, that at times it felt like starting over with new mini short stories throughout the book. Then I'd have a small lightbulb moment later when they more clicked together, but it wasn't a very satisfying discovery. More like an underwhelmed, "oh." The structuring doesn't help, because some character names are titles, and then some are assumed to be Victor's own main story POV, so they feel woven in without much explanation as an interruption to the lead's plot. It's a character-driven story for sure, but there's not enough room to get to know these characters when new ones keep popping in for distractions. Then there's also a ton of time passage, but it's just mentioned rather than felt.

The one thing that all the characters have in common is that they all feel like they're just going through the motions of things -- their jobs, their relationships, their friendships, etc. I think that could be beautiful and a capital-V Vibe all on its own, as that's a perfectly 30s experience sometimes. But I don't think the book really made it an intentional and poignant point, so we saw characters briefly floating around who didn't really seem that invested in their lives or careers or the people they were talking to, but they still wanted others to be impressed by them. In my reading, sometimes I'd think this was a great narrative technique, and other times I'd just be like... if they don't care about what they're doing, why should I?? It feels less like characters navigating their 30s as the characters happen to be 30, and they tell their stories as recaps rather than us witness them really going through it.

3/5 Stars

BLURB: A hilarious and painfully relatable debut novel about two thirtysomething best friends’ messy search for connection and love in New York, perfect for fans of Rebecca Serle, Gabrielle Zevin, and Dolly Alderton.

This book felt like if Love Actually and A Little Life had a book child. It hit in some aspects and lacked in others. I think overall I enjoyed it but I don't think it has been described/marketed properly. Some characters are relatable and others quite jarring. For the most part, I think there will be people that LOVE this book, and I hope it reaches them!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I hated this.

I'm giving it two stars because I made it to the end without DNFing and the end was *kind of* okay but, man, was it a struggle to get there.

This book was comprised of a whole bunch of wildly unlikeable characters and their petty problems. It started out okay with just Victor and Zoe, but when we started introducing several other POVs of characters that are somehow distantly connected by crossed paths it just became a mess.

None of the folks in this book actually seemed like friends or even acquaintances. Admittedly though I am older than the characters so this may be a generational thing. But they all pretty much treated each other like trash found on the street and then were surprised to get the same treatment themselves. Lots of self wallowing, pity, lying, and other such things. The writing was good but the subject(s) just didn’t work for me.

This was not at all what I expected! I went into this thinking it was going to be a light romantic comedy, but maybe that was just my misinterpretation of the summary. What I got was a thoughtful, dark, reflection of the absolute horror show most young adults go through during their late twenties and early thirties- also known as the "quarter life crisis".

In one night, careers, relationships, and lives in general are blown up. Years pass before the dust settles and life begins to feel stable once more, or maybe for the first time. I loved Victor's POV. His voice was genuine and honest without being totally self-serving. I was surprised when Zoey's chapters weren't in first person, and I do wish they had been. While I love that the story hooked me with the dramatic first scene, I also wish that we had gotten a deeper peek into Victor and Zoey's early friendship and what built their foundation to begin with to juxtapose the cracks that formed from the rock-solid start.

Lastly, the ensemble cast was a little distracting for me. I didn't find most of the additional characters to be relevant enough in their own right to have such large parts of the story, and they were difficult to keep straight at first.

Overall, I enjoyed the opportunity to read this new debut author and will look forward to what he does next. Thank you so much, NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary ARC in exchange for my review.

Early Thirties by Josh Duboff was meant to be the beginning of my fiction era and get me out of almost exclusively reading romance and fantasy, but unfortunately, it was not the book to do that. While I did think it was a really interesting book and premise, I found myself thinking less about this book even while I was reading it and more about the other books I had on my TBR. I think it is very indicative of how much I did, or rather really did not enjoy this book, based on how long it took me to actually finish this book.
Interesting premise, just not for me!

This book was not for me. There is a mix of POVs, only one of them is written in 1st person, and the rest are in third person, and the new POVs come out of nowhere with no context, so it's a bit odd. It seems they eventually all cross paths, but it's a slow journey. I gave up at about 50% then skipped through the remainder, and it didn't get any more interesting to me. Most of the characters are deeply unlikeable. I know that can make for a compelling story, but it just didn't resonate with me.
The writing isn't bad, but the characters and story did not interest me.

This book wasn't for me, but it may be perfect for someone else. I'll give it 2.5 stars.

I read an advanced copy of this book, and these are my honest thoughts. Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Books, and the author for the advanced copy.

I feel like I shouldn't be rating this book because I requested this ARC thinking this was going to be a friends to lovers romance, but instead ot turned out to be a Genfic (nothing wrong with it) with so many characters & plotlines that doesn't make any sense. Especially the opening scene? Like what?

Well... it's just not for me. And it's literally my fault to have requested this without knowing what genre it belonged to.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Early Thirties is perfect for you if you like approachable contemporary fiction that leans literary and you are a millennial in your early thirties. Bonus points if you have 1-3 mental illnesses. There are some intense topics like self harm, abortion, trying to conceive and some other things I can't remember at the moment so if those things are hard for you, I wouldn't recommend this. The way those things are handled can feel visceral. I wouldn't call the handling disrespectful by any means, just human.

Victor and Zoey have been best friends for a decade. When one faces a difficult breakup and then a tragedy, fractures start to appear in their once-solid relationship. As the two dive into their careers, relationships, and grappling with their dream futures, their friendship begins to suffer more and more strain.

This book is nothing like what I expected from the description. I thought the book would focus only on Victor and Zoey and how their friendship changed over their 30s. Instead, the book alternated chapters between many different POVs, which got a bit confusing at times. I also could not understand why all chapters were labeled aside from Victor's and why all chapters were in first person except Zoey's. This made reading it even more confusing. I also wish chapters were at least labeled with a month or something to help guide how much time had passed. Some things felt out of left field until a casual "it had been six months since..." was thrown in to help shape how much time had passed. That all said, I did like seeing the realistic flow of how their relationship changed over time, but I wish the pacing, chapters, and tenses were a lot more consistent for better readability.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book has some real moments of poignancy, and I liked the writing style. It’s also slow, meandering, and unfocused in some pretty significant ways.

First, there are too many POV characters in this. The book clearly wants to be a character study, but aside from central protagonists Victor and Zoey, all of the POV characters feel interchangeable in terms of voice, and can really only be adequately distinguished by their jobs, which are all the same jobs always assigned to the characters in one of those “single pals trying to make it in the city!” sitcoms.

I’m also a bit fuzzy on who the audience is for this. In terms of tone and the references it uses, it seems to be aimed at elder millennials. But that doesn’t line up using either how old the characters are in the book (early thirties, obviously), or in terms of references that set the book in a year in the past (Cava, for example, didn’t exist yet when we elder millennials were this age). I guess all of this would imply that the book is aimed at a younger generation, but again, the tone and references don’t match that.

It’s a bit maudlin for my taste, and not quite accurate enough to be relatable (even to someone like me who lived in New York at this age and worked in a similar industry as the central characters). The book also has absolutely no sense of humor, which I think is fine but important to know if you came to this looking for a fun and frothy early adulthood tale or a RomCom.

I thought Victor’s character was both very well-written and also intriguing, and that is the highlight of
this book. Zoey is a lot thinner and seems to exist only as a tool to help flesh out more of Victor’s thoughts and actions.

Not a bad read by any stretch, and Duboff definitely shows talent as a writer. But this type of book isn’t rare, and there are a lot of them out there doing this particular theme better than this book does.