This book is for the girls that just want the chisme. Messy people with messy problems making messy choices. Very character driven, and no /real/ plot, just vibes. Most of the characters were annoying but in a way that made them real rather than unbelievable and unbearable. We all know someone who fits into the characters in one way or another. I feel like this books is definitely for mid 20 somethings upward. The pop culture references were done well, and it’s a lot for me to say that because I hate contemporary pop culture references in my books.

I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Some of the POVs and chapters just felt random and meandering and I hated that Victor’s were never introduced with his name at the beginning of the chapter like everyone else.

Taking place over a series of years, two best friends navigate their early thirties, life in New York, & all of the messiness in-between, from love and divorce, to careers and death. The story primarily revolves around Victor and Zoey, though other stories of those intertwined in their lives are eventually woven in, sharing their own stories. Being in my early thirties, I so badly wanted to like this book, but it missed the mark for me. The chapters of other stories popping up randomly and some in first person without saying whose chapter it was, made things hard to follow.
Thank you to Gallery & Scout Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 ⭐️- This is one of those books where nothing in particular happens & you’re just kind of following the characters around in their day to day lives/getting a glimpse into the inner workings of their brains. I don’t mind those types of books, but I didn’t particularly care for either of the main characters. I honestly struggled to pick up the book or stay focused on it for a long time when I did pick it up. I thought they were horrible people… I don’t know if that was purposeful(?) I understand & love a good flawed character, but I just couldn’t find anything to really love about either of these.

There were also so many different POVS and I’m not sure all of them were necessary, it was a bit confusing at times. Some of them were straight up bizarre & random and then the character disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Also, like the main characters, most of the side characters who we get POVs from are also horrible (so basically, the moral of the story is everyone in NYC is the worst lol).

I did enjoy the humor and it had a few impactful moments. It also had good insight into what friendships can be like as you move out of your twenties into your thirties. Sometimes figuring out how someone you were once close with fits into your life as you evolve post-college can be a rough. It was interesting watching Zoey & Victor try to navigate that. It reminded me a bit of The Rachel Incident, so if you enjoyed that book, I think you may like this one!

Thank you to NetGalley & Gallery Books/Scout Press for this ARC!

this just wasn’t for me! i didn’t relate to Victor or Zoey at all, and felt the plot fell flat as nothing really happened. the writing style in general was good, i just felt bored the whole time!

This was interesting but pretty dark, in my opinion. I think it is supposed to be an irreverent portrayal of several people navigating their early thirties in New York and, ostensibly, it was but it just made me sad. It was perhaps too realistic? The human condition is down bad. If you're looking for a book that describes that - this will be for you!

Early Thirties comes out next week on March 18, 2025 and you can purchase HERE.
I picked up an Us Weekly while the guy rang me up.
Paparazzi photos of Cameron Diaz now depressed me. They made me think about what once was, the passage of time. Leave the woman alone! She did what we wanted for decades; now she just wants to hang out with her Good Charlotte husband and do some gardening and enjoy a glass of sauvignon blanc. Why couldn't we all just agree to stop taking pictures of her "entering a doctor's appointment in West Hollywood" or "meeting gal pals for brunch in Montecito"? Why were we all so disgusting?
That train of thought was the last memory I had from the night.

Early Thirties tells the story of best friends Victor and Zoey trying to navigate their friendship as the landscape of their lives has changed in, you guessed it, their early thirties. Victor has just broken up with his longterm boyfriend and is trying to break into the business of writing about celebrities and pop culture. Zoey is engaged to a man who doesn't really get along with Victor and is navigating working for a fashion startup in New York City. The book follows their personal and professional struggles and triumphs over the years and really explores how their friendship changes over time.

This is a book that will be appealing to people struggling as they transition into adulthood, whether that be struggling with changing friendships, professional struggles, or personal struggles. No matter the struggle, Victor or Zoey probably go through it in this book, so readers might find that cathartic. I did enjoy reading about Victor and Zoey the most, although the book also includes some chapters focused on other characters in their orbit. The subjects were interesting, usually relating to social media influencing or creative work, but I felt that they were a little bit out of place in the overall story. This book also focuses on some flawed characters, so people who don't enjoy flawed characters will not like this one. I usually enjoy characters who are flawed or a little bit selfish, but Victor was too selfish even for me. He sort of started to get his life together at the very end, but he still seemed selfish to me. I was also a bit confused by Zoey's characterization. There were times I felt like I had a grasp of what her character was like, then she'd do something completely out of left field that I didn't expect. Some people might enjoy this, but for me it sort of took me out of the story. Readers who enjoy character-focused stories will like this one, and especially readers who are interested in pop culture or books about writing and other creative ventures.

I always enjoy stories like these, about characters maybe "coming-of-age" outside of the traditional timeframe, living in a big city, trying to find themselves and figure out who they are and what they want, so I was especially excited to read EARLY THIRTIES! I liked the humorous, witty writing, and thought that the author did a great job of exploring the messiness and complexity of these characters' relationships and the highs and lows that come with this stage of life that they're in. However, I did find myself wishing they had been a little bit more developed individually—even though we get multiple POVs, it sometimes felt hard to fully get to know all of them, and completely connect with the characters overall. While I wanted more from this book in some areas, I'd still recommend that fans of literary fiction check it out and see if it resonates with them! Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC.

This was a little too much of the authors clear personal experiences and felt so stereotypical and out-of-touch at times. I wanted to care about the characters but I just didn't.

This book follows a group of interconnected NYC and LA elder millennials in their 'early thirties' as they navigate, love, loss, divorce, infertility, abortion, suicidal ideation, alcoholism, depression, career ups and downs and more. I fear that anyone who dives into this debut blind expecting a light, frothy romcom will be grossly disappointed.

While I did find parts slow-moving and I doubt I would have finished if I hadn't listened to the audiobook version, I still think it will resonate deeply with a certain demographic of readers (perhaps those younger than me). It touches on some heavy topics and is definitely NOT a romance even though parts have romantic storylines.

The audio narration was good with a full cast and I would recommend this to fans of authors like Camille Kellogg or books like The Christmas orphans club. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy and @simon.audio for a complimentary ALC in exchange for my honest review!

This book just really didn't do anything for me, unfortunately. I felt that the characters lacked the interiority required for the book to be character-driven, but nothing really happened so it wasn't plot-driven either. I also found the shifting perspectives somewhat distracting; I'm not sure why it needed to be sometimes in third person, sometimes in first, sometimes telling us whose perspective it was and sometimes not, etc. I didn't feel connected to the main characters, so when we were suddenly reading about some other random tangentially-related person that only got worse. These characters seemed to only have a surface level understanding of themselves, which hardly allows for a reader to feel endearment or even much in the way of interest. Even after undergoing major life events it felt like Zoey and Victor were still largely the same at the end, to say nothing of the other POV characters (because there is nothing to say). The narrative also jumped forward in time and so you would suddenly find that something you read about two chapters ago was already months in the past.

Normally I would leave a more positive review for something that just wasn't for me, but I felt like some of the structural/narrative choices were not for anyone. I will admit I was partially just tickled by the notion of reading Early Thirties because, well, I am in my early thirties, but I was also looking forward to it based on the premise. I do think it suffers from something that is becoming more common, which is bad blurbs. I think there could have been a clearer way to communicate what this book has to offer that would have perhaps adjusted my expectations or caused me to pass by the title entirely. I feel the same way about this book as I did about watching a 3 hour video about Caroline Calloway, which is that I was perfectly content before knowing anything about what I just witnessed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review!

I was anticipating fun thirties situations and stories where characters really start to know themselves and come into their own. Here the characters are kind of a mess and unlikeable. The writing is ok but inconsistent in parts, with the dialogue shining more than any exposition. Lots of it felt kind of forced into a groove but then was fine once it found its footing.

I would say for me, not one to come back to, but if you like flawed characters who are unlikeable for most of the book with some redemption at the end give this a shot!

Early Thirties is the kind of book I long for but I think it probably appeals in a narrow window. In the same way I ached and loved Dolly Alderton's Good Material for the way it made me feel seen, Early Thirties is a bittersweet look into the lives of Victor and Zoey, lifelong friends, their jobs, their heartbreaks, their dreams. In a very real and honest portrayal of the chaos that is your 30s if you are not settled into the stereotypical "adult" life yet, Early Thirties manages to make me feel seen in the same way.

I will say that some of the comparisons in the blurb and the cover itself is a bit misleading. This is not a frothy contemporary romance a la Rebecca Serle. This is written in a more literary leaning way. I think Duboff could have developed the characters a bit more if that was his goal, so the story feels somewhere in between genres. I think it works but it may find it hard to find its audience.

DNF @ 35%

The story starts at an intriguing point but the background is lacking. The connection between Zoey and Victor is hard to grasp because we only see them in this weird, strained place and occasionally get the smallest tidbits about their relationship before - but even then it’s often superficial, no depth.

The timeline hops around with little clarity and the plot seemingly doesn’t exist. Add in that we start getting new POVs 20% and 30% in with no introduction, explanation, or seemingly real connection to the others. And weirdly you get the names over the chapters a couple of times and then it drops off and you’re left to decipher whose POV you’re in now - not entirely difficult, but an odd choice.

Personally I could not relate to these characters or their lives in the slightest, it seems very niche. I will say it does a good job depicting the complexities of long term relationships and how they can evolve over time. The prose itself I had no complaints about, I just think I’m realizing strictly character-driven stories are not for me.

I don't think this book was for me. The first chapter opened on a pretty heavy topic that I feel was taken lightly and not seriously. I might come back to it at a later point, but right now, it's not a book I feel the need to continue. I also thought it was a romance, so maybe I was misled. But the characters seem unlikable immediately, which made me hesitant to continue reading.

I unfortunately had a very hard time getting into this one. It felt very monotone and there was a lot of inner monologue which isn't my favorite kind of writing style.

There were a lot of moments in this book that I loved, be it funny or dramatic. However, I just couldn’t get past the whiplash of there being so many characters and different storylines. I understand that the point was to show they were all interconnected but it just felt chaotic. I would probably watch this if it were a show or movie and I do love that it showcases real, messy and flawed characters because that’s a reflection of real life. The MMC felt very unlikeable at times and though I understand it was rooted in other things, I just never found myself rooting for him.

Really enjoyed the writing in this book- smart, sharp, and humorous. All of the characters annoyed me almost all of the time; when I wasn’t annoyed, I was relating to something they thought or said. Haha! This book reminds that life is messy but can be beautiful. Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the advanced reader copy.

Zoey and Victor, best friends living in New York, move closer and further away from each other as they enter their thirties and things in their lives change. When I read literary (with a capital "L") fiction, what I'm most hoping for are compelling, complex characters and sharp, beautiful language. While EARLY THIRTIES certainly contains the former (Zoey and Victor are sufficiently complicated, including the novel starting with Victor's failed suicide attempt) but the writing didn't quite rise to the level of sharp and beautiful. Ultimately, this novel was solid but not special.

Early Thirties is out March 18, 2025

Early Thirties by Josh Duboff was a delightful friends to lovers story.
I fell in love with this book almost immediately. I was not expecting the story to be what it was. But it sure did captivate me. I read this novel fairly quickly, which I believe speaks to the flow and the novel. I wanted to keep reading as I was getting more invested and drawn into the story by the characters and their development throughout the novel.
A cut, funny and entertaining debut!

An interesting view at romance, with an ensemble cast that reminded me of 'Love, Actually'. A real page-turner that had me on the edge of my seat from the very start. Melancholic and angsty, I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion