An inventive and almost singular voice in auto fiction right now. Groundbreaking? No. Fun to read… mostly!

Autofiction That Blurs Reality and Storytelling

Interesting read. What happens when the author becomes the subject? Who “owns” your story?

I picked this book up without knowing anything about the author or that it was autofiction (a blend of autobiography and fiction). You can read her memoir, We Are Too Many, if you want to go deeper into her story.

There are moments when the book reads like magical fiction or a stream of consciousness. She seems to drift in and out of fugue states on an alarmingly frequent basis. At one point, she becomes obsessed with a sick cat she believes can communicate with her.

If You Love It, Let It Kill You is, by turns, touching, funny and unhinged. It's a worthwhile read unless you need a plot that travels in a straight line with no side quests.

It’s a wild ride, well-executed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for this advance copy.

My rating- 2.5/5

I've put off writing my review on this book for some time, in the hopes that with some distance from reading it, my thoughts on the story would become more clear to me. Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case, and as is, I remain quite confused about how I feel about this book.

First and foremost, I'm a bit confused about what this story wants to be. At times I felt like I understood where things were going, and then a few pages later, it felt as if the author was complicating things simply for the sake of confusing the reader. I wanted to like the journey that the author was taking me on, but I just couldn't fully grasp it.

I liked the way that the main character was written, for the most part. I found her to be realistically unlikeable in a way that didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story, and I was definitely invested in her midlife crisis. But as the story unraveled, I had a hard time following her. At times, it felt like the author was almost looking down on me, like this book was too smart for me, and as hard as I tried, I just couldn't "get it". I usually enjoy a mindf*ck story, but I couldn't sink into this one.

On top of this, I strongly disliked the mistreatment and subsequent death of the cat in this story. This is mostly a personal thing, I admit, as the death of cats is one of my only reading triggers, and I didn't check for this before diving into it. But nevertheless it has left a sour taste on my tongue that has certainly affected my experience with this story.

All in all, I can't see myself recommending this one to anyone in my life. While there were a few elements I liked, they were heavily outweighed by things that I either adamantly disliked or simply didn't understand.

Mixed feelings about this read. The writing was fantastic but some parts of the story felt messy or unnecessary at times. The inner monologue of the main character was great. One thing I can’t get past is the mistreatment of animals, in particular an animal that clearly needed immediate medical attention was just left to sit in pain while the main character treated it as a therapist of sorts. Then lies about having seen the animal tooth to its owners face and to her family’s face. Abusive behavior.

If You Love It, Let It Kill You by Hannah Pittard was at times entertaining and other times a head shaking mess that I didn't want to be in the middle of. As the book goes on the laughs get further removed, the cringe becomes all-encompassing and the need for it to just reach each arcs clearly inevitable conclusions dire.

from the blurb "A novelist learns that an unflattering version of herself will appear prominently—and soon—in her ex-husband’s debut novel. For a week, her life continues largely unaffected by the news—she cooks, runs, teaches, entertains—but the morning after baking mac ’n’ cheese from scratch for her nephew’s sixth birthday, she wakes up changed. The contentment she’s long enjoyed is gone. In its place: nothing. A remarkably ridiculous midlife crisis ensues, featuring a talking cat and a game called Dead Body."

So I went into this one without a full grasp of how this book is not just messy but MESSSSSSSSY. IRL messy. Lack of pride messy for everyone involved. Navel gazing, self-important nonsense. These people find themselves far more fascinating than they are. Find a new topic.

I've seen some comparisons to All Fours and while I can understand the idea behind those comparisons, I would say that if you are expecting a comparable read you should look elsewhere. The actions taken by our FMC (and really everyone in the book) play out like many of the midlife crisis books we all know and love (and I ESPECIALLY love books about crazy women doing messed up stuff) but this book waffled into a meta-within-meta-within-meta as the stories layered from Pittard's real life and the narratives unravel in a way that is not only deeply uncomfortable in a fiction format but all the worse for the real life implications.

I saw a review that said that this book was like a diss track to her ex-husband who authored a diss track response to her previous diss tack novel and I'm going to go a step further with that one - Pittard and Ewell are both authoring diss tracks as novels and they both think they are Kendrick Lamar when they need to realize they are both Drake.

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt and Co. for an eARC to review.

An interesting introduction to autofiction! The premise of this book intrigued me, and I also really liked the writing style. I always enjoy books that delve into the everyday happenings of a person's life, that may not be the heaviest on plot, but truly allow readers to get to know the characters. However, I didn't feel entirely pulled into the story, and I'm not sure why! I think if I had read the author's memoir beforehand, I would have connected to it a little bit more, so I would be interested in picking that one up and then maybe revisiting this book. Still, I'd recommend adding it to your TBR if you enjoy autofiction or creative nonfiction with a literary flair, and quirky reads involving complex, messy leading ladies! Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt for the ARC.

A contented novelist’s life unravels into a surreal midlife crisis—complete with a talking cat and a morbid party game—after discovering her ex-husband’s debut novel features an unflattering version of herself.

I really could not get into this. Just one deeply unpleasant person complaining about another. It felt very shallow, and about 40% of the way through, I found myself wondering why I was doing this to myself, so I DNF'd.

As I read If You Love It, Let It Kill You, I was able to relate to some of what Hannah experienced with her ex-husband; the lying and cheating, and making up falsehoods about her. The difference is those about me were not published into a book. Like me, Hannah wanted her get back; she was out for revenge by writing a revenge novel. The writing style of the book was entertaining, light hearted, and touching in spite of the seriousness of all that was going on in her--FMC's life.
Being that I could relate to what Hannah experienced, it was a bit uncomfortable at times. However, I was also able to reflect on the NOW. Hannah was the perfect character to me; no because she was necessarily a perfect person, she was on display flaws, issues, and all.

Thank you for this ARC copy of If You Love It, Let It Kill You.

This book is abrasive, brutally honest, and at times hard to read for how unflinchingly it leans into betrayal, routine, and creative panic.

Lines like “I live the majority of my life in my head” and “I’m living too much in the iterative tense… the tense of routine” felt like someone keyed into the exact, small despair of being stuck in yourself, and the question of what breaks you out. It’s messy and sharp, not meant to comfort. But I found comfort in its honesty. The narrator’s existential swirl, her ex’s betrayal, a talking cat interrupting the spiral (yes, a talking cat!), and a family tangled in codependency… was a mirror to my own restless mornings.

There’s something about the weight of being seen, then warped, by the one who once cared for you. Hana reveals herself as deeply tired of men, and I think many of us can relate.

This book has been described as “semi-autobiographical,” and I felt that deeply. It read like a personal diary cracked open, dark moments alongside funny ones, always intimate, always raw.

Would I recommend it to everyone? Probably not. This isn’t a book for a gentle mood. But if you’ve ever felt weary of routine, self-interrogation, or wondered whether honesty can be too much…well. You might find strange comfort here. Or you might wince and close it. Either way, it’s doing its job.

This is a book for a certain type of person. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and that makes me love it more. I’ll be buying this one in print, to underline, dog-ear, maybe even weep quietly over in a grocery store aisle. It’s the kind of book that sticks, even when it stings.

I found this book to be maddening-I detested the narrator for the entire first half of the book and then started to pity her. For much of the story (WAS there much of a story?) she was unapologetically awful for reasons that were hinted at, but nothing magnitudinous enough to explain the game of “dead body” or why she conceals a neighbor’s lost pet deliberately. She was more tolerable in the second half of the story but then her father was the super annoying character. However, even though she’s clearly conflicted about almost everything in her life, the narrator possesses a love of language that I did find enjoyable. This reminded me of “Eileen” by Ottessa Moshfegh. It morphed into a decent read, but I had to keep pushing myself to make it far enough to reach that point.

I really enjoyed this book -- I thought the writing was both thoughtful and humorous, and I grew to really care about the main character.

I loved her relationship with her boyfriend's daughter, it was sweet to watch it grow. I found the whole plot line with the cat to be hilarious (and sad) and the conversations with the cat were one of my favorite parts of the book.

I also loved the messy family dynamics -- the father, the mother, the sister, the nephews -- it felt so realistic and endearing. I always love books about teachers, especially writing teachers, and the parts in the classroom were great as well.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants a quirky read with flawed buy lovable characters. I will definitely be reading whatever Hannah Pittard writes next, and look forward to checking out her previous works!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Take this review with a grain of salt, because I don't think I like autofiction. This was my first experience with it and - while the premise is intriguing and the writing is good - I just couldn't sink my teeth into it.

Real Rating: 2.75* of five

It struck me as desperately sad, not in the least funny, and unpleasantly like walking in on two friends having what we all know is their last fight.

Plenty of zingers if you're into the insult-comedy skits of the Aughties, Conan O'Brien-lite.

Henry Holt and Co. think it's worth $14.99 for an ebook. I'd be frothing mad if I'd paid that for it.

This book wasn’t for me. When I requested the ARC from NetGalley, I didn’t know the backstory, of the author and her husband, but the description of the book sounded interesting. What didn’t work for me was the stream-of-consciousness writing style and the fact that there really wasn’t a plot. I read the first quarter of the book then jumped to the end and read that, but I skipped the middle parts because I felt it wouldn’t add to the story. Thank-you to NetGalley, Ms. Pittard, and Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC of the title.

For me this book ranged between a 2-3 star rating ending on the slightly higher end, particularly after reading the acknowledgments.

I was very intrigued by the premise- divorced writer learns that ex-husband has written a “novelized” version of their life…what ensues? However, while there’s passing references throughout to this catalyzing situation it’s really not a focus of the book.

It felt like there were too many quirky characters and it was hard to get to know any of them well enough despite their quirks to connect with them. (But then reading the acknowledgments I think her family is quirky).

I just didn’t love it…but I am still interested in reading her memoir (which I think is about her husband cheating on her with her best friend….the catalyzing situation in this book).

”to have become a character in someone else’s life: it’s a gift, really: Such a gift.”

I got sent this book as an ARC and forgot what it was about by the time I got round to reading it, so I thought I’d just go in blind as it were and read without knowing the synopsis. To be honest, nothing much DOES happen in this novel. It’s described as “autofiction”, which I’d not heard of before, and it’s certainly an…interesting style.

Evidently, the author has been through a divorce from her husband who cheated on her (she cheated on him, too, but that doesn’t really matter when the marriage is finished anyway). He’s written and published a book about it, and she has written about him as well. The novel (as in the one WE read, not either of theirs) is very inside-its-own-head. The protagonist (Hana?) spends all her time thinking of everything except what is happening in front of her. The past, the future, random people going by, animals outside the window. Just any thought flitting into her head could make it down onto the page and become a paragraph that spins off into another thought, and another.

I couldn’t stop reading this book—apart from around the middle where I flagged a little and then rallied—but it’s hard to explain why. Maybe to see whether the protagonist self-destructs? Or to watch if she spirals into a mental health crisis? It’s interesting but I know, I KNOW that this style of book will be extremely off-putting to others. The characters are almost all professors of literature, and they certainly talk in the way they’re viewed in, say, television shows: snobby and pretentious. There aren’t many characters; most people are unnamed, or the protagonist can’t even be bothered to learn their names, like her female students. The most present is her family, who surround her and (mostly) live on her street. They pop in and out of her life, and she’s needled by their presence but lost when she’s excluded. She suffocates in routine and wants to try new things, experience something different, which leads back to her thinking and analysing little, trivial details and experiences.

It is a quick read, but it might be a bit of a slog for some with the protagonist writhing in her own misery she keeps locked inside herself.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a tricky one for me to rate. I loved the voice—sharp, distinctive, and reminiscent of what drew me to Big Swiss and Death Valley. The tone and writing style really worked for me.

Where it lost me, though, was in narrative drive. I never felt fully pulled into the story or compelled to keep picking it up. That said, I’d gladly read more from this author in the future, I just hope for a bit more momentum next time.

This book was…. interesting. It came to a point where I realized that the book was feeling a little too personal and, once I looked into the author’s background a little bit, I began to understand why. I went in knowing nothing about it, so this all came as a surprise to me. It both gave me a new perspective on the book, which focuses on a professor named Hana whose life is turned around when she discovers that her ex-husband (that cheated with her ex-best friend) is now writing a book about Hana, and also made me feel even more separated from it all at once. Books are meant to be personal, of course, and this one is more autofiction than anything (this calls forth some “meta” conversations that happen within the book about the merits and difficulties of writing autofiction), which is a great feat in itself. However, I struggled with this one nonetheless. There were parts of this book that began to click to me and others that didn’t click at all. I wish I had done more research ahead of time and understood what I was getting myself into, but of course that is no one’s fault but my own.


Thank you to Hannah Pittard for working to turn your struggles into entertainment and thank you to Henry Holt & Co. and NetGalley for granting me access to the digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I read this book almost entirely on a train in one sitting, which I think was the ideal way to consume this story. I found the characters to be incredibly compelling, especially the narrator, who didn't particularly seem to like the people she loves, which I found such an interesting dynamic. The narrator was slightly unhinged and clearly going through some things, which intrigued me a lot, and it was mainly vibes and not plot, which I think worked to this book's advantage.

I laughed and was charmed and related to this author in a way that now scares me but I refuse to be all high brow and nay say the happenings. they all be like, oh auto fiction, how could it be, she has gone too far, the cat talks, o dear! and I say, oh what difference does it make anyway.

I received an e-arc from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.