Trans people are more than a politicized threat. The voice reads like an episode of Daria, sarcastic and straightforward. The title takes a heavy lifting and makes complete sense for the story. However, I would have liked for the characters to have been more well-rounded and more than their circumstances. Were these people ever happy? These people mostly moved. There was very little expression. The locations added interest into the story.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

This book was a little too lit-fic for me! I think it's a very powerful book and has a lot of meaningful topics, like whether we can forgive people for their past. It didn't suck me in but I think that's okay. It did make me think and reflect which is what I think it was aiming to do!

Not the Hunger Games slander from Alex!!!

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book!

This the THE book to resonate with people of a certain age that feel like they are flailing. I related to so many things and found myself and those I know over and over again in these pages.

This book was deeply insightful and a look into the complexities of life. I felt like a fly on the wall seeing each character go through internal struggles, relationships, family dynamics, regrets, and aspirations. Not everything is black and white and to think that way can cause misunderstandings, bad choices, and regret. Life is truly short and people are put in situations where they will have to contemplate their actions and its consequences. Not everything you see on the surface is what it seems, when we start peeling the layers we see that the human experience is complicated. There were so many moral dilemmas in this story you can’t help but to feel empathetic towards everyone. This was a great read

wow. this was my first nicola dinan book and it definitely will not be my last. i absolutely ADORED this author's writing. beautiful prose. the way they're able to capture such visceral emotions and feelings in certain scenes, as well as capture exactly how one feels at a certain moment in life. max and vincent felt like such real characters, and i was truly invested in their stories. you will feel anger, despair, and hope for these characters. to have read about their misgivings, their pasts, their indiscretions, and opened to their flaws in such a vulnerable way, i wasn't prepared for how emotional it was going to be. you follow max as she journey's through life as a transwoman, and vincent as he learns to love her - include the intersectionality of being half asian and struggling with identity and you are thrust into a story of self-discovery and also, self-sabotage.

"this is also a world where people, often women, are doomed to spend much of their lives forgiving the errors of others and suffering for the sake of other people's growth. sometimes there's nothing to do but leave, and sometimes there's nothing to do but forgive."

what does it mean to love someone - truly love someone - flaws and all? do you love them despite their past or can people truly change? was i rooting for them in the end? sort of. i wanted both of them to be happy - but did that mean that they should end up together? not up to me. but wow. WHAT a story. definitely an auto-buy author for me now.

"you can fall in love with an outline, you can even make a home with one, but there will come a time where you can’t deny the bones their flesh. a person is no fewer than two things."

incredible!

Disappoint Me is in fact a very disappointing book. The premise of a trans woman who gives heteronormativety a shot after falling down the stairs at a party was intriguing, yet everything about the plot felt flat. I didn’t even fully understand why falling down the stairs was central to the heteronormativity aspect of the book.

While the topics of this book are excellent to explore -the trans experience including micro and macro aggressions, the experience of being Asian in a mostly white social group, turning 30, starting a family or not, careers, mortality- the manner in which this story addressed everything managed to be incredibly tedious. The characters including the main character Maxine (Max) are mostly miserable, self obsessed, pretentious, and are written in a manner that terrible things have to keep happening to them because they are not interesting people in their own right. I do not think that characters have to be likeable for a book to be good, complex characters drive a story, however these folks were just boring.

Part of the disconnect in terms of how I related to this book may come from being an American reader and this is about a very particular type of social group in London that does not resonate with me at all. There were some characters who I wish featured more and just completely disappeared or were relegated to the sidelines.

Incorporated in the present day plot is a subplot from the point of view of Vincent, Max’s boyfriend, who ten years ago had a foundational experience with a trans woman who had traveled to Thailand to have gender affirming surgery and he met her at a youth hostel. This culminates in an explosive potential dissolution of his and Max’s relationship in the present day, however even this conflict fizzled out. Certain characters who were now sharing profound ephiphanies sounded incredibly trite, in addition to Vincent’s motivations and actions both in past and present not entirely making a lot of sense.

This book wasn’t all awful. The prose was lovely, the ideas and concepts presented are excellent to think about, and clearly this style of writing and these types of characters resonate with a specific audience. I am just not that audience.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House | The Dial Press and to NetGalley for this ARC to review. This review is my honest opinion

Disappoint Me was my first time reading anything Nicola Dinan & I am officially a fan. I loved the uniqueness of the story and the dual narrative really helped me to understand. I will definitely check out more books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & the publisher for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

In Disappoint Me, we observe from the lens of two dual perspectives. One is through Max, a thirty year old transwoman who is ready to take more ownership of her life after having a rough breakup and an incident during a New Year’s Eve party. The other is through Vincent, a straight Chinese man who works full time as a lawyer. There’s a bit of a dual timeline for Vincent as we visit his past during his gap year traveling to Thailand ten years prior. A past that is deeply unsettling and puts their serious developing relationship to a test.
I’ve noticed something interesting as I’ve concluded the book. I can easily name a number of flaws and disappointments in each of the characters but I cannot as easily pinpoint the positives. Perhaps I may be reading a little too into this but I think there is an intention from Nicola in which she is addressing the psychological nature and human tendency to focus on the negative. And to me the book is about taking that notion and asking the reader – can we learn to forgive people? What does it mean when people change? Can they actually change? 

To prove this point further, I have found myself quick to judge a character or two in the book even though I know only the tiniest fraction of their life. As if that single mistake alone can dictate their entire being. I think that says a lot about Nicola’s ability to fabricate the realness and the imperfection in people, and our immediate reaction to cast them as irredeemable. She renders deeply vulnerable moments for characters who are navigating through the complexity of personal relationships. Moments where they take a deep breath and simply try. 

Contrary to the title, I came away positively surprised with the book. I especially loved the remaining third of the book where Max learned to embrace situations and to move forward. Her clarity and confidence in herself toward the end is a nod to her maturity. There were also simple instances like with Max talking to her dad or Vincent making congee for her in the morning that resonated with me profoundly (and made me teary)! There’s something about Nicola writing the mundane that is beautifully simple yet tender and visceral.

Thank you Random House Publishing and NetGalley for reaching out and gifting me an arc copy!

"No person is fewer than two things" is the central truth at the heart of Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan. In this novel, we meet Max, a trans woman on the rebound who, after falling down the stairs at a New Year's Eve party, is feeling disillusioned by her party girl life and decides to try something different. Enter Vincent - decidedly boring, but in the best way. Max & Vincent settle into something like a traditional relationship. But when an incident from Vincent's past resurfaces, Max is forced to confront her expectations and ideas of forgiveness. Along the way, as Max and Vincent interact with others, there is a constant challenging of identity in queerness and sexuality in general, culture, and relationships. In the end, we are left to consider if and how people can change, and how people can be two or more things at once, and how to reconcile what we know about the people we love with the people they have been in the past.

What I most appreciate about Disappoint Me is the way that it is both deeply emotional & challenging, while also being funny and refreshing. The characters are both relatable and unlikeable - in the same way we sometimes question our own bad decisions, or the way we love our closest friends and also sometimes challenge their behavior. Dinan has a way of writing that makes you want to stop and think about what you just read, like she's asking you, "What do you think about that?" I also enjoyed the structure of this novel. The back and forth between Max and Vincent's stories and the flip between past and present really allows us to experience the growth of the characters over time and really empathize with them.

I would say this book is definitely a mood read and I would recommend it to readers who are looking for a modern love story that will take them beyond the meet cute, into the challenges we face when really getting to know someone. Disappoint Me will have you challenging your own ideas of love, betrayal, and forgiveness - and hopefully open you up to exploring the multitudes that others contain.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

2/5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I want to start by disclaiming that I am not only queer, but also chronically online in queer spaces. And yet...

I had to DNF this one. After glancing through other reviews, I'm really struggling to see how such profound/heartbreaking/tearjerking moments can come out of these shallow characters.

I'm sure this is just a me problem, but I really cannot immerse myself in a story with THIS MANY pop culture/slang/internet meme references. It starts to feel shoehorned in at a certain point, and I can't help but think about how outdated it will be in just a couple years.

I might give it a chance to redeem itself eventually. I wanted to see what everyone else saw, but it's just not working for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc!

I'm quite obsessed with how raw the writing is here and I'd expect nothing less from this author. I appreciated how this author did not shy away from letting us readers know just exactly who everyone is and how they are in terms of their own personhood as it made the picture clear to interpret. We see our main character Max witness some troubling and sort of disturbing character flaws play out in the people around her and as a result we gain further insight into the person Max is. However, when a situation occurs that directly affects Max things become a bit more intense. It was quite difficult to read through this disturbance and watch Max battle with topics of forgiveness, morals, principles, etc. but it was just so very honest and as the reader I wanted to fix things and put on the rose tinted glasses and pretend that everything is fine, but it's just not realistic sometimes. This book made me think about my own morals/values and how forgiveness holds all these implications that I wonder how did they get there in the first place and from where.

I'd highly recommend this book if you love reading about relationships, complex situations, and overall a good inner monologue. Check out Nicola Dinan's sophomore novel Disappoint Me out May 27th!

*First and foremost, thank you to Random House, Dial, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC for an honest review of this book.*

I absolutely loved this one. Which is all I really need to say, but I will say a bit more for the sake of review. Disappoint Me was a book that I felt I would enjoy going into it, and it delivered on so many fronts. It kept me wanting to read it and had me struggling to put it down, not because of any high stakes or suspense, but because of the writing itself, the characters, and the inspection of life that comes through in every page. It feels like a very raw and honest piece of prose, to the point where it could convincingly be a first person memoir. Dinan does not hide from the complications and flaws in others that we all come across in various ways and in doing so provides a stage that makes the reader feel as though they are watching life unfold in front of them. Max as a protagonist is just as flawed, but also reflects the ways in which so many of us need to be better at giving ourselves grace while we try to simply make it through the confusing world we live in.

I loved this one. The writing made me want to immediately go back and read Dinan's first book, as well. It feels plotty, even though its not very plot driven--a good balance. The characters are the perfect amount of flawed and lovable. Highly recommend.

the writing flow and style was truly the highlight for me on this one. it made it so easy to get lost in these characters, and the dual pov/different timelines never got confusing. it lost me a little bit towards the end because it felt like it was moving really fast, but i loved the change in the last few pages. it also had random sentences that were so beautifully written just speckled throughout like you'd be in it all and then you'd read a sentence like: "something anguishing and hurtful has smoothed into a pebble, a small anecdote to skip into the lake of conversation" and i would have to take a deep breath before continuing. i'll definitely be reading whatever nicola writes next <3

Nicola Dinan has secured her spot as a must read author for me with her newest book, Disappoint Me. Following Max and Vincent at different stages of their lives, we see how they become who they are individually and together. The novel explores how we hurt and are hurt by the ones we love most and the disappointments of being alive. What are we willing to forgive people for? How long does forgiveness take? Can we forgive someone for their past? How do we stay in relationships with flawed people? How do you plan for a future that you’ve never imagined? Dinan explores so much so deftly, and this novel has stuck with me since I read it. This one is for folks that want to read about complex family dynamics, long term friendships going through growing pains, explorations on misogyny/patriarchy and how they fuel transphobic violence, and romance between two people who fall short for each other but keep showing up.

This book surprised me in the best way — I came into it for a fun romp through identity, relationships, and sexuality and left deeply moved.

Dinan is skilled at building her characters, and I appreciated hearing the background story of the boyfriend to really suspend some tension. Again, what I thought might be leading toward a dramatic blowup actually led to really profound reflections on mortality, morality, love, sex, and “aging” in our 30s. I deeply resonated with these final scenes and loved how nothing was wrapped in a perfect bow — but rather we are presented with the flawed humanity of everyone involved, and left to reflect on that within ourselves. In the end, it wasn’t even the “moral of the story” to forgive her boyfriend of his past mistakes or not — it was more about the question of how do we actually know anyone ever, how do we grow, forgive, forget, learn, and hold these tensions in ourselves and others.

Ugh. Dinan had a great way of carefully crafting these characters, while still balancing sharp, readable prose and a propulsive plot. An easy 5 star this year. Loved it!

Max is our transfemme protagonist, who is navigating a new relationship with Vincent, adapting to evolution of friendships in your 30s, all while trying to find joy in writing poetry, and push through the day to day of a corporate job.

Vincent is Max’s sweet, supportive boyfriend who is navigating some past trauma & mistakes, and trying to work through that while showing up and showing out for Max.

Both Max and Vincent have problematic, but supportive family and friends. Their parents all mean well but conform to societal and cultural expectations. Max has a narcissistic, yet fiercely loyal brother. Vincent has a levelheaded best friend with a dark & violent past.

Nicola Dinan’s writing style is superb. She effortlessly explores the complicated terrain surrounding these characters, with themes of violence against transgender people, compulsive heteronormativity, family problems, forgiveness, and worth.

The writing of Nicola is eloquent and deep, without distracting from the story. Her words are descriptive, they place you within the pages, transporting you to Max’s point of view.

I could not put this book down & am eager to read Nicola’s other projects.

Thank you, NetGalley & The Dial Press for the ARC and the opportunity to review it!

I found this book to be very descriptive of the main characters, Max and Vincent, their personalities and lives are the basis of the story.
I connected with Max straight away, she has an accident and we follow her as she moves on to a new chapter in her life. We also hear about Vincent’s past, in great detail.
This story delves into the history of Max, her friendships, her gender and then the secret that Vincent has comes into play.
I feel that I would have enjoyed this story more if it wasn’t so drawn out, at times I lost interest due to the story becoming bogged down.
There’s a lot going on in this book, lots of discussion on life choices and the layers of all the characters, the emotional depth is commendable. This book will take you on a journey of discovery.

Thank you to The Dial Press, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The novel is an emotionally raw and introspective novel that offers a lot to think about and I enjoyed the writing style a lot. Nicola Dinan’s writing is thoughtful and often beautiful, capturing the complexities of relationships and identity with nuance. I truly felt that Max is a friend conveying her thoughts to me. However, at times, the pacing felt uneven and the characters' decisions could be frustrating, making it harder to stay fully invested. There are powerful moments of honesty and vulnerability that stood out, but overall, I found myself wanting a bit more cohesion and emotional payoff.

3.5/5
First of all, the cover is amazing. That’s what initially drew me to this book.
Second of all, I really loved this story. We follow the relationship between Max and Vincent and through them, we are exposed to themes of queerness, what it means to be trans, heteronormativity, family, forgiveness, and what happens when life really throws you a curve ball. I loved the characters, flaws and all, and I really loved the story and writing. A lot of lines made me literally laugh out loud. I just wish the author was able to dig deeper with some of the themes and characters. I really wanted more!! That’s why this is 3.5 instead of a 4.
Nicole Dinan did an amazing job though, and I really wish the publishers gave her a longer page count so she could really dive in. I’m excited to read more of her work!

Thank you #netgalley for the arc.