Filled with passion and angst, this is a book tailor-made for anyone who has ever aspired to write - or rather, to be a “writer” — a seemingly innocuous label that, for those in the literary “know”, carries an inordinate amount of weight. A label that can invoke literary snobbery, a scholarly bent, brimming with judgement, pomposity, and erudition. All of which can turn a dream so ugly — leaving those who aspire to simply write something great, something deeply intrinsic and pure, struggling instead in the shallows.

Helen Hicks is a “weird and off-putting” aspiring writer. When she meets Cherry Stewart, a somewhat gauche young woman with writerly stars in her eyes, the two form an unlikely friendship. Both of them are hell-bent on writing— a masterpiece (for Helen) and a jolly good read (for less academically-inclined Cherry). As attendees who have earned a place at an elite writing workshop, the women are there to learn, to critique others and to grow their own writing skills. Immersed with their peers in an intensive program, only one attendee will win the coveted price - an industry award which will deliver authoring mentorship and a cash stipend (along with a boatload of enviable glory) — all of which will significantly advance the road to true, identity-defining writer-hood.

Written in the alternating voices of Helen and Cherry, this is an introspective character-driven book, a yearning and achingly vulnerable peek into unbridled youth and urgency, envy and torment. Clever and thoughtful, both voices are utterly engrossing, sometimes repelling, and always interesting. With more than one trick up her sleeve, the author delivers an absorbing read, one which includes a wry critique of the publishing world, and a nostalgic look at longing — along with an underlying warning to each of us that lifelong dreams, once attained, are never truly as imagined.

A wonderful book, I enjoyed this one cover to cover, and look forward to reading more from this newly-discovered (for this reader) author.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

Out September 9th, 2025
Young Fools feels like the kind of indie film you watch at 2 a.m. and immediately text your best friend about. It’s messy, magnetic, and painfully real—like someone cracked open your journal and turned it into a script. Liza Palmer nails the chaotic beauty of being young and emotionally reckless, where every moment is either a disaster or a revelation (sometimes both). The dialogue snaps, the heartbreak stings, and the self-discovery? Brutal in the best way.

This book is for anyone who’s ever ghosted someone out of fear, cried in a bathroom stall, or made a playlist to survive a breakup. It’s Euphoria without the glitter, Lady Bird with more bite, and Normal People if the characters actually texted back. Palmer doesn’t just write characters—she writes emotional earthquakes. Read Young Fools if you want to feel seen, wrecked, and weirdly hopeful all at once.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC!

I wasn’t sure how I was going to rate this one, I spent the whole novel hating on Helen, the main character. She’s so brutal and an absolute narcissist!
But it sure made for a satisfying character arc.

I liked that this jumped ahead in 10 year blocks, starting with the beginning of Helen and Cherry’s friendship at Hayward for a week long writing workshop. And while I disliked Helen, I loved reading about Cherry and how she thrived following that workshop.

Without giving any little surprises away, there was a clever twist about half way through, that I loved, even though it confused me at first.

Among the many things I enjoyed about this book, was that it re-motivated me to get back to my own manuscript and start edits.

I highly recommend this, especially for writers at any stage in their hobby/career.

Thank you so much Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think we've all been there - we have that "friend" (or frenemy?) that we connected with because we had so much in common, but where is the line between similarity and competition? "Young Fools" follows the narrative of Helen and Cherry in alternating POVs across varying stages of life that show the development and change of their relationship over time. In some ways, the things that brought them together in the first place end up being the same things that force them apart.

Ooof. This brought back a lot of tender memories of my own college friend/roommate - we quickly grew attached at the hip being in the same major and having lots of similar hobbies, but when graduation arrived and we started our adult lives, those same things that connected us together turned into sources of resentment, jealousy, and competition. I saw a lot of my own situation in both Helen and Cherry and feel that a lot of other readers probably do as well. This book touched on so many important themes about identity and confidence that I wish I had learned much earlier in life. The ending felt a little flat compared to the emotional nature of the rest of the story, but I still enjoyed the book overall. Thank you so much for the ARC!

Young Fools follows two women, Helen and Cherry, over the course of a few decades. They are both novelists who meet at a prestigious writing workshop in 1995. I found Helen to be so delusional, obnoxious, and insufferable in, surprisingly, all the right ways. She is a person who is so clearly always in her head. Liza Palmer did a great job of putting us right there with her.

This book focused a lot on identity. Who are we, how do we present ourselves to the world, and how we're actually perceived. I enjoyed the themes of this book and loved how in depth and complex the characters. I do wish that we got more from the ending, but it was still touching.

Thank you to Liza Palmer, Lake Union Publishing, and Net Galley for this ARC!

A story of friendship and how it can fall apart if you allow it to!!! This was a very interesting story the characters came together like no other story I felt the words I loved the way everything came together in this book

Oh my God, this book is amazing! Why? Because it dares to be incredibly honest about how very petty friendships can be, even between so-called best friends. I squirmed all the way through the book at the things these characters were willing to say Out Loud to each other.
The first part of the book takes part at a writer's retreat, with a publishing deal at the end of it. Lifelong friendships and rivalries are made. Two people become best friends.
The story moves on with some stunningly awkward set-piece occasions which completely explode the friendship in the most awful and entertaining ways. A great read.

I found this to be really engaging and a fun read, with plenty to say about who we are vs who we present ourselves to be. I also really loved that it was a look at friendship rather than romance, and I loved all of the inside baseball about writing and publishing.

In the end I wasn’t super satisfied with the ending; I really enjoyed the 1995, 2005 and 2015 instalments, but felt it lost its way slightly with the 2025 segment. And I really hated the shoehorned queer character who appeared mere pages from the end.

But ultimately I enjoyed it and the themes it explored have definitely stayed with me.

Liza Palmer, you are a legend for writing this book.

I don’t even know how to describe how this book made me feel, but I’ll try :)

This is one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. And I don’t mean that lightly. I mean it. It felt like I was being cracked open and put back together with words.

I don’t know where to begin, but let’s start easy! This book is about two women: Helen and Cherry. One is controlled, ambitious, chasing literary greatness like her life depends on it. The other is free-spirited, unpredictable, and full of a kind of quiet fire. Their friendship starts as something creative and full of hope — and then, over years and heartbreak and secrets, it turns into something messy and complicated and incredibly <i>real.</i>

This book dives into what it means to be an artist, yes — but also what it means to be human. It’s about trying to make something of yourself, about how we define success, and what happens when we tie our self- worth to the dreams we’re too afraid to admit out loud. It’s about friendship, betrayal, jealousy, growing up, and holding on — and then letting go.

There are so many things this book talks about, ambition, friendship, aging, grief, art, love, and how we sometimes live as a <i>reaction</i> to life instead of living as ourselves. That hit me hard (Like truly hard, I was tearing up).

What I loved most, though, is how deeply human every character is. No one is perfect!!! No one is fully good or fully bad. Even the side characters — who only show up briefly — have so much depth and care put into them. You get this aching sense that every life in this book matters. Every relationship, every moment, every little heartbreak — it all matters.

Look, I really am not a crier over books, but <i>this</i> made <i>me</i> cry — not necessarily in a sad way — but still, it made me cry.

<b>Also, I just have to say — Liza Palmer did something so specific and so brilliant in this book, I genuinely don’t even have the words. She’s a genius. Truly. I’m still speechless.</b>

Anyway, I’m emotional atm.

<i>Thank you to Lake Union and NetGalley for the ARC. I’m so so grateful I got to read this early. And I can’t wait for the world to fall in love with it too.</i> #womensfiction #strongfmc #friendship #generalfiction #mentalhealthrep

Young Fools by Liza Palmer is biting, bold, and uncomfortably honest in all the best ways. From the very first workshop scene, I felt like I had been dropped right into the heart of a creative battlefield, where egos clash, friendships crack, and literary ambition pulses just under the skin. I was completely hooked.

The story follows Helen, the daughter of two academics, who arrives at a prestigious writing conference with a quiet sort of entitlement and a razor-sharp desire to win a fellowship and avoid the fate of becoming a professor like her parents. There, she meets Cherry, who doesn’t have the pedigree Helen boasts, but she can tell a story. What begins as an unexpected friendship spirals into a long, messy rivalry that unfolds over decades.

I’ll be honest: Helen made me cringe. Often. She’s smug, cutting, and frequently insufferable. But she’s also compelling as hell. I found myself rooting for her despite her worst instincts, and that’s a testament to Palmer’s skill in writing deeply flawed women with nuance and unflinching honesty. Palmer doesn’t shy away from showing the ugly side of ambition, envy, or even female friendship. And that’s what made this so refreshing.

The depiction of the writing world, especially the workshop dynamics, the subtle posturing, the unspoken power plays, was painfully real. If you’ve ever been in a writing program or surrounded by creatives in a competitive setting, this book will hit home in ways that are both nostalgic and deeply uncomfortable. Palmer captures it with surgical precision.

What really pushed this book over the edge for me was the twist. Without spoiling it, let’s just say Young Fools makes brilliant use of the unreliable narrator trope and delivers a punch you don’t see coming. The structure of the book is clever, and it constantly plays with your perception of who’s telling the truth and at what cost.

For readers who like:
-Stories about messy, complicated women
-Female friendship-to-rivalry arcs
-Academic and creative settings

Final Verdict
Young Fools is unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s a book that embraces discomfort, ugliness, and truth in equal measure. Helen is not easy to like but she’s impossible to look away from. I flew through this book in just a few sittings and found myself thinking about it long after I’d turned the last page. This was my first Liza Palmer novel, and now I’m eager to explore more of her work. If you enjoy darkly witty, introspective fiction about ambition, ego, and the blurred line between friend and foe, Young Fools is absolutely worth your time.

Grateful to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Liza Palmer for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the intensity of this book, the way it was written, discussing inner thoughts and anxieties resonated with me.
I could not believe how nonchalantly the winner of the award was woven into the text, I had to re-read that part and I imagined how Helen must have felt receiving the information.
Loved the twist with the characters Helen and Cherry, it spurred me on to read more!
A great read.

4.5 stars. Thank you Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC! Wow! I was initially drawn to request this book because of the description but I feel like this book is so much deeper than I thought it would be - which I LOVED! This book was so beautifully written - I highlighted so many lines.

During the first third of the book, I felt like I was at the workshop with these characters and I was really excited to see where the story would go. I loved that the focus of the story was female friendship and how the author did show ugly sides to the characters. The main character did things and said things that made me cringe but I still found myself rooting for her.

I also loved the twist. This book is unlike anything I have ever read before. This was the first book I've read by Liza Palmer and I am interested in checking out more of her work.

"Young Fools" by Liza Palmer is a captivating novel that follows the lives of Helen Hicks and Cherry Stewart, two aspiring writers who meet at the prestigious Hayward Writing Intensive. Their friendship blossoms under the pressure of showcasing their potential in the literary world, shaped by their diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Young Fools by Liza Palmer

Aspiring writers Helen Hicks and Cherry Stewart attend the famous Hayward Writing Intensive and become friends despite their very different backgrounds. Helen is the daughter of professors and has degrees and an MFA from prestigious universities, whereas Cherry has not been to university and is from a deprived background. The book is the story of their friendship and writing lives following the week they spend at the residential.

Wow what an amazing book! I loved everything about it - the characters, the story, the twists and turns, the setting.... everything! It's different to everything else I've read in such a long time and really fresh, funny and compelling. Very VERY highly recommended.

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

I thoroughly and wholeheartedly enjoyed reading this book! Bravo, Liza Palmer!

We meet the socially inept Helen Hicks (what a cringe-worthy name, for sure!) and the irrepressible Cherry Stewart as they arrive at the prestigious and much coveted Hayward Writing Intensive competition.

Helen has a degree from a prestigious college and an MFA to boot. She's attended just about every literary retreat and workshop she could get into and this time, after years of fruitless struggle, she is frantically determined to claim the literary flag that she believes is rightfully hers.

Cherry Stewart, born in the slums of L.A., is the epitome of everyone's zaniest wild child friend. Her high-volume, way-out-there personality keeps her on the fringes of all the literary action. She has the talent and the desire, but her writing needs more polish and depth.

I was glued to every page as we are exposed to the trials and tribulations of these struggling unpublished group of writers. For those of us who ever dared to to hope or dream of publishing a novel during our misguided youth, <u>Young Fools</u> is proof that talent, perseverance and willpower may not be enough to get the job done. The competition is fierce and the chances of getting an agent to give you the time of day are dismally low... not to say non-existent.

Potential Spoiler Alert: I've read a few reviews here on GoodReads that state outright that the first half of the novel was actually "a novel within a novel." Maybe it's me, but I just don't see that at all. I <i> did</i> notice that there was a time leap - and a CHANGE OF POINT OF VIEW around the half-way mark of this novel.

The point of view shifts to the other central figure in this novel: we now experience the action from the eyes of an older, slightly wiser Cherry Stewart who has, almost two decades later, published several thrillers and whose books have spawned a televised series or two. Go, Cherry!

Cherry is incensed that her former BFF, Helen, has finally managed to publish a book that shamelessly lampoons the entire gang of wannabe writers at that fateful Hayward Writing Intensive. The last portion of this novel contained so many well timed literary explosives that I was starting to cower at the end of each chapter. What could possibly happen next?

Well, I have to say: that ending was positively heart-warmingly perfect. (I invariably root for the underdog!)

Very well done, Liza Palmer!!! I have read just about every one of her books - and loved them all. (I'm also happy that she has recovered from her own cancer diagnosis - if Helen is to be believed!) This was an engrossing and highly entertaining glimpse into the professional writer's world and it deserves all the stars!!!

My thanks to the author, Liza Palmer, her publishers, and NetGalley for an ARC of this brilliant novel (potentially within another novel - <i>heck, what do I know?!?!</i>) in exchange for an honest review!! 5 out of 5 enthusiastic stars! Highly recommended!

Young Fools by Liza Palmer follows Helen Hicks and Cherry Stewart, two young writers who meet at the prestigious, week-long Hayward Writing Intensive. Their friendship is forged under the mounting pressure of trying to demonstrate potential in the literary world. They both have disparate backgrounds and experiences, which impact the ways in which they approach the workshop, people, writing, and life generally.

After that week, the story follows the two writers’ lives at various points during their careers and the events that unfold. Despite plans and aspirations, their trajectories are anything but straightforward. Can their friendship, and who they believe themselves to be, stand the test of time?

Liza Palmer deftly crafted the personalities and histories of both women. Even in the most imperfect actions and trying choices, I couldn’t help but hope for the best for the characters. Each character (including side characters) was decidedly human, at times unlikable, but gripping in a way that made me keep turning the pages and wanting to know more.

If you love bookish books, strong female main characters, ambition-driven action, and stories following friendships, this one’s for you.  Young Fools will be published on September 9, 2025, by Lake Union Publishing.  Liza Palmer is also the author of Family Reservations, The Nobodies, The F Word, and Nowhere but Home.

#youngfools #netgalley #generalfiction #womensfiction #bookishcharacters #storiesaboutwriting #lizapalmer #booksta #bookstagram #bookreview #ARCreview #advancedreadercopy #bookreviews #ARCreviews #strongfemalecharacters #ambitiouscharacters

Young Fools is a lovely exploration of what friendship means. And, what it doesn’t. And, what someone will do if desperate to have just one friend, and how it feels to be overlooked as just a blob in the landscape.

The characters in this book are very real and watching the evolution and dissolution of the friendship between the two female protagonists over decades is fascinating to watch. There are twists and turns and surprises along the way that I didn’t see coming, which is for me the hallmark of a terrific book. The character development and descriptive language allowed me to feel that not only was a fly on the wall with these women, but practically in each of their heads as I read. I could not put this one down.

I look forward to reading more from Liza Palmer. She is a talented writer with keen insight into the human condition.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book as an advance reader’s copy.

Thank you to #NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

If “fiction books about writing fiction books” was a genre, I’d read nothing else. Books that make me fall in love with writing all over again have a very special place in my heart.

At the core of this book lies friendship and ambition. Sometimes working to bolster each other, but often butting heads and creating ultimatums for the characters. It’s a book you’ll want to dissect while also (if you’ve ever considered yourself to be a writer) making you feel like you’re the one under the scalpel.

The way this book approaches friendship is beyond beautiful and in the same instance utterly devastating. Even with the jumps in time, I felt like I grew up with Helen and Cherry, watching their characters mature while staying true to their fundamental quirks.

One of my favourite passages: “It’s not that what Tess said was particularly groundbreaking; on the contrary, it was quite simple—childlike, even. She related every writer in attendance at Hayho to a little kid running around in a Spider-Man Halloween costume, earnestly fwipping webs as if they’re finally able to fully embody their whole self. And for a roomful of writers who’d like the story of themselves to be far more erudite and complicated, that one little anecdote enabled Tess Bayard to pierce through all their well-trained haughtiness and unmask them as just little kids with dreams of a life beyond their four walls.”

Young Fools is a heartfelt exploration of ambition, creativity, and the intricate ties that define us. Liza Palmer skillfully weaves a narrative that is both emotionally resonant and intellectually engaging. Her prose is imbued with warmth and wit, offering profound insights into the journey of self-discovery and the complexities of relationships. Palmer's characters leap off the page with authenticity, their dialogues vibrant and true-to-life. Themes of mentorship and personal growth are expertly explored, striking a chord with anyone navigating the path between who they are and who they aspire to be. This book is a must-read for fans of contemporary fiction that delves deep into the human experience, blending heart and humor seamlessly. Highly recommended for those who understand the struggle of taking uncertain yet courageous steps toward understanding oneself and the world.

I enjoy books by Liza Palmer. Her latest, Young Fools was a great book. It's available this fall. Don't skip it.