Kittentits is a wild ride through the chaotic mind of Molly, a potty-mouthed ten-year-old navigating grief and yearning for connection in 1992. With its raw honesty and unflinching portrayal of childhood, Wilson's debut novel is a rollercoaster of emotions. Molly's unfiltered narration is both hilarious and heartbreaking, capturing the unique perspective of a young girl grappling with loss and forging unexpected friendships.

The novel's surreal elements and quirky characters add to its charm, creating a world that feels both familiar and fantastical. While some readers may find Molly's abrasive language and antics off-putting, those willing to embrace her messy journey will be rewarded with a poignant and unforgettable story about resilience, love, and the power of female friendship.

Sigh. Absolutely not. I loved the idea and I even really liked the MC's voice (though I feel more than a bit uncomfortable with her age, given her relationship with the other central character in the book). Is it realistic? Of course not. Was it fun? Yes, mostly. BUT. The use of the r-slur and the weird fixation on "Indian" things from a white girl in the '90s was...not it. Just...WHY make these narrative choices in 2024? It reads as edgelord-y in the worst ways, at best. At worst, it's just grossly racist and ableist for no reason.

Big thanks to NetGally for the advance copy. This was such a wonderfully weird book. You are thrown into the mind of a foul mouth 10 year old girl who is obsessed with a 23 year old girl who has just been released from jail. Our narrator Molly takes us on a bizarre adventure leading up to New Years 1992 at the Worlds Fair.

I noticed a lot of people had issues with the language used but honestly I remember being a weirdo kid like Molly so it felt almost nostalgic. This story had me hooked from the start and the ending was WILD!! I can’t wait to see what this author does next!! 10/10 weird girl book!

very fun, very wild book! a very unique approach of telling a coming of age story full of weird characters.

The novel "Kittentits" by Holly Wilson is a truly unique and captivating piece of literature. Despite my extensive reading experience, I have never came across anything quite like it. The protagonist, Molly, is a force to be reckoned with, evoking a sense of the rebellious and audacious spirit of a young Kenny Powers, thrown into the unsettling world of "Welcome to the Dollhouse" with a detour through "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Her unabashed and witty observations prompted me to collect notable quotes, reminiscent of a young girl eagerly stuffing her bra.



This narrative delves into profound themes of grief, independence, companionship, family dynamics, and unapologetic empowerment. While Molly's outlandish adventures may raise doubts about her reliability as a narrator, they are undeniably imaginative and entertaining. The chaotic world she describes is vivid and surreal, captivating readers and immersing them in her reality.

Kittentits! What a cover! What a title! What promise! What a disappointment!

Tragically I could not buy ten year old, scab eating, clothes stealing, ghost seeing, potty mouthed Molly as a character in any way shape or form. I wanted to love her. I tried to love her. It didn't happen.

While this wasn't the book for me, other reviewers are eating it up so what do I know?

My thanks to NetGalley and Zando Projects for the ARC.

Kittentits has a very specific writing style that I think will either be for you or very much not for you. Unfortunately it wasn’t for me and I decided to DNF. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

The title Kittentits is a nickname given to the main character and it hints at her duality. A ten-year-old with a vulgar streak, a Jane Eyre dropping f bombs amidst accidentally poetic observations, a little girl running away from trauma and headlong towards trouble.

The first person narrative is equal parts confabulation and conflagration in that the narrator is unreliable and fire follows her wherever she goes. And even though I didn’t find the children in this book all that believable for their ages, a novel doesn’t have to be believable to be a great story. In fact, maybe it’s better when it’s just on the edge. The characters are only lightly rooted in reality and become increasingly supernatural in the surreal style of David Lynch.

Carnivalesque is the best way to describe both the 1992 World’s Fair setting and the plot. But it’s not just any fair, it’s like Luna Luna, the 1987 West German carnival made in collaboration with artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dalí and Keith Haring. I visited the recently reconstituted version of the Luna Luna park in Los Angeles funded by Drake and other art world investors. Sadly, it was all roped off rides that have become priceless to art collectors and worthless to carnies. If Kittentits were running the show, we’d all be taking joy rides on that Basquiat ferris wheel and vomiting all over the Keith Haring merry-go-round. Holly Wilson’s writing combines the best of this high-low-experience of high brow surreality and greasy funnel cakes.

I received an digital advance reader copy from NetGalley and Gillian Flynn Books in exchange for an honest review.

I found the vibe of this book unnerving and the dialog hard to follow, I was disappointed in the ending.

sigh, if i must be honest i hated this. i would not have attempted to finish if i was not reading an ARC of this. messy, hard to follow plot with unnecessarily offensive language, this is the second book from gillian flynn’s publishing company that i have regretted reading!

I have a hard time getting into this book. I also feel like the writing style is a bit off. I'm not really fond of some of the slurs in this book. 

Thank you Netgalley for the review copy.

Thank you to Zando, Gillian Flynn Books and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I DNF at 29% as the character of Molly was very unrealistic and unlikeable. I also didn't like the writing which was very chaotic and didn't really see what the point of the book was.

Won't be rating this book outside of NetGalley not to lower its ratings.

I tried really hard to get into this one, but I just wasn't able to. I am still really thankful to the publisher, author, and netgalley for granting me advanced access to this digital collection before publication day.

I really expected to love this quirky book, but, sadly, that was not the case. It had an intriguing premise, and was wildly inventive, but unfortunately, it wandered all over the place, in and out of reality to the point where I couldn't tell who was real and who was a ghost, and finally . . . I just stopped caring.

This book is undoubtedly a unique reading experience. Molly takes the reader on a wild ride while she deals with grief in incredibly unconventional ways.

I enjoyed the book and laughed out loud several times. However the book also includes slurs that I found offensive and unnecessary for the story. I can't recommend this book to other readers due to this content.

Thank you, NetGalley and Zando, Gillian Flynn books for this advanced reader’s copy. Molly’s mother died when she was young and she is tired of living with her half-blind father and annoying step-mother. When Jeannie moves in, 10 year old Molly wants to be her best friend and be just like her, even though Jeannie is 23 years old and she treats her like crap. The story takes an endearing turn when Molly befriends a ghost at a seance, runs away from home, and decides she is going to figure out how to summon her mother’s ghost. This book is a bit irreverent and Molly is quite the little character, but overall the ending is very sweet.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Kittentits follows ten year old spitfire Molly as she befriends 23 year old ex-con Jeanie.

This is one of those books that is not going to be for everyone, and that's because it's an adult fiction novel starring a ten year old who curses like a sailor. The experience of reading this book as an adult felt similar to when I was a young teen reading Catcher in the Rye for the first time; once I got over the initial pearl-clutching shock driven by my Southern Christian Raised sensibilities, this book was an absolute riot to read, and I was pleasantly surprised by its handful of moments of emotional richness. Molly is crass, and Molly is so ridiculous I cannot even articulate it in this review, but she also feels so authentic to the kind of kid who's so desperate to grow up, she'll act like an adult any way she can think of. The adults in Molly's life just happen to generally suck at being adults. As the story unfolded, my annoyance with her gave way to a strange endearment; the more I learned about her, the more I learned how to root for her.

The plot itself is in some ways all over the place, and certainly exists at a level of ridiculousness that's often difficult to buy into. There are ghosts, thought-forms, there's necromancy, hot air balloon accidents, bra shopping at JC Penney's, and so much more. I like a book that will take me for a ride, and this one most certainly did. But I think what makes this book special, what makes it a masterful execution of this kind of story, is that it still managed to draw out rich and relatable themes that will leave me thinking about this book for a long time. In particular, the seance in which Molly and her friend Demarcus attempt to reconnect with their mothers was a moment that tugged my heartstrings in all kinds of directions. This moment was one of bittersweet transformation that will stick with me for awhile.

I think the thing that sets this book apart for me the most is that it made me want to revisit my high school (or college, given Molly's vocabulary) English Lit classroom and dig into this text with my peers. There's so much richness to unearth, I'm certain the discussions would go on for hours.

Like I said, this book won't be fore everyone. It may not even be for most people. But the readers who can dig through the over-the-top crassness that is Molly will unearth a genuinely beautiful, touching, and memorable story that I cannot recommend enough.

Thank you to NetGalley, Zando, and Dreamscape_Media, for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this, and everything about its premise and look really caught my attention. And when I started, I thought it might be one of my favorites of the year. But unfortunately, it quickly fell off for me.

Its about a foul-mouthed 10 year old named Molly who can see ghosts. She latches on to some problematic people as she seeks love and approval, while also denouncing the need for either.

Truthfully, its hard to sum up the rest of what happens because I had such a hard time keeping up with the book. The writing is very confusing and not straightforward at all. It's hard to keep track of what's going on.

I thought I might enjoy her irreverance, but Molly quickly became one of the moat obnoxious and annoying characters I have ever come across in a book. Hollly Wilson is probably going for something reflective and insightful with Molly's view on the world. However, Molly's racism and use of different slurs, especially the r-slur really just rubbed me the wrong way. And it doesnt feel like shes ever really confronted or called out on it, regardless of the 90s time setting. These aspects never really sit right with me.

I committed myself and pushed through, using a combination of the ebook and audiobook, but it wasn't very enjoyable. Unfortunately, it's hard to recommend.

"Kittentits" by Holly Wilson is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered, and I’ve read a lot of odd books. The protagonist, Molly, is a riot—think a 10-year-old female Kenny Powers dropped into "Welcome to the Dollhouse" with a side trip through "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Her blunt, hilarious observations had me saving quotes like a prepubescent girl stuffing her bra.

This tale dives into grief, freedom, friendship, family, and being unapologetically badass. Molly's wild escapades make you question her reliability as a narrator, but honestly, who cares? It's just so imaginative and entertaining. The chaos she describes is so vivid and bizarre that you can't help but be pulled into her world.

Fire, blood, ghosts, boobs, and 90s vibes—this book has it all. Every page is a trip, delivered with a sharp wit that keeps you laughing and slightly bewildered. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions and outrageous scenarios, but at its core, it’s about staying true to yourself. If you’re in the market for a read that’s bold, unique, and thoroughly entertaining, "Kittentits" is the ticket. Just buckle up and enjoy the ride.

This was just not for me. I did not like that it was the POV of a ten year old, which I didn't know this wouldn't work for me when I requested it. Thank you anyways for the ARC and I hope this finds its audience!