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signediza's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
amaandaplz's review against another edition
2.5
This book had everything I look for most in a book- female friendship, grief/death, and partying/drugs oh my! The characters, especially the two main female characters were certainly interesting enough to read about with enough interesting stuff in their lives to tell a captivating enough story about, yet it somehow just didn't do it for me. I felt like all of the boring and unimportant parts were focused on way too much, where as the more exciting and more important aspects often felt rushed through. I really wish the author had kept these characters and this world of theirs but just gone back and told the story differently by cutting out a lot of unimportant parts (for example, so many long scenes of her reading random fortunes that were fairly boring and ultimately irrelevant to the story) and replaced these pages with something more exciting that could also somehow create a more cohesive story.
triciadea's review against another edition
2.0
I won an ARC of this book on a Goodreads giveaway. I was so excited to read this, yet so disappointed when I sat down with book in hand. It felt like it took forever for the story plot to develop, and I couldn't stand the characters. Honestly, I would have given this book one star, but it did start to get my attention toward the end. I'm sure some will love this book, but it was not my cup of tea.
tessalitwish's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like I need to say first and foremost that I had A LOT OF FUN reading this book and I gobbled it up in less than a day. I have a few quibbles with it, but I would definitely still recommend this as a fun book to bring on a beach trip. Or better yet- a book to pick up when you need something that you don’t have to think too hard about, because I promise- this book is a lot of fun as long as you don’t stop to think about it too much.
Quick summary: Friends from college Phoebe and Carmen party HARD in New York surrounded by an eccentric and lovable group of friends and a LOT of drugs.
There’s a ton going on in this story- grief over the death of a parent, abortion, personal drug abuse, a heroin epidemic, an affair with a married man, celebrities, swanky college parties, a love triangle, a serial killer, cats, dogs, a rooster, nightclubs, imposter syndrome, fortune-telling (I absolutely loved this storyline- fortune telling with movie ticket stubs- genius), social-ladder climbing, amnesia, mama drama, stalkers, baseball, and John-John. New names cropped up frequently and without much preamble. I kept wondering if I had missed something, but the same people also left the story quickly so it didn’t seem to matter a whole lot.
While the writing was mostly smooth and easy, making this a quick read, there were a few clunky and cringey metaphors that weren’t inaccurate, exactly, but felt forced- such as “taut as guitar strings” and, “The day was clear and peppermint bright.”
So….it’s hard to classify what this book is trying to be, exactly, with all that goes on in less than 300 pages. At a certain point, I was fairly sure the book was going to end up saying something concrete about the 80s heroin epidemic and girls missing and young people ODing. Or maybe the AIDs crisis would make an appearance. But all of a sudden, I stopped to ask myself, “When exactly did this book become a thriller?” And the answer is- at the end.
Which leads me to the wrap-up. An odd and much too neatly tied up ending. I’m not sure what I can say without spoiling it, but there’s a thing about potatoes and a severed finger, and a miracle cleanup by a landlady fairy godmother, and a miraculous new job. However, the part I found most unbelievable was that Phoebe’s mother decided she was doing just fine in New York and left her to it. And that’s saying something- because there was a lot of unbelievable stuff at the end.
So- TL/DR? A fun read, just please suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for the review copy!
Quick summary: Friends from college Phoebe and Carmen party HARD in New York surrounded by an eccentric and lovable group of friends and a LOT of drugs.
There’s a ton going on in this story- grief over the death of a parent, abortion, personal drug abuse, a heroin epidemic, an affair with a married man, celebrities, swanky college parties, a love triangle, a serial killer, cats, dogs, a rooster, nightclubs, imposter syndrome, fortune-telling (I absolutely loved this storyline- fortune telling with movie ticket stubs- genius), social-ladder climbing, amnesia, mama drama, stalkers, baseball, and John-John. New names cropped up frequently and without much preamble. I kept wondering if I had missed something, but the same people also left the story quickly so it didn’t seem to matter a whole lot.
While the writing was mostly smooth and easy, making this a quick read, there were a few clunky and cringey metaphors that weren’t inaccurate, exactly, but felt forced- such as “taut as guitar strings” and, “The day was clear and peppermint bright.”
So….it’s hard to classify what this book is trying to be, exactly, with all that goes on in less than 300 pages. At a certain point, I was fairly sure the book was going to end up saying something concrete about the 80s heroin epidemic and girls missing and young people ODing. Or maybe the AIDs crisis would make an appearance. But all of a sudden, I stopped to ask myself, “When exactly did this book become a thriller?” And the answer is- at the end.
Which leads me to the wrap-up. An odd and much too neatly tied up ending. I’m not sure what I can say without spoiling it, but there’s a thing about potatoes and a severed finger, and a miracle cleanup by a landlady fairy godmother, and a miraculous new job. However, the part I found most unbelievable was that Phoebe’s mother decided she was doing just fine in New York and left her to it. And that’s saying something- because there was a lot of unbelievable stuff at the end.
So- TL/DR? A fun read, just please suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for the review copy!
melannrosenthal's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mghnhill's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse and Murder
ohiobookgal's review against another edition
2.0
I had high hopes for this one, the idea of getting a peak into the 80s club scene and a book on friendship had me gravitating toward it, but unfortunately it fell flat for me. Phoebe (the MC) is someone who desperately wants to be liked by others and for reasons I never fully understood, becomes borderline obsessed with her friend Carmen, a spoiled rich girl she meets in college. I really didn’t feel like either girl showed character growth, unless I count Phoebe becoming more unlikable as the book goes on. For a book about sex, drugs and the NYC club scene, it took a long time for things to actually start to happen. The plot slowly develops and by the time it picked up I was struggling to stick with it. Perhaps it was intentional but I thought all the characters were horrible - Carmen and Phoebe had an unhealthy friendship and frankly were pretty terrible to each other, to the guys they dated and to their families. It was a short book and I stuck with it because I wanted to see where it would go. This is a gritty dark take on friendship and young adults finding their way in life. I’m sure there will be people who love this, it just wasn’t for me. 2/5⭐️
natyweiss's review against another edition
4.0
-ARC provided by publisher in exchange for honest review-
Coming of age historical fiction novel set in the bohemian New York of the 1980's, from the time when in the meatpacking district were actual meat warehouses. Phoebe, a very young woman from Baltimore, moves to the East Village with her friend Carmen, a native New Yorker. Both of them got lost in this decadent, self destructive ambiance. Here, during the wild nights at the nightclub Plutonium, Phoebe becomes Astrid, a peculiar fortune teller that can read the future on movie ticket stubs instead of Tarot cards.
One night, and due to a "bad batch", Carmen's boyfriend od'd and died. While Carmen is out of town attending her boyfriend's funeral, Phoebe seizes the opportunity and betrays her.
Sex, drugs and rock and roll abound in this book that is a journey to a time when success was measured in social interactions and the size of your entourage and the nights were a parade of Beatnicks and ItGirls.
It is a character driven story that exposes the inner transformation of a young, innocent girl in a being full of cynism and recklessness.
Towards the end, there's an interesting genre twist.
I really, really enjoyed this book. It's well written and the idea flawlessly executed.
Coming of age historical fiction novel set in the bohemian New York of the 1980's, from the time when in the meatpacking district were actual meat warehouses. Phoebe, a very young woman from Baltimore, moves to the East Village with her friend Carmen, a native New Yorker. Both of them got lost in this decadent, self destructive ambiance. Here, during the wild nights at the nightclub Plutonium, Phoebe becomes Astrid, a peculiar fortune teller that can read the future on movie ticket stubs instead of Tarot cards.
One night, and due to a "bad batch", Carmen's boyfriend od'd and died. While Carmen is out of town attending her boyfriend's funeral, Phoebe seizes the opportunity and betrays her.
Sex, drugs and rock and roll abound in this book that is a journey to a time when success was measured in social interactions and the size of your entourage and the nights were a parade of Beatnicks and ItGirls.
It is a character driven story that exposes the inner transformation of a young, innocent girl in a being full of cynism and recklessness.
Towards the end, there's an interesting genre twist.
I really, really enjoyed this book. It's well written and the idea flawlessly executed.
charnellehutson's review against another edition
4.0
Astrid Sees All was such a fun read! It was different (in a good way) What intrigued me the most about this book when I first learned about it was the setting! It sounded very artsy and very grunge and I loved it. It so fun seeing Astrid/Phoebe during her time in NYC and seeing how her and her friend Carmen lived. The author was very realistic and didn’t hold back on how much drug usage there was during that time. I honestly felt that Phoebe and Carmen were the epitome of lost souls and it was very amusing seeing their journey through NYC and pretending to have everything figured out. I thought this book was clever, fun, and above all creative.