Reviews

I’m glad the narrator arrived at the right conclusion at the end, but the first half of the book was full of such nauseating self-pity it was really hard to get through.

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3.0

"None of This Is Serious" is sort of if the social media frenzy of "Not Okay" and the climate change metaphor of "Don't Look Up" slammed into a Sally Rooney novel.

Our protagonist, Sophie, has just graduated college, and her friend group of 22-year-olds is struggling to find jobs they thrive in while they move on to their separate lives. Sophie is constantly trapped on social media and in particular, doom scrolling, especially after a giant meteor shower leads to a once-in-a-lifetime astrological phenomena that is a giant "crack" in the sky. The effect of her constant scrolling is a kind of suffocation that undoubtedly mimics her negative self-worth as she compares herself to just about everyone through their Instagram pages.

However, with the background of climate change and impending doom, Sophie is also entangled in a love triangle with Finn, one of her male friends who is (IMO) constantly using her for emotional catharsis and a new love interest Rory, who treats her like a human being — for a while. A large chunk of the book is how she navigates her friendships and relationships while grappling with being chronically online and trying to find herself after college.

While I do agree this was an interesting premise for a so-called "sad girl book" with the lens of how we experience mass tragedy through the internet, I do wish there had been more complexity to Sophie and less mentions of her "refreshing social media."