Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - The Adult

I felt myself hunch, helplessly. I wanted to show her that I wasn't trying to argue, and that if I was accidentally, then I wanted to lose. I wanted her to win.

This is just the kind of book I love to read and will probably never get tired of.

It's a "sad girl book", and you know the author has a MFA degree. The main heroine is an anxiety-ridden teenager (18) who is equally relatable and frustrating. She falls in love with an older woman she knows nothing about. It's a simple story. You will probably enjoy it if you like this type of fiction; and you won't if you don't.

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emilycmarshman's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

After having seen this book literally everywhere - seriously, it seemed like the publisher was running the marketing campaign of the century for this one - and only good reviews from the friends whose taste I trust the most, I decided to pick it up, and God, am I glad that I did!

The Adult follows eighteen-year-old Natalie, who has just moved from her parents' lodge in Northern Canada to Toronto for university. She feels like an outcast, has no clue who she is or what she wants, and doesn't know how to fix herself. Enter Nora - a woman likely three times her age (although it's never specified exactly how old she is) - whom Natalie immediately falls head over heels for. The 300-ish pages that follow are encouraging, and introspective, and a little heartbreaking at times, too.

Natalie begins to spend most of her time at Nora's home pretty quickly after first meeting her. Natalie is a timid girl - she doesn't have many friends, and the friends she does have don't seem to match her personality style very much (very much freshman year of college friends that you part ways with after finding your own cohort) - and she's drawn to Nora's steady sureness. Nora is recently divorced and Natalie is obviously helping her to get back onto her feet after the end of a very long, very serious relationship, but she's unable to see that. She's naïve, and it's painful to watch at times. This relationship Natalie forges with Nora is unsure, and insecure, but it's Natalie's first, and we watch through her eyes as she learns what it is to be someone other people could love.

One thing in particular that this book provided me with was the ability to see myself a little differently. It's told in a prosaic, stream-of-consciousness-esque style, and while I was reading it I was entirely entranced by Fischer's ability to tell a story that made me feel like we were right there with the protagonist. This might sound obvious - duh, Emily, of course you're there with the protagonist - but it felt like we were inside and outside of Natalie's head all at once. Like, while she was figuring out who she was, we were pushed out and pulled back in alongside her. And while I was reading, I found myself thinking about the way I write in my own fiction, and decided to start implementing a stream of consciousness effort into my journaling every day to hone in on that. So - thank you, Bronwyn Fischer, for what I took out of this reading experience!! It's hard to believe this is only her debut.

I enjoyed this book very much and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves to read literary fiction, especially that center queer relationships.

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tinamayreads's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

4.25

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