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e11en's review against another edition
3.0
A dry and deeply ruminative little novel about fame, gender and the transience of life and happiness.
adholliday's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
iphia's review against another edition
2.0
I’m floored that this book is being described as “witty”. The protagonist was so bland as to have almost no personality, and her lack of agency drove me up a wall. My average time finishing a book is 24-48 hours and this book took me weeks. It wasn’t fresh or funny, had no new take. I found it laughable that there were discussion questions at the end! What on earth is there to discuss? This book sounds like it was meant be a commentary on something but it ends up falling completely flat.
evanskike's review against another edition
4.0
Smart, funny, pacey narrative that unfolds over a long weekend. I was caught up from the first page and enjoyed it throughout. The first-person narrator is canny, and the novel does a good job of skewering the contemporary pop culture and media landscape. The story is engaging from the get-go but takes you places you don't expect. Great book!
cinderellasbookshelf's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I thought this book was fine. The plot was interesting but I think the execution did not live up to it completely. I think the characters were possibly on to something, some kind of growth or hope for the future, but in the end we’re just left with a weekend that came and went.
bookcleavage's review against another edition
1.0
I bought this book before I realized it had such a low rating on Goodreads. As I type this review, the average rating is 2.90 stars.
Sounds about right.
This book is so pointless and meandering. And no one is likable. And while unlikable characters doesn’t bother me as long as it’s for a reason and the story is interesting, that wasn’t at all the case for this book.
Sounds about right.
This book is so pointless and meandering. And no one is likable. And while unlikable characters doesn’t bother me as long as it’s for a reason and the story is interesting, that wasn’t at all the case for this book.
book_beat's review against another edition
2.0
I struggled with this book. It lacked likable characters and humor (for being a book about comedians — even sarcastic or dark humor). It was dark & seedy & uncomfortable. The narrator was inconsistent to the point where I couldn’t tell if it was purposeful. And the story was hopeless and cynical. There was a sense of desperation throughout the novel that (to me) made the story’s point feel almost meaningless or too obvious.
I was able to finish because the writing is crisp & the story moves quickly (over one weekend). It has a few elements of The Great Gatsby. But without a “pure, desirable” element and missing a static, reliable narrator.
ARC provided by Scribner for my honest review.
I was able to finish because the writing is crisp & the story moves quickly (over one weekend). It has a few elements of The Great Gatsby. But without a “pure, desirable” element and missing a static, reliable narrator.
ARC provided by Scribner for my honest review.
emilycc's review against another edition
4.0
I haven’t read a ton of reviews of this book, but I imagine the term “millennial malaise” or maybe “millennial ennui” gets used in a lot of them. It felt very generational to me, in that looks at a certain kind of coming of age. What happens when your whole life, you’re told you can do anything, and then you get to the point of doing the thing you wanted to do and it turns out you’re only pretty fine at it, and pretty fine isn’t good enough? It feels like a new take on the midlife crisis of lots of “Great American novels” - the quarter life of crisis of having been told, over and over and over again, that you can do anything and then realizing as an adult that that’s really not the case.
Anyway, this has a lot of great specificity to it that made it fun to read. If you like character-driven stuff and don’t mind characters that are mostly not that likable and/or make bad choices, you might like this. You don’t have to be a comedy person to get it, and I don’t know how accurate the comedy stuff really is, although I thought it was interesting.
Anyway, this has a lot of great specificity to it that made it fun to read. If you like character-driven stuff and don’t mind characters that are mostly not that likable and/or make bad choices, you might like this. You don’t have to be a comedy person to get it, and I don’t know how accurate the comedy stuff really is, although I thought it was interesting.