I finished reading this, wondering where the humor would be. Amy is guilt ridden, a loner, and does a lot of strange things. Her anxiety is ruling her life. She imagines herself as an EMT, even though she has failed the test twice. Her childhood was her clashing with her mother. Her wrong choices seem to make a mess of her life and in anger she does stupid, impulsive things.
I’m not a fan of reading books that have a devastated character.

This story and writing style was not exactly what I was expecting, which surprised me and drew me in. I loved the writing style and voice of the character. We really got in this character's head and thought processes for her decisions. The voice and style of this reminded of Milk Fed (though storylines are different). I would describe this book as darkly funny, but in a more somber and bleak way and not in a laugh out loud way. There are many instances of second hand embarrassment. This is a fav cover of the year for me and I am excited to see what this author does next.

This was an interesting millennial novel about a young woman who has lost her way. Similar to The New Me by Halle Butler, but a bit more optimistic. I like how this novel wrestles with the idea of deceiving the self, from the main characters placebo program, to the landlords relationship with the mail order bride. This was a solid read, but the writing didn't blow me away.

Awaiting her final try at the EMT exam, Amy Hanley takes a position as a chambermaid (an on-purpose, self-appointed title). Meanwhile, landlord Gary is practicing dishes for the arrival of his new fiancé from Ukraine, and could use Amy's opinion on them. But the more time they spend, will they each end up veering from what they say is their end goal? Themes of searching and relating, loneliness and anxiety, dreams and isolation are at the heart of McClorey's tale. The choices Amy continues to make in spite of herself feels strangely even more relevant post-2020, as her obsessions and motivations continue to unfold. McClorey's interplay between millennial-dilemma and nuance, here, definitely makes for overall appeal

It's a very Moshfeghian novel. If you like My Year of Rest and Relaxation, you will love Nobody Somebody Anybody

𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐈’𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐞. 𝐈’𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧, 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲.

Amy Harney gets “dizzy with inspiration” reading Florence Nightingale’s biography. She feeds on her quotes, because Amy wants to be an EMT. Her current work as a chambermaid is only a summer job but she is resolved to do her best taking everything she learns and applying it to her future career. What better training to deal with the horrors of medical emergencies than working in an industry that deals with the everyday filth of people’s lives? Nightingale believed in cleanliness and Amy takes her current job seriously, ‘baptizing toothbrushes in hydrogen peroxide’. The wealthy clientele expect the best, and she strives to give it. August 25th marks the date of the EMT exam, and her last chance to pass. Failure is okay when you’re still young. It’s perfectly fine living alone in her apartment, she has her book to study, just the company she needs!

A professor from her past was invested in the placebo effect, one that she decides will help her see her dream become a reality. Just like expecting a pill to take effect, expectation is the key! With this in mind, she concocts her own plan. But where does hope become self-delusion? Does telling people you are living your best life, that everything is falling into place, make it reality?

Amy’s days have been solitary for too long, still carrying grief from her mother’s death, she longs for connection and hates the empty apartment that waits for her at the end of each day. Her landlord Gary has a plan of his own to cure his loneliness, a Ukrainian fiancé, Irina. With the beauty poised to come to America, he needs to polish his skills, cooking in particular. Amy is just the person to test his culinary progress. Invited for dinners, she is ecstatic to finally have made a friend, of sorts. That she already knows more than she lets on about her landlord and his relationship is just the tip of the iceberg. She is crossing lines in every corner of her life, but what is at the core of her need to get closer to Gary? Is she getting comfortable too fast in their friendship? Why is she so weird? Lost and trying to be game, she encompasses the saying ‘fake it till you make it’ but what if that whole envisioning everything is as you wish it were doesn’t work? What if instead you come off as a misunderstood, lying fool? Why is everything so hard for some people and for others it seems so easy?

What are modern people to do when every trail has already been blazed and finding your own fire is impossible? In this day and age, you can’t always muster the energy it takes to feed your ambition if you don’t really believe in the successful self you’re trying to sell. It was a decent read as you can feel the frustration of failure and the madness of self-delusion but I wanted a different ending. We can’t all shoot for the stars and skip through life. If only! There is humor and cringe moments due to overstepping boundaries but from the start the reader learns Amy doesn’t make the best choices when she is up against a wall. This book is a long suffering sigh, if only life was as easy as make believe. Amy is no Florence Nightingale, but she tries.

Publication Date: July 6, 2021

Ecco

I found the story of Amy Harney incredibly boring and not as lightheated/insightful/revolutionary as I had hoped. Did I want to read another "My Year of Rest and Relaxation"....no, because frankly I did NOT enjoy that book. This book just made me sad.

Amy, at a temporary job while she waits to take an EMT exam, is dealing with massive grief and very profound loneliness. She fakes an upbeat personality to hide the truth of her grief.

It's a heavy millennial novel and I'm Gen X. This doesn't have the heavy malaise atmosphere that it wants to.

Amy Harney has a summer job working as a maid at a local yacht club, but her passion is helping people. When she passes her EMT test (fingers crossed, third time's the charm!) she will finally have fulfilled her life's calling. In the meantime, she will keep to herself and spend all of her time studying. That is, until she starts spending time with her landlord, Gary, who as it turns out is her first friend since her mother's death. When she starts to feel anxious about her final chance at passing the EMT test, she decides to be the sole participant in a placebo program of her own making. But what happens when her lies (err, placebo) come to the surface?

This book was so difficult to get through that I almost stopped halfway through. I am depressed enough on my own without all of that nonsense. Basically, it is the story of a young woman suffering from anxiety, depression, and a myriad of other mental illnesses, who can't help but blow up her own life. I wanted to read this book because it was described as "darkly comic." In reality, it was simply the ramblings of an desperate, unhinged maniac (all of which I could have done without).

I requested this because the premise and McClorey's approach sounded like My Year of Rest and Relaxation--an odd book that I really enjoyed--however, this main character wasn't nearly as compelling.

Amy is set up as a lonely, unmotivated, mentally ill woman who has so much test anxiety that she hasn't been able to pass the one for her EMT credentials. Overall, though, I found her to be bland with occasional outbursts of panic or anger resulting in the destruction of herself and others. It was a joyless journey from start to finish, and not in a productive way.

This is not the book I needed or wanted, but it may resonate more with other readers.

I am not sure about how I feel about this book--which is not necessarily a bad thing. It is thought-provoking and made me think about the relationships that I have currently that may need some work.

It brought out all the emotions--some good and some bad.

Amy works as a maid for the summer and is trying to study and re-take a test for her EMT exam. She continually sets herself up for failure because she does not have any confidence in herself due to how she treated her mother (my take on it).

She involves herself in destructive behaviors as a way to punish herself and when she does make any headway she unintentionally ruins everything.

The book was more sad than funny to me, but it does make you think about what should be important in our lives and that is not an altogether bad thing.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review..

What a treat. I loved this book. Very moving portrait of an odd duck – never labeled, which is refreshing – making choices to survive in this society on her own terms. I feel like it anymore detail would be spoiling, if not the outcome than at least the joy of discovery, So I was just totally recommend it to anyone who enjoys unusual depictions of female characters, and women finding the strength to live on their own terms.

A moving and darkly comic debut novel about an anxious young woman who administers a self-made “placebo” treatment in a last-ditch attempt to rebuild her life...
Nobody, Somebody, Anybody
by Kelly McClorey
Pub Date July 6, 2021

The blurb in the book says this is a darkly "comic" debut novel... Unfortunately, I did not find it comic.... I found it terribly sad and tragic. This was not a hit for me. I will not be recommending this book. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

3star

Nobody, Somebody, Anybody was billed as a humorous story of a girl who tries to convince herself that she can pass her EMT test by pretending she already has passed her test - placebo experiment, in her mind. Although the premise is correct, I did not find this story funny. The events that Amy struggles through are more sad than anything else.

I would instead definitely categorize this novel as contemporary fiction and as a great expanded character study. The writing, however is excellent and the storyline moves smoothly.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this digital advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

So I was a little bit conflicted about this book: on the one hand we have this woman who is struggling with mental health, self image, reconciling the loss of a parent and general anxiety, almost delusional? While striving to achieve her career goal as an EMT. in the midst of all of that she’s also in an expletive of sexual awakening or tapping into that part of herself she has neglected because of the aforementioned issues. While all those internal conflicts are super valid and explained pretty well throughout the book- it was hard to find a good redeeming quality of the main character.
She was not the most Likeable, she was constantly muddled in all her thoughts and it seemed she never got any real resolutions or learned much about her experience which was a little discomforting. Though again; a clean happy ending is not always something I expect and sometimes even enjoy.

I will say that halfway through it peaked my interest and I wanted to see how she would grow or not grow and get. Out of her head a little bit. I also found myself incredibly frustrated with her wanting to shake her and do the right think (which if that was the writers intent; mission accomplished)

If you liked MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION this might be a book for you

This is precisely the type of book I can’t stop reading.

It has an interesting premise: Amy wants to be an EMT but has failed the exam twice and only has one more chance. Before she takes the final test, she comes up with a plan—she’s going to convince herself and everyone around her that she already passed. She’s essentially going to become an EMT through a twisted use of the placebo effect.

It has compelling characters: Amy’s in a strange place, emotionally. She’s desperate for purpose and connection, coping with grief in unproductive ways, and veering towards delusion. Gary, her neighbor, is also looking for a meaningful relationship, but taking a different, equally untraditional approach. Neither are entirely likable, but both drew me in.

Most importantly, this book strives to capture the feelings of the dejected, lonely, worn-out millennial. The story itself is unrealistic and exaggerated, sure, but the feelings are there, and that’s what counts.

Nobody, Somebody, Anybody fits snuggly between Convenience Store Woman and My Year of Rest and Relaxation. It’s dark, kind of funny, and hits the spot.

A great choice for fans of Convenience Store Woman and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. This book was intriguing, yet unsettling and introspective. Amy was a richly complex and confounding protagonist and it was interesting to peak inside her head.

There were parts of this story I really liked, for example when it seemed that Amy was actually trying to be a better person.

But then there were the bits that reminded my of every 80s RomCom I've ever watched (none of which I enjoyed), and the bits that reminded me of those times I get stuck inside my own head unable to escape my self-destructive thoughts (none of which I've enjoyed). So on the whole I'm left with the impression of a main character I didn't really enjoy.

In Nobody, Somebody, Anybody, we meet Amy Harney. Amy wants to be an EMT, but she's failed the exam twice. She only has one more shot. While she works at a resort during the summer, she decides to develop her own placebo experiment to help her conquer her test anxiety. The experiment requires that she go about her summer acting as though she has already earned her certification. What ensues is a raw look into how loneliness and desperation can wreck the best-laid plans.

While hopeful, ambitious, and earnest, Amy Harney was also quite delusional. While her emotional state is perfectly understandable considering the grief she's been experiencing for the last six years, the actions she takes throughout the book were jaw-droppingly atrocious at times. The pity that it seemed the author was trying to evoke was worn entirely too thin by the end of the novel. Amy thought very highly of herself, which I normally wouldn't have a problem with, but she had no redeeming qualities to back it up. She was extremely naive as well, which again, I would have been ok with excusing had she not been so critical of others. Her thoughts and behavior bordered on psychopathic, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing (I've read and loved books where the main character is a psychopath), it is when it's not mentioned in the synopsis. Which means it was unintentional. Had the author intended to write a novel about a struggling psychopathic millennial, I would have loved this book.

The one thing that I will commend this book for doing is tackling sadness, desperation, and loneliness amazingly. The feelings were palpable and realistic. It's what brought this book's rating up to 3 stars for me. The quiet despair that was always on the cusp of graduating into something more was very well written.

Within the first few pages, I was reminded of previous novels I have read in which the main character is a bit quirky, perhaps suffering from mental illness (though not directly stated). The writing was very reminiscent of Moshfegh's "My Year of Rest and Relaxation" (which I loved), and I couldn't shake that comparison as I read.

This novel tells the story of Amy, a Florence Nightingale obsessed, twenty-something who longs to pass her EMT exam after several previous failures and employs some crazy placebo tactics in order to help herself out. On the side, she is working as a housekeeper at a yacht club and renting an apartment from a man she is also pseudo-stalking.

Though I had no trouble finishing this one and actually really enjoyed it while reading, there are a few issues that become apparent once you set this one down. First of all, we get hints about Amy's past and her mother's death, but there is no real closure for those events nor is there enough detail given to fully explain Amy's odd behavior; the author clearly wants you to feel a certain way about her, possibly sympathetic, but the character development falls just a bit short. Lastly, the ending is a letdown. I know it is not my novel and not my place to decide how it should end, but it didn't feel right. The whole time, we are reading about these impulsive, strange things Amy does and then she is suddenly poetic at the end? I don't believe it!

It's a quick read, and if you get your hands on it, you'll probably enjoy it! Just be prepared for some negligible disappointment when you finish.

Thank you to Ecco for the advanced digital copy.

I couldn't find any redemption or sympathy for Amy - the main character - except that she was very lonely, to the point of desperation. She wanted friends, wanted a job as a server but when she showed up to the interview the only thing left was a maid position. She cleaned rooms of the elite and practically pawed over their personal items. Then she commits postal crimes against her landlord and fake-friends him due to her loneliness.

Amy also had a creepy, somewhat psychotic attachment to Florence Nightingale. She stepped on toes with her bosses due to her cleanliness obsession. The constant Nightingale references were annoying to say the least. I do believe the worst part of the entire novel was the way she stalked her landlord-turned-friend's romance. I would not have retained her as an employee or tenant in real life unless I had assurances she was under counseling, and would definitely be able to recognize mail tampering. I would've recommended her to the HR department for counseling referral if I thought she could be redeemed.

I commend myself anyone else for finishing it, but it took almost a month to do so. This just wasn't a believable story. Write as if you're only writing for one person, or at least to a targeted audience, and try to stay away from first-person narrative when telling a story of a criminal minded main character.