Many novels portray characters in physical pain, but Mona Awad goes beyond that to give us Miranda Fitch, one time actor, current college theater director, whose chronic pain is visceral and central to the themes of this book. Miranda also has to deal with the rebellion of her drama students as they badger her to perform Macbeth rather than Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, an odd play neither tragedy nor comedy. Fortunately for Miranda, the theater is a magical place and she is about to get help from three mysterious suited men with tapping black leather shoes.

A truly bizarre and darkly interesting read. If you love books with masterful character transformations and eery plots, you will love this gripping novel from Mona Awad. I read it in 4 hours on a quiet afternoon and it left me feeling both disturbed and enlightened. The story follows Miranda, a theater professor who suffers from chronic pain and is willing to do almost anything to return to health. As the story progresses, you’ll see each character from new angles as every seemingly odd moment builds up toward the final act. I found the ending to be a bit muddled but I was engaged all the way through. I would recommend this book to readers who love Shakespeare, mysticism, and a little bit of spookiness.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ebook ARC in exchange for my review.

I'm not sure if it's me or I wasn't in the mood for the book or what, but I'm left feeling like I read a very different book from all of the other reviewers. I really didn't care for this one, it didn't feel darkly comedic, it was just page after page of complaining and moaning. Very difficult to finish this one.

2 stars.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Okay so unpopular opinion time. I did not like this book. This is the first book that I've read by Mona Awad, and I don't think that her writing or the style of the story is for me. The story is clever, the use of description is fantastic, and the reader will be thoroughly sucked into the story. I however felt like I was getting whiplash while I was reading. There were jumps to scenes within scenes and jumps to what Miranda was thinking compared to what was actually happening. The characterization of Miranda and the other main characters is great, and you will have very complicated feelings towards everyone.

While I can see how this will become a favorite for many, this book was just not for me.

2.5/5

In a deft balancing act of Shakespeare and chronic illness, Mona Awad uses her characteristic dark humor and magical realism to get to the heart of something in the academy. Here, Awad follows the main character, whose debilitating chronic pain has led her to pills and a string of ineffective physical therapy providers (some of them super sketchy), until in a Macbethian turn, she runs into three men at a bar who offer her a drink and a change in exchange for a "good show."

What follows is a twisted, Faustian bargain of a book, playing on themes of Macbeth, All's Well that Ends Well, and even, I'd argue, Midas. Awad's heroine is interesting, and told in the first person, the reader is immersed in her twisted reality where truly, even by the end, it is unclear what is real and what is not.

But that's the stagecraft that Awad pulls off here. Recommended.

I hardly know how to rate this or review it. Mona Awad tends to do that to me. I absolutely loved Bunny and 13 Ways but I wasn’t hooked on this one from the start. If it wasn’t Mona I might not have finished it, but I had faith in her.

However, her writing was still magical as always and I found the book actually affecting me. I almost felt like the characters in the book who were touched by Miranda, her words penetrating my mind and keeping me up at night.

I have a lot of things to think about now. How we all may want to pass our pain on and have a break but at what cost? Who do we bring down with us? Does suffering make you stronger? A better person?

Mona’s writing is just so good, so weird, so otherworldly. I’ll read anything she writes every time. This wasn’t my favorite book of hers but it was still one of the most unique things I’ve ever read and I know I won’t forget it.

*Thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing me with this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*

ALL’S WELL follows Miranda, a college theatre professor and former theater actor. Miranda suffers from chronic pain due to a fall from the stage during her last performance which ended her career and led to the end of her marriage as well. She now has an unhealthy dependence on painkillers and is close to being fired. She pushes to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well but is met with a wall of disapproval from her cast and the administration. As she’s slowly giving up hope, suddenly she meets three strange men in a bar who miraculously reinvigorate her so she can go on to give them a good show... but at what cost?

I would describe this book as a darkly comedic and witty whirlwind of a novel. Mona Awad’s writing is captivating and perfect as always. Miranda quickly falls down the rabbit hole and watching her transformation is eerily consuming and very theatric. I really connected with this idea of a pain that can not be easily seen and validated. It’s not like a broken arm, or a gushing wound, or anything that you look at and think “yes, that must hurt”. The fact that everyone around Miranda’s life, her friends, family, even doctors, are dismissing her pain as being mentally fueled (“it’s all in your head”) really resonated with me. This is less a book about a university production and more about human pain and how far one will go to rid of that pain.

After BUNNY and ALL’S WELL, I think I’m now a Mona Awad fan and will be reading every book she writes.

I have many mixed feelings about this book. I attempted to read the author’s previous book Bunny about three times before finishing it. I did not enjoy that book. This one however, I have a love/hate relationship.

Miranda suffers from chronic back pain and despite numerous doctors visits and various treatments it doesn’t appear to get any better. She numbs the pain with alcohol and a cocktail of pain pills.

She is also a drama teacher whom none of the students respect. She wants to perform the play Alls Well. The students protest as they want Macbeth.

The ending is not straightforward and is left to interpretation.

As someone who suffers from chronic illness/pain I can whole heartedly relate to the character of Miranda and in that respect I think the character was well written. It brought back memories of my experiences as well as the emotions that accompanied them.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I don't know how to describe this book without ruining some of the plot points for future readers. It's dark and hilarious and sad and confusing. You will find yourself rooting for Miranda, hating Miranda, laughing along with Miranda, all while enjoying the story. The ending is open to interpretation. The prose is gorgeous and pulls you in: when Miranda is in pain, you feel the darkness and despair; when Miranda is high on painkillers, you feel the dreamy, unreal quality of her observations; and when Miranda is happy, you are giddy and giggling right along with her.

"Miranda Fitch’s life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating, chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now she’s on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the play that promised, and cost, her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That’s when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda’s past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what’s coming to them, and the invisible, doubted pain that’s kept her from the spotlight is made known.

... All’s Well is the story of a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain."

Thanks to NetGalley for the free Arc in exchange for my honest review.

I read Mona Awad’s Bunny earlier this year and it quickly became one of my favorite books. My hopes for her upcoming novel, All’s Well were high and they were definitely exceeded. This story follows a theater director who deals with chronic pain. She’s directing her students in a production of All’s Well That Ends Well and she has a feeling they will revolt because they want to perform Macbeth. At the beginning of this story, the mood feels a little tense but generally normal but as the story progresses, things start to feel uncomfortable. This feeling of discomfort stuck with me for the entire novel and I was never sure what to expect next. When the real action of the story begins, it almost feels like a dream and that really woke me up, so to speak. From there, I devoured this fantastic story and continued to be shocked and thrilled by every twist. If you’re looking for a weird, uncomfortable story that discusses what it means to be an aging woman with chronic pain, this is the one for you. Definitely pick this up on August 3.

I loved Bunny by Mona Awad. It was such a crazy book that he kept wondering what happened in the best of ways by the time I got to the end. This was written in a similar style but the storyline itself wasn’t quite as entertaining. I felt for the main character and her chronic pain that was overlooked by others. I worried for her as well as felt repulsed by her thoughts at times. It was an interesting read, but not fully captivating.

Mona Awad’s latest novel is for theater lovers. Miranda Fitch is struggling in her job as a college drama teacher with persistent back pain from an accident that cut short her acting career. She is perpetually popping pills to alleviate pain and she feels “dead on the inside.” She feels passionately about directing her students in Shakespeare’s lesser loved, All’s Well that Ends Well, even though none of the students want to put on this play; they’d rather be in Macbeth. After meeting three mysterious stage benefactors, her life begins to change and things begin to go her way. Part revenge plot, part pandora story, Awad’s novel is eerie and smart, subversive and darkly comical. I loved this novel. Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Mona Awad's writing is a tragicomedy fever dream that I seem to fall into and can't escape from until I turn the last page.

And I love it.

Bunny is probably one of my favorite books and when I saw that Awad had another book coming out this Fall, I was ecstatic - even more so when I was approved for an ARC.

All's Well is the story of Miranda, an ex-actress turned college theatre professor after a fall ended her career and left her with a chronic injury that no one else seems to take seriously. Over time, her friend and colleague has become distant, she's divorced from her husband, and all her doctors and physical therapists blame her intense pain on anxiety and stress. To top it off, Miranda feels a mutiny starting amongst her student cast members of All's Well That Ends Well, as they have been pushing to perform Macbeth instead. However, everything changes with Miranda has a few drinks with three mysterious men who leave her with a gift to change her life...in exchange for a good show.

I tore through this book in less than 3 days. Thought about it when I wasn't reading it. I really enjoyed it, even if I didn't love it as much as I loved Bunny. Awad really captures the experience of living with chronic health problems, the isolation and pain from the disbelief of others when they realize it won't just be an easy fix. The frustration and despair that sets in when no doctor seems to have a straight answer for you. At times the accuracy of it made me have to put down the book and take a breather to ground myself.

Awad has such great characters - characters who I do not like and yet understand and care about and want to see them be okay in the end. They feel very real, very complicated, and very messy and I love that. Miranda is awful at times, so selfish, and so terrible to those around her - and yet I completely understand why. Her pain and frustration at living with chronic pain is so very real and isolating.

If anything, my only complaint was that I felt things dragged a little bit near the end - got a bit repetitive, a little stale. But oh I love how Awad blends the lines between reality and fantasy and the strangeness and confusion that comes with it that I couldn't put the book down.

I can't wait to see what Mona Awad writes next.

I’m so torn about how to rate this book, because it’s well-written but just absolutely not my taste. The stream of consciousness, trapped in the main character’s mind style of narration was hard for me to follow and while I certainly appreciate the commentary on women and chronic pain/illness, I struggled the entire time with Awad’s drifts into absurdity. I know that many readers love this style and find the dark humor pitch perfect, but it’s just a miss for me. Again, Awad is a very talented writer, but I am just not the target audience for this work.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance reader’s copy.

Wow wow wow. This is my first time reading Mona Awad, and I immediately earmarked her other books. She is so witty, and I often found myself laughing out loud at the absurdly real life of Miranda Fitch. Awad can be hyper vivid and simultaneously surreal in her prose. She deftly draws us into the complexities of opioid addiction, a world not often touched by as much humor as pain but somehow Awad shows us both, humanizing her subject even more. This is one of my favorite pieces of fiction I have read in a long time--modern, brilliant, hilarious--and I'm so happy to have discovered a new author obsession! Thanks so much to NetGalley & Simon and Schuster for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release date is August 3rd. Hurry up and pre-order, you will not be disappointed!

Essentially, a former theater actor who suffers from chronic pain enters a faustian deal which heals her at harrowing costs. As a lover of Shakespeare and someone with chronic pain myself, I thought I'd enjoy this novel but I felt it fell flat for me. This book is probably better suited for someone who can read a novel with their tongue planted firmly in cheek- while I found the book suffered from a confusing writing style and an insufferable protagonist, the plot itself was compelling and the creative homage to Shakespearean classics was enjoyable.

There's a difference between having unlikeable characters that you can't stand and then unlikeable characters that no matter how awful they are, you love them. The author has mastered the unlikeable-loved character. This was different and refreshing while creepy and puzzling at times. Also, I was sucked in immediately by the voice of the main character. Well done! This is my first Awad book, but not the last!

All's Well is one of my most anticipated reads for this entire year, and I couldn't have been happier when I received this ARC from NetGalley and Simon & Shuster. However, it took me a few weeks before I finally picked it up.

Mona Awad is too smart for me. I have read her three novels now, and from the very first one, I knew this. Her writing is this beautiful and poetic, with so many layers. The type of layers that I imagine a Literature Professor would enjoy spending weeks unfolding and analyzing. It is beautiful while at the same time being visceral and ... weird, for lack of a better term.

Awad knows how to write unlikable characters in the best way. I don't know that I've liked any characters in any of her books, save for maybe one side character in each novel (in this one, it's Hugo). Miranda is exhausting and pessimistic in the best way. I think choosing to have Miranda narrate the story makes it so much more impactful and I feel like many people who dislike this book (let's be honest - all of Mona Awad's books are pretty polarizing) are ones who will not be able to stand reading from her perspective.

If I had to be nitpicky, I might give the book 4.5 stars instead of 5, just because it wasn't "I have to pick this back up and finish it right now" material. But that's more on me, needing to take a break from the heaviness of the writing. This is one book I'll definitely be buying the print version of (in both covers because.. they're both gorgeous!).

I. Love. Mona. Awad. I love Mona Awad so much. I about lost my mind when I saw she had a new book coming out, because her last book, "Bunny," immediately went on my "Top 10 Favorites of All Time" list. "All's Well" is ... almost impossible to describe but some words that come to mind are:

Magically surreal
Satirically gothic.... gothically satirical?
Campus drama to the nth degree
Deeply theatrical (obviously)
Completely defiant of whatever it is you might expect it to be

I don't want to say too much about the plot (which you can read about elsewhere), but know that this trippy tale of a retired-actress-turned-drama-professor is a spooky wild ride that is unlike anything you've read before. Do I fully understand exactly what went down in this book? No, I do not. And that doesn't bother me at all because the fogginess (both literal and figurative) feels important. Like the main character, we're all just doing our best to muddle through the details, aren't we?

Wow, Mona Awad's books are a special treat for me. This was tense, creepy, and moving. The discussions around disability and the emotional harm of feeling disconnected because of that really hit home for me. The slow descent into cruelty and madness was incredibly uncomfortable in the best way. The climax was beautiful and terrifying. I love this book.