I’d love to follow Mona Awad around and just tell her how wonderful I think she is. Awad’s sense of humor always hits the spot. I was a little intimidated to start because I am no Shakespeare buff, but Awad does a great job at connecting the play to the story. It really was life imitating art. This has the same sharp wit and superb prose as Bunny, but it was a different story. And while I really enjoyed All’s Well, I definitely prefer Bunny (I mean the bunnies were just one of a kind). I will read anything she writes. And no, I still don’t fully understand the ending 🤷🏻‍♀️

All's Well
By Mona Awad

This is one of those strange books that leaves you thinking "…but what does this mean?". It is the story of Miranda Fitch, a promising actress who has had her career, her marriage – yes, her very life – destroyed by a fall off the stage during a performance of Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well". She is reduced to teaching theater and producing a high school production of the same play while living with constant relentless pain.

One night, while drinking alone in a pub, Miranda meets three men who change the course of her life. But there is, as always, a price to pay for favors granted. As Miranda feels herself getting better and stronger, she unknowingly passes on her pain to others. She becomes horrified when she realizes what is happening, but the fates or witches or whatever these men represent drive her on to the point where she must make her choices about what she has done and what she might be able to undo.

The writing here is good. There are a few minor loose ends left unresolved, but the tale leaves the reader with much to ponder about what changes we would all make in our lives if we could and if we knew how those changes would affect others.

This was a very interesting and enjoyable ride. I'm still not quite sure what happened, what was real and what wasn't, and the ending left a lot of questions. I'm currently watching High School Musical The Musical The Series so the school theater setting was similar, but this story is certainly unlike anything I read or watched so far this year. In the midst of the magical, dream-like narrative the novel also deals with some important themes, and creates an ultimately enjoyable story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the ebook. When Miranda Fitch fell off a stage during a theater performance, her life has never been the same. From the fall she’s had severe hip, back and leg pains that have ended her acting career, led to the end of her marriage and finally led her to a teaching position in a small New England college where part of her duties are to direct a play by Shakespeare every Spring. Through the pain she is trying to stage All’s Well That Ends Well, but her students and faculty are fighting her to change it to Macbeth. Miranda is a great character who leads us through all her battles with a great frankness and humor as she fights not only the people in front of her, but maybe even a few others that no one else can see. An epically fun story.

Mona Awad has knocked another one out of the park! Her ability to get inside the head of our "hero" Miranda is extraordinary and somewhat frightening. As a fan (still) of the series Slings and Arrows and the mother of a former theater major/ summer Shakespeare festival crew member, I had to read this. And I love it. Miranda takes the reader on a wild ride immersed in her terrible pain , black depression and bright red mania. This is not a beach read. It's humor arises out of Miranda's isolation and view of a world that does not see or credit her inner experience. So buckle up and enjoy the ride.

This was my first Mona Awad book but I was desperate to get my hands on it after how much I had heard about Bunny.

I chose to go into this book fairly uninformed and this was an overwhelming book. I mean that in a good way. You are so inside Miranda's mind that you are just overwhelmed with all of her feelings and emotions (even when she may not be).

It was definitely an interesting experience, for me, to be in the mind and body of someone with chronic pain and just how difficult daily life can be. Not only is it hard to just get by day-to-day but for no one to believe you makes it so much worse. Early on you really sympathize with Miranda and the fight shes fighting. She's physically exhausted, but socially invisible. No one wants to deal with her more than they have to because her pain makes them uncomfortable. When you see people being dismissive you get that sense of "walk a mile in their shoes before you judge" that when things start getting Mystical you aren't completely against Miranda's actions. It wasn't really until Act 3 that I truly felt Miranda had lost it entirely.

My only real complaint was the ending and truly it was a GREAT ending. I just wanted more. the mystical and unexplained aspect I think was incredibly fitting, I just love have all the answers which i didnt entirely get here. However I do recognize that as a personal issue and not a flaw of the book itself.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to get an early copy of this book to review. I love this author she really delivered with this latest novel. I thought the characters were amazing and so well-developed... I'm still thinking about it a week later!

Oh this book was a whole trip of a Novel I had no idea what to expect with this one as this was my first book by Mona Awad and I’d heard only so many people say Awad’s Last book bunny was so weird,wild and wonderful all wrapped in one!

So going into this book I just had a vision of this book going down a out there route! And oh it sure did that after I’d read this book... I just sat down and was thinking what have I just read! And I had to process it all!
This book was like if your walking along and then all of a sudden you fall down a rabbit hole and get transformed into a darker and darker world as the book goes on and on inch by inch!

I can definitely people enjoying this book! For me though it was an okay book and just left me feeling a little dazed and confused!

It took me a couple of weeks since I finished this book to come back and write my review.

In a similar fashion to Bunny, Mona Awad sends the reader into a strange universe where things are and aren't at the same time, and sometimes reality and hallucinations mix up.

I won't talk about the story. I'll tell you about my experience with the book. I felt like a witness in Miranda's (main character) spiral down into deep depression caused by her horrible pain. One that I could feel along with her. Only to later on experience the frenzy of mania. As Miranda goes in one manic episode, so did I as well. I am convinced this was Awad's intention.

This book is one to experience. It's not just about a story, it comes with a roller coaster of emotions included for the reader to feel along with the main character. I think this is Mona Awad's talent. I loved it.

4.5/5⭐️
Thank you to Netgalley for an arc of this book!
Mona Awad never ceases to amaze me with her beautiful all-consuming writing style.
All's well follows a theatre director with chronic pain as she attempts to put on a production of All's Well that Ends Well. Her life is all consumed by the pain she is experiencing and no one seems to believe that she is suffering from anything at all. She meets 3 men at a pub with whom she strikes a deal and finds that her pain has disappeared almost overnight.
The writing in this book as I said before was just truly so phenomenal. Awad does such a good job of really planting the reader in the mind of the main character, Miranda her behaviors and actions almost feel justified when looking through the lens we are provided. I am not an avid Shakespeare fan so I'm sure I missed a couple of nods to his plays but I don't think that took away from my enjoyment of the book in any way. The tone of this book is so captivating, I could hardly put it down. I highly recommend picking up this book to anyone and everyone, it truly is a masterpiece of a book filled with witty remarks and thoughtful insights.

Mona Awad again negotiates the world of the body and its failures. Following 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl and Bunny, All's Well is set in a failing college drama department where Miranda tries to maintain her position as director of All's Well that Ends Well. So much against her: lackluster talent in the student acting pool who agitate for putting on MacBeth instead, few resources in the two-professor department, painkillers, a divorce, and -- most significantly -- incessant back and leg pain following an accident. Yet this isn't as depressing a story as it may seem.

The first page sucked me in as Miranda describes herself lying on the floor in excruciating pain which she describes with ascerbic wit amid a chaotic jumble of thoughts. The characterizations of the college acting student types, along with Miranda's take on all of them, are spot-on and hilarious. At the same time, Miranda's serious chronic pain is center stage -- in her own body and in the novel. She recalls the many doctors she has consulted and their various degrees of doubt and inept advice. No one, not even her colleague in the department, believes she is in the kind of pain she describes. Still she tries very hard to disguise the pain from her students, who conclude she is either crazy or high.

The students are another pain in her butt (ha!) as their planned coup gains energy. However, soon Miranda meets 3 mysterious strangers who give her the ability to lose her pain and forge on toward her goals. Hmmmm. When shall we meet again? Who would have thought to mash-up Shakespeare in such a way? Only Mona Awad.

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This novel is dark, and heart wrenching, and funny, and strange. I flew through a giant section of the book all at once and then read the rest in tiny bite-sized portions, not because I disliked it but because I was so on edge. This book does not answer the reader’s every question, which I kind of love. It kind of reminds me of I’m Thinking of Ending Things (the movie, not the book) with its weird dream-like sequences and that blend of strangeness and bone-deep empathy. (Particularly the scene of Jesse Plemons performing Lonely Room.)

This book felt refreshingly different and original and wholly itself, even with the obvious parallels to All’s Well That Ends Well, a play I haven’t actually read. I thought the protagonists’ chronic pain well done and empathetic, towards the protagonist but also other supporting characters.

I picked this up on a whim without completely understanding the plot, only that it was about a college theater department and that people liked Bunny by the same author, and had a great time with it. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC! (less)

I love me some Shakespeare. Though I must confess, I'm not as familiar with the titular play, All's Well that Ends Well. Awad takes us back to another college campus with a tale of cautionary pain. Miranda (a nod to the Tempest) lives with chronic pain which she tries to alleviate through copious prescription drug use, unconventional physical therapy, and self-medication. Her theater class doesn't respect her, nor do they believe in her pain - TW: ableism. At rock bottom, With shades of the three witches in MacBeth, which is referenced quite often, Miranda meets three men in a bar who offer her a golden elixir. She becomes able to transfers her pain to others; striking down her opponents to various effects, as she goes into a manic whirlpool of delusion.

I loved the spookiness and horror Awad wrote with a deft touch in Bunny, and her self-examining characters in 13 Ways of Looking At A Fat Girl. This book didn't meet the mark for me, Much like her theater group, I just don't quite believe Miranda - her pain and agony are well-done, but the psychotic break left me feeling meh.

That being said, I am still a Mona Awad fan, just hoping she leaves youth and academia behind in her next venture. 3.4/5 stars

Loved it!

Am I surprised? No. I didn't expect anything less from Awad. I absolutely loved Bunny, and I loved All's Well. Awad has an ability to transport you to the book's world and allow you to get lost in the characters and story.

Brush up your Shakespeare, we're about to go on a wild ride.
Miranda Fitch is in constant pain after an on-stage accident ruined her acting career. Doctor's won't believe her suffering is real. She fixates on the husband that's left her and what could have been. Now, depressed in her job as a college theatre director, she hopes to put on a production of the Bard's famously problematic All's Well That Ends Well, but is told she must put on Macbeth instead to appease her student cast. All seems hopeless until she meets three wyrd businessmen who whisper memories of her glory days and promises of what could-be.
Things begin improving drastically for Miranda- her pain disappears, her love life improves, and she finally gets to put on the play that made her a star. What seems like a dream come true, however, unfolds into a nightmare she never imagined.

Reading like a Shakesperan acid-trip, Mona Awad's latest novel delves into our heroine's tragic story with insight into how society writes off female pain. I would say it is less humorous than critics are saying and I consider this to fit under the horror genre. As a former thespian, I appreciated the Shakesperean symbolism. Anyone who has ever taken a college theatre class will get a kick out of this book. Beautifully written, but also highly disturbing, this novel might stick around with you after you've finished. It certainly did for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC of this book.

I received an ARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an impartial review.

Mona Awad's head is such a gleeful, dark and glorious place to be. She is uncanny in her ability to spin a fantastical tale in a hyper-realistic setting. Like her genius Bunny, All's Well is set on a college campus and uses all of that inherent ridiculousness to relate the story of Miranda Fitch, a former actress turned ambivalent teacher/director and sufferer of intense, chronic pain. Awad excels at writing this pain, making the fact of it inescapable for the reader. So much so that at about 30% one wonders if there is a story beyond it. But stick with it, because there is, and it is hilarious and sad, original, based in age-old storytelling but contemporary in style. Awad has made me a lifelong fan.

ALL'S WELL brings everything you loved about BUNNY to a women's story about pain, internal and external. The stakes are raised, and the mix of drama, comedy, and surreal, lyrical prose makes Awad THE voice in literature. This is a must-read.

The novel has several laugh out loud moments, without losing any heart. Awad writes with a voice unmatched by any of today's writers, and she has established herself as a must read author.

This novel alternately exhilarated me and irritated me and where it irritated me, it irritated me in a good way, if you can imagine such a thing--over and over again I would be plunged into a seriously uncomfortable situation along with the protagonist Miranda, where I wanted more than anything to get out of that situation and move on to the next scene. My reading experience reflected the way Miranda tries to flee the pain in her body in an unusual and economical way. The scenes with Miranda meeting with her sadistic spine specialist for therapy are funny because they're true, not because they exaggerate how doctor treat female patients seeing them for pain relief.

The novel is strangely deadpan. I say "strangely" because most writers would allow far more interiority into their writing, to allow the protagonist to tell us how she really feels. We hear about Miranda's pain mostly when she tries and fails to explain her feelings to others. This is brilliant writing.

All's Well is a wild, confidently-told story that becomes magnificently weirder as you read toward its conclusion.. I enjoyed reading it.

All’s Well follows college professor Miranda as she is preparing to direct a performance of All’s Well that Ends Well. However it seems like everything is working against her, like a possible coup by students and chronic pain that no doctor can explain. When Miranda is offered a way to fix her miserable life, she must consider what steps she is willing to take to save herself and the play.

Wow this book was a trip. I can safely say that this book is one of the strangest I have ever read. And I loved that! The writing was gorgeous, but also excruciating to read at some points. I could truly feel the pain that Miranda was going through. At times this book almost felt like a movie. The scenes that it described were so vivid, it was as though I was watching them play out. It especially reminded me of Ari Aster’s films.

The plot was just as interesting. There was some time at the beginning where I felt as though it was moving a little slow, which is why I did not rate this book a full 5 stars, but once it picked up, I did not want to put it down. I delved into the madness with Miranda, which made my experience so memorable.

If all of Mona Awad’s novels are just as strange and amazing as this one, I can see her becoming a favorite author of mine. I will for sure be picking up her other books that are on my tbr. If you like this brand of weirdness, I recommend picking it up as soon as possible.

All's Well is a story about Miranda who is suffering from chronic pain. Her friends, family, students, coworkers, and medical professionals all stopped believing in her pain a long time ago, and just wish she would get over the "mental hurdle" of chronic pain. We meet her as she is fighting to put on the spring Shakespeare play much to the chagrin of everyone involved. Finally she is given the change to show everyone how much she's been hurting and that she's still in charge of her life. In Mona Awad's unique style we go on a twisting journey when the reader and Miranda both don't always know what's real.

I intended to pick up all future works of Awad, after reading Bunny a few months ago and this did not disappoint. I am not sure if Awad suffers from chronic pain herself, but the way she wrote about Miranda's struggles was so visceral. The unending struggle of felling like you're falling apart, only to have good days where no one believes you're still ill, leaving you in a constant state of anxiety of when the pain will be back. Reading Miranda's journey was reminiscent some Shakespearian character's and how the story was woven together was masterful as always.