Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book had such an interesting premise - college level theater, professor with a chronic physical illness, and Shakespeare. The story follows a theater professor who lives with invisible, yet debilitating pain after an accident ruined her acting career. She is determined to direct "Alls Well that Ends Well;" however, her students have quite different plans. After various spats with her students, the main character begins losing her grip on reality. This all sounds great...however, the writing style made this book quite a challenge to get through. The main character seemed to fall more and more into the stereotypes that I believe her character was supposed to "break free from." The writing felt chaotic and at times I couldn't tell what was reality and what was not. Although I understand the value of that from a literary perspective, as a reader, I did not enjoy that style. I still look forward to reading another Mona Awad novel as she is highly recommended - this one just did not work out for me.

A surreal spiral into madness. CW for chronic pain, doctors not believing you, medical trauma (imo). I I thought the chronic pain and desperation brought on by it was very well-represented. Just not really an overall favorite.

As always, Mona Awad wrote a strange and wild fever dream of a story and I love it. Awad is becoming an auto-read author for me. There is nothing like Awad's writing; there is organized chaos that leaves the reader not knowing what will happen (or to some extent, the reader may never quite know what happened) but that is what makes Awad's narratives so magnificent. All's Well parallels certain aspects of both the plays Macbeth and All's Well the Ends Well, which for me is catnip; however, it is not a direct retelling. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy so I can annotate and unpack my th0ughts even more!

What can I say about this book, but holy shit do you feel bad for the narrator. Quite interesting take on horror with chronic pain as a main trope. And the fact that no one believed her. That right there is horror in itself. The ending was interesting, not sure if I was a fan of the book culminating in that. All in all, another good read from Mona Awad.

I really enjoyed this book. I grew up active in theatre, so any book with a theatre setting is a fun read for me, and I loved the supernatural elements incorporated into this one. Watching Miranda slowly unravel as she faces chronic pain and a literal cast of characters hellbent on driving her crazy was a fun and sometimes unsettling experience, and I have every intention of reading more by Mona Awad in the future.

The writing in this novel is immersive in the way that I had to step back several times & parcel out what were MY feelings and what were Miranda's feelings.... which is to say I felt almost as f*ed up as her several times throughout the story. What a unique way to present a sort of "play within a play." Great imagery and distortion of mind vs. reality.

Mona Awad's books never fail to surprise, shock, and startle me, and All's Well is no different. Based on the play by Shakespeare, this story is a crazy, wild ride! Miranda works in the theater department of a small college. She's the director of the play they put on each year, and this year it's Shakespeare's "All's Well That Ends Well." But the students are unhappy because they want to do, "Macbeth." Mutiny ensues. But Miranda is dealing with other issues, too. She is in constant pain from a fall from the stage years before, but cannot get any male doctors to listen to or believe how bad her pain has gotten. Until the night she meets 3 men in the local bar...

This book was insane, but also infuriating for me, as I've dealt with doctors not understanding or not caring about what I'm dealing with, and the mental toll it can take. Such a weird, yet easy to identify with, book!

I enjoyed Bunny and love a deeply odd and strange book. All's Well is like that. Plus Shakespeare! I love a campus novel, and dark academic (in this, dark theatre academia?) works for me as a former grad student. Though the narrator is careful to point out she's no academic. Her literal fall from glory as an actress brought her into a world of pain. But with some mystical twists somehow... all's well for her. Though maybe not for the people around her...

I liked the twists and turns, so won't reveal anything else. This is a great book for the Shakespeare references but more so for people who like some dark humor.

My face is stuck in a perpetual frown because I am so confused as to what actually happened in this book. I am 100% sure I'm not sure I know what happened in the end. I think I liked it, but am I really sure what the last 100 pages were? Solid no. But, did I enjoy it? Yeah, for sure.

There were moments that filled me with dread (in a good way) and there were moments where I was questioning my own sanity (maybe 50/50 between in a good way and in a bad way), but I think I liked it a lot.

I'm sorry this review is so convoluted, I'm just so confused as to what actually happened, so it's hard to gather my thoughts.

First and foremost, I think Mona Awad needs her own genre. Of the two books I read from her, they seem to genre bend. They're horror, but also speculative and paranormal, but also literary fiction. There are definitely some speculative/magical realism elements to this story because how can you explain half of what happened to Miranda, our main character, and the theater production, but I am still not 100% sure if [spoiler] did actual magic or not.

I think my favorite part of this book was Miranda's decent to madness. It was, for lack of a better word, entertaining. Awad literally has such a way with words. Miranda's thoughts and descriptions were borderline manic, but drew me into her head. I felt her pain, her confusion, her relief, her panic, her hopelessness, her joy. Miranda is definitely a hard character to root for sometimes, but you can't help but say "good for her." She's just dealing the hand life dealt her.

Overall, I liked it. It was weird and confusing, but those are always the best books.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with this ARC (Advanced Reader's Copy) in exchange for an honest review.

This was hard to get through. It felt like a whirlwind of disjointed thoughts and it was honestly difficult to read about this woman complaining about the same things over and over again and her constantly being out of it mentally made the book hard to stay interested in. Mona Awad is a great writer but her books make me feel like I have motion sickness! I’ll be skipping them from here on out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Okay I love this author’s writing style so much, but this book should not be labeled as horror. I enjoyed the story and thought it was fun, but I definitely was expecting a bit more.

What can I say? This book just wasn’t for me. The premise sounded promising - college-level theater, especially Shakespeare, plus something that sounded like Faust. And it was. Kind of. But I hated the writing style, which was mainly the main character, Miranda’s stream of consciousness. I could relate to her experiences with physical therapy, at least a bit, but the rest of it was a repetitious mess. And I definitely didn’t find it funny, no matter what the blurb declares. I found it boring and never really engaged with the story. This is my first book by Mona Awad and if this is typical of her style, I won’t be picking up any of her other books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

it was supposed to give... but it did not give??

I've come to the conclusion that as much as I love Mona Awad's concepts, her execution is just! Not for me!

Much like its predecessor "Bunny," "All's Well" takes place at an unnamed elite college in New England. It follows a theatre professor, Miranda Finch, who is dealing with chronic pain while attempting to put on a collegiate production of All's Well That Ends Well, even though the students would much rather do Macbeth. These two storylines intertwine as Miranda meets three mysterious figures who offer to make her pain go away... and things spiral from there.

Our protagonist Miranda starts off as very compelling and sympathetic but I increasingly found her more insufferable. This, combined with Awad's stream-of-consciousness writing style, made for a mentally exhausting read. I also felt that Miranda's character development was at the expense of the rest of the characters, none of whom grow past their initial stereotypes.

If you really, really like magical realism and/or the blurring of dream and reality, this could definitely be your cup of tea! Unfortunately, much like "Bunny," I walked away from this one feeling disappointed.

This book has me torn. Personally, I did not enjoy it at all. It made me miserable just like the protagonist. From a literary perspective, it is interesting and well written but I just did not like it at all.

Shakespeare, chronic pain, a midlife crisis, and chaos all come to roost in All's Well and I just....adored it. What a wild ride. What was real and what was delusion was all mixed up in this one, but rather than getting caught up in the details, rather than trying to parse through what was actually happening, it was better to go along with Mona Awad's ride. If anything, it allowed me to get even more caught up in our main character Miranda Fitch's horrific chronic pain and into her head, lost to a cocktail of booze and pain killers. At some points so viscerally uncomfortable, I was tempted to skip ahead, and at other points manically dream-like, I found All's Well to be completely enjoyable and a particular joy for Shakespeare fans.

This cover really tells you a lot about this story. A theater professor lives with invisible pain after an accident halted her acting career. She lives through her suffering and is determined to direct Shakespeare’s “All’s Well that Ends Well.” She is met with a mutinous cast and coworkers who think her grip on reality is slipping. Suddenly she wakes up and her pain is gone.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. The chronic pain that Miranda suffers was really eye-opening for me. It brings to light the frustration she feels going to numerous doctors telling her that her pain is psychosomatic.

Miranda’s life changes when she meets three strangers offering insight into her life. The book is dark and, at times comedic, but very thought-provoking. It was less laugh-out-loud and more dark and dry humor. I recommend it to those considering a literary mystery novel. There are not many of those, so I feel like it falls into a niche audience. But I actually really loved it!

All's Well by Mona Awad is definitely a bizarre book but the author’s depiction of living with chronic pain is amazing – that alone kept me engaged. I read this months ago and am still thinking about it and processing it. #NetGalley

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1025330204/mona-awad-alls-well-review

William Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well is rarely staged. A so-called "problem play" that explores questions of morality, its ambiguous tone, unlikeable characters, and confusing ending have rendered it unpopular. The gist: Orphaned Helen, a "poor unlearned virgin," is desperately in love with noble Bertram, who is kind of a jerk. She cuts a deal with a king to magically heal him in exchange for compelling Bertram to marry her. Bertram refuses to consummate the marriage, so Helen fools him into sleeping with her in a "bed trick." In the end, in one line, Bertram seems to suddenly love Helen back.

Early in Mona Awad's new novel All's Well, protagonist Miranda Fitch calls the play "neither a tragedy nor a comedy, something in between." That's also an apt description of Awad's book — a surreal exploration of chronic pain, women's believability and visibility, and desperation that straddles the line between comedy and horror.

Miranda — an actress whose literal fall off the stage ended her career and resulted in constant pain and a painkiller dependency — is hell-bent on staging a production of the maligned play. She's in her second act as a tenureless assistant professor in the dying theater department of a small New England college, where she clings to directing All's Well That Ends Well as her last chance at agency. Where others see Helen as delusional and cunning, Miranda believes that "it takes a depth of soul to understand her. A life of pain. A kind of wisdom only won by time spent in the shadows."

Where 'Bunny' explored the dark side of universally human urge to belong, in 'All's Well,' Awad directs her caustic commentary at a more pointed social problem: the refusal to acknowledge female pain.

Of course, Miranda's talentless students don't understand Helen or the play. They mutiny to mount the more straightforward Macbeth instead. That is, until Miranda meets three strangers who promise to take away her all-consuming pain and subdue the students.

In its collegiate setting, blend of comedy and horror, and use of the surreal, All's Well resembles Awad's 2019 novel Bunny, a gory send-up of the MFA workshop. But where Bunny explored the dark side of universally human urge to belong, in All's Well, Awad directs her caustic commentary at a more pointed social problem: the refusal to acknowledge female pain.

At the outset of All's Well, Miranda is at her nadir, her life ruled by pain, her pockets rattling with pills that she mixes and washes down with white wine. Pain has cost her her marriage, her beauty. She tells herself, "You are no longer a human woman. You are no longer sexually viable."

Awad's choice to narrate the novel entirely from inside Miranda's head forces the reader to witness that pain in visceral detail, even if no one else does — especially not the male doctors who believe wholeheartedly in their ability to heal but not in female pain. Awad saves her bitterest jabs for physical therapists, the "men in blue polo shirts who are ever ready to play me the cartoon again about pain being in the brain," who nevertheless revel in prescribing exercises that make Miranda hurt more.

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It's a claustrophobic perspective, one flooded with staccato, fragmented inner dialogue that reaches for bitter humor but often feels just plain bitter. The style had me impatient for the moment of transformation that I knew was coming, but that doesn't give the reader or Miranda respite until about 100 pages in. The slow pacing, though, reinforces the indictment at the heart of the book — how we fail one another by choosing to look away from pain.

When relief does come in All's Well, so does the surreal. After a rehearsal where only one student shows and Miranda discovers the set designer working on a mock-up of Macbeth, she meets three men in dark suits at a pub. They seem to know all about her and her troubles, chanting that physical therapists will break "your bank, your bones, your spirit" in a manner reminiscent of the witches in Macbeth. They bestow on Miranda the power to transfer her pain to others — a reversal of Helen's ability to heal — and mysteriously endow the theater department, asking only for "a good show" (All's Well That Ends Well, of course) in return.

Awad makes sure that readers get the allusion to Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus with a direct callout, though Miranda's bargain isn't as cut-and-dry as selling her soul. Instead, as Miranda's pain leaves her body and enters those she wishes revenge on, her painkiller haze lifts, but a new haze of manic wellness descends.

Before her transformation, Miranda lacks insight into anything but her desire for her pain to be witnessed and understood. She can't see what others can — that her reading of All's Well That Ends Well is twisted, that her physical pain does seem to flare when she ruminates on her emotional aches. After she makes the deal with the three men, though, Miranda becomes further unmoored from both self-awareness and reality. She can no longer empathize with the broken person she once was, can no longer feel pain at all. Even in this magical world, pain remains disbelieved, and its relief comes with grave consequences. In the end, as in the play Awad puts through a fun-house mirror, it's not clear if all is well.

Mona Awad has woven a mesmerising and gorgeously unique contemporary novel, exploring a topic that deserves so much more representation - chronic pain. All's Well is both incredibly unique among modern publications, but perfectly embodies that haunting magical realism that is iconic in Shakespeare tragedies. Which is fitting given it is such a retelling.

But this isn't just a retelling with a tragic, woe-is-me backstory about a woman living with chronic pain. It explores the experience with incredible nuance. It also carries a captivating plotline that will keep readers hooked. This style of writing and story-telling certainly isn't going to work for everyone. However, for the right person, this is a story that will stick for a long time after the last page.

**Please note, I do not personally live with chronic pain and thus can not comment on the legitimacy of the experience portrayed. However, the author does draw from her own experience. I also have never read Shakespeare's original All's Well That Ends Wells.

i loved the cursed play aspect, it was so well done and I enjoyed each little easter egg of MacBeth. There was almost a magical element to the story. The book had everything that I wanted.