First of all, this one's more of a 2.5 for me rather than an outright 2. The writing in this one was fantastic, as we can all expect if you've read from Mona Awad before, but the ending of this book missed the mark for me. I don't really want to state specific details, but it messed up the flow of the story for me. I will also say that even if this book had an ending I personally liked better, I still wouldn't have necessarily *enjoyed* my time reading it because you're very much in the head of the main character who is very much unlikable, for both valid and invalid reasons, and in my case I could very much feel myself drained whilst reading this book. Not that she needed to be more enjoyable, I think this character was written extremely well and with solid intent, it may have just affected my overall feelings towards the book. I still do think I would recommend it solely for the writing. It's not a bad book by any means, just not my perfect book.

Mona Awad’s second novel, All’s Well (Simon & Schuster), is anything but subtle. Much like her debut, Bunny, this book seems set on taking an intriguing concept and twisting it until it’s virtually unintelligible. Miranda, a theater professor, is battling chronic pain and a devastating divorce, while her untalented students rebel against the prospect of performing All’s Well That Ends Well because they want to do Macbeth. Soon three men appear, like the witches in Macbeth, and grant Miranda a kind of wish. After a heated standoff about which play to perform, Miranda snatches a script from her least-favorite student, Briana, and in doing so, somehow transfers her pain, thus freeing herself and ruining Briana’s chances at the lead.

If the plot sounds convoluted, that’s because it is. Luckily, the first half of the novel is punctuated with humor. “Reading an essay of Briana’s will make you fear for the future of America, will make you hiss, What the fuck are you talking about? aloud at the bar.” But the pithy one-liners devolve into constant call backs to the title—Miranda cannot stop telling everyone that “All’s well!”—and the ending is so bizarrely nonsensical that by the time the curtain closes, the story has lost all sense of meaning.

This book reads like a fever dream. It's stream of consciousness, manic, and subdued simultaneously. We only ever understand the story from the main character's point of view, so there's no way of determining what is real or imagined. It's affecting, fascinating, and unsettling. Highly recommend, but is not a cozy read.

ARC from the Publisher via NetGalley, but the opinions are my own.

I read 70 pages of this and couldn't continue. I had no interest in the theater aspect or the droning on of the narrator. I don't force myself to finish anything I'm not engaged in, so I did not.

I loved, loved, LOVED Bunny, and was so excited for this book. But in the end, although I appreciate the discussion of chronic pain, and admired the writing and Awad's ability to stretch the constraints of typical fiction, I just didn't feel the passion for this story. I think perhaps my expectations were too high...I'm not sorry I read this, even though I was glad when it was done.

All's Well is weird, trippy, and surreal - it's the literary equivalent of walking around in a drug- and pain-induced haze. This is the best portrayal of chronic pain I've ever read; as someone who suffers with chronic pain from a chronic illness, this book made me feel seen. Mona Awad captures the exhaustion and frustration of those with chronic pain - the fear of taking a new drug for fear the side effects might be worse than your pain, the never-ending litany of treatments that don't work, condescending and able-bodied friends and coworkers who run out of sympathy for you after a couple of weeks, and the constant, nagging comments from everyone that maybe you're making it up. Awad successfully explores what living in that kind of pain does to a person's psyche, and plays out the fantasy of being able to give your pain away to the people who don't believe you.

Not to sound at all like a crazy stalker fan or anything, but...I am totally obsessed with Mona Awad's writing and I just know we'd be best friends were we ever to meet in real life. Her wit and tone are so dry and dark and I love ever minute of the oddness of it!! I think it was one of the Steel Magnolias who said "If you cant say anything nice, come sit by me", and, I'm always saving a seat for my future BFF, Mona. Bunny was an absolutely brilliant piece of fiction, one of my favorite books of all time, so I had a lot of big expectations lurking between me and my reading of All's Well, Awad's newest book. For the most part, I was not disappointed. Set on a campus and involving some interesting twists on characters and superstition around The Play That Must Not Be Named (sorry, theatre mom. I've been indoctrinated. I couldn't make myself say it.), All's Well does a great job of addressing such wildly misunderstood topics as chronic pain, relationships, women in academia, mean girls, and addiction in such a way that neither takes them too seriously nor downplays their seriousness. It's a subtlety few can handle, but once again, Awad manages to pull it off brilliantly. I loved this book!! Thank you to the publisher and to my author (and future bestie) for the privilege of reading an advance copy of All's Well.

Ok....
I've heard a lot about Mona Awad's dark, twisted writing so I was excited to give her a go and as a Shakespeare fan I was particularly excited for this book. I had to wait to read the actual play "Alls Well That Ends Well" before diving in and frankly I agree with all of the students in this book - that play is sh*t. However, having a background of "Alls Well That Ends Well" and "MacBeth" did help while reading this.

All in all, I did not enjoy it one bit. Not a single one of the characters were likable, the first half was ~annoying~ to say the least but I held out for the turning point that I knew would come. It did and the latter half felt messy (& not in an artistic way).

I am fascinated to see this classified as Horror since that's not what I would really consider this.
I had high hopes for this one (& what a cool cover) but was disappointed.

*I received an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Just as strange as I expected it to be but somehow without the charm of Awad's previous work, Bunny.

All's Well follows a woman named Miranda, a former Shakespearean actor, who is struggling after a fall off a stage leaves her with chronic pain issues and an addiction to painkillers. Currently working as a professor in the theatre department of a college, she insists her students perform All's Well That Ends Well, the production she wowed in when she was younger. One night she meets 3 men at a bar who seem to have the cure to her pain, leaving her more alive than she's felt in years - but not without a price.

I enjoyed how truly effed up a lot of this book was. The last quarter or so just lost me and let me feeling really confused and unsatisfied. Much like with Bunny (that I LOVED), I would love to discuss this one with a group so I could see all the points I might be missing. I also feel like loving and understanding Shakespeare, while not a prerequisite for the book, would certainly assist the reader.

Thanks to S&S for a free advance NetGalley of this title, which was published on Aug 3, 2021. I'm writing this review voluntarily.

Ironically, all is not well for Miranda Fitch--the main character of Mona Awad's surreal Shakespearean homage "All's Well"--in fact, all is utterly terrible. Miranda's acting career ended with a fantastic fall off the stage, an accident that left her with constant, chronic pain and tanked her marriage. She's now stuck in a precarious career path: working as a director for a college that's winnowed its Theater Studies department down to a measly minor. Blundering by through a combo of pain pills and alcohol, Miranda will do anything to stage Shakespeare's problem play "All's Well That Ends Well," but her students are petitioning the department for "Macbeth" instead.

Enter three mysterious gentlemen (witches?) that Miranda meets at the local Scottish pub, who promise her success and relief in exchange for a good show. Just like that, Miranda's pain abates, her play is funded, and the hot set designer finally starts giving her the eye. But of course, when people around her start falling ill, Miranda realizes there's a catch, and she'll have to decide if she's willing to live with it.

"All's Well" is a smart, pointed analysis about how women with chronic pain are often not believed, or outright ignored, by a medical establishment that assumes they're crazy. While one's own pain is impossible to disregard, it's so simple to downplay or forget about the pain of others--a fact Miranda experiences viscerally when she makes a miraculous recovery while others sicken. Awad's writing really shines when she leans into the bizarre, weird, and cruel alongside a critique of higher education, which her previous novel "Bunny," does wonderfully. Surprisingly, given the Faustian bargain conceit, "All's Well" wraps up a bit too neatly, with a happy-ish ultimate ending that seems to temper the stakes. Could this be a reference to the implausible finale of "All's Well That Ends Well"? Perhaps, but it still doesn't quite land.

Wow, I love Mona Awad. She writes in such a bizarre and creative way that is unlike anyone else out there right now. A dash of ennui, a lot of chaos, so much of what she says just recognizes the reader in such an uncomfortable way that makes you want to squirm under the spotlight, but it's BRILLIANT.

This one was a whirlwind. Going into it, I wasn't sure how much I would be able to relate because I don't live with chronic pain and I'm pretty unfamiliar with the theater, Shakespeare, yadda yadda, but that really did not matter in the end. I immediately felt empathy towards our main character, Miranda. I hated her, but I was undeniably on her side even when she was doing wrong. It was a weird emotional experience for me that felt a lot like my relationship with depression.

The more this book went on, the more it felt like a fever dream. I loved this element of not knowing what was real or imagined, heightened or redacted, true or false. I felt shaky the whole time, but never lost. It was like being in a house of mirrors where my mom was waiting for me by the exit. I don't know how to describe this book at all really.

I will say it's more subtle in its horror than Bunny, but equally as bizarre. I don't think I can compare the two because they each did something totally different for me. I will say if you liked one, you'll probably like the other. Lots of body horror, discussions of guilt, belonging, feminine identity and friendships in both.

Really great, as Awad puts out more books she is slowly climbing her way to my favorites. So glad to have read this as a little precursor to Halloween also - just eerie enough to make me crave more. Highly recommend to fans of Bunny, the weird, the dark, and the ugly sides of us all.

So well written - I could feel the pain Miranda was feeling. At times I was lost/uninterested because I’ve never been into theater but the writing was phenomenal. It made up for a story I didn’t always connect with.

Ok YES Mona Awad. I needed this book after a stretch of no weird, wild books and it was making me sad. ALL'S WELL is bonkers and fantastic, and my favorite book of hers so far. This story follows college theater professor Miranda Fitch has she battles chronic pain, difficult students, and terrible physical therapists all while trying to convince everyone around her the Spring play should be "All's Well That Ends Well" instead of the overdone Mackers ;)

The depiction of what it's like to live with chronic pain that no one believes you have is unlike anything I've read before, and will either be wonderful to feel seen by those who also have it or extremely hard to digest. The directions Awad takes us through the producing of the play are surreal and magical, and it's quite the journey. It's almost like watching a trippy movie, one that's almost impossible to peel your eyes away from. I don't want to spoil too much but if you're looking for something strange and fantastical, look no further. I personally think this is a more digestible book than BUNNY was, so if you liked that one, you'll love ALL'S WELL. A dark comedy for when all isn't actually all that well.

Our main character suffers from debilitating chronic pain that no one around her believes is as painful as she says it is. The author describes the feeling of chronic pain so well that even if you do not suffer from it, you are cast into the mind of one who does and it feels very real. The book is sprinkled with magical realism and we are never sure whether what we are seeing and hearing is real or in the main character's head. I definitely recommend this. Even if the magical realism isn't for you, it might be worth the read just for the representation of chronic pain itself. Very enlightening.

Emotionally on point and hypnotically written, All's Well is a spiraling mind-trip about pain and empathy, through the lens of Shakespeare.

I've seen the comparison to Darren Aronofsky's film Black Swan floating around, and it is actually pretty spot-on; both feature a female protagonist who is in constant conflict with one self, repelled by her miserable situation, but unable to uncover an healthy exit to her misery. All's Well excels at depicting the protagonist's frazzled state of mind, where reality and imagination crosses over, physical pain and mental pain converges, and abstract concept gains tangible shape. Going into All's Well knowing it is a character study more than anything else (thriller/horror being tertiary at most) will help gauging one's expectation; mirroring the play All's Well That Ends Well, the key plot points are pretty straightforward, but the delivery leans more abstract symbolism rather than logical cause and effect.

Even though it does run long in certain sections (I feel like it can lose 20 pages easy), and the very last chapter kind of dropped the ball with its wishy-washy closure (I would've liked there to be more clarity in the end, rather than one layer deeper in obscurity), one still can't deny All's Well is a brilliantly written, hallucinatory reading experience

I loved this book, At first I wasn't so sure but it defiantly picks up. I would recommend this for people who like their books weird and not many explanations . I thought the writing was very good and easy to follow. I think this book might be more niche then something main stream

Determined. A phrase that suits how heroine well. Miranda has had it with her husband,his friends and all her social circle requires. Not one to sit and let the world go by she sees her job in jeopardy and is set to make this next production noteworthy if only as her swan song. What ensues is hilarious and cringeworthy and totally appealing. If you have ever seen your tether fray to the point of little return. Please read .

This was an interesting and unique read, which I enjoyed. Miranda is a complex character and we know she is in pain. We follow her drug altered life as she tries to cope. The story was well written and kept me engaged.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Dark, sad, and strange are words that come to mind when I think of this book. I know it's listed as a dark comedy, but I had trouble connecting with the main character. She was depressed and depressing. Nothing was right and would never go right. There were parts of the book that I could relate to and parts that made me laugh. The MC is an unreliable narrator and made for an interesting read. Thabks to Netgalley and Mina Awad for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This just was not the book for me. It had Awad's unique and gripping writing style. It had the weirdness. But it had none of the charm and intrigue that Bunny did. It was just strange, non-sensical, and the main character just pissed me off. I don't get this book. I was so bored. Just not for me.