I reviewed this for BookPage. Full review to come.
Carter Bays' debut novel is a satire of modern life. It's well done, but there are a lot of books out there capturing digital culture. The new part is that it’s an ensemble portrait of New York with love stories at the center. Like No One is Talking About This, The Mutual Friend sometimes replicates the thought processes of a brain addled by the overstimulation of the internet: Run on sentences; bouncing from one topic to another; a litany of random bits of information hitting you from social media sources.

What an interesting and entertaining study of our tech-filled lives! Love the journeys that we see with Alice, her brother and others. So much to learn here and also relate to.

While I really struggled to get through this book at points, I have to give it a good review because Carter Bays is a genius. That plot was bizarre, but so beautifully written. It’s a plot I could never dream up in a million years and I really don’t think I’ll ever read a book like this one ever again!

A look at the ways we’re all (loosely, superficially, and maybe meaningfully?) connected thanks to social media. It’s also slice of life–or rather, many slices of many lives.

It was fun seeing characters unexpectedly pop up in various places, which speaks to the theme of the book. You just never know when someone is going to be in and out of your life or the reasons behind it. The main problem I had was the absence of strong feelings for any of these characters. There was an abundance of sympathy and I was rooting for them, but they were all just kind of there. Surprisingly, I felt the most for Bob, and a passage of his near the end was the most beautifully written part of the whole book.

Still good, important stuff in this. Read if you want to feel more hopeful about the world. Or maybe more cynical. You choose.

The Mutual Friend was just glorious. Brilliant. The character’s stories were woven together in such clever ways, and it felt almost like jumping into one swimming pool them swimming down and emerging in someone else’s story… without realizing it. Bays tugs on your heartstrings, and somehow also makes you consider your role in the universe through his descriptions of the internet. Loved it.

You know how in Family Circus when Billy has to get from point A to point B but takes a circuitous path and you are yelling at Billy to just.get.there? A Mutual Friend is not that. Your point A gets you to the point B in such a gloriously circuitous path and it is a delight of a story. Thanks for the ARC, Netgalley. It was a great read to start the New Year.