I really enjoyed this story, well written and it was easy to become invested in the main character. The ending was frustrating, but I understand the necessity of the ambiguity, it just feels like we missed out on the pay off of the journey.

This was NOT what I was expecting. I wanted a NSFW book (steamy, sexy)... and I didn't get that. DNF'ed it half way.

This was such an interesting little book. It explores the 20-something female experience very well. It touched on everything from familial toxicity to workplace misogyny. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time.

Thanks to Netgalley and Henry Holt for the ebook. A young woman escapes Los Angeles to graduate from Harvard, only to end up back in LA and having her mom get her a job at a TV network. This begins her career as she crawls towards advancement and clocks the subtle, and very not subtle, sexual harassment of the entertainment industry. If that weren’t enough, she also has to deal with her attorney mother who is either hopeless and in bed or a tyrant that demands unending love and respect.

I really liked "NSFW" by Isabel Kaplan. It's a story set in Los Angeles, which I found cool because I love books set there. The main character is written really well, and I cared about her a lot.

But there were a couple of things that made me unsure. The other characters in the story weren't as important, and the story moved so fast that it was a bit hard to keep up. The ending was interesting - it left me with questions, which is kind of neat. You can imagine different things happening to the main character.

The book talks about women, their dreams, and some tough situations they face. I thought that was important.

I just wished the story had a stronger structure to hold everything together. Still, it's a good book, and I think you might like it.

We follow an unnamed main character with her journey navigating a career in the entertainment world. Her mom is a woman’s advocate lawyer and the main character is navigating in a world where women are exploited by men on a daily basis. It is about how women are treated and how we deal with being exploited. What it takes for women to get to the top in a man’s world, how we are treated and the relationships with other women.

This brings to light the subjects that society doesn’t like to talk about and how there are two different sides of how we deal with the way we are treated as women. Also, how women treat other women.

Thank you #NetGalley for the advance read

I love the cover of this book! It’s so beautiful. The premise of this book was interesting, so I couldn’t wait to pick it up. Check it out and find out for yourself!

While this book has some beautifully incisive things to say about women and power, it suffers due to an inconsistent pace.

A fascinating time capsule of 2012, in the lead-up to the Me Too movement, in the entertainment industry. An extremely bright, recent Harvard graduate gets her foot in the door at a Fox-like TV station where she quickly rises up the ranks, but learns that feminism and office/entertainment politics don't mix. Battling an abuse Mom, terrible co-workers, and a few bad boyfriends, our un-named protagonist makes some tough decisions about mixing her values and her success in this new career she thinks she wants. The ending is a bit ambiguous, which s why I'm giving it 3 stars (I needed just a little more) but it's a wonderful debut.

Is it possible to succeed in Hollywood without selling your soul? Well, the unnamed protagonist (Which is a unique component of storytelling) is about to find out. I enjoyed the storytelling of this one and it was done in a way I haven’t really seen before. Quite uniquely offering a showcase of what it means to be in an industry where men seem to be the ones in charge, but times are definitely changing.

Thank you #Henryholt and #Netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

🥵NSFW🥵

I was immediately drawn to this one because I love me a steamy, not safe for work type of book. HOWEVER… if you are going to title a book NSFW, it better be NSFW. And this one was very safe for work…

We follow an unnamed female as she enters the workforce at a TV network the has a strong history of misogyny and sexual harassment. She is faced with the difficult decision to either keep her head down to try to further her career or speak up for what she feels is right. Yes, her work environment is not safe… but this book sure is. Will not recommend.

So well written so involving a book that caught my attention from the beginning a difficult mother daughter relationship a toxic work place.A storyline that keeps your attention a young author to follow.#netgalley #henryholt

Loved this hot girl book. Books about workplaces are just so insanely tense and interesting for me. Thank you Holt for the ARC for my honest review.

i cannot believe that this is a debut. the writing is so strong and compelling, and the storyline equally so. it is rife with commentary on sexism and power abuse. while it would be so easy to be one of the many other books that addressed this recently, kaplan offers a fresh perspective and execution. enjoyed this so so much.

I received an ARC of NSFW from Henry Holt & Company in exchange for an honest review.

NSFW follows an unnamed protagonist, a Harvard graduate whose mother, a famous feminist attorney, helps her get a low-level position at a TV network in LA. You can probably guess where this is going. As she claws her way up the ladder, the protagonist starts hearing rumors of sexual misconduct (this is pre-#MeToo), and she realizes that maintaining her values and moving up at the company are mutually exclusive. Things get worse when she asks her mother for aid.

It’s a story we’ve seen before (Kitty Green’s The Assistant comes to mind), but it’s a story that remains frustratingly, persistently relevant. I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to read another book about rape and misogyny. But I’ll say this: NSFW handles its sensitive subject matter better than most novels, thanks to Kaplan’s exceptionally sharp prose and smart structural choices.

Kaplan’s writing reminded me of none other than Elif Batuman’s in The Idiot and Either/Or (which is pretty much the highest praise I can give to an author), books with which NSFW has many stylistic similarities in addition to protagonists who share many qualities. The protagonist of NSFW, although a bit more cynical than Selin of The Idiot and Either/Or, perceives the world in much the same way, and her narration is so satisfying in its precision and its obsession with poking and prodding, like a tongue returning again and again to the gap where a tooth used to be.

NSFW doesn’t address sexual assault head-on. The protagonist is assaulted, but not by the boss at her network (although he is scummy in his own way), which keeps the stakes small and personal, and therefore more meaningful. The assault is also not the core conflict of the story. Kaplan’s ace in the hole is the relationship between the protagonist and her abusive mother. I can’t recall ever reading an abusive parent written this well or this accurately, and using that relationship as a catalyst for how the protagonist reckons with her assault provides it with unexpected dimensions.

If NSFW has a problem, it’s the ending. It’s too simple. Too cute. Everything leading up to it honors a simple truth: the world is a messy place—speaking up about rape and sexual assault isn’t consequence-free for survivors—and there are no easy answers. But the ending about-faces, reminding me of a YA book in the worst way possible, and reduces all that complexity to a binary choice that feels entirely at odds with the rest of the novel. It’s a real disappointment.

NSFW is a difficult book to recommend. Not just because of the subject matter, but because of the writing style, which was a perfect fit for me but likely won’t be for many readers. If you read The Idiot and Either/Or and are searching for a novel with similar narration, NSFW may be for you. If you appreciate intelligent and unexpected approaches to well-worn stories, NSFW may be for you. Kaplan is a smart, thoughtful storyteller, and I look forward to reading more from her.

This book left me scratching my head like “should I suggest this for my feminist book club or will it just be too horribly depressing for us to unpack?”

I liked the clear feminist themes, especially the repeated reinforcement of how powerful the patriarchy is and how pervasive misogyny is, especially in the entertainment industry. However, I also felt like aside from emphasizing how brutal it can be to be a woman in the world, the author was a little lost in what she wanted readers to take away about the theme or maybe just didn’t have anything new to say about it.

I also wish there was less time spent rehashing the toxic mother-daughter relationship, though to be fair, how intertwined their lives were was critical to the plot later on.

Overall, a solid three star read for me.

The relatability of this book — even though i am not a Hollywood gal working in the industry — was pretty funny. I found myself laughing out loud at parts. That being said, this wasn't super the type of book I gravitate toward. It was still a fun enough ride!

Geared towards New Adult to early thirties, this novel looks at sexual harassment in the workplace and beyond. Deftly deals with many social concerns, but didn't grab me. Characters felt underdeveloped, with the possible exemption of the mother with questionable alliances.

Good but not great.

This ia a very timely #metoo story of a new grad ( Harvard) entering the workforce and one well known for this type of behavior. Her experiences are compounded by a mentally unstable mother who has helped launch her career by calling in a favor. when that favor turns into yet another #metoo cover-up we follow along. This book is part post-grad crisis along with lots of other issues ( eating disorders, toxic relationships) thrown in. I usually love post-grad stories, I couldn't quite connect with the protagonist on a personal level, but I found her story and how she navigated intriguing- especially at the end. .

The book failed to draw me in. The writing felt clunky and lacked a linear plot. While an important premise, the lack of a plot really turned me off. It wasn't anything like I had thought/hoped it would be?