I don't know if I've ever read anything with this type of plot before. It was honestly so refreshing. The author was so creative. I loved reading from the perspective of unhinged female main character who is a little bit older, but I love that this story didn't just follow her through her sadness, but also through some of the "crazy" things she did to cope with it, like build the whole set of Three's Company and act out a different character of the show every single year. She was able to do this after some very traumatic things happened in her life and then she won the lottery. Yes she is a little more whacky, but the author does such a great job in building it up so all of her actions are believable. They don't seem as crazy when you're reading from her perspective, but once you sit back and ponder what you just read you then realize that Bonnie is on a new level with some of the choices she has made. I really did like this book and recommend to anyone who is still interested in the "unhinged female main character" trope but told in a different way.

Bonnie Lincoln achieves what many dream and hope for- not only winning the lottery, but building the home of their dreams and never having to interact with another human again...at least for awhile. Many pop culture enthusiasts can likely identify with Bonnie's obsession with Three's Company, wondered what it would be like to live inside the world of a television show, movie, or book. The sheer detail brought to this book was bewildering! Being an old soul millennial, I am loosely familiar with Three's Company, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's an uptick in viewings after reading the book! We understand that Bonnie's responses and behaviors are driven post-traumatic event. I would have liked to have heard more about Bonnie's past, and the event itself. The character of Krystal I absolutely hated, which made me really hate the ending to this book even more. I still loved the book overall, so I will give it 5 stars, but the ending was so infuriating. I would have rather have seen Bonnie live in her own world she has created, perhaps leaving behind playing the lives of the characters and starting a new beginning with a new-found partner. I felt the ending completely undid the whole book, especially having the terrible character of Krystal be involved with it. Otherwise, I really loved every other part of the book!

🌟ONE’S COMPANY🌟 by Ashley Hutson ~published June 14, 2022

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Come and knock on my door, and let me tell you about this unsettling, compulsive, knock-out of a book! What a gutsy debut.

Sincerest thanks to @w.w.norton and @netgalley for the complimentary advance review copy. All thoughts are my own.

Bonnie has just won the lottery jackpot. How does she choose to spend it? It’s a pretty standard answer, really. She builds a lifesize recreation of the set of 70s sitcom Three’s Company so that she can dress, speak, and live as each of the characters, one at a time, for the rest of her life. She chooses a remote location, aspiring to have no other human contact, so that her fixation remains hers and hers alone (outside eyes would spoil it). And she pushes away the only friend she’s ever known because – well, that’s for you to figure out. Not what you were expecting me to say? Well, this is an unexpected debut, and it surprised me at every turn.

Everyone is comparing this one to My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I haven’t read Moshfegh yet so can’t comment. What I can say is that it has me doing some serious reflecting. How does an obsession start? When does an escape from reality go too far? How do we prevent our identity from slipping away when all we’re trying to do is forget our past?

I flew through this. I’m so anxious to see other people’s reviews come in. You do not need a deep understanding of Three’s Company to appreciate the book, although it would help to be at least vaguely familiar with it, particularly when Rita comes into the picture. I’m DYING over the cover. That canary in its cage, in all of its glorious symbolism, is absolute perfection.

This review will be published on Goodreads and Instagram — @sanfranliterarygal — within one week of publication (I will include a link to the IG post once it’s up).

I'm sure a lot of people have a "comfort show," a TV show that they turn to when they're feeling all the feelings, or when they need to turn off their brains. I have a couple of those myself which are undoubtedly special to me, shows that feel like a hug, a fluffy robe, or a fresh cup of coffee. But in Ashley Hutson's fantastical, absurdist fiction debut, our heroine Bonnie Lincoln takes her obsession with her own comfort show, Three's Company, to an entirely new level.

Reeling from trauma and living in stasis, Bonnie finds herself the winner of the country's biggest ever lottery payout, and decides to use her winnings to recreate the set of Three's Company deep in the wilderness, miles from everything. After the replica is complete, she plans to leave the real world -- and her real self -- behind and retreat into a solitary existence, slipping into the identities of each character in the show.

This was such a unique concept and Hutson executes it so perfectly that I'm still reeling a bit from everything she was able to accomplish with this novel. Through one woman's obsession with a '70s sitcom, One's Company explores themes of wealth and privilege, mental health, trauma, and the need for human connection. It's thought-provoking, fascinating, and more than a little heart-breaking.

Bonnie narrates the novel in first-person, and I found myself completely engrossed by her perspective, which gives us an inside look at her mental health, her trauma, and her unorthodox coping mechanisms. She is a flawed, sympathetic character, and while I didn't agree with all of her choices, I could certainly see why she made them and I was rooting for her the entire time.

The second half of the novel loses some momentum and isn't quite as captivating as the first half, but I have to say One's Company completely blew me away. The concept seems zany and ludicrous, but Hutson uses it to say some really provocative things.

Recommended for fans of Ottessa Moshfegh and Mona Awad, and for anyone looking for an unexpected and unique reading experience.

This is a highly original novel. Bonnie Lincoln lives a largely solitary life, though not as solitary as she would like. Other than when she is with her best friend, or at work, Bonnie spends most of her time watching her favorite show, Three's Company, a sitcom from the late 1970s and early 1980s. When Bonnie wins the lottery, there is only one thing she wants to spend her money on: leaving her life behind for an isolated piece of land where she will recreate the sets of Three's Company, so she can spend her days living in the world of her favorite show. As her vision comes to life, Bonnie is happier than she has ever been -- but fears outside forces that may seek to interrupt her solitude in her imagination come to life.

This is creative and a well-written book, raising interesting ideas about dealing with loss and the pull of nostalgia.

Highly recommended!

This book truly felt like it was looking into my own brain. As someone who continuously escapes into her imagination and has dealt with grief, a quarter life crisis, and just figuring my self out I truly felt seen by this book. I loved Bonnie so much, if I could just do nothing binge and read all day I would. She's just coasting through life and just wants to be left alone which I can appreciate but luckily this book allows us to be with her and understand her unique take on the world.

I really loved this book and while it may not speak to everyone it spoke to me.

Thanks to W. W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for the ARC for my honest review.

say hello to the newcomer to the unhinged female narrator genre!

in one’s company we follow bonnie,a young woman who after being present during a robbery finds solace in the popular 80’s sitcom “three’s company”. the comfort that she finds in the show quickly turns obsessive and escalates from collecting memorabilia to building an exact replica of the show and living in it as it’s cast of characters, playing out each episode.

this novel is said to be for readers of ottessa moshfegh and mona awad and it’s quite obvious where ashley hutson got her inspiration from, bonnie and her unstable state of mind often reminded me of the unnamed narrator in myor&r. in the end i enjoyed reading this very solid debut but i didn’t find it memorable.

Bonnie Lincoln has survived horrific trauma. Barely survived. When she wins the mother of all lotteries, Bonnie decides that she can indeed escape her pain, her trauma, and her past. All she needs is to trade her story for that of her favorite TV show characters. "My reality cracked open, and the television spooned another one on top." Bonnie buys a remote property, builds an identical re-creation of Three's Company. All alone, she not only binge-watches the eight seasons of episodes that ran from 1977 to 1984. She binge-lives the show, inhabiting each of the characters, year by year. But eventually she will have to face the unknowable fourth wall. I absolutely binge-read this novel, laughing with Bonnie one minute, aching for her the next minute -- aching for her through the bittersweet ending.

[Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy of this book.]

One's Company by Ashley Hutson is a stunning original book about Bonnie, a woman who wins the lottery but just wants to be left alone to pursue her own interests. It has a distinct voice that immediately drew me in. It's dripping with sardonic humor and a hilarious premise. I wasn't sure where this book would go, but was captivated by it and Bonnie's journey. The writing style reminds me a little bit of Ottessa Moshfegh. Readers that enjoy a unique voice and story will really enjoy this one. Rachel Jacobs deftly narrates the audiobook. Her voice was perfect for Bonnie.

Thank you W.W. Norton / Orange Sky Audio for providing this ebook / audiobook ARC. All thoughts are my own.

"One's Company" features a truly surprising/refreshing premise: a lonely and traumatized young woman wins a huge lottery and is convinced that a life of voluntary solitude, spent living out the plot of her favorite show "Three's Company" in an elaborate (and remote) recreation of the set, will finally give her the comfort and satisfaction she seeks. From the start, Hutson's writing perfectly captures the feeling of longing that comes with loneliness. endearing us to Bonnie. Sad and frustrating at times, the books explores mental illness and the effects of trauma--definitely a worthwhile read.

A clever and creative novel about tragedy and obsession. Bonnie had a tough enough life but she always took comfort in her friend Krystal's family, even working at their mini-mart- until the night the mart was robbed, they were murdered, and she was brutally assaulted. The one thing that she finds comfort in after is Three's Company so when she wins the lottery - the biggest payout ever- she buys land and has her own Three's Company set constructed. And then things start to spiral, both for her and for Krystal. This moves around in time to tell Bonnie's (and Krystal's) story before she moved to the mountain and after. Despite the many (too many really) details of the construction, I found it hard to visualize, so much so that I found myself skipping paragraphs. What was more interesting was how Hutson captured Bonnie's tip from fan to obsession to madness. This covers a wide time frame and you, like me, might find yourself questioning at the end, based on Krystal, not Bonnie, how many years have passed. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A worthwhile read.

This has to be one of,the most bizarre books I’ve ever read. The main character is deranged and after winning the lottery, creates a time warp for herself, based on the show Three’s Company.
I found Bonnie to be a completely unlikable character. She’s rude and mean to her best friend, who’s family took her in as one of,their own.
The whole story was just deranged and warped.
The only part I liked was all the stuff about a show I grew up watching.

“Other people can ruin a dream just by knowing it”

Bonnie Lincoln won the lottery. And she knows exactly what she’s going to do with the money—buy land in the mountains and recreate the set of her favorite tv show, Three’s Company.

She’s going to disappear into the lives of Jack, Chrissy, and Janet. After a series of traumatic events, she doesn’t want to be Bonnie anymore.

That’s the allure of art and pop culture —who hasn’t lost themselves by retreating into the comfort of a favorite book, tv show or movie?

But this story is about more than vegging out for a few hours. It’s about the pain of living with trauma, of feeling so uncomfortable in your own body that you create an alternate reality. It’s about coping and avoidance and the desperate need for escape, but also realizing that we can’t hide from ourselves.

The author creates one of the most complicated, multi-dimensional characters I’ve read in awhile. Bonnie’s pain jumps off the page. And her relationships with Krystal, Rita, and Ray are poignant, restorative, and sad all at once. This story was unlike anything else I’ve read, and I loved it.

Thanks to @netgalley and @w.w.norton for the eARC. One’s Company will be released on June 14, 2022.

Check out this book if you like surreal stories about grief, imagination, and survival.

Thank you to Netgalley & W.W. Norton for the arc for review.

I had to take a minute to sit with this one before I was ready to post a review. It's absolutely a five star book for me - one of my favorites of the year so far, no question. It's just that it raises a lot of questions that, as I read, I came down very firmly on one side of. But then, the longer I thought about them after finishing, I got confused. Wait a second, though. Am I... on the WRONG side? Is there a wrong side? I DON'T KNOW.

When is it okay to retreat from society? Who is allowed to retreat from society? What's a good enough reason? Who is allowed to set their own personal boundaries and who isn't? When is it okay to make a decision to override those boundaries? Is there a moral obligation to participate in society? Are we obligated to intervene when someone is acting outside societal norms? Why? Is there a moral obligation to maintain mental health? To whose standards? When can we just leave people alone if they aren't hurting anyone? If they're hurting themselves? Who decides if they're hurting themselves? Whose standards are we using? How do we know if we're helping or hurting?

I think, if you read this, you're going to identify very firmly with either Bonnie or Krystal - and find it impossible to even imagine the other side has a leg to stand on, in terms of "rightness." At first. And then, the longer you think about it, you're going to end up like me, totally unsure what you think at all.

I loved this from the first second I heard about it. I keep a spreadsheet of upcoming releases I'm excited about, and each book just has a small note to remind me of why I added it to the spreadsheet in the first place. This one just said "Three's Company lottery winner," and I counted on that to be enough to remind me of what this book was about while I waited months for it to become available. I never once forgot, because it sounded right up my alley in a very niche way. I've always had a thing for books about different worlds, the more individual the better. Different planets, parallel universes, portal worlds, virtual reality games, self-crafted worlds of any sort. So the idea of a character with virtually unlimited funds using that money to painstakingly recreate her personal favorite "universe" - Three's Company - and living within it practically had me vibrating off the planet in anticipation. I didn't need to know anything else to be fully READY for this book to get into my life ASAP.

I have to admit, I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about what this book was going to be like beyond that. I don't really know what I thought it was going to be like, but I know I didn't expect what I got.

Bonnie's decision to vanish into Three's Company is in response to an overwhelmingly traumatic event & resultant losses in her life. She has the means available to completely retreat from society and everyone she knows, and she takes it. It's extreme - beyond extreme - and undeniably strange, but also 100% an option to her after her historical lottery win. Her plans are meticulous and considered to every anticipatable detail, designed to rely on no one but herself and a lawyer on retainer.

She's not exactly a sympathetic or likable character, or easy to connect with, but it's hard to find fault with her logic, especially when she acknowledges the realities herself. She knows what she's doing is strange, she knows it's a response to trauma and that her growing disconnect to the world around her could probably benefit from help, and excuses herself from seeking it out based on her awareness of the problem. She's even self-aware enough to acknowledge THAT - a person failing to address their dysfunctional coping mechanisms entirely because they consider their awareness of the dysfunction to be basically the same thing as addressing it is a known phenomenon, and she's doing it.

Because of these layers upon layers of awareness, as well as her absolute perfect execution of her plans, it's easy to think of her as strange, eccentric, etc, but extremely difficult to imagine Bonnie as someone who doesn't know what she's doing, or otherwise not in possession of all her adult faculties and fully able to make all her own decisions for her life.

So when the real world starts to encroach upon Bonnie's perfectly crafted retreat, my stress and rage perfectly matched hers. What right do people have? What right does Krystal have, telling her it's time and safe to come back, as if she has any actual idea about anything, or gets to make those decisions? It felt high handed and intrusive, and I was so angry I had to set the book down repeatedly.

I held onto the anger and annoyance all the way through the end, or at least tried to. The final scenes are hectic and then slow and quiet, and felt like having the rug pulled out from under me. If you aligned differently than me from the beginning, the ending might feel more like a relief to you, like a final plug pulling after a foregone conclusion, but I had to take my time and sit with it and all the questions I listed above.

The whole time I was reading this book, I was liking it for the reasons I thought I was going to like this book - I was fully on board with Bonnie creating her own little world to live in, and I let everything else get by me while I was fully indulging in that alongside her. I don't know if that would be the experience of anyone else reading this book - like I said above, I imagine many people would align with Krystal's feelings of obligation to bring Bonnie back right from the start. I wonder if those people would finish and deal with the same flip I felt at the end - a sympathy to the "other side" and a whole pile of questions to think about for a real long time.

"One's Company" is a refreshing debut that explores what happens when escapism, a love of pop culture, and an overactive imagination cross in the mind of someone hoping to actualize a dream life.

I enjoyed the writing in this book quite a bit, but unfortunately decided to DNF it about half way through. I thought despite never watching Threes Company I might be able to enjoy it anyway, but by the half way point in the story I realized I wasn’t going to fully “get” the book without any context from the show. That being said, I will absolutely read what comes next from this author and recommended this book to those familiar with the show!

One's Company
A Novel
by Ashley Hutson

It was so much in one book. Almost as if I had to keep looking and reading. Very original. It was kind of dark, as it should be. Bonnie Lincoln was in a trauma state, and decided after winning the lottery, to become the cast of Three's Company. As she becomes unhinged and just wants to be...

One's Company follows a woman who has had a tough life and gone through a major trauma, who then wins the largest lottery ever. She channels that money into creating an escape for herself- a life-size replica of Three's Company. Her goal is to live out her life in complete solitude, as if she is one of the characters.

One's Company is a really interesting premise and kept me reading just for the logistics of the plan. However, it is a very dark and depressing book reminiscence of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, with a slightly more likable main character.

This book was beautiful and heartfelt. It was also a wild ride. I didn’t know much going into the book and I found I enjoyed it more that way. It was so well-written, poignant, and packed a punch. This isn’t the book to read when you want to let your mind wander—but it wasn’t a difficult read. It just demanded your attention and the story slowly unveiled itself in layers. It had substance and I’m so glad I got to read it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As a person who would love to relive the 70s and 80s, I loved the premise of this book. Bonnie LIncoln wins the lottery and recreates the set of her favourite show, Three's Company so she can live out every season. And as Bonnie narrates how she got to this point, past traumas are revealed.
At the start of the novel, I thought Bonnie had kind of a dry personality, but with some humour. As the book progressed, she was so devoid of emotion that it was impossible for me to connect with her. I might as well have been reading how-to instructions for something I didn't really want to build. There wasn't any suspense.