The book blurb says "Edited" is a love story, and I guess that's true, but just barely. Sure, Mike loves Phil and goes on a journey to win her back, but that's pretty much it for the love story part. I have to admit, though, that a straightforward look at Mike's idealized love for Phil would put those other young adult authors to shame. Now, I haven't read the original book, so it might confuse newcomers like you, dear, but I really wish "Edited" could've been a bit easier to understand on its own. And speaking of all this fancy meta-fiction, there's a fine line between too much and just enough, and in Lyga's case, it's definitely leaning towards too much.

You know, this meta-fiction stuff is all the rage these days, and I have to say, Lyga gave it a try. Bless his heart, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me. I mean, I'm all for trying out new ways to tell stories, but Lyga's companion book is a bit of a jumble. It's a real head-spinning ride, but "Edited" ends up being a bit of a confusing whirlwind. It mixes the original text with emails and texts between him and his editor, and he even puts himself into the story. Lyga definitely took a bold shot at diving into this fancy meta-fiction, but this book doesn't quite turn the reading experience on its head like it could have.

This was terrible, and that is coming from a very big Barry Lyga fan. I really think he phoned this in.

I loved every inch of this book, it was meta and full of ever lasting love. I love reading books where the author is just as invested in the outcome of the characters as we are, and the footnotes! Are you kidding? Loved it!

2.5/5 stars, if you LOVED Stranger Than Fiction this might be your jam but also it might not be. It’s very meta. It’s fine. More of a meditation on writing than a book.

My thoughts when I read the description of this book back when I requested an ARC: okay I don’t fully understand what this is about but it seems experimental and interesting and I can get into that.

My thoughts when I finally got around to reading it and the reviews had started pouring in: okay the first couple of chapters are not grabbing me and YIKES people DO NOT seem to like this book, will this be the first ARC I DNF? I’m going to give it a try but I’m not going to force it if it feels like too much work, this is a hobby, it’s supposed to be fun.

My thoughts finishing this book: okay, that was fine? Like it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read, it wasn’t the worst. It was not the trudge some people described. Let’s just say I was relieved I was reading this one and not the 1.000+ page companion novel Unedited. That I probably would have DNFed, sorry not sorry.

This book was just an oddly strung together stream of consciousness that I sort of doubt is… conscious. It is extremely rare for me to DNF a book, but this one really tested Emmy will power. I finished this book with the air of a person walking to their death. I see what the author was trying to do here, but I felt like they almost went too far and tried too hard to dive into meta diction.

I’m honestly baffled as to how this can be canned a love story. Please understand that NEVER give bad ratings like this unless the book is practically unreadable, but I can’t justify anything else.


Review posted on Amazon as well, but is not approved yet. Amazon profile link shared

Nope, can't do it! Don't care if it's just the character and not the actual author but by the minute I got to the sentence "I would win back Phil like a prizefighter wins a belt, not caring -- in the throes of that fancy -- that by doing so I reduced her to an object" I just couldn't go on with it.

Not my cup of tea; DNF approx 40% in

I enjoy ergonomic and meta fiction, but this seemed like it was trying to hard

DNFed I am confused, what did I just read? I don't even know what to say about this other than the fact that I am so lost with this one.

The blurb for this book calls it a "love story." I don't really even think that this book is a story (much less a love story, which at least implies that there will be characters you can root for).

My video review: https://youtu.be/LIcjM_VxdbE?t=30

It's not a story. It's more like a ramble. A vagabond stumbling through the desert, parched, meandering, hopeless, and boring.

I feel so strongly of "It's not you, it's me." I had a 1star amount of fun. But it feels like it's my (and the publicity team's) fault that I went into this book expecting characters to ship, a speculative fiction plotline, and humor similar to Princess Bride.

Here's who I would recommend this book to: people who love the movie 500 Days of Summer (loser protagonist, pining after a doomed relationship). People who like when the author is a character in the book (not in a John Green way, more like in a Lego Movie way). People who like it when books prioritize Weirdness over Plot. I know those people are out there, and I hope this book finds them.

I have a lot to say about this book¹, but most of it would be an angry rant², so I'll just abstain³.

* MY THOUGHTS ON EDITED VS UNEDITED: *
This book has a partner book, which is Unedited. It's a very long unedited version of Edited.

If Edited is a (sometimes barely coherent) pererration, Unedited is so much more. It truly does read like a rough draft, difficult to follow and full of extraneous details.

However, if that is the kind of book you're looking for: a drift through abysmal characters and an Ode to Writing, Unedited is the superior version.

[ Just as an FYI: ]
Unedited could also be called "Uncensored." Edited could be passed off as an older YoungAdult book, but Unedited has way too much (sex, language, etc) to keep that label. For context (at least in the copies I read), Unedited is 3.2 times longer than Edited. It also has 5.1 times more F-bombs. The density is somewhat increased.

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

¹ The part of this book that bothered me the most is when Lyga is complaining that no one likes his endings, how he can't write good endings, and how they're problematic for him, and. And I've read other Lyga books; I LOVED THE ENDINGS. It was my favorite thing about the books. So to have our page time wasted with a pity party is lame. But to have it wasted on critique that ISN'T EVEN ACCURATE, even worse.
² This book seriously angered me. I had high hopes for it, and it bombed every one.
³ Of course I couldn't help myself. I had⁴ to include some pompous and contradictory footnotes to help you understand what reading this book is like.
⁴ Or maybe I didn't write a review at all. Maybe this is all in your head; a complicated and irrelevant dream sequence.

I have loved Barry Lyga in the past., His work has intrigued me. Here, I was dropped into the middle of a mess that never solidified. We just made a leap of faith that didn’t ever pay off. I was left wanting. In both versions, I fell flat on my face trying to make it something special.

Edited by Barry Lyga, 285 pages. Blackstone Publishing, 2022. $20.
Language: R (97 swears, 41 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - NO
AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW
Mike is in love with Phil. And he thinks she loves/d him, too. They were together during senior year, and then they separated after graduation, but now Mike will do anything in his power to get her back – even if it doesn’t make much sense.
Initially, I thought the beginning was just disorienting. But things never got better. By chapter six, I wished I could have put the book down three chapters earlier. The story doesn’t make sense, and I was annoyed. And then Lyga comes in and breaks the fourth wall worse than I have ever seen before. Maybe we can offer kudos to him for doing something new and surprising readers, but I am not pleased with the surprise and his over-meta-ing. If I could unread this book, I would.
Mike is White, and Phil and George are implied White. The mature content rating is for underage drinking, innuendo, and mentions of nudity, condoms, and sex. The violence rating is for mentions of domestic violence, child abuse, and suicide.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I have read many Barry Lyga books. Normally I find his works outstanding. This book though, was too inside baseball. Too many asides distracted from the flow of the narrative.

Yeah.... this was not for me. I can appreciate what Barry Lyga was trying to do with this, but it just did not work for me. The entire story felt disjointed and while marketed as a love story, I think amongst other flaws 'Edited' fell entirely short on that front.

I'm all for mind-bending alternative fiction, but it's been done better than this.

Edited is set to be published on November 15, 2022. Thank you to Blackstone Publishing, NetGalley and the author for the ARC.

I usually love these types of books, but I feel as if I am missing something. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't read the original book, but I was confused through the majority of this book. However, the idea of reading an unedited, longer version of this book is something that makes me want to hide and not read another book.

Meta-fiction is all the rage right now, and Lyga’s attempt to break that fourth wall was valiant, but it fell short. I’m all for experimenting with narrative styles; nevertheless, Lyga’s companion book is a hodgepodge of the original text, emails and texts between himself and his editor, and self-inserts. Granted, I haven’t read the original book, so it makes sense this would confuse the hell out of new readers, but I wish “Edited” could’ve stood on its own. Also, to the meta-fiction, I firmly believe there's a careful balance between too much and too little, and in Lyga’s case, definitely too much.
In the flap copy, “Edited” is described as a love story–which, I suppose, is true, but only barely. Sure, Mike loves Phil and goes on this quest to win her back, yet that’s about it. Granted, a blunt examination of Mike’s idealized love for Phil would put other YA authors to shame, but that’s about all there is for the “love story.” The rest of “Edited” jumps back and forth between Mike’s nonsensical quest for love, his supposed power, and the author’s self-insert.
Mind-bending but ultimately a confusing whirlwind, “Edited” was a valiant attempt on Lyga’s part to dive into meta-fiction. Still, this novel failed to indeed subvert the reading experience.

I am a fan of both innovative fiction and meta fiction, but this novel fell a little flat for me for one reason: it’s too self-explanatory. While the premise of the story remains somewhat interesting, I found the amount of introspective pseudo-philosophy a bit obnoxious at times.

I did appreciate the use of footnotes that often circumvented the “edited” version by relaying information from the “unedited” edition. That said, the effect of these footnotes often left me with questions related to character motives, which was also obnoxious. But this was a supposedly purposeful given the interspersed transcripts between Lyga and the editor that insist the missing information doesn’t matter to the story.

Now, the story itself was cool because it remind me of Philip K Dick’s VALIS… mostly the ominous pursuit of an unknown god who has the potential to deus ex machina the shit out of the story but doesn’t based on some bullshit moral superiority. Anyway, that’s the bit that really bothered me. We could have let all our philosophical ramblings lead us to some further unknown. Left some mystery to the adventure. Nope. Lyga chose to explain every last possible nuance of every decision and their purpose. Honestly, it was a lot of saying the same thing over and over with new words.

This book is less a love story and more a love letter. But it’s a love letter to someone we never get to meet. I wanted so badly to love this book. The humor is great. But beats of this story are broken apart by its half-hearted philosophies. This book uses a loosely-assembled plot to demonstrate a moral lesson and then demands we forgive the lack of plot because the author is merely using his characters to demonstrate a point.

I gave this book 3 stars because, honestly, god-fucking-help-me, I’m curious about “Unedited.” So, if nothing else, the marketing gimmick worked and I am now reading the companion novel, despite my better instincts. DAMN YOU, CURIOSITY!

I’m sure some people will love this book, but it was a little too weird for me. The footnotes drove me crazy, I think I just might not be the target audience.

This book is unique and I would say this was more of an “experience” read for me. I am not sure if I would say I enjoyed this or if I just kept reading because the book was just so different. I also read unedited which was weirder still and definitely fit its title of “unedited”, wherein the book seemed slightly chaotic. Both were weird books, neither could be described as love stories in my opinion. I think some people would enjoy both of these if they’re looking for a wild ride and teenage angst.

I am a big fan of some of Barry Lyga's other book so I was extremely excited to read this book, especially when I read in the synopsis that while this is the edited version of the book, there is an unedited version being published side by side as well. That is such a cool concept that I don't think I've heard of anyone else publishing an unedited book. I quite enjoyed this story, which is a love story between two characters Mike and Phi though it's more than just a love story. I'm looking forward to reading the unedited version of this book as well.

This novel is interesting, with the author a part of the book.

A good lesson on what love is, vs. selfishness.

And there's something to be said for a book which calls itself pretentious.