"Vintage Contemporaries" is slow-paced, but not necessarily in the bad way. It's way more character-centered than plot-centered and feels very slice-of-life in a way that I enjoyed. The characters have depth and warmth, and I enjoyed reading this.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Dan Kois, and publisher Harper for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

First off, I adore both this title and cover, which drew me in to the book, and I enjoyed reading it just as much! I love books about coming of age and female friendships, and for the most part, this book did both topics well. I originally thought it would be more about all 3 women, Em/Emily, another Emily and Lucy, but it is more a book about Em/Emily and how Emily and Lucy have affected her life over the years. I don't think this was a bad choice because we still do get a pretty clear picture of both women, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I got to understand each character a bit better. Emily comes off a bit two-dimensional, and I felt like Lucy was always being held at arm's length. This could perhaps be an intentional choice, but for such a short book, it felt more like lack of development. I do think it's a great reflection on how people can serve a time and a purpose in your life that is significant, even if they are no longer in your life in certain capacities. I ended up being charmed by Em/Emily by the end, and the book made me emotional at times because I could relate as a 25-year-old woman. I don't think this is a book for everyone, and it is not a perfect book. As I said earlier, I think it needed to be a bit longer, Emily and Lucy both needed to be fleshed out more, as well as certain content needed to be handled better. There are a few examples of casual racism in parts that are set in the 90s, and a certain character is almost immediately forgiven for standing up for a "Me Too"-esque predator; these scenarios felt a bit strange in the context of the book, and I would have liked to see actual discussion and dialogue about these scenarios, rather than them just being plot points to explain characters' personalities. Overall, this is a slightly flawed book about slightly flawed humans that this slightly flawed reader happened to enjoy and recommend.

A contemplative book more than a propulsive one, this book takes its time in introducing you to the characters, and to the general plot of the novel, Even so, 'plot' is a very loose word here. This is more the story of two friends, Emily and Emily (also called 'Em'), who find themselves in New York in the 1990s. They fight, they commiserate, they encourage, they deride--it is a messy friendship, but an intriguing one. This is a book you sit with more than engage with, and it does tend to drag in some areas. But the atmospheric writing is excellent, and the commentary on sexual harassment (set in the more modern-day sections) and racial microaggressions (set in both the 1990s sections and the more modern-day sections) is insightful without being too heavy handed. This would make an excellent book club pick, but fair warning that you will be reading a plot-light novel that leans more on its characters than anything else.

This is a very warm and reflective novel about friendship and growing up. I particularly enjoyed all of the texture in both timelines about living in New York City--everything felt very lived-in and the details were spot-on. The structure of looking at our protagonist through these two timelines is such an interesting one and gifts readers which a deep understanding of Emily. But I found the focus on female friendships to be the most compelling: I recognized many aspects of my own relationships over the years here, and this novel is just filled with love and growth. I would recommend this to readers who enjoy character-focused relationship novels with a strong sense of setting in the literary fiction vein.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.