In Molly McGhee's novel, "Jonathan Abernathy you are Kind," we are introduced to a man burdened by unemployment and drowning in debt. When offered a job that involves altering the dreams of certain employees to increase productivity, he finds the solution to his problems.
The premise is undeniably intriguing, and McGhee's prose does justice to the complex ethical quandaries at play. Her writing style is evocative and thought-provoking.
However, there are moments where the pacing falters. Most of the time the story goes very slow but sometimes it becomes too fast.
Jonathan Abernathy, the titular character, strikes a chord as a protagonist grappling with passivity in the face of overwhelming circumstances. While his internal struggle is palpable, at times, his lack of agency can lead to moments of reader detachment. There is a background of hopelessness that hovers over the story that has not finished convincing me.
En la novela de Molly McGhee, "Jonathan Abernathy eres amable", se nos presenta a un hombre agobiado por el desempleo y ahogado por las deudas. Cuando le ofrecen un trabajo que consiste en alterar los sueños de ciertos empleados para aumentar la productividad, encuentra la solución a sus problemas
La premisa es innegablemente intrigante, y la prosa de McGhee hace justicia a los complejos dilemas éticos en juego. Su estilo es evocador e invita a la reflexión.
Sin embargo, hay momentos en los que el ritmo flaquea. La mayor parte del tiempo la historia va muy lenta, pero a veces se vuelve demasiado rápida.
Jonathan Abernathy, el personaje titular, da en el clavo como protagonista que lucha contra la pasividad ante circunstancias abrumadoras. Aunque su lucha interna es palpable, a veces su falta de iniciativa puede provocar momentos de distanciamiento en el lector. Hay un trasfondo de desesperanza que planea sobre la historia que no ha terminado de convencerme.

Jonathan Abernathy is about a largely incompetent/unmotivated but harmless guy who is drowning in debt. He gets offered a job to where he goes into people's dreams and erases the bad parts, in the hopes of creating more focused and effective workers. He is absolutely terrible at this job. Next level useless. But he manages to keep his job and work through the dreams assigned to him. While this is taking place, a romance is also budding between him and his next-door neighbor, who along with her daughter are pretty much a little family already.

That is an extremely tl;dr explanation, and each part has far more complexity, but I don't want to ruin anything so we're staying top line.

I went into Jonathan Abernathy with the wrong expectations. It leaned far more into dystopia and science fiction than I'd expected, and I hadn't realized how dark and nefarious the dream world would be. It's a very cool world, but I had a hard time escaping into it. That was more of a me problem than a book problem.

McGhee's writing is excellent, and the way she tells the story is compelling and unique, providing the perfect backdrop for such an odd protagonist. The narration is strong and has so much character.

Also, the way labor and class are tackled is extremely poignant in a way most workers will immediately identify with. McGhee shows how workers are exploited and what corporations are willing to do to them in the name of profit. It also shows how workers are manipulated to tie their personal worth to their work success, and how doing so blurs the line between a worker who sees themself as a larger class struggle and one who thinks they can become better than those workers. This commentary is not exactly nuanced, but it's still very real.

Overall, I think it's a worthwhile read, even if it didn't win me over. If you're more of a sci-fi fan than me, you'll probably enjoy it a lot.

The hype for Molly McGhee's amazingly titled JONATHAN ABERNATHY YOU ARE KIND is good and true. The badass cover drew me in, but the surreal waking nightmare of this book, which is all about the waking nightmare of capitalism, was a wild ride to read.

Jonathan Abernathy has debt. A lot of it. He's also a bit dull, lonely, and in need of a good job. So, when strange figures come to him in a dream to go to a storefront because they have a job opportunity for him, he does it. And there, he finds out he can also be one of those people who visits people's dreams in order to keep workers in line and, depressingly, let them know it could always be worse.

McGhee's writing is a revelation, as is this classic story of frauds and pyramid schemes (sorry, no spoilers!) The characters are fully realized and while the story is a bit grim and ends on a depressing note, it was still a joy to read and I can't wait for more from McGhee in the future. This a fantastic witty and sharp book, and a fantastic debut.

I don't know if this makes sense but I mean it as the highest compliment: this is like the tv show Severance as a book. The FEELING, the vibe, the uncertainty, not the actual story line. I loved it. What a fresh and quirky book. Add it to your list for fall!

The writing style is not for me, but I can see why others would like this rambly style. I wanted more of the humor.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. Unfortunately I was not sophisticated enough for the book and I found it to be entirely too esoteric. Thank you for the opportunity.

I was drawn to this book because I enjoy somewhat sci fi books, e.g. Station Eleven, Anthem, etc. I did not finish this book because it turned out to not be quite suited to me, I should have paid heed to the word surreal in the description. It was slightly too surreal for me but will be great for readers who love that. The writing was excellent and Jonathan was an intriguing character. He has a job going into people's dreams - that is an interesting premise!

Unfortunate cover… I mean, I think it’s beautiful, but it does not match the tone of the story at all!

I was all over the place with this one. I thought it was 3 stars, 4 stars, and 5 stars all at different points. I’m going with a 3.5 rounded up because I did really enjoy the themes, the imagination of it, and even the bleakness.

This is the story of Abernathy, a young man with huge debts, and the job he takes out of desperation - removing all the “bad” things from workers’ dreams. It’s worse than it seems, of course, and gets out of hand. Another major part of the story is Abernathy’s relationship with Rhoda, a woman he wants to help but doesn’t know how.

There’s initially a lot of humor in this, and I wasn’t sure it would be for me. But it turns dark, and I found myself pretty invested in Abernathy, Kai, and Rhoda a little ways in.

I really enjoyed all of the commentary on capitalism, but it is *depressing* and Abernathy’s naïveté is rough to watch.

As I got to the middle, I started to get bored, and I found the story to be too repetitive. Rhoda’s situation felt cliche, which isn’t always a bad thing, her situation does exist in reality. But it didn’t always manage to expand beyond cliche, so her story wasn’t super successful for me.

I also felt as dumb as Abernathy many times, but I feel like I was supposed to see more clearly than he did 😂 I mean, I knew working for this org was a bad idea, but I was not picking up on what was going on with Kai or Rhoda sometimes. I’m dense, too, what can I say. I feel like the book faults Abernathy a lot for not communicating better, but NO ONE is using their words.

The ending got interesting for me again as some reveals start to happen and the plot picks up. This was thought provoking and memorable enough for me to want to round up.

Lots of really great lines in here - often very witty and smart. And biting 😬

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

This one was weird. If you like books that kind of feel like a fever dream this one is for you. About a guy who applies to a magical office that sits through dreams. It's got magical realism and it was fun and was all over the place. Does have deeper themes around self worth that I appreciated as well. Fun and a fast read.

Being a working stiff sucks, and Molly McGhee knows that just as well as anybody. How wonderful, then, that she invested Jonathan Abernathy with such honest human frailty in the pursuit of a damn good story about WORK. What it means to work, why we do it, who we're really serving... it's both kind of funny and terribly depressing, it's richly phantasmagorical, it's the kind of book where you hope hope hope that it will turn out different but the first page tells you all you need to know and McGhee delivers on her promise. With her debut, McGhee joins the ranks of the modern dreamy masters like Alexandra Kleeman, Ben Marcus, Hilary Leichter, and J. Robert Lennon.

It takes a special kind of writer to make something riotously funny, yet precise and word-perfect to the degree it feels like it was assembled by the engineers at CERN. Not even just a great debut, this is simply a great book.

I had a hard time getting into this story. I loved the concept, having a chance to get into people’s dreams and make changes, but the story fell short for me on that. I didn’t connect with the characters or the story. The story moved too slow for me, and my attention wondered frequently while reading the story.

My review is voluntary and all comments and opinions are my own.

I was unfortunately unable to read this title due to its format being unreadable on my device. I will be writing it down on my to be read list for when it gets released and I hope it does well!

I really liked the premise of this book, it sounded so unique and fresh - a clean-up crew for your dreams!

Unfortunately, I found the pace too slow and didn't enjoy reading it as much I had hoped. Of the several books I had on the go, it was the least appealing.

Thanks, NetGalley for the opportunity.

This book was one hell of a ride, and I have a feeling it'll be one of the most talked about releases in the fall. I devoured it in just over a day. Molly McGhee is the real deal. Thanks to the publishers for the e-galley!

The premise of this novel hooked me immediately, and I enjoyed the author's creativity in reimagining the process of debt repayment that is central to how the novel unfolds. But once I jumped into the narrative the tone quickly fell off for me. The story's poignant relevancy to most twenty- and thirty-somethings is palpable, but overall it lacks stakes and heart. Jonathan Abernathy's character is overshadowed by the narrator's voice, which felt patronizing (and that may very well be the author's intention), and I struggled to maintain interested in the plot. The world of the novel felt floaty and rootless--it didn't feel like the story was happening in a particular place and time, so all that happens was kind of ethereal (which might also be intentional). And it doesn't help that the formatting of this ARC ebook was bad.

Overall, wanted to like this one more than I did, but still glad I gave it a shot.

Take Jonathan Abernathy and put him in the trolley problem. As the onlooker, he can save five people in danger of being hit by a trolley or divert the trolley only to kill one person. Now add in some factors for different scenarios:
- His boss ordering him to choose the five people
- Jonathan by himself with no contact with the people on the trolley’s path

Take Jonathan from the beginning and the end of the book and his choice will remain the same but for different reasons. This is because Jonathan Abernathy is a man influenced by the perception of other people around him. He carries with him an imaginary audience that criticizes his every move and as a reader I felt myself become a part of his audience. He unknowably places a crutch on himself that leads him to his preventable doom.

I was frustrated with Abernathy. I wanted to shake him for his decisions but that is why the story is so intriguing. We know his fate from the very first paragraph and yet the journey is what keeps the reader going. Yes, there are themes that even a simpleton like me can pick out: Corporate greed. The loss of human connection in the pursuit of the ‘American Dream’. Late-stage capitalism and how it enslaves its workers. The abuse of the lower working class companies exploit. How indecisiveness kills.

The focus is on Jonathan and his life living in this near future late capitalism scenario. Because of how our main character views things plot points I would have liked to see fleshed out even more can be almost entirely skipped because Abernathy does not deem it important. For example, I wanted to explore more with how you can discern what sort of symbolic burden the dreamer is facing because dream exploration is one of my favorite scenarios but to Abernathy, this was his night shift. This wasn’t some interesting premise this is a job he has to fill a quota for.

Because of my own preferences with a need to deep dive into any detail I find all the more interesting it is four stars. But truly Molly McGhee has accomplished what she has set out to do and executed it extremely well. It's humorously funny, frustrating, and creepy.

Jonathan Abernathy, you are kind. You make mistakes but you will find a way to fix at least one of them even if you receive no reward.

An unusual book about Jonathon Abernathy, mostly known by his surname. Down on his luck, having dropped out of college and being jobless, he lands an unusual job, cleaning up dreams. He really does not know what he is doing . He also gets a job at a hotdog stand and starts to finally make some money. His relationships with those around him are fractured and he seems to blame himself for their unfortunate circumstances and tries to put things right. The time line moves rapidly at times and slowly at other times. The underlying message is the hold that capitalism has on life, this did not engage me particularly and it all just seemed very surreal .
I wanted to like this book more and although well written, it gave me mixed messages and I still have to sort it all out in my head.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

3.5/5

Jonathan Abernathy is trying his best, but with an insane amount of debt and no job he's drowning. When he's offered a job in a dream, auditing the dreams of American workers to make them more productive, he jumps at the opportunity to tackle his problems and maybe even make something of himself, unaware of what really lurks underneath and the specifics of his job.

An interesting critic of capitalism and the American Dream, this book sucked me in. Earnest, quirky and touching, this is one of the more intriguing and different books I've read in a while. Jonathan Abernathy is such a delight of a character, I found myself relating a lot to him. His situation is one that many of us have been in, with his sincere way of thinking and his lack of self confidence ringing true and so very human. He wants to do good, succeed, improve, but the system he's trapped in needs him to stay down.

The dream auditing was a captivating idea. As someone who dreams a lot, having someone in there judging and cataloging sounds like such a violation of my privacy and my existence that did alarm me. I do wish that the author had dug deeper into the mechanics of it, perhaps showing more dreams and the process of auditing them. While I gushed about Jonathan, he did get on my nerves a bit. I understand his naiveté and its importance to the plot but it got to a point where I was rolling my eyes a bit. The pacing could have been improved, it took a little too long for my taste to get to the meat of the plot.

A quirky, slow-moving surrealist tale with elements of humor here and there . Whilst it was thought provoking I wasn't as engaged with the story-line or the characters as much as I would have like to have been. Overall 3 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.