With the caveat right up front that I read and didn’t love Such A Fun Age, I’m afraid this one was also a disappointment.

My biggest issue is Kiley Reid’s writing (like the prose itself) is compelling and page turning. It’s especially evident here because nothing of note happens for almost 85% of this book. I kept reading, kept waiting, and when the big event finally happens it’s a huge letdown.

And yet somehow even thought nothing notable is happening for the vast majority of the book, there are still way too many character and threads to keep track of. And as far as any kind of message - it reads like she’s so close to the point, and then she takes an abrupt U-turn.

The concept of racism in academia, especially in a town like Fayettesville, is such rich soil to mine. I’m writing this review on the day the Supreme Court voted to overturn affirmative action, so the potential themes in this book are as relevant as ever. However, Kiley Reid spends a lot of time setting up the stakes and then…literally nothing comes of it.

2 stars. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This book is a lot! I loved the writing and was sucked right in immediately (wow can Kiley Reid write dialogue and develop razor-sharp, well-differentiated characters that *immediately* feel real and rounded). The last fourth of it was...less successful for me, but it was still very interesting (when it wasn't zany-levels of over the top). Reid's commentary on micro- and macro-aggressions and just run-of-the-mill white mean girls was top-notch, as in 'Such a Fun Age,' too. (Minor spoiler, but I wish I had known: content warning for a discussion, including narration of, dog death at around 2/3 of the way through.)

Come & Get It is a horrifically accurate look into the petty, opinionated, and problematic lives of undergraduate women.

The first half of the novel reads like a classic Jane Austen novel, a slice of life where you feel like a “fly on the wall”. As the characters’ lives become more and more tangled, the true conflict of the story becomes blindingly clear.

Reid has crafted a beautiful modern classic that leaves the reader, devouring its pages behind covered eyes, but unable to put it down.

What can I say? I didn't love Such a Fun Age, but I'm always willing to give an author another shot. I was excited to get the chance to read this early, but sadly, I was let down. I don't really know what the point of the story was? The relationship between Millie and Agatha wasn't all that messy. I mean, the part at the end with the house was absurd. Millie didn't need that. What was up with the link between Kennedy and Agatha? The back stories of the main characters were really the best part. The extra characters didn't really add to the story in any way. Why is there a bit about some random wanting to win free Chic Fil A? I gave an extra star for the drama that saw me through to the end.

AMAZING!!! Wow, another fantastic novel by Kiley Reid! Come and Get It is set over the course of a semester at the University of Arkansas, detailing the life of resident assistant, Millie, and the relationships she builds with a trio of residents, her fellow RAs, and visiting professor Agatha Paul. It's funny, poignant, and fraught with tension due to the burgeoning relationships, the discussions of money, and what, exactly, led everyone involved to this specific 2017 fall semester at UA.

The deal: An RA, several students, and a professor get into a messy entanglement while at The University of Arkansas. I am keeping it vague here on purpose. (I got an ARC from NetGalley. This is out in January 2024).

Is it worth it?: Yep, I think so. Not sure this is ending up with a “Reese’s Book Club” badge like Reid’s debut, but I’d argue that’s a good thing. It’s entirely character-driven, little-plot-lotsa-vibes, while also being compulsively readable. A rare combo! Like, “What if Winesburg, Ohio were set in 2017, written by a Black woman, and actually interesting?”

Pairs well with: Haribo Peaches, Googling “Amy Adams/Jessica Chastain/Julianne Moore Grocery Store” or “Blake Lively old nose,” a Sweetgreen Harvest Bowl, Aula Internacional 4, The Pioneer Woman, Refinery 29’s Money Diaries, disassociating at Target

B

I LOVED Such A Fun Age and was excited for this newest novel by Kiley Reid. While I didn't love it as much as her first book, I did love the character-driven story. I wish the plot had been a bit more expanded, but the social commentary on money and power, especially when it comes to race, was fantastic.

Thank you to Net Galley and Putnam
Books for the eARC of this book.

This book has 8… yes 8 main characters. I actually at one point had to start taking notes to keep track of who everyone was. It’s a lot.

Here’s what I like: The opening of the book. And again, Reid does a fantastic job highlighting race and class in America. Something that she also did so well in Such A Fun Age. That part really makes the reader think.

What I didn’t like: A lot of the characters. They just weren’t great people. The lack of direction for the plot. It felt like it was a jumbled mess. The constant intention misspelling of words to emphasize the southern drawl.

2.5 starts (rounded up) to 3/5.

This was my first book by Kiley Reid, and it won’t be my last. It brought back some not so fond memories of my college experience, but it was well-written and held my interest.

I was on the fence with Kiley Reid's debut, and felt the same here. Still - I believe it will have a readership, so will order a copy for our collection.

Unfortunately, this follow-up to Such a Fun Age was a miss for me. The characters fell flat, and the plot was a bit jumbled and underwhelming. I'm not sure what was missing exactly-- higher stakes, perhaps? Overall, just a letdown.

Content warnings for this book: self-harm, suicidal ideation, death of an animal.

This book was delightful. It was a smooth and entertaining read and so easy to follow these characters. It's definitely more character-driven than plot-driven, which is not normally my thing, but in this case I had no complaints. It does take the book a little while to get rolling, and for the connections between our main characters to take shape, but the writing is so fluid and enjoyable that I was happy to just be along for the ride until the stakes of the novel became clear.

There are plenty of things to love about this book, but one of its biggest standouts for me was the dialogue. It is possibly the most natural dialogue I have ever read. Reid has a way of adding in the awkward pauses and vocal fumbles without it dragging on the pacing, as well as a way of relaying the valley-girl/college-girl affection without it feeling gratuitous or mean spirited. It is so clear that the majority of our POV characters are young women; this is captured realistically without being used as a means to delegitimize their pain or stories.

At its heart, Come and Get It feels like a coming of multiple ages across three POVs that grapples with race, sexuality, class, money, and loneliness. I believe it balances all of these well, without seeming to take too definitive of a stance on any one thing. It feels like a great opening to a conversation on all these points.

Kiley Reid also brings such an incredibly creative and incisive way of describing emotion. She describes a first queer crush as wanting her crush to pop her shoulder back into place and reassure her that she did great, which is such a hilarious and sharply accurate way to describe that that it almost caught me off guard.

My only wish is that the ending had a bit more heft to it. Reid does such a great job painstakingly building the stakes and interweaving the story lines that I expected a bit more of a blow out ending with heavier consequences for some of our characters. It wasn’t a bad ending in my opinion, I just think she could have pushed it a bit further. Overall, I really enjoyed it and it definitely makes me want to go back and read Such a Fun Age.


Some of my favorite quotes:
“In an attempt to sit up, Millie sank deeper into the beanbag. She tried again, using her arms, all the while thinking, ‘Wow, I wanna die.’”
“I eight and eight until I was six on the floor.”
“Every Friday, she drove twenty minutes to a decent sushi place for takeout. She ate rolls while sitting on her bed, watching Survivor on Hulu. She found herself gasping out loud at immunity idols and blindsides. The reasons she left the house became bookish and wild: to check how high the stream was after rain, to see if a gorgeous gray fox had returned.”

I actually enjoyed this book more than her first. Reid addresses her favorite topics, race, class, and people's relationship with money, but in a college setting. The social situations in which the characters found themselves felt very believable to me and much like many college situations...tight groups; those with concerns and challenges who struggle on the fringes with most surrounding them too inner focused to notice or care; independent confident individuals; those excited to be free from home rules; those finding it hard to leave those connections behind. The full gamut of personalities in the petri dish of college social life.

There are several older adult characters mixed in, the main character being one, who flirts with the edges of appropriate behavior and gets herself and others in trouble. I found the storyline complex and interesting.

Finally a spilt perspective novel done well. It’s been so long since spilt pov has been done in a completing and intriguing way. The background information on each character was necessary to fully understanding how the events unfolded. It is a character study essentially taking place over the course of a semester with some flashbacks throughout. I was so hooked from the very beginning and could not put it down. It examines race, gender, and privilege without being heavy handed. Just a really good book overall.

I was disappointed in this because the author's first book was so good. This had structural issues, with lots of time spent on backstories and introducing characters, so that it took more than half the book for it to get going. Also it felt like there were frequent descriptions of people putting their fingers and hands places that were meant to signify something, but what it was was unclear. E.g., somebody puts one finger under her mouth, someone runs two fingers through her hair, waves a hand next to her face ...
Once the plot started moving, I was more into it, but the plot itself involved everyone making messes of their lives, which was sad.

I received this e-ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to read this because I loved Such A Fun Age and I like Reid’s writing style. I think she’s funny and writes great observations of people and their behaviors. That said, this book was a lot different than SAFA in a few ways.
Come And Get It takes place at a college in the South and centers Agatha a visiting professor who connects with Millie, an RA in a scholarship dorm. Agatha initially sets out to interview students for a project but she gets wrapped up in the drama involving a group of senior students. Reid does a great job of capturing college dorm life and culture but the plot was lacking. I’d say this was a character driven novel that touches on big social themes like class, race and social hierarchies. I wish that Reid would have gone more in depth on this themes. The story was very slow and it took me longer than usual to finish this one. I’d definitely read more from this without but this one was just ok to me.

I liked this book about a struggling professor who gets enmeshed in the lives of a RA who is struggling in her own life.

Kiley Reid hit it out of the park with Come and Get It. Set in a university in the south, it’s a perfect encapsulation of the ways class, money, education, and good old-fashioned racism (from people who probably think themselves “colorblind”) intersect.

Some authors go through a sophomore slump when their first book (in Reid’s case “Such a Fun Age” which was long listed for The Booker Prize and a critical and commercial darling) is a success. Reid proves that doesn’t have to be the case with this novel. The characters are richly drawn as is the setting. You can almost see the chintzy signs and messy dorm room, almost feel the splinters of the old house under your fingers.

This book is very character driven with the relationship of a writer/professor, RA, and a few upperclassman college women. The women rooming together (Peyton, Tyler, and Kennedy) were one dimensional but still relatable. Their interactions brought me right back to living in the dorms and how it felt. It was difficult to tell what the story was building to at first. When we dove into more of Kennedy's back story I found I would like to read an entire book with just her POV. The ending felt a bit abrupt after the slow build up.

I'm still not sure what the main message of the book is or if there is supposed to be one. It felt like a collection of short stories which interestingly mirrored Agatha writing fictional profiles based off the characters. It seemed like the messaging is that life is messy and be careful that even little selfish actions can change your future.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC.

A couple of years ago, Kiley Reid's 'Such a Fun Age' had me hooked, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on her new work. But after digging in, my feelings on it are ... complicated, to say the least.

To be candid, this wasn't quite a hit for me in terms of of plot or style, yet it was compelling in its own, peculiar way. Imagine watching a chaotic movie that doesn't quite make sense, but you just can't seem to switch it off – that's what this book was like. The plot wasn't too gripping, and despite the story centering on character studies, I just couldn't connect with any of them. However, there was something strangely magnetic about it that kept me turning the pages, even though I felt the characters had a lot of unfulfilled potential.

This novel is neither a favorite nor a regrettable read of mine. A more honed plot could have elevated it to a firm winner. Yet here I am, still considering its nuances a day after finishing it. And, as I write this, perhaps that lingering thoughtfulness, the novel's uncanny ability to stay with you as you're weaving together experiences and replaying conversations, is the whole point.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC!