Come and Get It was a great satirical read. I appreciated the college campus setting. Reid has great commentary on the harm that can come from groupthink

I adored Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, so I had to pick up Come and Get It, and was not disappointed! This is a story of young hijinx meets mayhem, set in a college where anything and everything happens. Heavily character-driven, you'll dive deeper and deeper into the complex world of constantly chasing money, power, and influence.

I started this and it just didn't grip me. Unlike her first novel, I felt immediately out to sea and after 30 or so pages, I gave up. I might have to come back to it, but for now it's a DNF.

Very heavy on Character study and development so if that's something you enjoy then this is one you will enjoy. For me, i was hoping for at least a little plot but overall was a good story.

I loved every moment of this book. The way the character threads weave together keep me turning pages well into the night - I just HAD to see how the climax would play out as all of these characters' worlds and perspectives collided. A there was a big payoff at the end; such an entertaining and satisfying read.

Character study with very little plot. Great writing with (kind of) humor, (kind of) satire, and (kind of) a punch in the face. The characters were equally awful and also just kind of - normal? Like normal in that everyone is f*cked up in their own weird way.

Sadly, this one was hard for me to get into and I could not find a plot which I tend to notice with this author.

DNF @ 30%. Very character driven with too many different characters. If there is a plot I have not gotten to it yet. Thank you netgalley for the ARC.

I didn’t love this quite as much as I did Kiley Reid’s first book, which is to date one of my favorite fun reads of the last few years. That being said, I am a little surprised that people seem to be so frustrated and annoyed by this book (to a certain extent).

The issues I had with this book are in line with a lot of the other criticism it’s received. The book has a LOT of characters to keep track of. The book’s not-quite-linear but also not-non-linear storyline is kind of a headache and doesn’t really serve much of a purpose. The book is extremely character-driven without much of an overarching plot. Honestly the biggest issue I had was the absolutely mind boggling way that this book starts out and characters are introduced. The first 10-15% was so impossible to follow or keep track of characters, I was shocked at how unpleasant of a reading experience it was.

So, listen - I get it. I think all the criticism is fair and warranted and I also struggled with parts of this book. To me, though, almost all the issues I have were far outweighed by how brilliantly Kiley Reid writes dialogue. This was SO FUNNY in so many quippy little one-liners, and I just don’t think you could possibly ask for more rich characters especially in a book that’s so character focused. I felt like everyone in this book was so well developed and so perfectly forces you to wrestle the question of what differentiates a good person who sometimes does bad things, from a bad person who sometimes does good things.

My unpopular opinion is this would have been 5-stars for me had I not hated and struggled the beginning so much. Will absolutely enthusiastically continue to read whatever Kiley Reid writes.

Come and Get it by Kiley Reid is essentially a satirical take on doing what it takes to get to the top. Wealth, success, education, and a bunch of characters I could hardly relate to,. Race and ethics come into play, which is normally something I love, this just didn't do it for me.

Millie Cousins, a senior RA at the university of Arkansas has a chance encounter with a visiting professor Agatha Paul, and hopes to secure her future. This is essentially a character driven story, but I found that quite a few of them were forgettable and just surface level. Power and money eventually become some of the hot topics, but I found it mostly boring and the "bad behavior" predictable.

My sincerest apologies as to the lateness of this review. Thank you endlessly for the opportunity to read this ARC and offer my opinion. Life got really hectic and time ran out on me.

__ THE REVIEW __

Kiley Reid is a genius. I don't know how she pulls this shit out of her head but I'm jealous and would deeply like whatever creative forces are running around in her head, because I am sincerely missing them. As someone who is currently an RA on campus, the amount of BS that Millie goes through via residence education, residents themselves, and the phrase "on duty" truly gave me war flashbacks even though these flashbacks are basically current because, you know, I haven't graduated yet. The hyper-specific bond Millie forms with her RA coworkers was also impressively done, especially the shit-talking sessions in Millie's dorm that Kennedy, the cuckoo bananas Alix parallel in this novel, overhears through the vents. I especially loved the way Reid tapped into Millie's hustle mindset and her boundless determination to meet her goals by any means necessary.

Reid basically taps into her Dickensian, socially critical eye when she describes the ways in which money permeates every facet of the college experience. Agatha's truly exploitative behavior and the constant badgering of Robin about money, Millie's hustle mentality, the ways in which the residents and Res ED higher ups discuss money felt so real and true to life. I also don't even know how Reid manages to write dialogue that's so scathing and so real. Like I wonder if she makes herself cringe or laugh while writing.

Thank you Putnam and Netgalley for this opportunity. This is all part of an extensive effort to get myself back on track with my ARCs that I have severely fallen behind on.

📕Unpopular opinion is loading. It took me so long to get into this book and I had to pick up audiobook on the side so I can at least listen to it while doing laundry
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📗Kiley Reid again used money and job opportunities as anchor in the story. There is another girl here making money off of anything you can think of in addition to her job as an RA at a college dorm. But I couldn’t find a way to understand her reasons
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📘I really like Reid’s previous book, but this felt like several storylines were smashed together. Don’t @ me, I don’t have to relate to everything I read 🙂‍↔️

I was very excited for this book because I loved "Such a Fun Age" - it sparked such thought-provoking conversation with my book club. Unfortunately, "Come and Get It" fell really flat for me - there was not much of a plot and none of the characters were compelling enough to drive a good novel in the absence of a defined story arc.

Millie Cousins is a senior RA at the University of Arkansas, and she could use some extra cash, so when she meets Agatha Paul, a writer and a visiting professor who is interested in interviewing some of the dorm residents, she arranges a lucrative side gig that will benefit them both. But this particular group of residents have their own sets of issues, and Millie’s relationship with Agatha quickly becomes more complicated than she expected...📖🐷

What I Loved: Kiley Reid is so clever, and she continues to poke fun at privilege so perfectly in her sophomore novel. I was particularly interested in the the dynamic between Millie and Agatha, which, in some ways, mirrored the relationship between Alix and Emira in Such as Fun Age, and Elizabeth and Sam in Friends & Strangers. The dynamics and interactions between the roommates were also spot on. I love messy characters and chaotic plot points, and this one had both. 📖🐷

Why Not 5 Stars: This one took me a bit longer to invest in than Reid’s first book. It was only after learning more about Millie’s backstory and the introduction of Kennedy’s character that I really started turning pages. I also didn’t find myself ruminating on the characters and conflicts from this book as much as I did when I read Such a Fun Age. 📖🐷

Still, this book did not disappoint, and I will continue to read Kiley Reid’s books moving forward! I recommend this one to those who enjoy messy characters and don’t need a clear cut ‘moral’ to the story. 📖🐷

⭐️ REVIEW ⭐️

Thank you to #NetGalley and @putnambooks @penguinbooks for allowing me to read #ComeandGetIt by @kileyreid 💰🐷

⭐️Rating:4/5 ⭐️

Synopsis: “From the celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age comes a fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students.

It’s 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue.

A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption, and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior—and the highly anticipated new novel by acclaimed and award-winning author Kiley Reid.”

My thoughts: Wow, this book was like a train wreck 🚂🤯 it had me queasy and unsettled; however, I couldn’t look away! Kiley Reid does not wrap things up in a pretty little bow, but rather let’s you sit in the uncomfortable, which is somewhat unique and something I appreciated about this book. The characters in this book grapple with money—what it means to them, to others, and the influence it has on all of our lives. The unethical behaviors had me cringing throughout, but it does comment on the lengths some people will go to for money, and other will use money to get what they want. Overall, I enjoyed the complexities and thought-provoking story and would recommend #ComeandGetIt

Kiley Reid is an immensely talented writer. She has a knack for putting words to problematic white women. I I loved "Such a Fun Age" but didn't love "Come and Get It" because the plot seemed to lack movement, and there weren't many redeeming qualities in any of the characters. I did laugh at the very end, though.

In this sophomore title, Kiley Reid proves she's a voice with staying power.

It's 2017 and Millie COusins is a resident assistant at the University of Arkansas and she's got a plan for post-grad. She has her sights set on a job, and a plan to buy a home in the area. So when visiting professor Agatha Paul offers Millie an unconventional but easy opportunity to help her, Millie agrees. It sets in motion trials in morals, ethics, sexuality, and power dynamics.

The characters are incredibly well drawn. From Millie and Agatha to the residents in the dormitories, they all seemed particularly rooted in reality with realistic and clever backstories. Race is only one part of the dilemma that these characters encounter and they challenge each other in ways that will break your heart and have you rooting for some of them.

I couldn’t get into this book at all!! Nothing happened?! I loved the author’s first book, such a fun age, but this one felt very Normal People by Sally Rooney to me, which isn’t my cup of tea.

After all the characters that we were introduced to and had to keep straight, it was a bit unsatisfying in the end. Nothing much happened. I will say that the banter among the RAs was hilarious at times, and while I did find the microaggressions and macroaggressions realistic, I did feel that it stayed pretty surface level and didn't delve deeper. It was as if it was being seen through the eyes/perspective of a white person and not the BIPOC character.

I think that prior to me reading this if I didn’t read reviews warning there is no plot I would’ve been disappointed. Let me repeat—there is no plot. It’s very character driven with slightly unreliable narrators. All of the characters are good and bad qualities. Overall it doesn’t give a great feeling of humanity tho 😂

It’s like a documentary of a college campus dorm life but also in the heads of the people. The “what if” scenarios that ran through their mind I could relate to.

While I didn’t LOVE this book I did appreciate its mundane story and the lives of average people.

I did love the take on ethics, poverty, race, privilege, money.

If I read this in college I think it would’ve been 5 stars for me. But for right now it’s a 3.5 rounded down.