Recently, I read “Maid” by Stephanie Land, so when I noticed she had written another book, I knew I’d want to read it! She writes in a way that continually pulls me in and has me wanting to hear more of her story. Land doesn’t shy away from the details of her challenges, sharing stories of hunger and longing for a better life for herself and her child. One element that really stood out to me was how judged she felt during these years in poverty. Although she was giving her very best, it was often perceived as less than enough. Land’s memoir details themes of perseverance, courage, and commitment. I hope that Land continues to write and tell her stories!

I first watched Maid on Netflix which lead me to reading the books so I wanted to read this one to see what happens. I feel for the author as this is her life story and how difficult it is to get help when you really need help. However, all of our decisions have consequences and I couldn’t deal with all the bad language, stories about sex, and abortion and not regretting it. I was also an English major in college and college is majorly overrated. It’s not the answer to all things. The book at times went on and on and I speed read through a lot. Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy.

I was absolutely enthralled with Stephanie Land’s story in “Maid,” and couldn’t wait to hear how the next chapter of her life played out. Where “Maid” was a harrowing story of escaping from poverty, abuse and neglect into a new life, “Class” seems more a series of essays and vignettes, almost diary-like, on how hard it is to be poor, and the few choices afforded to people living below the poverty level.

I was especially struck by the stigma Land faces as a single mother attempting to obtain a bachelor’s degree outside of the normal undergrad experience. It begs the question of whether higher education is a right to everyone, or a benefit afforded to only those that can afford it. Do people on food stamps deserve the right to aspire to something more? If so, does the public have the right to dictate how people receiving assistance may go about aspiring to more?

While I was reading, I did wonder as to why her sights were so specifically set on the difficult path she chose: university instead of a community college, English degree instead of something “marketable,” not taking classes that fit around a full-time job, etc. It didn’t seem as if she was getting any kind of career guidance from anyone, and she mentions a couple of times how much it would have helped to know about the freelance writing world.

Like her first book, “Class” was a struggle to get through. It’s dark, depressing and brutally honest and she sucks you right into it all with her. Just when things seem their darkest, they get darker. Plus, unlike the nice arc of Maid where you have a glimpse of something better on the horizon, this story just kind of ends. I get the feeling that another is in the works, so I’ll be watching for that in the future.

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was another eye opening look at a world I cannot relate with. Earlier in the book I could follow along with the decisions the author was making but I had a hard time understanding why the author chose to keep a baby in the midst of a broken car, loss of food assistance, unreliable child care, and an abusive sperm donor. Nothing in the prose made me understand or empathize with her decision making process at that moment

I received a copy of "Class" from Netgalley. I read Stephanie Land's book "Maid" so I was glad to see she came out with her book "Class" this book picks up where Maid left off. She has now moved to Montana to tend College to get her bachelor's degree in literature and writing. Her little girl, Emelia is four when the starts out. Over the next two years she tries to make ends meet while attending college. Her struggles are just as difficult. Her ex- husband fights paying the child support he was supposed to pay trying to get it scaled back. It is like taking one step forward and two steps back over the two years.
When her second year of college starts she finds she is pregnant and ponders if she should go through with the pregnancy. { I hope this is not a spoiler, but she does choose to go through with the unplanned pregnancy.] This book is similar to her first writing of the constant struggles of poverty and trying to get a degree and hopefully a career to support her two children. The book ends with her giving birth to her baby.
I enjoyed reading this book and learning of the next two years of her life. I would give this book a 4.5.

Having read Stephanie Land's first book, "Maid", and seen the Netflix adaptation, I was very interested to read her follow-up.

While I enjoyed it, I did not think it was as compelling as "Maid". Land focused more on her personal life, especially her sexual relationships and her time spent in writing classes working toward her degree, rather than the hardships she faced as a single mother, which was at the core of her first book.

I enjoyed "Class", but do not think it is essential reading, as her first book was. This seemed more like reading someone's diary rather than a continued expose of the plight of poor, working, single mothers in America.

This second chapter of Stephanie Land's life has the same frenetic pace that Ms. Land lived through. She draws the reader into her life and feelings of inadequacy; sometimes reading it actually hurts because the reader will think what now???? and yet the book can't be put down because--she's got to come through it ok, after all now she's a best selling writer. The ending was a surprise for me as I thought everything would work out fine and it kind of left the reader hanging. I felt a little better after reading the acknowledgements, but now I am anxiously awaiting a third book to let me know how she ends up (I know what happened, just now how). I hope Stephanie Land writes fast...

Maid is Stephanie Land's memoir of living life below the poverty line in great debt and making it as a house cleaner. She continues her story of living as a 35-year-old college senior and mother at the University of Montana in Class. She has a six-year-old daughter, and she is pregnant. Her book is a comment on the economic class of students -- who has the right to be a student and at what cost?

I don’t even know where to begin other than with a thank you. Thank you to Stephanie land for writing this beautiful, brilliant, and painfully raw book to shed light on such important circumstances. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for giving me an advance copy.

Many are familiar with Stephanie from her first book, Maid, or the Netflix series of the same name. Her sophomore book does not disappoint but actually raises the bar. So beautifully written I couldn’t put it down. I cried, laughed, and felt anger alongside Stephanie in this book.

I hope her work is found by those who will be most helped from the words and leads to important change in our world to care for families under the poverty line.

Brutal honesty for both the writer and reader. I was thrilled to get approved for the NetGalley of Class, the second memoir by Stephanie Land. I had read Maid and admired the author for her struggles and drive to overcome any challenge.
In the first half of Class I had an appreciation for the desire to get the degree and the challenge of coordinating the multiple schedules of college, part time work and kindergarten. However in the second half of Class, I learned more about myself and how I perceive a situation, and it was emotional. Ms. Land can write, bringing me into the moments as if I was there in a room or listening to a conversation. I assume there will be some pushback about choices made, but I would love to read the next book and see how the authors journey to where she is today evolved.

I really enjoyed both the book and Netflix series of Maid, but Class just didn't work quite as well for me. I had wrongly assumed that this would be about the writing and publishing of her first book, but it didn't get to that point in her life.

Firstly, I want to say that I really feel for Land and everything she has gone through and how much she had done for herself and her daughter. But, I'm also just not sure that this book treaded over any new territory. I feel so guilty for saying this because I think it's an important story to be told! And who am I to say she shouldn't keep telling her story even if it's similar to her last book.

Land is a strong writer, and she paints such a clear picture of what she has gone through. However, I found it to be a bit disjointed and slow at times.

Class is the follow on memoir to Land’s first bestseller maid which was also made into a successful Netflix series. I read maid and enjoyed Land’s look into her life as a single mother subsisting at minimum wage jobs. Class follows Land as she has moved to Montana to finish her college degree in English. She is still subsisting by taking student loans as well as various odd jobs to help pay her bills while in school.
As an adult student with a child, Land is at least 10 years older than most of her fellow students. Instead of “acting her age” , she spends her weekends going to bars and having casual sex when she can. She becomes pregnant after two of these encounters. She chooses to have an abortion after the first one, but decides to keep the baby after the second one. She has shown herself to be a caring mother in the first book and I cried that she chose to have an abortion.
I write this review as one who spent 28 years working in public higher education, mostly as a senior financial administrator. Land is writing as many I saw n the younger generations: entitled and looking for free everything. The problem is, who is going to pay for it? Public colleges give subsidized tuition to their state residents. They get state tax dollars to fund this. Land is insensed because she can’t get the same break as a non-resident.
She also takes out the maximum in loans to get a creative writing degree. Student loans may make sense for majors that lead to jobs with higher salaries but not the liberal arts in my opinion. Thankfully, Land is the one-in-a-million who is able to land a huge book contract and thus easily pay off her loans.
I also can’t get over her lackadaisical attitude about her abortions, especially since she clearly loves her daughter. This book is well-written, and a good look into Land’s worldview. But her views, which seem to be more and more common, make me really sad for her and those like her. I received a complementary copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

It is a nearly impossible task to follow after writing a truly amazing book, Maid. However, I did enjoy Class! It did drag at times, but would then pick back up. I enjoyed learning and reading about the characters and seeing their development. Will definitely be picking up the next book by Stephanie Land!

Thank you to net galley for the arc in exchange of an honest review.

I watched the Netflix series, Maid, but I have never read the book. The Netflix series was well-done and I really connected with the the main character, Stephanie. I, too, am a single parent and understand the difficulties of navigating parenthood alone, especially when resources are limited. I loved Maid so much that when I wanted to read the follow-up book, Class. Class had a different feel than Maid. Where Maid squeezed my heart, Class made me roll my eyes. It moved slowly at times and it felt like there was a randomness in some of the stories she peppered throughout the book. I nearly DNF'd this book multiple times in the first 50% because I would get interested in a part of the story and the author would jump to something else leaving the reader with whiplash and wondering what happened. Class was not a hit for me. I didn't connect to the author, nor did I enjoy her writing or the pace of the story. Although, this book isn't for me, I did find it thought-provoking and would make a good book club selection.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria for this ARC.

I greatly enjoy Stephanie Land’s voice and story, though Class felt a bit flat for me. As an educator, I have met many students who faced similar struggles in balancing work and life while taking classes and trying to navigate higher education. However, I often felt that Land’s pride got in the way of her accessing resources that would be beneficial to her. Additionally, as a former English major myself, I found myself shaking my head at that decision. I’m glad she was able to follow her passion and it worked out, but there are so many other majors or short term certificates that she could have perused.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review!

I now that this book has a huge audience, but honesty, to me its just okay.

Several years ago, I read Waiting and thought this book would have some of the Waiting vibes, but it didn't.

This book never got going for me. The writing was too slow and I ended up not caring about the story at all.

I am very picky about the books I read. I need them to go at a quick pace and don't care much for a ton of details and this book just bogged down.

I do appreciate how hard it is to write,

Every bit as well-written and captivating as Maid, Class examines the inequalities in America's higher education system as Stephanie navigates her way to a degree.

This book is the memoir of a 35 yr old white unmarried undergrad with an uninvolved baby daddy and a 6 year old daughter. The writing is top-notch but the situations play out like a cautionary tale. It is especially annoying to me to read about the author blaming society for her own bad life choices. As a Latina I found my self shaking my head. I kept wondering, "my family has been in this country for about as long as Stephanie has been alive, how is it that we know more about avoiding the financial and situational pitfalls she so willingly falls into time and time again?" Why doesn't she know better? Yet this book shows us that 8.2% of white Americans fall below the poverty line, and better yet why.

She spends so much of the book talking about a ridiculous MFA, which she thinks will make her a real writer. I was also an English major for undergrad, and while the professors talked about how wonderful MFA's are, to me it seems like a lot of navel-gazing and a waste of 50,000. She is a great writer and that is the strength here. It am not convinced that she needed that useless degree. And she's pretty naive if she thought she couldn't get a job as a receptionist without it. I'm tempted to quote Good Will Hunting “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.” As far as I am convinced, all her degree got her was connections in the publishing world which she also could have gotten if she had spent some time researching them on the internet.

The content.... the retelling of her experiences having one girl, two abortions and one baby and a dog she can't afford. Lack of contraception, health care, good nutrition, meal planning skills.... This girl had no home training. I get that her mom was an absentee parent and her father was kind of checked out but she if only she could have known the language to ask her teachers or guidance counselors for help... oh wait, she did speak the language. She was smart. She could have asked for help in high school. Her choice of friends and men is equal to plenty of friends who are total dirt bags. It is a miracle her good writing has taken her out of poverty and hopefully her writing can stay ahead of her poor life choices. If that sounds judgy it kind of is. This is my unbiased review. As a Latina I am hard on the white poor in this country when they are like her. She has lived an experience that just by the longevity of her family's tenure in this country she ought to have avoided simple because she ought to have known better. Its is not as though she were one of my clients, new to this country, still trying to figure out laws and customs. She had a library card, she had teachers. She could have done a myriad of other things than what she did. It's kind of Miraculous that it worked out for her.

The content was 3 stars, the writing was 5. This equals 4 stars. I wish the author the best. This is my honest review.

Excellent follow up to Maid, Stephanie Land's debut. Wonderfully written, eye opening insight into the life as a struggling single mother living below the poverty line, juggling getting an education, working and a small child.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the kindle arc of this novel. While I admit I didn’t read her first memoir Maid, I fell in love with the character based off of her story. While reading Class, I found myself really feeling her anxiety and frustration with being a single mother and fighting the court system with an abusive ex.. all while trying to just SURVIVE. Her ability to push through every obstacle was so encouraging. I believe it’s difficult to make one feel all the emotions while reading a story sometimes but Stephanie Land did just that.