I am a huge fan of Piglet. This story was so deeply different than anything I’ve read before. The cutting clarity of Piglet’s experiences and emotions in this book were painfully relatable. I was gripped by the building tension from the very first page. I have recommended this book to countless people. This is a book I can easily see myself rereading. The authors approach to disordered eating and family dynamics was perfectly realistic. I will continue to rave about this book. And that cover!!

I gave "Piglet" by Lottie Hazell 2 out of 5 stars. Overall, I found the book quite boring with a lack of engagement. The theme of food relationships, which the novel revolves around, felt underdeveloped and lacked depth. One of the main issues I had with the book was the characters. None of them were particularly likable or memorable, which made it hard for me to care about their stories. As a result, I found myself indifferent to their struggles and outcomes. The plot also failed to capture my interest. It moved slowly and lacked significant moments that would have made me more invested in the story. I was expecting more complexity and depth, especially given the promising premise, but unfortunately, the book fell short. Despite its interesting premise about relationships to food, the book failed to deliver a compelling narrative or engaging characters. If you're looking for a novel with strong character development and a well-executed theme, I would not recommend "Piglet" based on my experience.

For a book told mostly through scenes of cooking, man was I anxious while reading it. Reading this book was like watching a car crash in slow motion. The main protagonist is trying so hard to keep it together, to maintain a facade of perfection, but the pressure just continues to build and build and you just know the explosion is going to be catastrophic. It was great.

Piglet captured me from the beginning. In Piglet we watch our main character find herself through her relationship with food. The descriptions were so well written. I loved all the scenes of her cooking. Like other literary fiction I thought the ending would leave me unsatisfied but I loved everything coming to a head.

I don’t think this is a weird book as other readers have mentioned, as I have found myself being Piglet with my relationship to good and having a similar relationship to my family.

This was an entertaining unique style of story telling. I think it will appeal to many folks. I really enjoyed the escape it provided. A lot of food lyrics that definitely left me munchy and craving. I enjoyed the visuals.

Thank You NETGALLEY and Random House for the ARC.
Four stars.

This book is about a woman nicknamed “Piglet” since childhood. Piglet is to marry Kit in 98 days. On the outside her life looks perfect; she has a great job and is up for promotion; she is about to marry Kit, a man of higher social standing. Piglet loves to cook elegant food. She strives to fit in with the higher class and does well in her job as an editor; she has a dream-come-true life, or so it seems. Then Kit betrays her, and we never really know how, but it seems to have gone on for a while. Sadly, we watch Piglet shut down and eat her feelings..

Piglet is a true to life character. We see the ravages of a father and lesser extent a mother who bestow a nickname on her based on a misunderstanding of what was going on with her sister. Piglet shuts down for a significant time, until her one true friend, Margot, needs a distraction and she tells her what Kit has done. Said friend, who happens to be the maid of honor refuses to be part of the wedding and it seems this is the catalyst that sends the stifle-my-feelings Piglet off the rails. Everything falls apart.

Now the partriarchal oppression comes head on and I don’t know how the reader could miss it. Piglet tells her father about this horrible betrayal and he dismisses it as “these things happen.” He does not listen or encourage expression of her feelings, or even get angry. He tells her it s a little late now. Nevermind that Kit is emotionally unavailable and superficial, and is only interested in what Piglet is going to cook for him. This reader found Kit both insipid and vapid. The men in Piglet’s life do not encourage her to be the best she can be, but rather to serve their needs. Then we get to Classism. Kit is extremely privileged and it is difficult to tell whether he is entitled because he is the male or because he is upper class., probably both. PIglet tried so hard to fit in with this upper class to “make her father proud.”

Piglet is a woman who has lost herself in her attempt to submit to societal norms set by patriarchy. This is less about eating disorders and more about what happens when the human spirit is squelched and conformed. Piglet eats the feelings she feels it is not okay to verbally express. She strives for agency and finally goes for it. To his credit, Kit finally calls her by her name when she ends it with him.

The writing is excellent. Lush descriptions of food and its preparation abound. It is sad that women still feel so silenced, that their feelings are not okay and there is no place for them to go with them that this book needs to be written and understood as a great work of literary fiction with a place in the annals of feminism as well.

The only caveat for this reader is the lengthy descriptions of food and number of times they occur was a bit much for this reader.. I think less would be more.

I do highly recommend this book, particularly for women. It is best understood as literary fiction, or a deep dive.

I really enjoyed this book! Thank you for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I don't want to give too much away but Piglett was a great read for me and kept me really engaged!

This was a little too slow for my liking. I'm not huge on contemporary fiction, so that may just be a me problem.

I did find this very readable, and I thought the food writing aspect was great. Interesting, simmering character dynamics. But I thought that never finding out the nature of the indiscretion was a mistake, and I also wonder if this could have just been a short story instead of a full novel. But I had a good time while reading?

I love books with vibrant, detailed descriptions of food and cooking and the beauty of working hard to prepare a meal. I love reading about the fresh ingredients and the care taken to properly wash and slice and season. PIGLET included lovely prose that scratched that itch for me. This is a book about a woman, "Piglet", who is engaged to be married. We learn about her life and her unusual name and the sacrifices she has made to be arrive where she is in life. I appreciated the story but it had a few hurdles I wasn't able to jump including her nickname, Piglet. This is a quick read and one where you'll root for Piglet which is always a tension I love in a book. Thanks to the publisher for the advanced copy. I'm grateful.

I really enjoyed the novel Piglet! It is beautifully written and every single character reads as a fully-drawn human being. The family dynamic between Piglet and her Derby-based family feels especially convincing and authentic. I found Piglet’s character arc and journey incredibly compelling.

Piglet by Lottie Hazell was a fascinating study of one woman's growth and stagnation amidst challenging family, friend, and romantic relationships. The book was full of as much delicious drama as it was descriptions of tasty food. One of my favorite things about it was the fact that Piglet was really flawed as a person and made some selfish choices, but it made her feel real and believable. I also wonder if she was just living up to the role that her parents seemed to have cast her in during early childhood, and it made me think about the way I want to raise my own daughter.

Note: I received a free ebook copy of Piglet from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

What a fantastic read! My only complaint was that the ending felt rushed - I could have stayed with Piglet and her wonderfully weird family for ages.

I absolutely devoured this book (pun intended). Ever since she was little, the narrator of this book has gone by the nickname Piglet, due to her always wanting more—more food, more things, more wealth. She becomes engaged to Kit, the son of a wealthy family from Oxford. She leaves her life in Derby behind, moving into a lovely new home while preparing for her wedding and dreaming of a promotion at her cookbook editing job. She takes on the task of preparing an elaborate dessert for her own wedding, but days before the ceremony, Kit confesses to betraying their marriage. Piglet must grapple with whether her new life is merely pretense or if it’s what she truly wants.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

I received an e-galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have pretty mixed feelings on this book. I really liked the first 30%, but when it became clear where the plot was going, I lost a little bit of interest. I thought it would be about a woman rebuilding, and it was not - to try to avoid spoilers, the timeline is only the two weeks before the wedding date.

While I really enjoyed the writing and the way the author wrote the characters, the descriptions of food were a little too much for me. Not that they weren't good, just a little excessive and I began glossing over them. The focus on the food is clearly a device for the author, and I understand, it just wasn't for me.

Overall I appreciate what the author did, but it wasn't a book I really loved.

Loved it. I recommended this book to my audience here. Thank you. https://downtime.substack.com/p/tortured-poets-department-joe-alwyn-emma-stone

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers, Henry Holt & Company, for an ARC of PIGLET by Lottie Hazell in exchange for my honest review.

PIGLET tells the story of a woman, called Piglet by her family for her ability to eat, during the lead up to her wedding after her fiancé reveals a secret. I found the writing very compelling and interesting, and loved the characters and setting, but the plot ultimately fell a little short for me. The food descriptions were indeed well-written, but were maybe less enjoyable for me than for some readers. I will absolutely look for other books written by Hazell in the future, but in the end did not love this book.

Featuring vivid food descriptions and intense feelings, Piglet tells the story of a woman who is on the verge of feeling settled and married and cared for, who has always cared for others and put her happiness second. And then, her fiance tells her something that upends her entire world. When you can't control the things you want to, what can you control? The lush and detailed food descriptions draw the reader in and bring you along for her ride, but all of the feelings that food brings are transmitted through the pages. This little book does a lot, in a subtle and gentle way, all while shoveling food down your throat.

Striking debut novel concerning a women undone by societal standards, marital obligations, career expectations, and beauty shaming. I don't think I've read a book quite like this before. Very British, which I found compelling, but others might sense remove from that. I marveled at the sumptuous food descriptions, not a surprise coming from an author with a Ph.D. in creative writing, specifically food-writing in 21st-century fiction. All kinds of cringe-inducing storylines follow, and I wavered in believing I was the right audience, or if only female readers could fully appreciate this content. Our main protagonist, problematically nicknamed "Piglet," was quite inscrutable as a character, though I did root for her to work through childhood traumas and find some kind of peace within herself and her life. I was fully annoyed by the author's refusal to convey a key plot point, but I gathered what had to be the big, bad secret. The simmering tensions leading up to the "big day" and beyond were palpable, and I loved the foreboding conclusions to each chapter (in italics). Somewhat overlong, and by the ending, I was left with a nonplussed feeling, an inevitability of sorts that I'd wished arrived sooner. Another editing pass might have been beneficial. Regardless, I'll gladly seek out what Lottie Hazell writes next.

Many thanks to Henry Holt & Company & NetGalley for ARC access.