This was my first time reading a book by Dolly Alderton and I'm sure it won't be my last! I really enjoyed this book! It is funny, emotional and inspiring all at the same time! I also really liked that it was (mostly) written from a man's POV, because usually it's the other way around. Would definitely recommend this book!!

I really admire Dolly's writing and have read Everything I Know About Love and Ghosts, and regularly read her column in the Sunday Times, so I was really excited to read Good Material. Unfortunately it fell a little flat for me. There were moments that worked, but others felt quite repetitive and the narrative didn't seem to progress. Overall I enjoyed it, and read it relatively quickly and admired the change in POV, but it didn't get hit the spot for me.

Dolly is a wonderful writer, and she writes beautifully about the intricacies of relationships. The writing is compelling and addictive, and I really enjoyed the play out of Andy and Jen's relationship. The only downside for me is that these characters feel predictable and too familiar. For someone that is as clever, witty and sharp as Dolly Alderton clearly is, I wish she would venture out of her comfort zone of the 30s creative modern Londoner and delve into different perspectives, generations and locations. For example the scenes with Morris and Andy's mum are really interesting, and I'd love to see those kind of characters more. this felt very similar to Ghosts. But I look forward to reading whatever she writes next! 3.5/4 stars.

I adore dolly’s books and good material is no different. A refreshing take on the genre, as it is told from a male perspective. I would highly recommend.

In her highly anticipated second novel, "Good Material," Dolly Alderton delves into the complexities of heartbreak and friendship with her signature wit and emotional honesty. The story revolves around Andy, a 35-year-old aspiring comedian struggling to navigate the aftermath of his breakup with Jen, the woman he thought he would spend the rest of his life with.

Andy's world is turned upside down as he grapples with the loss of his relationship, his dwindling friendship group, and the changing landscape of his own life. He questions his career choices, his social media habits, and the very idea of love itself. Alderton captures the raw emotions of heartbreak with a refreshing lack of sentimentality, allowing readers to connect with Andy's vulnerability and self-doubt.

Despite the pain at its core, "Good Material" is a story of resilience and hope. He learns to accept his own flaws and shortcomings, to value his friendships, and to appreciate the importance of letting go of the past. Alderton's writing is infused with humor and warmth, making even the darkest moments bearable. I specially loved Jen's POV at the end. A solid 4.5.

"Good Material" is a must-read for anyone who has ever experienced the pain of heartbreak or the joys of strong friendships. Alderton's characters are relatable and engaging, her writing is sharp and insightful, and her story is ultimately one of hope and healing.

The second fiction novel from my all time love Dolly Alderton and I fell more in love with her writing with every word. I flew through this and kept wanting to pick it up at every chance I got!
After being dumped by his long time girlfriend Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of what went wrong & how can he win Jen back!

💚I LOVED:

💛Andy 🫶🏻 I was surprised to find most of the book written in the male perspective as I went in blind and didn’t read the blurb (in Dolly we trust!) but she has nailed exactly how men struggle to communicate their emotions and feelings. His inner monologue talks of heartbreak and turmoil, yet none of this was mentioned when going to the pub with his friends for the post break up pints.

💛It was refreshing to read a break up from a male perspective, we’ve had lots of books given from a female perspective: the drastic haircuts, girls night outs etc. but to read it from Andy, who at times. you just want to give a big hug.

💛Even though this book is about a break up, I laughed so much! Andy is a stand up comedian but you end up laughing more at him that with him. Particular highlights were the canal boat & his landlord Morris was quite the character.

💛The final two chapters from Jens point of view was exactly what we needed to balance the story & a very clever way of ending the book!

📖Read this if you enjoy:
💚post break up calamities
💚male POV
💚laughing into your coffee

Thank you @vikingbooksuk @penguinukbooks for my arc. Good Material is released 9th November.

Dolly Alderton's new novel, Good Material, comes out 9th November and is really highly anticipated by her many fans. The book takes a diary format following stand up comedian Andy after his girlfriend of four years, Jen breaks up with him. He goes through many stages of heartbreak and the shock of being suddenly alone in his mid thirties as all his friends are raising and starting families. It's an easy read, and has some very astute observations, but it didn't keep me reaching for the book until the last, brilliant 15% of the book when the point of view switches to Jen's side of the story.

I know that this late switch in narrator is designed to surprise the reader and finally offer clarity after Andy's very one sided view of their relationship. It works really well in that it completely changed my opinion of the book and left me with quite a positive feeling about it, and I don't think this would have worked as well if it switched even halfway through. However, the downside of this was that I just didn't find Andy's story at all compelling, and while I think the reader is supposed to feel both sympathetic and frustrated with him, I just kept going because I knew that Jen's pov was eventually going to take over.

I'm sure that this split will work perfectly for other readers, but for me it felt that Alderton saved all the things she is best at for last. Existing fans of Alderton's work will enjoy this novel about dating, relationships, friendships, and how to be single.

Struggling stand up comedian is blindsided by relationship break up. Totally lost and trying to find out why. Unusually it's told from the male perspective. Heartbreak is normally told from a female point of view but this is refreshing honest and real.
Nights out, living with friends, finding new accommodation and dating again. All milestones that we go through.
I felt all the way through the story the pain and confusion. It will make you smile and remember your own break ups.

another post-breakup what am i doing with my life millennial fiction. this time, written from the point of view of recently broken up with male mc andy, a 35 year old part-time comedian.

i finished this a week ago now and to be frank, i recall very little about it. while it was easy to read, perhaps just as easy to forget. a man with male friends that lack any real emotional depth, experiencing post-breakup casual-alcoholism and maintaining an entitled expectation of closure, it could be the storyline of this book, or the story of any other breakup.

without any ground-breaking thoughts of my own, i sought the insight of others. i have read reviews that say good material holds a very similar commentary to dolly’s everything i know about love. perhaps, everything i know about love a good material required pre-reading that i have in fact, not read.

for the fans of this genre or well-versed dolly fans, this may be a hit, but from someone losing interest, it was fine.

Dolly does it again!

I loved this even more than her previous novels , the characters, the writing, the nostalgia , i want to read it all over again! I honestly felt i was part of this friendship group by the time I finished it . It just felt so real , reap people with real problems .

It's a tale of breakups, make ups, heartbreak and friendship . I loved that it is told 90% from the male POV , it has big Fleishman is in Trouble vibes (which I loved) and it shouts screen adaptation .

My fave Dolly to date !

This book was beautiful.

It explored so many key concerns as an adult growing up and realising that the world around them is moving too quickly for them. I found the character of Andy to be truthful, raw and relatable, which to me, is extremely important. I liked how he made mistakes, had flaws and yet was still likeable. I was rooting for him the entire novel.

Alderton's writing really is divine. From the first word until the last page of the novel, I was totally immersed into the narrative and didn't want to miss it for a second.

Oh she did it and she did it well. A compulsively readable examination of the weirdness of breaking up with your partner and generally surviving your mid-thirties.

Good Material introduces us to stand-up comedian Andy, whose life is going okay. His career hasn't really taken off and when his girlfriend breaks up with him for reasons that don't make sense to him ("she wants to be single"), he ends up living out of a suitcase in his best friend's spare room, trying to process what happened to his life and asking himself the scary question of whether he shouldn't have figured it all out by now, aged 35.

The book is so easy to read and still feels profound and relatable in its revelations. I consider being able to pull this off incredibly hard and Dolly Alderton did it without ever drifting off into either pretentious, patronising or unrealistic territory. And despite us all probably having read at least a dozen novels about some sort of breakup, I thought there was enough in here to make this feel fresh – particularly the rumination about being in your thirties.

Touching upon similar themes as in Everything I Know About Love, she acknowledges that the 30s are that weird decade in which you feel like you should have your life together, but probably haven't yet. As Andy finds himself single again, he realises that his newfound bachelorhood is received completely different than it was ten years earlier: his bros don't congratulate him anymore, they're not off celebrating his freedom, but it appears to be more of a inconvenience, as most have partners, steady jobs and potentially even children to look after.

The humour made this a real page-turner – it's just so funny. The subject matter carries a lot of anxiety, distress and sadness, but there were still several situations that felt so funny and ridiculous, that I definitely had my moments of laughter as well. Like when Andy decides that in order to have a fresh start he is now going to live on a house boat (not even thinking about his mild sea sickness) and it taking him about a week to realise that the only cool thing about living on a house boat is leaving it and telling people that that's where you live.

I thought the way Alderton handled Andy's processing of the breakup was sensitive and realistic as well. He goes through all the phases: stalking his ex and mentally revisiting their relationship all the time, trying to force himself to move on, thinking that all he needs in order to do so is know the real reason why he's been broken up with, making weird decisions to change anything about his life... it's all in there and it's a real rollercoaster. But ultimately, getting over someone is a process, it's something you just have to come to terms with. There's never going to be a clean end to something like this. And watching Andy have all of these little moments of realisations make this novel a joy to read.

At this point I might as well read all her other work because this is the second book I have thoroughly enjoyed.

If I’m being honest I didn’t know what I was going to be reading only knew that if it was coming from Dolly I would enjoy it and obviously I was correct.

It’s definitely not something I would have picked up but clearly I need to expand my horizons. The character of Andy was well written, I really sympathised for him but at the same time wanted to scream at him to get a grip. This book was a solid 4 stars until the switch of POV at the end. I spend the whole book thinking Jen was a rather rubbish person but seeing Andy from her view was entirely necessary and made me realise how biased Andy was and in turn us as the reader.

The ending got me though, it tied it together so well and was so sad but also happy. Couldn’t have thought of a more perfect ending.

Good Material is the bittersweet story of Andy and Jen, a recently broken-up couple. It is the first Dolly Alderton book where the lead character and first person narration is from a male character, Andy. He is a comedian – not exactly Tom Allen in terms of his success levels but he has been on a few TV panel shows and manages to make a living from his craft.

When his long-term girlfriend, Jen suddenly breaks up with him, he’s confused and upset. We meet him as he’s coming to terms with what’s happened and trying to figure out his new way of life.

As he shared a flat with Jen, that includes finding a new place to live and as it was through Andy’s best friend, Avi that he met Jen (she is Avi’s wife, Jane’s best friend) the breakup has awkward repercussions across his whole life. This may sound like it sets the scene for a depressing read but it’s just the opposite. Good Material takes a wry, witty look at the situation and the overall tone is warm, positive and funny.

Most of the book is told from Andy’s point-of-view but at the end we do get to hear from Jen and it’s really interesting to understand her take on things and how her version of events compare to Andy’s.

As with every couple that breaks up, there are always variances. This is what Dolly Alderton does so well, captures the nuances of a real break-up. I think I really liked it as there were no high-drama moments as such, it was all so realistic.

As I’ve come to expect from a Dolly Alderton book, Good Material brings a lot of on-point cultural references, many laugh-out-loud moments and highly relatable characters. If you’ve ever been puzzled or hurt as to why a relationship ended then you will definitely feel seen by, and feel empathy with, Andy and Jen’s story.

Also, the writing just flows. Dolly’s naturally conversational style that I enjoyed so much in her debut novel Ghosts is very much present here too. A great read!

A sweet and easily digestable break-up tale, parts of which every human on earth will be able to relate to.

This is a really clever idea for a story! I stayed up late because I couldn't put it down. Both characters are so well written, very funny and sad at the same time.

This was an interesting read, first we hear one side of the relationship and we are definitely on Andy’s side, he seems like a good guy and it’s sad that he’s had his heart broken. But as we learn more, we ask if that’s enough. What does a functioning adult relationship actually need to be successful?
This is relatable, and relevant, it definitely asks some important questions.

I have no words. Literally no words. Makes me think it’s going to be difficult to write a review of this one…

No, but seriously - what a gorgeous book!

Yes, it revolves around broken hearts and endings. Yes, it’s about pain. Yes, it can be devastating at times. But somehow Alderton makes you feel hopeful in the middle of it all.

What can I say? The author really knows how to write and I felt like I was a part of the story from the very first page. She describes situations and feelings in a way that will make the readers feel understood and listened to . After all, who hasn’t had their heart broken?

The characters were relatable and believable. Plus, it was very exciting to read a book written from the protagonist’s perspective: Andy. I don’t know why I was expecting a female narrator but this added a great angle to the story.

Yes, this is a book about heartbreak, about a love story that comes to an end. But it’s also so much more: it’s a book about friendship, about what it means to move on, about flatshares and new families, deep feelings and about finding the courage you need to start all over again. Even when you are thirty-five. It’s, all in all, a book about life. And that’s what Dolly Alderton knows best.

For me, this didn't quite live up to the hype, although it was perfectly decent. I found it hard to connect with Andy and couldn't get on board with a lot of his behaviour as believable - it was actually the perspective switch at the end that I found most compelling and that did a lot of heavy lifting in bringing the book together.

This is a great one from Dolly Alderton! I felt like I was going through the break up with the main character, it was so relatable yet funny.