Loved this one, just as I have all the others. All the hallmarks of Butler’s genius are on display here. It’s a cutting satire of millennial culture that really digs into the uncomfortable truths that exist in all kinds of relationships but especially between women. That said this novel had a bit more heart than I was expecting and I became very invested in Moddie as it went on. Interesting thoughts about art and life as an artist as well. Gobbled it down and will likely revisit again.

Butler’s writing is both brutally honest and hilariously incisive, capturing the absurdity and discomfort of modern life. The book's portrayal of complex characters, their petty grievances, and existential musings is both captivating and unsettling. With praise from critics for its biting humor and emotional depth, Banal Nightmare offers a unique, if chaotic, reflection on contemporary relationships and self-discovery.

I made a real effort to get into this story, but I felt put off when it mentioned things like Trump. I'm not ready to read books discussing any part of that embarrassing presidency yet. Also, I didn't realize from the blurb that this book would be about "woe is millennials and our existence in late-stage capitalism." We live in this hellscape, so I don't get the satire around that theme. I'm sure some people will love this book, but unfortunately, it didn't sit right with me.

Every review quips that the title is accurate and yet I feel compelled to point this out myself; the title makes you feel foolish whenever you have the impulse to scream "WHO THE HELL CARES?"

The writing, the prose in this was really excellent. All 3 stars are for the writing style, I will definitely be seeking out more by this author despite not really "liking" this one. Even when the POV shifts to a character who is soaked in girlboss millennial cringe, the writer threads the needle to keep you from checking out. Some really great mean laughs in here.

Unfortunately there is just nothing really here, the prose is a mist that obscures the complete meaninglessness of every event. Again, the title really tells you what's going on in a literal rather than ironic manner; it is an absolute waterfall of conversations between people who loathe each other. Every character is in a relationship that is bottoming out in the most insipid way and nothing of importance ever happens. As a millennial, if this reflected my peer group in any way I would become Kaczynski. Despite the fact that no one does anything, it somehow still feels like there are too many characters.

Overall, would've made a good mumblecore film in 2008, but as a novel in 2024 it feels like walking in place with a sour face.

I picked this one up and put it down more Times than I can count. I love Halle Butler so much but this one, for some reason, I found a bit hard to get into! I do love the set-up, where our protagonist goes through a breakup and then goes to her old hometown and interacts with people she used to know and it feels.. weird to say the least. I love that all of Halle Butler's books are so relatable to me, maybe that says something about me but this one hit a little too close to home (I went through a big breakup at the time of reading) and at times it bothered me, but upon reflection, I appreciate this read and highly recommend it. Funny and awkward as always, I will forever be a Halle Butler stan!

Feel bad reads feel good in a place like this. This is Butler's best work to date, I couldn't put it down.

In Banal Nightmare, Moddie breaks up with her long-term boyfriend and moves from Chicago back home to her nameless Midwestern town of X. As she reconnects with old high school friends and enmeshes herself in their social circle, the mundanities of life ensue (per the title, so at least there's no false advertising here).

It's hard to describe this book because, while that's all true, it's not really the plot. As soon as we've met Moddie, we pan away from her to the internal monologue of her friends, acquaintances, random people in the room, and eventually people all over the town who have nothing to do with the story. Readers get a front-row seat to the discrepancies between each person's inner and outer lives. There are more characters to keep track of and, perhaps intentionally, they converge into a single "social organism" rather than any distinct person.

Banal Nightmare is either about the "frustration, malaise and anxiety" experienced by aging 30-somethings, "the hidden intentions of social pleasantries", or a satire about "the coddling infantilization of [Millenials]."

I do love Halle Butler's writing, but I wasn't sure how to feel about this book. Outside of the inciting incident, there didn't seem to be any climatic peaks or valleys in the plot. Instead, it drifted along without any apparent climax or resolution—and maybe that's the actual point.

A darkly funny and entertaining look into the lives of a group of miserable millennials.

We follow a group of 30 somethings in their daily life as they try to maintain their relationships with friends, significant others, and coworkers. They all seem to hate their lives and the people in them, but have to fake it till the make it to upkeep appearances of being liked and successful.

The characters in this story are so awful and unlikeable, but I just couldn’t look away! They are so unhappy with those they spend their time with, including husbands and “best friends” but they carry on and pretend everything is oh so perfect. I wanted to scream some sense into all of them… thanks Halle Butler for stressing me out hahaha.

Either way this book was a fun, hot mess but ultimately there were too many characters for me to get into it the way I would’ve liked. A great satire that I think a lot of people will appreciate, I just wanted more (or maybe less).

3-3.5 stars!

Thanks Random House and Netgalley for the ARC!

Miserable, and not in a fun way. Thanks NetGalley for the ARC - I've liked Halle's other works; unfortunately this was not a fav.

3.5 ⭐️. woooo -- what a wild ride. these characters were so insufferable, and I LOVED it. I was cackling at the quippy sarcastic interactions and all of the toxic passive aggressive emails. there's not a lot of plot in this read, but a whole lot of chaotic vibes.

thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Guess this is another one that wasn’t for me. I can see how it would appeal to others but just didn’t work for my brain. In concept it was good, but for me the execution didn’t work.

Just like all of her other stuff - a little boring and just a stream of thought I could not relate to. The writing itself is good but none of the characters are likeable.

Aspiring artist Margaret Anne “Moddie” Yance has returned to the midwestern college town of X to re-engage with the friends of her youth after a stressful decade in Chicago living with Nick, a man she now believes to be “a megalomaniac or perhaps a covert narcissist.” Staying with Nick was a “recipe for a dull and boring life” as Moddie “did all of the laundry, cooked all of the meals, took out the trash, cleaned, shopped, paid the bills, all of it, he did none of it, she did all of it, holy god for ten years all of it.” Moddie returns to X, but after the initial enthusiasm from old friends Nina and Pam, they were now rarely free to socialize. leaving Moddie alone with her thoughts. “The worse parts of Chicago had followed her here, because the worst parts of Chicago had been inside her.”

Butler ping pongs among the perspectives of her various characters, but each is judgmental of the others while lacking standing because they are all so miserable. Everyone in the college-town group is dissatisfied with their careers and their relationships and their friends (even something as banal as Target is not immune from the scathing criticism). Butler’s novel is bleak, depressing, but brutally honest. Some scenes are so painfully accurate that they made me laugh out loud, like a solo Moddie at a cocktail party trying, unsuccessfully, to wedge her way into various conversations with her unfiltered and strident opinions. I suspect that this will be a polarizing novel but, while cringeworthy, it is also very funny. Thank you Random House and Net Galley for an advance copy of this scathing satire.

big fans of ottessa moshfegh will really appreciate this one, because it similarly features an incredibly unlikable/unhinged narrator. though i've dabbled with my fair share of unhinged protagonists, i find there's a pretty thin line between making a character unlikable and making a character so edgy that they're insufferable. i fear this book was the latter for me, so i dnfed it about 20-ish percent in.

that said, i think plenty will like this. it's about a character named moddy who goes back home after a break-up with her longtime boyfriend. this should have been the moment i knew this book wasn't for me - her boyfriend is useless, doesn't cook and doesn't clean, cheats on her, degrades her, and the second that she breaks it off with him she... begs for him back. though realistic, i found that really frustrating.

i knew i'd be giving up during the scene where moddy went around talking graphically about how at 8 years old, a six year old boy molested/sexually assaulted her and delivered it like a bit instead of an actual traumatic moment.

after that, we then we hop into the narrative of one of her friends from back home. a man who proudly proclaims that his hatred toward women is justified because all women are stupid, etc. (this isn't precise language, but the general idea of what his headspace was like.) i get it, he wasn't supposed to be likable but it was a little much for me.

Halle Butler is an author who had been on my radar for a while, but I still hadn't picked up any of her books yet. So, I was looking forward to starting with her latest, BANAL NIGHTMARE. Capturing the height of millennial malaise, the story follows Margaret "Moddie," who breaks up with her long-term boyfriend and returns to her Midwestern hometown, where she and her friends wrestle with their wants, needs, regrets, and everything in between—and reckon with the fact that maybe life isn't turning out quite how they all expected it to.

I loved Butler's writing style—it was so sharp and witty! I think she does a fantastic job of writing about characters who you might find unlikable, and also might see pieces of yourself in, all at the same time. I would definitely be interested in picking up some of her other and future works based on how much I enjoyed her prose. That being said, I'm not sure this book was entirely for me? I think it was more of a personal issue than anything else, because I usually enjoy stories like this one. Overall, it could be quite depressing and dark to read, like being around a friend group who largely dislikes their lives, themselves, each other, the world in general. Which, I think so many readers have probably felt like that in some way at one point or another, and Butler highlights that messy, uncomfortable reality, but I just wasn't necessarily in the mood to read about characters like that, so I feel like that colored my experience with this book a little. However, I think Halle Butler is such a talented writer, and BANAL NIGHTMARE will definitely resonate with a lot of readers—I feel like there's a specific audience that will especially love this one! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

Banal Nightmare is so funny and so mean. This is the first Halle Butler novel I’ve read, so I suppose I wasn’t prepared for quite how unpleasant these characters would be, or how much they would make me laugh. Each of them is aware of how uniquely terrible their lives have become and how unkind they are to the people around them, but that can’t seem to stop them from continuing to be comically dysfunctional. Every encounter these characters have with each other becomes its own hysterical little disaster.

Banal Nightmare felt to me a bit like the older sibling of the TV show Girls. They definitely strike a similar tone. You’re frequently meant to laugh at the misfortune of these self-absorbed, self-proclaimed liberal artists – and you do laugh! — but Butler never lets you forget that these are human beings, that their sorrows are true. There’s a bite to every joke.

Halle Butler can do no wrong and this was just as good if not better than her previous works. If you love messy characters with family themes this is going to be the one.

Halle Butler’s banal nightmare is a darkly hilarious portrayal of a world populated by vapid and selfish characters. Everyone is privileged, everyone holds each other in contempt, and everyone is full of both self-pity self-grandeur. In short, everyone is hateable, and we love to hate them. It takes talent to write a story in which there are no likable characters, yet I could not put it down!

Butler is un-generous to her characters, exposing their worst thoughts and behaviors to the reader with ruthless clarity. And I, as a reader, felt both repulsed and seen. A reminder that we all can be terrible people sometimes. A mirror reflecting our most uncharitable thoughts and behaviors back at us, amplified and unvarnished.

Halle Butler has written a brilliantly dark and funny exploration of human pettiness and selfishness. It’s a novel that leaves no room for happy endings but instead offers a biting and unflinchingly honest look at the worst of us.

In Halle Butler’s newest novel, we are introduced to a myriad of characters, all of whom seem to be miserable with their lives. The novel covers unhappy marriages, fake friendships, loyalties, professions, and more — all within a small group of friends.

The premise of the novel promises that Moddie, our protagonist, will grapple with her past and her choices. The prose is from a strongly millennial voice, which was interesting but unbearable at times. The perspective suddenly changes from character to character in the middle of chapters, which is disorienting. I wish that Butler had found a way to make the characters more distinct from one another. Every single character had the same voice: angry. And this anger was the same note for everyone and was founded on how miserable they were. I was hoping that as the novel progressed, that there would be character development in some of the characters, but there was very minimal character development.

For those who enjoy gossip and unlikeable narrators, Butler’s “Banal Nightmare” is perfect. I continued to read the novel because I wanted to see if there would be character development. This novel has the potential to be like an off-brand Ottessa Moshfegh novel, but unfortunately, I did not enjoy this novel. Butler’s “Jillian” is the stronger novel when it comes to unlikeable and miserable characters. Butler is definitely a strong writer, and I’m hopeful that I’ll enjoy Butler’s future works more than this novel.

I realized early on that this book wasn't for me, but chose to keep reading to see if my mind could be changed. Sadly, I couldn't get into it at all. I was a fan of the writing style and found it to be quite unique, but the characters, the mood, and overall energy of this story was too dreary and dull for my taste. I acknowledge that this was probably the point and that this book was probably intended to aggravate readers and expose them to the reality of life at this age, and in that case I will say the author did a great job, it was just not a book I could get into.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!