Although well written, Whoever You Are, Honey, by Olivia Gatwood was not my favorite read. The premise was a good one but I just couldn’t get behind the characters. Mitty and her elderly roommate Bethel live in the worst house on the best block. Their home is in shambles and the houses all around them are giant, glass mansions of the tech elite. They have nothing in common with their new neighbors Sebastian and Lena. Sebastian is a tech guy and his wife beauty is distracting. Lena though, has concerns about her perfect life. Memory loss and Sebastian’s control issues has her very worried. Mitty has her own concerns and secrets. The two become friends though and things become even stranger. They bond over their past and what the future will be. Perfection, desirability, friends, lines get distorted, views get blurry. It might just be me but this wasn’t a fit for me. It almost seemed like it was trying to be dystopian. It lost me at places and at points it did not seem to make much sense. But I always love the chance to read any book and read books that are from authors to me. Overall this was a 3 star read for me, it just fell flat. I want to thank Netgalley, Olivia Gatwood and Random House Publishing-Random House for my copy, for an honest review. It was my pleasure to read and review this book.

This was a strange but entertaining story. I'm still not sure what happened at the end, which i love and hate at the same time. The characters were interesting and realisticly mutlilayered.

Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood is a dark, thought-provoking debut that explores how women construct their identities in the shadows of love, friendship, and technology. Gatwood’s writing is captivating, and she nails the tension of living under the scrutiny of both people and algorithms. However, while the novel touches on compelling themes of power and desirability in a hyper-digital world, it doesn’t break much new ground. Interesting and well-written, but it ultimately left me wanting a bit more depth and insight.

This is one of those books that you slowly come to realize is actually a real life horror story in the making. Set in the very not so distant future, this explores what it's like being a woman in an age where reality is becoming virtual and digital is becoming all encompassing. I really enjoyed it, and it has left me with a lot to think about.

i wanted to spend more time exploring what this book revealed itself to be about (big tech's oversteps, the surreal nature of being alive in a woman's body), which felt unique, rather than the very well-trod steps we'd spent exploring before. but i liked the parts that did!

Whoever You Are, Honey: A Haunting Glimpse into a Dystopian Reality

Olivia Gatwood's debut novel, "Whoever You Are, Honey" is a chilling exploration of a world where the lines between the digital and the real have blurred, leaving women navigating a landscape of surveillance, manipulation, and the relentless pursuit of perfection.

Set in a tech-dominated Santa Cruz, the story follows Mitty and Bethel, two misfits clinging to the remnants of a bygone era. Their lives are disrupted by the arrival of Lena, the enigmatic girlfriend of a tech mogul, whose seemingly flawless existence masks a haunting secret.

Gatwood's prose is both lyrical and unsettling, drawing the reader into a world that feels both familiar and deeply disturbing. The novel explores the insidious ways in which technology shapes our identities, relationships, and desires. Lena's struggle with memory loss and Mitty's own hidden past become a metaphor for the erosion of self in a world where our every move is tracked and analyzed.

"Whoever You Are, Honey" is a timely and thought-provoking read that will leave you questioning the true cost of progress. It's a haunting reminder of the importance of human connection in an increasingly digital world, and the dangers of sacrificing our individuality for the illusion of perfection.

Whoever You Are, Honey, by Olivia Gatwood, is an intriguing dive into modern identity set against a gentrified Santa Cruz backdrop. The story, which alternates between Lena, an impeccably beautiful woman struggling with societal expectations, and Mitty, her introspective roommate, starts off strong with its vivid descriptions and thoughtful themes. However, as the novel progresses, it feels a bit aimless, and the plot doesn’t quite build up to the anticipated sci-fi twist. The ending, while surprising, seems rushed and leaves a lot unresolved. Gatwood’s writing is beautiful, and if you’re a fan of character-driven stories with a touch of mystery, this book might be worth a read, even if it doesn’t quite hit all the marks.

I think I loved this????

It’s kind of giving Don’t Worry, Darling but without the finding out that your boyfriend has hooked you up to feeding tubes and brain machines to force you into living inside an alternate reality… which is to say that this book has distinctly artsy, lit fic vibes, with an ominous and mysterious sci fi undertone, and an ambiguous ending.

The writing is beautiful. And also any book with a character that tries to shove their best friend’s hand down their throat and follows it up with “I just wanted you to feel my insides” is obviously a book I’m going to be obsessed with.

It also brought up a ton of questions for me - like did anyone else hear about that analysis of AI chat bot use and it showed that a ton of men were using the chat bots as like surrogate girlfriends to verbally and mentally ab*se? I mean what lengths WONT men go to in order to quell the desire to dominate women? And does it stop there? Does that desire to control and manipulate and mistreat grow with the practice? And is that a victimless issue? If AI bots like gained sentience, that behavior is then being enacted on something with its own thoughts and feelings, right? And why can’t these people just go to therapy bro?

Anyway, I loved this. And also the cover?! Please. Gorgeous.

this started out really strong, and i loved following the characters of Mitty and Lena as they form a friendship. I do believe this book’s marketing is a bit misleading - i expected the AI/sci-fi elements to be stronger but it really just serves as a backdrop setting for the story, which is just more of a litfic slice-of-life character study. again very well written but I wish it had a little more in the way of plot and the unexplored sci-fi was disappointing.

This novel made me wish fiction could forever stay weirder than the truth.

I want to describe the bulk of the novel as a quiet crescendo towards an unsettling potential truth, but I feel like that doesn’t do Gatwood’s writing justice. She punctures the monotony of the main characters’ lives with observations and sensations that make you feel akin to how some people feel when yelling at the main character of a horror movie through the screen, urging them not to enter the dark basement alone.

Lena and Mitty, two young women with questionable pasts and odd presents, navigate life in Santa Cruz. Mitty never went to college and lives with an elderly woman she has no blood relation to. She watches people move through life with a natural ease she is slightly jealous of yet stays unsure and insecure about what to do besides live in her reality. And then you have Lena, who, despite the security of her boyfriend’s position in Silicon Valley, is unsettled with life due to her sense (or lack thereof) of where she begins and their identity as a couple ends. Their becoming neighbors is the catalyst needed to make them evaluate things they’ve never allowed themselves to dwell on.

My favorite aspect of the story is how Lena and Mitty exist a few degrees shy of epiphany, their willingness to realize held at arm’s length until the hunger to understand becomes so dire and so animalistic they dive into a supposed unknown for something they may have always, in some way, known.

This novel was jarring and weird and reflective and exciting. I can’t wait for Gatwood’s next one.

Did not click with this one at all. I felt the writing way too hard to crack, the characters all over the place, and the plot super messy.

I thought this book was unique, I liked the mysterious AI aspect as well as the character development Mitty went through. Thought it was great.

Olivia Gatwood's Whoever You Are, Honey is a mesmerizing debut that blends elements of literary fiction with a tantalizing hint of sci-fi that never quite crystallizes into full-blown speculative fiction. Set in a gentrified Santa Cruz waterfront, the novel crafts a world that feels both familiar and slightly off-kilter and delves deep into the complexities of female relationships and identity in our hyper-connected world. The relationship between neighbors Mitty and Lena forms the core of the story, and in their burgeoning friendship, we examine desire, envy, and the personas we adopt to fit in. I found the story's pacing somewhat challenging, as it doesn't follow a typical plot-driven structure. The narrative takes on a dreamlike quality at times, particularly in its final act. This approach, however, aligns with the themes of memory and identity that Gatwood explores throughout the book. Whoever You Are, Honey prompted me to question the nature of authenticity in our digital age. I find myself frequently replaying the book's final scenes in my mind, pondering their implications and the questions they raise. Even as I speculate about what might have truly transpired, I find I prefer the open-ended nature of the conclusion, allowing the story to continue evolving in my imagination long after I closed the book.

In Whoever You Are, Honey, I found a refreshing and candid exploration of identity and womanhood that struck a deep chord with me. Gatwood's poetry is both fierce and intimate, often blending personal experiences with broader societal critiques that resonate well with contemporary issues. Her use of vivid imagery and emotive language creates memorable moments that linger in the mind.
However, I felt that some poems leaned toward abstraction at times, making them less accessible and slightly harder to connect with on an emotional level. While the themes are powerful, a few pieces seemed repetitive, which slightly diminished their overall impact.
Gatwood's unique voice and insightful observations about life, love, and self-acceptance make it a compelling read that offers both reflection and empowerment.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, and to Madison at The Dial Press for the gorgeous gifted final copy!

Full Rating: 3.5 stars rounded up

Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood sets out to explore the pressures of femininity through a contemporary lens shaped by the cultural milieu of Silicon Valley. With a subtle undercurrent of AI-related tension, the novel touches on themes of identity, technology, and societal expectations, all of which are encapsulated in Gatwood’s intriguing epigraph: “I love you, alive girl. - Jeff Bezos in a text to his mistress.” This epigraph, a startling introduction, primes readers for a journey through the complex and often unsettling intersections of human connection and digital reality.

The narrative is deeply introspective, focusing on the internal landscapes of the characters, particularly Mitty and Lena. Gatwood’s writing is contemplative, drawing readers into the quiet, melancholic musings of her protagonists as they navigate the suffocating pressures of societal norms and the creeping influence of technology on their lives. The exploration of how women’s identities are shaped—and often constrained—by these forces is a central theme, with the novel delving into the nuanced ways that loneliness, belonging, and the struggle for self-understanding manifest in a world dominated by digital realities and skewed power dynamics. While this is certainly an interesting starting point for a character study, based on the synopsis and marketing, I was expecting much more plot and much less stream-of-consciousness from this book compared to what it delivered.

Despite the potential richness of these themes, the novel struggles to fully engage. Based on her traditional background as a poet, Gatwood fell short of my expectations for delivering lyrical and poignant prose. The characters, while crafted with care, lack the depth and distinction needed to truly resonate. Both Mitty and Lena, whose perspectives alternate throughout the narrative, often blur into one another, making it difficult to differentiate their voices or fully invest in their individual stories. This blending of character voices may be an intentional choice to underscore the universality of their experiences, but it ultimately detracts from the novel’s impact and left me grasping for a stronger connection.

The novel’s setting in Silicon Valley provides a fertile backdrop for exploring the erosion of authentic experiences in the face of relentless technological progress and gentrification. However, Gatwood’s critique of these forces feels somewhat superficial, failing to delve deeply enough into the implications of an increasingly AI-driven world. The tech elements of the narrative are introduced with promise but remain underdeveloped, leaving a sense of unfulfilled potential.

Whoever You Are, Honey attempts to grapple with significant and timely issues but ultimately falls short of delivering the incisive, emotionally resonant narrative that its premise suggests. While Gatwood’s exploration of identity, technology, and societal expectations offers moments of insight, the novel’s lack of character differentiation and its missed opportunities for deeper narrative exploration leave it feeling somewhat flat. For readers drawn to introspective literary fiction with a focus on contemporary issues, this novel may still offer something of value, but it may not fully satisfy those expecting the poetic depth and narrative tension hinted at in its initial pitches. I do think my dissatisfaction with this book was due to my expectations being very different from what was actually delivered, and I am already considering revisiting it in the future with a different set of expectations to see if my experience with it changes.

📖 Recommended For: Readers who enjoy introspective literary fiction, those intrigued by the intersection of technology and identity, fans of character-driven narratives, and admirers of works that critique societal norms through a contemporary lens.

🔑 Key Themes: Pressures of Femininity, Identity and Technology, Loneliness and Belonging, Societal Expectations, The Influence of Silicon Valley.

Content / Trigger Warnings: Vomit (minor), Murder (minor), Gun Violence (minor), Abandonment (minor), Mental Illness (minor), Sexual Content (severe), Animal Death (moderate), Self Harm (moderate), Gore (moderate), Grief (minor), Injury (moderate), Blood (moderate), Toxic Relationship (minor).

Thank you NetGalley and Random House [The Dial Press] for a copy of "Whoever You Are, Honey" by Olivia Gatwood in exchange for an honest review. This was unique experience! Filled with themes like identity, friendship, technology, self-perception, and patriarchy, I believe that it is covered well and Gatwood had an incredible execution. We all have the desire to be accepted and loved, and this novel definitely discusses the idea of loneliness and the patriarchy. It is something I would find myself recommending repeatedly. Highly rated, I would reread again, and will keep it on my bookshelf.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! Book started out interesting and I wanted to see where it was going; however, the plot kind of sizzled out with no real explanation at the end, leaving the reader unsatisfied.

Wow, I am not even sure where to start with this book. Whoever You Are, Honey by Olivia Gatwood was so unique and different. I absolutely love the way that she writes. It was very poetic! I did enjoy Lena and Mitty's friendship but I was left with so many questions in the end. I wanted to know more about the tech murder. I also felt like I wanted to learn more about Lena and Sebastian. Leaving it to interpretation if she was filled with wires or not made me really kind of care less... Anyway, I found this book to be so unique and different, but would have loved for a more complete ending. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this eARC.

Mitty lives with an older friend of her mother’s, Bethel. They’re at the end of a long line of impressive beach-front homes built by the Silicone Valley rich. Theirs is a rundown shack of a house, though, the bane of the neighborhood, the eyesore. Mitty has lived here for ten years with her head down, her shoulders hunched, a dishwasher at the local pub. She carries the cross of a mistake she made when she was eighteen, a time in her life that brings her shame and self-disgust. And Bethel does little to make Mitty feel any better about herself.
The big glass “dollhouse” next door has stood empty for years. But finally, an attractive, enigmatic young couple moves in. And since they don’t believe in shades, Mitty can’t help but be captivated by the lives the two live, especially the sex they enjoy with one another. She and Bethel assume the beautiful young lady wants nothing to do with the hags that live next door in the shack. But they’re wrong. When Lena knocks on the door, she enters their world lonely and hungry for the layers of life, the colors, the cluttered world they live in. Soon, they spent time with Lena and her husband, Sebastian. Once the film of glamour and entitlement is lifted from their eyes, they both begin to see how Lena is treated. So when she asks for Mitty’s help, she has no choice but to say yes, even though the friendship mirrors what went so wrong in her life years before.
This is a story of three damaged women; one beautiful stage on the beaches of Santa Cruz. A character study of how women are raised to trust only their beauty, or lack thereof, of the shallow expectations of the basest of men. And the strength it takes to free yourself of those limitations.
Thanks so much to Random House Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. The publishing date is July 9, 2024.

This book was everything I wanted it to be’ first of all that cover?? Amazing 10/10. To start the writing is so wonderful. It hooked me immediately and made the story just flow. I also enjoyed the characters and how all of their secrets unfolded to the audience. It’s a weird book but in the way I love. For me this is a book to go into knowing very little about it and just letting the story happen to you. I am very interested in whatever Olivia Gatwood writes next because this was wonderful.