Got about 20% of the way through and stopped reading. Writing was disjointed and the story was just so strange and unbelievable.

This was unhinged. I have read Marcy’s work before (“Very Nice”) but I was younger then and her style was more entertaining to me. This won’t be for everyone - it’s a quick read full of seriously messed up people doing messed up things. I enjoyed the quick pace and multiple person POV, but the bad behavior of literally everyone was obnoxious. I also disliked the Covid pandemic being such a presence, it’s not something I want to revisit in my literature. All in all, entertaining enough but not for my taste personally. (Seriously amazing cover art though!) Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the ARC in enhance for an honest review.

This book was an absolute surprising delight from start to finish. Funny, intelligent, original, it grabbed me from the first pages when a hot air balloon carrying an obscenely wealthy and cranky couple crash-lands into the swimming pool where Joannie is on her first date seven years after getting divorced. It was a great ride and, by the end, unexpectedly moving. Loved it!

I flew through Dermansky's newest novel with its short, snappy sentences and multiple POVs. Johnny and Joannie are on a first date at Johnny's house when Jonathan and Julia (yes, everyone has a J- name!) crash-land their hot air balloon in Johnny's swimming pool. This is a messy, fun, quirky story with flawed but interesting characters. The story spans a long weekend and examines love, desire, and money in an engaging style. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for a digital review copy.

A delightfully, weird little book that was the perfect escapist read I needed at the right moment.

Classic Dermansky.

When Joannie and Johnny are in the middle of their date, a hot air balloon fall out of the sky. In it is billionaire, Jonathan, and his wife, Julia. Jonathan also happens to be Joannie's childhood crush. To add to the overall weirdness of the events unfolding, Julia suggests they swap couples for the night.

It's all very outlandish and weird (why do I keep saying weird?) and I literally just said whatever and sunk into it all. It's short - 208 pages - and when I finished I wouldn't say I was blown away, but I also wasn't mad about it.

This is a book that mainly follows 4 characters that all have J names and their life/relationship problems. I thought it would be interesting, but I didn't get engrossed in this book. All of the characters felt dull and flippant to me, and I didn't really care about their problems. They were insufferable and I didn't really care for the quirkiness of this book.

Did not like this. I didn’t realize it was a book about the pandemic. A lot of weird choices and none of the storylines or characters felt adequately fleshed out.

I found the writing of this aimed at a different type of audience than myself. Maybe it's my sense of humor, but I just didn't vibe with this.

A hot air balloon crashes into the backyard of a couple on a first date. The billionaire and his wife in the balloon end up staying with the couple, and their lives become momentarily intertwined.

This was a fascinating premise, and I loved the inciting incident. But overall, I only liked the rest of this book. The four main characters all had names that started with J and I found it very confusing and completely unnecessary. I also didn't like one single character here and the story was a little snapshot of time and really didn't go anywhere. It was at least short and had some good action, but I mostly loved the beginning and the fun cover. Shrug...

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy for review.

"Hot Air" is full of odd people behaving badly. The cast of characters includes a tech billionaire and his philanthropist wife, their young and beautiful assistant, a divorced mom who's also a struggling novelist and a sex-crazed divorced dad. When the billionaire couple crashes their hot air balloon into the divorced dad's beautiful swimming pool, a chaotic few days of sex, travel, lust and bad parenting ensue. Author Marcy Dermansky drops the reader inside each character's mind, allowing you to see just how shallow, lustful and worried each of them is. There's no moral to the story here, unless it's that our materialistic society is corrosive in every way and to every person, no matter how rich.

I enjoyed swimming around in this quirky little book. The characters are all over the place morally, the setting is so fantastical you can’t help but suspend disbelief, and the writing is somehow matter of fact yet vivid in its world building through character development.

It’s not going to be for everyone; the characters are not always endearing, but I liked how subtly wealth inequality, especially during the pandemic, is highlighted through each of them. For some, all problems can be solved with money, and for others, not so much.

At first I was not super convinced that I’d like this story, but I hesitated to put it down because Hurricane Girl is an absolute favorite. I’m glad I stuck it out because once I reached the second half, I was completely hooked. This is a small glimpse into the wildest random interaction your brain could conjure up. You know those people you meet in a bar bathroom and have a wild night out until 6 am with only to never speak again? Hot Air is like that but on steroids. None of the characters are great people, but they’re well done. It’s just an intriguing story. The scandal, the drama! Yet it’s done in an understated way which makes it more palatable.

40/100 or 2.0 stars

I understand what the author was trying to do with this, but it was all over the place. I really tried to get into this.
I was hoping it was unhinged like the synopsis and some of the review on Goodreads were saying. Unfortunately, this was not unhinged and rather a combination of unrealistic and straight up creepy (Julia's obsession with Lucy made me so beyond uncomfortable and not in any way shape or form in a good way). It was reading fast, but after Julia kept talking about Lucy and not wanting to leave the house, I had to stop. I got to about 46% before I DNFd this one.

this was light as hot air - occasionally funny, mostly annoying with unbelievable characters. very hard to suspend my disbelief. appreciated the concept but a miss on execution.

This was my first Marcy Dermansky. I requested it because Roxane Gay, who I adore, loved this book. Sadly, the absurdity and comedic aspects of it didn't work for me. I'm not proud of this - I wish I could lighten up and enjoy this story, but that's just not where I'm at right now. Maybe I'll try again. Thank you to the publisher for this ARC. I'm sure it will do brilliantly.

I have no idea how this book came to be but I cannot stop thinking about it. The characters are SO messy. I don’t know if I truly was rooting for any of them (children included) but it was done so well. I haven’t read anything like this and will be recommending it every chance I get because I want to discuss it with everyone!

This is the first book I’ve read by this author and it’s fast paced, witty, and the story is told with alternating points of view. An entertaining and quick read!

This is the first book I have read by Marcy Dermansky and was unsure about HOT AIR. I somewhat enjoyed the story line, and the quirkiness of the book. I also like that pacing of the story, it was a quick and move right along pace. Why do all the characters have a name that starts with J? Joannie, Julia, Johnny, and Johnathan. Ugh…I kept losing who was who. This began to get frustrated.

Overall, I did enjoy the book besides my small hangups. It was a 3-star read for me.

I had the honor of reading this ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Knopf.

I've been looking forward to this book since reading Very Nice last year. I loved it so much that I needed more of Marcy Dermansky’s writing as soon as possible. Luckily, I got it sooner than expected—I was fortunate to receive an ARC from Alfred A. Knopf via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Hot Air follows a woman on a first date with a man while their children from previous marriages have a playdate. Their evening takes an unexpected turn when another couple crash-lands in the middle of their date via a hot air balloon. The group ends up all hanging out and dealing with this strange and unexpected situation together. It might sound completely random, but that’s part of what makes it so great.

What I find so compelling about Dermansky’s writing is how she creates these exaggerated characters and presents them in such a blunt, detached way. It has a satirical energy, but it’s not entirely satirical—there's an emotional undercurrent that makes them more than just caricatures. All of the main characters are odd, un-hinged, and strangely mechanical, which makes it a really fun read.

The book will be Mar 18 2025, and I definitely recommend checking it out!

Messy, unlikeable characters. First book I have read by this authors. Honestly hot air balloons go by in my town all the time so the premise on that end wasn’t too crazy because my husbands parents used to have them land in his yard sometimes, it was near the launching station. But the characters were soooo messy and sometimes hard to follow with similar names and I really didn’t like any of them but that was the point of the book.