I was surprised when I received an ARC of this book, since this is not something I usually gravitate towards, but it made me curious enough to accept.

I had fun with this, even though at about 85% I just wanted it to end.

Overall, a good time, but it was missing something for me.

I really enjoyed reading this book - which I ran through in about 2 sittings - but I'm not exactly sure it was for me - which is ok! and good even. I think it's very interesting but would only work for the right reader. This is one of those times that I think maybe I'm too old to give a proper review of a young person's writing (I'm only 36 but still). The narrator is great and the pacing/format is fun. There are some phrases such as "doing sex" that really pulled me out of the text because they felt a little too twee (like "furious jumping" from Poor Things) or too forced/overdone (like a Borat joke). This aside, I would recommend the book to the discerning young person - it's incredibly Gen Z and I don't mean that in a bad way. I particularly liked the last stretch of the book in which [spoiler?] our narrator walks through a desert to pull a jewel encrusted sword from a stone. I read this book right after finishing Sally Rooney's latest and I found them both to be wonderful endorsements of the search for love *and* self-love or at least the maintenance of a sense of self throughout the search for love. It was a great one-two punch. There has been such an aura of hetero-pessimism in the last ... decade? and I appreciate a story of a woman wrestling with this and offering something well, completely different.

Not going to lie, this was a difficult read. But it was a solid piece of writing. Sophie Kemp absolutely stuck to her voice and wrote a work that should be used in high school classes. Well done.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing an eARC for a honest review.

Unfortunately, I do not think I was the target audience for this story.

I understand that it is supposedly to be satirical, but I found myself cringing.

I believe there is a target audience for every story. I have no doubt there are people out there that will enjoy this.

This is an interesting book about a 23 year old woman who sets off on an odyssey to become the greatest gf of all time. This is a satirical novel and I am impressed that Kemp maintained such a unique voice throughout the text. For example, our protagonist Reality does not kiss. She will "do the kissing."

Though the tone of the book is silly, there were many times were I felt bad for Reality. Like... Really bad!!!

I don't think this book will be for many people. But, for a terminally online kind of person this book will be catnip. I will certainly be thinking about this book for weeks to come.

Not for me. I understand this to be satire, but I can't really understand what was being satirized? Felt like someone asked Chat GPT to write a Nell Zink novel. That being said, there were some sentences that made me chuckle.

This book has an intriguing concept, but it was just too weird for me to get into it. It was a DNF at 32%, unfortunately.

“You will say: I know this is bad. And yet. And yet. Life can be very beautiful when you squint hard from the shit seats, in that place called Paradise.” This quote hit the nail on the head and also really summarizes this story for me.

I genuinely went into this read with no expectations, but couldn’t put it down once I stopped reading. The universal experience that is Mount Nothing and how we all had subscriptions to Girlfriend weekly is such a sad reality (Reality too). And yet, weirdly validating in knowing you’re not alone in those experiences.

This was a very unexpected but important and realistic read. Once you can get yourself into the world and mind of Reality, the weirdness feels like a familiar language you know but can’t quite speak clearly (this makes sense in my brain okay!!!).

Feeling emo now, but did very much enjoy this read from Sophie Kent. Thank you to the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The character in this book wants to be the greatest girlfriend of all time. This book shows how far someone will go when they are obsessive and know exactly what they want. I also loved the cover, I was immediately drawn to this book because of it. I have never read anything else from this author before, so I will be checking out what else this author has written.

Was enormously excited to read this picaresque novel about Reality Kahn, a girl dreaming about being the best girlfriend in the world, and it did not disappoint!

Demented, stylish, and loaded with sentences and plot points that delighted and made me laugh out loud, which is clearing the high bar for contemporary novels! Stylistically manic and slangy in a way that evokes Honor Levy and Madeline Cash, but more knowing, mature, controlled....like George Saunders or Donald Barthleme if they were "bornth" in 1996 and hung out in the weirder parts of Brooklyn.

A wild and strange romp into one woman's quest into becoming the perfect girlfriend. Sophie Kemp's rendering of modern life through the lens of a character that is totally out of this world is charming and full of surprises. The voice here is both pitch-perfect and uncanny, I had such an enjoyable time following her down this rabbit hole of contemporary life in New York. Can't wait to see what she does next.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley.