I did not like George. There, I said it. He’s immature, insufferable, rude, arrogant, insensitive, lazy, and hot tempered. THE BOOK OF GEORGE is a character study of an immensely unlikable character. It follows him from his formative years through adulthood and, along the way, George learned nothing. He did not evolve. He did not grow emotionally. He did not move beyond his belief that everyone in the world exists solely to serve him.

The only character who frustrated me more is Jenny, his long suffering girlfriend. Jenny, sweetheart, you deserve so much better. Does it not bother you to work all day while George is home only to cook dinner for him every night? It bothered me. Did you not hear the warning bells when your grown adult boyfriend spent hours playing with his GameBoy while you packed up the remnants of his childhood bedroom? I heard them. Run, Jenny run. George is an emotionally stunted child in a man’s body.

Considering all that, this book made me laugh. It made me shake my head in understanding because we’ve all known or dated or worked with one or more Georges. Heaven help us. Like Jenny, we deserve better. BRAVO to Kate Greathead for accurately capturing the sad reality of the manchild.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Henry Holt & Co. for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

I sat through a presentation at work that discussed how perceptions and values are formed for a generation based on the events that they lived through and the generation that raised them. Each generation essentially lived in different world causing their values to be somewhat of even drastically different from the generation before. According to the blurb this book is a portrait of millennial masculinity. Being a solid Gen X, I am not sure if my perception from a different era or my personal experience is different with the millennials I work with, but this book was not for me. The writing wasn’t bad but I found every stereotype of millennials explored. The characters were whiny, the relationships weird, and the lack of any growth in the characters by the end a great frustration. But maybe that was the whole point. This might be a very different read for a millennial.

This book was an interesting character study, focusing on a character that felt almost too real—probably because I’ve definitely dated a George before. While I found it hard to like him, that’s clearly not the point. George is frustrating, but I still found myself rooting for him as we follow him through the years in this coming-of-age story. The author deserves all the credit for making his journey so compelling—it’s sharp, reflective, funny, and very relatable.

If unlikeable main characters aren’t your thing, this might not be the book for you. But if you’re up for an entertaining, well-written deep dive into the mind of someone drifting through life, I’d recommend giving it a chance. George is insufferable, but that’s exactly what makes it such a great read. And as someone who's been in Jenny’s shoes, let me tell you, it brought back some serious flashbacks!

I read the ebook and listened to the audiobooks simultaneously. Both provided a fantastic experience so you can't go wrong with either one.

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company and Macmillan Audio for providing review copies of the book and audiobook through NetGalley.

Full disclosure, I was drawn to this book by the title. George is a family name, so I thought it’d be interesting but it just ended up frustrating me. This book puts you in the mind of George throughout his life. You see the world and his circumstances through his POV. He is polar opposite how I think which is why I was probably annoyed half the time he made dumb choices.

Each section I found myself saying, oh geez how’d he get here? He for sure is working through a lot of struggles and things he’s not confronting. He tends to drift around without any motivation and drag those who love him with and it’s frustrating. I wanted to scream at his gf and the end… was just meh. The author did a good job of making me dislike a human being for 9 hours.
♥️ Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this audiobook ARC.

I give this book 4 solid stars.
Gorge I give 2.
I loved this books and the way it followed George through his life.
However, I found George frustrating and insufferable.
I know this was the point. He was in a constant state of unease and with a lack of or no momentum going forward. I often felt bad for him, but I also sometimes hated the way he treated the people around him.
I have for sure know a George or two in my life, and maybe that’s why I held out hope that he would find his place and propel himself into life at some point in his story.
I think Greathead is extremely talented and it seems effortlessly creates characters we have met before or can relate to ourselves.
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

The Book of George is, not surprisingly, about a man named George. The novel gives us glimpses into his life from various moments as a child to his late thirties. We quickly learn he's a flawed individual. He's not bad, per se, but he can be selfish, aloof, lazy, and inconsiderate. I always enjoy reading about characters that aren't picture-perfect, and George is certainly that.

The instances where I most wanted to shake George dealt with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jenny. In the beginning, he wasn't crazy about her, and yet, he strung her along. He played video games while she cleaned his childhood bedroom. He teased her about her lack of book smarts. I agree with some of the reviews I've read in that I would have loved to have gotten her perspective more often over the course of this book.

Another part about the book I liked was the slice of life format. We dropped in on George at some moment in his life, and in the next chapter, we revisited him a few years later. I looked forward to seeing what about him changed (or what didn’t). The narrator did a great job of conveying the world of George and her voice only enhanced the story.

I truly enjoyed this book. It filled me with so many emotions, and it was easy to find myself absorbed in the world of George.

this story following the lackluster life of a mediocre man made me sympathetic to the angry & entitled men who can’t turn their life around, even though they don’t deserve it. If you like books with deeply unlikable characters, this one might be for you

George is just a regular guy finding his way in the world. The book starts when he is a young boy and follows him through his college years and his early career attempts and relationships. It is humorous and an honest portrayal of a young adult.

Having raised a precious son into a man, I especially appreciated the sentiments of George’s mother in this quote when she is reflecting on all the interests he had as a young boy and how she imagined what his future could potentially hold as compared to his current situation.

“I want you to wake up in the morning and be excited to get out of bed and do whatever it is you are passionate about. Or at least get out of bed and do it even on the days when you are not excited about it. I think you’d find there is a certain dignity in that. Just getting up and doing what is expected of you all the more so when it is not what you want to be doing or what you expected out of life.”

She hoped he would grow up to be engaged in the world, but George was struggling with that when what he’d experienced of the world as an adult just seemed to disappoint him…

George isn’t a bad person. He does nice things for others and even gets lucky and comes into some unexpected money. He’s maintained many of the friendships that he established in college and is close with his sister. He even has an interesting party trick that serves him well over the years.

This book would appeal to readers who enjoyed Groundskeeping by Lee Cole. The audiobook narration was well done and a pleasure to listen to.

The thing about life is we can't see very far ahead of ourselves. We don't know what will happen or who we'll meet or how we'll feel. All we have is potential. All this potential we hoard and cling to like it will be the thing to carry us, ultimately, to happiness, to fulfillment, to stability. The real truth is that life is what you make of it, and if you're not careful, you'll never really live it at all.

George has a Holden Caufield complex. Or, at least the same one as Holden. He's stuck in his head far too much, he has grandiose ideas and passes judgment on everyone around him like he'll win money for it. Except he doesn't. He never has any money because he won't get off his ass to do anything unless he convinces himself it has some sort of higher meaning unless and until he absolutely has to. And when he does have to do something, he will do anything to put it off. When he gets the slightest bit uncomfortable, he will reject whatever thing has done the wrongdoing or come back at it with teeth bared, even when he knows he's wrong. His whole life is an identity crisis, and I'm not even sure he knows it.

This book is almost stream of consciousness, in the third person. We follow George through his mediocre life, glancing moments here and there — sometimes, okay, often, quite mundane moments. He has some formative experiences as a kid, he gets a philosophy degree, he flounders, and he doesn't stop floundering. He lets others take care of him like he doesn’t understand it costs them something to do so. He has a longtime on and off again girlfriend called Jenny who he feels no passion for and is far too patient with him (girl, you deserve so much better). He tries to write a book. He sometimes gets the most random jobs. He often knows he is insufferable.

I know it might sound like I didn't like this book very much, but that's untrue. This is the type of book where you get out what you put into it. If you don't come at it with a certain level of discernment as a reader, you probably won't like it. George isn't all that likable, but things he thinks and experiences, and things he encounters through the people he meets have lessons to teach us, and opportunities for us (as readers) to learn something about how we perceive the world, whether we agree with George or oppose him. There are plenty of takeaways pressed into these pages.

The writing is excellent. I love the level of detail we're privy to, coloring George's experiences. Like Holden Caufield, George is critiquing everyone and everything around him, while playing himself cool. It's a very specific vibe, and Greathead nailed it. The audiobook narrator, Blair Baker, did an excellent job, too.

I was provided an advanced readers copy of this novel to read from netgalley & the publisher in exchange for an honest review. On netgalley this is categorized under both Literary fiction and humor/satire. I kept waiting for something funny to happen (not that George isn't funny), but if this book belongs in that category at all, it is certainly on the satire side. It didn't really come off that way to me.

Choose this book if you are a fan of literary fiction. If you like the structure of Catcher & the Rye and are interested in a modern twist on its main character. I think I'll be carrying George around with me for a while.

Tbh George just sucks. He’s a terrible person who doesn’t really seem to care about anyone but him.

As this is a character study type book unless you’re cool with reading about a truly horrific person this ain’t for you.

It ain’t for me cause I have to tolerate enough of these people in real life.

Pass.

George has a lot going for him, but he never seems to capitalize on any of it, at times seeming to sleepwalk through his life. Author Kate Greathead takes us through George's life from age twelve to forty. To be honest, I know a George. Someone full of potential who can't seem to get out of their own way and with no clear path. I liked George despite being incredibly frustrated by him at times. I wanted to shake his long-suffering girlfriend Jenny and tell her he wouldn't change while simultaneously hoping for their happily ever after. It is to the author's credit that both emotions could exist simultaneously. The story is read by Blair Baker who has done a good job. I enjoyed the narration and how easily the story flowed. Their delivery embodied the emotions of the story adding to the experience.

Thank you MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. This is my honest review.

So I am not sure how I feel about this. I almost wish we were with George for longer to see if he grew more as a person. Maybe until like 50 or 60. He was funny but immature. He did not treat the people in his life the best especially Jenny. I just overall did not like George that much to be honest. He had no redeeming factors for me. He needed to grow up. It was still a decent read though. A 3.5 star.

George is a lost soul with a temper that gets him into trouble. I didn’t find much humor in the snapshots of his life. On the contrary, it was overall a sad and depressing audiobook listen for me. I was more interested in his sister and his long-suffering, on-again-off-again girlfriend who each had goals. Perhaps it’s George’s unabashed aimlessness that didn’t sit well with me, being a Type A over-achiever by nature.
The writing and narration are good. If you want to understand a George, perhaps being inside his head might be helpful. I’d rather hang out with someone else.
My thanks to the author, publisher, producer, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.