enjoyed this more than anticipated! begging was a bit slow/hard to get into. Definitely had me more attached the characters by the end of the book. Would definitely recommend to lit/fic lovers!

"You can fall in love with an outline, you can even make a home with one, but there will come a time when you can't deny the bones and their flesh. No person is fewer than two things."

Disappoint follows Max, a trans woman, and her boyfriend Vincent with flashbacks of his summer spent in Thailand ten years earlier.

The development of each character was excellent. The way in which the book explored the concept of growth was very interesting to me. If you are in your 30s and feeling lost, I highly recommend this book.

First of all...

I'm a 50ish year old cis hetero white American woman; so, while I do consider myself an ally and feel very progressive, I'm not sure why NetGalley targeted me to download this title. I'm always up for diversity, so (obviously) I clicked the link.

Although I could have used an English (UK) to English (USA) translator and a street drug reference book to navigate the first chapter, I was absolutely enthralled with the narrator. The descriptiveness is sparse but effective. The house party, the drugs, the hospital room, the internal dialog - it's all spot-on.

I know nothing about Nicola Dinan, but I know there should be some obligation of those involved in publishing diverse writing, to allow those with lived experience to speak the loudest. The narrator feels authentic, to me, the non-expert.

Many of Max's observations are spot-on, from a female perspective. And I appreciate the effort she makes to acknowledge her privilege. It feels authentically trans, in the way that trans women seem very Feminist even though Feminism is often used against them.

This snippet of conversation between Max and Fred seems so authentically succinct re: the trans experience:

“Sometimes I feel like I’m a complication,” I say. “Does that make sense?”
“It does.” He takes a drag of his cigarette. “Maybe it’s a bit rich coming from me, but isn’t that always going to be a fact of life?”
...I’m not mad, because he’s right. “I know I have to accept the way the world is, but I still have to talk about it, because otherwise where does it go?”
“For sure,” he says. “I just don’t want you to think it’s to do with you.”

But it also speaks to navigating those spaces as an ally. We need to "talk about it," but it's hard - to know what to ask, how to ask, when to ask.

I also feel Max and Simone's friendship is such an uplifting girl power relationship. The way they know each other's faults and love each other deeply. It's truly enviable.

A few lines that made me catch my breath:

"... spiraling is easy when it’s done against a frictionless surface."

Who hasn't felt this discomfort of using friends as a sounding board esoecially when you want your opinions voiced in an echo chamber?

"Solidarity, when convenient, seems to be the ailing motto of wealthy minorities."

How easily we judge the disenfranchised for even the most minor snafus.

"As we walk in opposite directions, I wonder if he’s looking back over his shoulder. I guess I’ll never know."

Oh, what a brave thing to do - not look back even when we don't know what waits in front of us.

I'd definitely give this one 5 stars. For the diversity, the European and Asian threads, the entertainment of living waaayyy outside my personal comfort zone, but, most especially, for telling the authentic story of the human experience: the need we have for connection, the folly of youth we have all lived, and the value of hope in the face of the hardness of living.

this book did not, in fact, disappoint me!

i’m a bit embarrassed to admit that i haven’t read <i><b>Bellies</b></i> but trust me when i say i will try to soon if my college work doesn’t swallow me up whole. this book was incredible! dinan’s ability to write such detailed, compelling, and complex characters left me absolutely floored. every character in this book was fleshed out completely; i could vividly see them as people who could genuinely exist.

while the characterization is definitely the stand-out aspect of this novel, the plot doesn’t disappoint (again, with that word. sorry). max’s journey throughout and the journeys of the people around her were so interesting to follow. so much was happening but at no point did i feel like it was all too much or unbelievable.

tl;dr: read this book if you love well developed, messy characters who make you feel all the feels.

(thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review!)

I'll be honest, this took me a little while to get into. Some of the description - "fell down the stairs, woke up a trad wife" - had me thinking that this book would be more satirical than it actually was. Once i realised what an absolutely stunning story i was reading however, all was forgiven.

Disappoint me follows thirty year old Max, lawyer and poet, who falls down the stairs at a new years party and decides it's time for a change. Not long after, she meets Vincent and they fall in love. At the same time, we read the POV of Vincent at age 19 during his gap year in Thailand. It's his actions there that form the central conflict in the story. Disappoint me is about identity, about transness, about modern relationships, but most of all it is about the question of how much we can and should and want to forgive each other. And even about what forgiveness actually means. It's a story about people in all their complexities, people capable of love but also of awful things. None of that would work if Dinan's characters weren't as brilliantly vivid as they are. It's been a while since i read a book in which every single character was as real and fleshed out as the characters in Disappoint me. Safe to say, this is going down as one of my fav reads of 2025 so far.

Also, i would give it 6 stars just for that cover.

I was kindly given an ARC of this book by Netgalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review. Disappoint me is out on 27 may 2025!

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House for the ARC. I don't really know whether I enjoyed this or not. I really liked Max's perspective but not Vincent's. I liked Max's introspective bits but I was not really invested in the relationship between Max and Vincent. I did enjoy Max's friendship with Simone.

Thank you very much to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of Disappoint Me. I was eager to read from a new Author and I am definitely a Nicola Dinan fan now. This book was a pleasant surprise. What a beautifully written story about self, forgiveness and acceptance. Great writing, great characters and a well thought out plot throughout. I look forward to more from this Author in the future.

Disappoint Me is a sharp, unsentimental look at love, identity, and the quiet disappointments we navigate in relationships.
Dinan’s writing is both precise and darkly funny, capturing the absurdities of dating, corporate life, and self-sabotage with biting wit. The characters are flawed but compelling, and the novel refuses to offer easy resolutions. It lingers in your mind… not because of big twists, but because it makes you reflect on your own life. A smart, funny, and deeply thoughtful read!

Firstly, I want to thank Nicola Dinan and The Dial Press for the e-arc!

This is the first book I have read from Nicola, and reading Disappoint Me has made me eager to explore more of her work! This was such a raw, real, and eye-opening read, especially as someone who doesn't share the same experience. I loved reading about Max's journey of navigating her 30's as a trans woman, who has a complicated relationship with love and family. We see the complications of dating a cis man who will never fully understand what it's like to be Max. Additionally, we see the inside of Vincent's mind and what it's like to question your identity. People can learn so much from reading Disappoint Me and it is one of my favorite reads of 2025 so far.

This is a story about love, trauma, forgiveness, acceptance, and taking accountability for the past.

HIGHLY recommend!

Not only is this book contender of the year for best cover, but it is also heartwrenchingly devastating and real. Nicola Dinan's ability to capture the trials and tribulations of dating and existing while trans is incredible. I can already tell that some people will not be satisfied with the ending, but I was - it's an uncertain future, just like real life is. Every character had their own flaws and depth, and the story itself was incredibly well developed. The past shapes us into who we are and we have to decide how much the past dictates our future.

If there’s one thing I love in a novel, it’s an exploration of messy relationships, and Disappoint Me was exactly that.

Nicola Dinan does such a good job of weaving together a story of love, identity, friendship, secrets, and forgiveness. I loved that it was told through both Max’s and Vincent’s POVs. This was an excellent character study.

It was at times funny, at times heartbreaking, but always insightful.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Disappoint Me has discussions of gender, identity, expectations, relationships, and the questions of "should people be judged by who they were in the past? Can people really change?"

I laughed, I cried, I nodded my head in agreement shouting "yes!" and dropped my jaw in shock throughout the novel. I loved that Max is 30 and it felt like I started this at the perfect time; the week I turned 30.

I marked so many sentences- really beautifully written, relatable, moving, and funny! The characters are flawed and complex, with moments that make you question how you would’ve handled the situation.

Despite Max being trans and me being cis, we both experience the mental gymnastics around pregnancy and kids. It’s easy for many people but for others, it’s something you really have to work for and hope that everything you do works out. Those moments made me feel closer to Max and pulled at my heartstrings!

I also related to her feelings around her parents-there was a great quote about feeling bad that she isn’t closer to her parents and that her childhood was difficult but others had it so much "worse" so how bad could it really have been?

I flew through the second half! These characters and their lives and relationships had me fully invested.

Immediately after finishing this book I thought “Shut the fuck up this was incredible!” and started crying which does not happen for me often! The discussions and explorations of relationships, seeing their flaws, through a character driven narrative reminds me a lot of Greta & Valdin. I think fans of that will enjoy Disappoint Me! This is my favorite for March and I can’t wait to read more from Dinan 💗

TW/CW: alcohol, drug use, homophobia, transphobia, alcoholism, infertility, pregnancy, violence, blood, hate crime, outing, infidelity

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy.

This is an excellent novel! Engaging plot, gorgeous characterizations, important life experiences. I loved the interplay between Max’s POV and Vincent’s.

Nicola Dinan is a very talented writer, and delivers a relationship focused novel better than Sally Rooney. I said what I said!

I can’t wait to go back and read her debut, Bellies!

*Stares off into space* Wow. Nicola Dinan's writing is truly poetic. I loved this novel. It had so many components - Asian culture, trans lives, imperfect humans, and how we seek forgiveness. I truly felt so close to Max and Vincent reading their story. Max is trans and falls down the stairs and hits her head on New Years Eve. She decides to start changing her life after that moment. She meets Vincent on a dating app and they hit it off right away. We start to see glimpses of Vincent's past and how his experiences are shaping him in this newly formed relationship with Max. This book is sad and hopeful, and heartbreaking and really just an insight on what it is to be human and how much we trust others to keep changing for the better. I would absolutely recommend this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC.

I absolutely loved this. Nicola Dinan's writing was so gripping, and I thought the use of the two perspectives was masterful. The way she writes about Max's experience as a trans woman intertwined with Vincent and all of the supporting characters' own things they deal with was just so well done. This felt compulsively readable, and as a reader, it gave me a lot to think about, particularly the ending. I'm going back and forth on what I think Max should do at the end, and I can see this being a big discussion point among readers.

This books make it very clear that nothing is black and white, and everyone is a little f-d up in their own way.

I loved it, and I can't wait to read more by Nicola Dinan.

Laugh-out-loud funny, character-driven exploration of complex relationships, forgiveness, acceptance, and empathy. Hard to put down, with gripping, emotional, heavy scenes – yet approached with a light hand. Interesting reflections on the idea that we are more than the worst thing we've ever done. I didn't love the ending; while there were beautiful moments throughout, I needed more closure – the plane didn't land. Still, a well-written and thought-provoking read.

Psyched to get an advanced copy of this.

Could not put this down—read it in a day. Bellies was my favorite book of 2023. Nicola Dinan has this unique ability to deeply convey the messiness of human relationships and how we're all flawed that really gets to me and encourages empathy without judgment.

I adore her descriptions, sometimes comical sometimes profound, that had me physically nodding in agreement like "Yes, that's exactly how that feels!" I underlined a ton of quotes that resonated, on topics such as the push and pull of emotional intimacy, the isolation and community of queerness, forgiveness vs. acceptance, and the remnants of past love.

I encouraged a lot of people in my life to read Bellies and will be doing that for Disappoint Me when it comes out!

When I tell you that I dropped everything to read this ARC...

Disappoint Me is the story of Max told in the present tense, a trans woman navigating a new but serious relationship with Vincent, trying to make sense of not only what she wants in life, but what forgiveness looks like when everything feels new and unfamiliar. In parallel, we read the story of Vincent in the past, 19 years old on his gap year in Thailand. The book builds until the two timelines converge: Vincent's past coming back to haunt him and Max having to test her capacity for forgiveness while her visions of the future hang in the balance.

This book was riveting. There is no fat here: each person is whole and flawed and familiar, the relationships and interpersonal dynamics feel true, and the dialogue is propulsive. There is a celebration of queerness, a reflective theme that creates depth, and multiple laugh out loud moments. I would knife fight a dragon for Max.

Dinan is an engaging, thoughtful author and I am so thrilled to follow her work.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC. The book will be published on May 27, 2025.

The title says it all. I thought I would love this novel based on the synopsis, but unfortunately, I just couldn't connect to Max or Vincent. I liked reading their different points of view, but it's the writing style that really irked me. The prose is so pretentious and clunky. If the writing style would've been simpler and more direct; I think the storyline would've paid off. The plot is interesting, but I just felt like this book did nothing for me. I wasn't rooting for either character. The whole concept of the trad wife is why I wanted to read this book. but the execution of this book failed to deliver. I wanted this book to be more satirical, but it ended up feeling like a lifeless and weird little romp. The cover art is absolutely stunning though. Might be my favorite cover of 2025.