Raw, honest, and emotionally resonant, Mess peels back the layers of what it means to rebuild from the inside out. Chessler writes with unflinching clarity and just enough humor to make the pain bearable. It’s messy in the best way—real, human, and deeply affecting.

This felt more like a platform for the author's cynical worldviews than a fully developed story. The constant overexplaining and heavy-handed observations made it hard to connect with the narrative. I also noticed a troubling pattern of negativity directed mainly at women, which became frustrating. That said, the dynamic between Jane and Teddy, as well as the mother-daughter relationship, had some genuinely well-written moments. Ultimately, it read more like social commentary than fiction.

About 35% in, this is a DNF for me right now. I may come back and finish it at some point in the near future, as I didn’t completely dislike it. It’s just a bit slow.

I was not a fan of this book. It was difficult to continue reading the entire book because it was not grasping my attention. I also did not like that each chapter was about a different person. It lacked a storyline, which would have made me more interested in reading. This is unfortunate because the blurb made the book sound great.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I was initially drawn to the book by the gorgeous cover and intrigued by the premise!! Seemed like a promising spin on reality TV (books??) but this book was messy and not in a fun way. The FMC was truly insufferable and I couldn’t find her enjoyable or relatable. Also, it felt like the author just used the thesaurus feature as much as possible when writing as there was quite a bit of unusual vocabulary to explain simple concepts.

I really wanted to love this one but ultimately decided to DNF after about 20%!

Summary:
Jane Brown is a professional organizer obsessed with order, control, and perfection. But while her clients’ homes may end up organized, her own emotional life is anything but tidy. Socially awkward, hypercritical (of others and herself), and stuck in her own rigid mindset, Jane embarks on a journey of unexpected self-awareness. As Jane steps into the homes and lives of others, her sharp critiques and social awkwardness begin to unravel in unexpected ways. Through each client interaction, Jane is forced to confront her own rigid worldview and gradually begins to open up to the messy, unpredictable beauty of being human.

Thoughts:
I know Mess hasn’t been getting the warmest reviews, but I found something quietly powerful in its pages. Jane starts off as someone who’s incredibly difficult and harsh on others and even harder on herself. Her lack of social grace and emotional awareness initially made the narrative feel a bit stilted, but as I kept reading, I realized: that was the point. Jane is someone trying to find herself, to learn how to be soft in a world she only knows how to control.

Each client she visits doesn’t just get a cleaner space, they unknowingly help Jane see a little more clearly. Whether she likes it or not, she walks away from each interaction with a deeper understanding of the human condition and herself. That progression gave the novel a quiet emotional resonance I appreciated.

The ending did feel a bit abrupt. But overall, I think Mess is a reminder that we are all works in progress, even when we think we have everything perfectly in place.

I couldn’t get into this book at all. The premise was so good but the FMC is insufferable. I couldn’t stand her, so I had a hard time caring about what happened. I did not finish because I don’t have time to spend on things that don’t bring me joy.

Unfortunately, my download of this book was not functional, but the premise still looks interesting and I hope others enjoy!

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This cover, is beautiful. The book is the direct opposite of beautiful. This twist on Marie Kondo and The Real Housewives was... just not it. Jane is supposedly a professional organizer, but in reality she's a really insufferable, disgusting, thief. She steals from every client she has and is one of the most judgmental woman I've ever read about... it's just incredibly vile and poorly done.

I can see where the author was maybe attempting to go but it just didn't work - the long winded tyrants come across as just a rant about the world and is not needed for the basis of this book. There's no growth or even true development of a character backstory, there's no romance, there's just so much negative energy being thrown around. I'm honestly a bit shocked that I finished this book.

This book wasn't for me, there were too many words that were really big and just didn't need to be there. The book didn't grab my attention and didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Im not gonna lie from page one I was kind of lost with the book. I kept going thinking it would get better but im not gonna even say there was a plot because I could not tell you. I feel like because the book was so short it was easy to not dnf but there really was no substance or anything capturing about the book.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. That being said, I'm about to be really honest.
This was not good. It was 200+ pages of... nothing.
Not a thing. The main character was insufferable for the entire book, and so was every other character.
This didn't really resonate with me at all and I don't feel that it matches the description. I also couldn't tell you the plot because I don't think it had one. I couldn't take the cynicism of the main character, and she didn't grow out of that either. This was a big miss.

I wouldn't have finished this book if it wasn't so short. I feel like the idea and the characters both had potential, but there was no substance. The main character felt like she was created by someone who thinks women have no redeeming qualities or would rather choose to focus on all of the negative stereotypes. I'm pretty surprised this book is even being published... don't waste your time. I love the mess that are Bravolebrities (as this book has been compared to), but I think it is just way too generous of a comparison.

Thanks to Net Galley and Harper Perennial for the ARC.

This was a great read! I really enjoyed the character’s development as it went on. I couldn’t put it down and enjoyed it from beginning to end.

Wanted to love this book, but just didn’t. The synopsis sounded so good and intriguing but ended up just being a lot of drama with no plot..thanks for the arc though! ❤️

Let me start by saying I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it and 3/5 feels right. That being said, the book doesn’t fully deliver what the plot synopsis sells. Maybe my expectations were wrong and, if so, that’s on me.
I’ll start by saying the main character, Jane, is not a likable person and while I see that she’s on a redemption journey in the book, it just falls short. The writing in the book was much like Jane’s story: pretentious and judgmental. The author’s vocabulary is obviously very good, or he is adept at using Google to find “big” words for everyday things, but I fear it would be off putting to some. I, personally, don’t want to feel like I have to regularly interrupt my reading to get a definition of a word. Maybe it was intentional since the character of Jane felt like she thought she was better than everyone and the author carried that over in the writing.
I think there was definite potential in the book but it was only okay to me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC ebook.

Thank you netgalley for the arc!

I was really interested in this book for its synopsis and book cover, however it fell a little flat for me. Overall, I didn't think there was a plot to follow and could not relate to the female main character. I found her really cynical and insufferable so it was hard to listen to her POV. Each week is a new character for her to judge meanwhile she is a house cleaner/organizer??

I had the opportunity to read Mess by Michael Chessler, courtesy of Harper Perennial and NetGalley. I chose this book because I typically gravitate toward male authors in genres like Horror, Thriller, and Mystery, so I thought it would be interesting to try something different with urban fiction and contemporary romance.

I started reading without remembering the author’s name/gender, and right away, I was struck by the writing style—it’s blunt, clinical, and surprisingly grumpy. This was not at all what I expected from a contemporary romance, and I found myself both puzzled and intrigued. The protagonist, Jane, was especially hard to pin down—she’s self-absorbed yet self-deprecating, and this made it difficult to connect with her.

Jane is a "professional organizer" (though her kleptomania and clear frustration with the job make this title feel fraudulant), and she seems to dislike nearly everything about her work—except, of course, for throwing away her clients' memories. Her behavior is often inconsistent, and I found myself wondering if the author intended it this way. For example, she mocks a man for collecting Transformers (insisting on calling them "dolls"), yet finds it sweet when a mother wants to keep her children’s old projects. She criticizes an assistant for not knowing her toddler's clothing size but feels sympathy for a family that gets a wheelchair for their dog. Jane’s contradictions were enough to make her a frustrating character to read about.

About three-quarters into the book, I realized the author was male, and things started to click. It made sense why Jane's boyfriend, who "couldn’t measure up to her unrealistic expectations" (i.e., not hiding important financial decisions from her), was written as a saint-like figure. This portrayal of him as the victim, despite Jane’s valid grievances, felt a bit one-sided.

The female relationships were similarly underdeveloped, with each woman seeming to fit a specific stereotype. Meanwhile, the men were generally written as understanding, people-pleasing types with "valid" reasons to be frustrated with Jane. While Jane is far from a perfect character, it felt like she was never really given a fair shot, and this made her hard to relate to.

In the end, I finished *Mess*, and I’m giving it a 3.5-star rating. I certainly appreciated having a character that left an impression, even if it was in a less-than-positive way. However, while this book was an interesting departure from my usual reading choices, it didn’t leave me eager to explore more romcoms by male authors anytime soon.

I was excited to read this based on the description, however it felt very lifeless and did not keep my attention throughout the story. I'm sorry but I would not recommend this book. I have left this review off my goodreads because I have never had a bad review to leave on an ARC and it felt wrong to do morally for a free book I received.

I really tried to get into this one, but halfway in and I just don't feel connected to the characters with it being written in the third person. I thought with the chapter being a characters name, we'd get that characters POV but that's not the case here.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy!