Serious Sweet was, in so many ways, a bleak and depressing experience...making me feel stupid for not getting it. I've tried a number of times to get into it, but have to admit defeat. Maybe next time I try I'll be in the right head-space to stick with it.

This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

I don't think I've been this eager to finish a book in my life. This book is a bit of a mess, and could be considerably shorter than it is.

The use of 'fuck' is used carelessly, and not for any valid reason, and it made me dislike the protagonists. I don't mind bad language in a book, but it felt unnecessary here. I feel like the author was probably trying to come across as humorous, but it just didn't work.

This story revolves around two people who are trying to meet up in London. The narration switches between description and inner monologue of the characters. It took me a little while to adjust to this, but I ended up enjoying the style.

Supposedly this is meant to be a tender love story of two damaged people who could potentially help each other overcome their issues, but for me it came across as toxic and not quite the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan rom-com.

I can appreciate that A. L. Kennedy is a genuinely good writer but I have yet to click with any of her books, this one included. I think perhaps I am just the wrong reader as I felt rather disconnected from events, but then I also struggle reading any book that touches on alcoholism/sobriety.

I requested this in a flush enthusiasm during the Man Booker time, and then just didn't manage to get round to it. Anyway, apologies for such a late response.

I found the book as a whole quite hard to engage with. There was lovely writing, of course, but so much of it. It wasn't the stream of consciousness so much as the weird sense of second person that kept creeping in, and that's something I struggle with in a long text. It all felt quite claustrophobic.

A truly memorable book, one that goes straight to my five star review folder, there aren’t many, about twelve now in the past ten years, since I got a kindle! I read, generally, between one and four books a week so you can see it is not something that happens a lot. I started it when I got the copy, thought...”phew! this is hard going” and left it, returned to it one morning, a week or so later and did not put it down for several hours.

A stream of consciousness.....maybe more a meandering stream....the way thoughts unravel as you think or remember events, taking twists and turns and sometimes repeating the same thought in a slightly different way. Or is this just the way my mind works, who knows?

When I realised that I had come to the end I found that I was teary! Was I sad for Meg and Jon? Was I sad it ended?..yes and no. What I realised was that it was the same emotion as when I hear or see something truly beautiful. I have never reacted that way to a book before. I now want to re-read this, I really think that it is, for me, like reading a beautiful poem, I need to read it again to be able to appreciate the prose and experience the whole thing again.

Thank you Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an unbiased view

I just could not get on with this book. There was some lovely writing in it, but it felt too bogged down in words at the expense of plot. Unfortunately, it was left unfinished as I preferred to read something I enjoyed. A shame, as I know it was loved by so many others. However, it was not for me.

A solid book from Kennedy who is always an interesting writer, even if - as is the case here - the story doesn't quite match her writing skills

I found this book a little disjointed and hard-going. Interesting characters but not that much going on.

Serious Sweet by A L Kennedy
I'm afraid i didnt finish this one. Just found it too hard going. Lots of internal monologue that didnt make much sense. Very jumpy couldn't follow.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I simply didn't 'get' this stream of consciousness novel and lost interest. Will give it another go another time, but just couldn't finish it.

"Set in 2014, this is a novel of our times. Poignant, deeply funny, and beautifully written, " I would love to know who writes the blurb about books because it really cannot be further from the truth.

This book, this author tries too hard, writing in italics (for thoughts) and normal text for actual events - vignettes off absolutely no significance in between the action (or inaction). Apparently al this takes place during one ordinary day, its unbelievable affected and twee.

I didn't get on with this at all - just didn't connect with the voice. Sorry

To begin with I found this book hard to get into but staying the course revealed an unusual romance. The story is told through the eyes of Meg, an alcoholic,struck off accountant and Jon a divorced civil servant. Both characters are completely believable. It follows the events in 24 hours of their lives in London and the reader learns of their interesting,intriguing backgrounds. A well crafted book.

I really wanted to like this book and I did try. It just wasn't to my liking and I'm sure that is as much my fault as anything else. I found some of the internal dialogue passages just too much. I'm never very fond of the 24 hours thing as well and this proved to be no exception. It's literary and different but not to my taste and I struggled to finish it.

I really tried to lie this book but, despite several attempts, I just couldn't get into it.
Nothing seemed to happen and the action taking place over the course of one day made it even more difficult to engage with.
Not one for me, I'm afraid.

I wasn’t sure if I just didn’t click with this angry experimental novel, if I missed its subtlety, or whether it just needed a serious edit. ‘Serious Sweet’ by AL Kennedy is about one day in the lives of two troubled Londoners, Jon and Meg. The set-up is intriguing. First we are shown a family on a Tube train, the baby daughter is scarred, the family Arabic in appearance. Next we meet Jon, a civil servant. Pages are dedicated to his rescuing of a baby blackbird tangled in twine. At first, I was touched by the delicacy of his situation and the anxiety of the hovering mother blackbird. Then I became bored with Jon’s internal monologue. Thirdly, we go with Meg to an undefined gynaecological appointment. More internal monologue.
The timeline is confusing. Everything supposedly takes place in the course of one day but there is so much remembering of past events by Jon and Meg, separated by short scenes of seeming unrelated people, at times I lost the will to read on. Why did I? Because it is AL Kennedy and I loved her edition of short stories, ‘All the Rage’, so I was prepared to stick with it. But the stop-start stream of consciousness thoughts were often boring and inexplicable. I missed and forgot multiple references. Either the author or publisher or both were not sure how to describe this book – politics (both Jon and Meg rant), self-help, alcoholism recovery, romance or a spy/thriller. I was almost expecting a terrorist bomb. The mystery actually hangs on whether Jon and Meg will meet. They do, finally [at 46% on my Kindle] meet by letter.
It is a long book, 528 pages, which could be so much shorter and tighter. There were moments of clever, beautiful description and thoughts which made me smile, some made me chuckle, but there were others which made my eyes skip to the next paragraph. I finally got it at around 75% and read the last quarter quickly.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

I just did not like the writing style.
The plot was boring and with the text changing to italics made it impossible to read.
One of the worst books I have read.