This book just wasn't for me, I'm afraid. I was 30% in when I realised I'd hardly absorbed a word and nothing was happening.

Jenny is an adult. Apparently. On the surface, she is a home owner, columnist and has amazing friends surrounding her. But, she can't afford the house, her boyfriend Art has left, her best friend Kelly seems to be severing ties, she's frazzled and social media obsessed, her career is spiralling and her mum has appeared on her doorstep.

It's not the first book around a character who needs to grow up, and it won't be the last, but I'm sure it's the only one that will have a never ending internal monologue about posting the perfect photo of croissants and accompanying caption.

<i>Adults</i> is funny and frustrating. Jenny's reckless grasp on friendship and social media makes you (almost) hate her at moments, watching her sack off people in need to deep dive on Instagram. Leaving a child on the street alone because of an IG post she saw! Ignoring cries for help from others! Being ruled by followers! She sucks at times, but she's far from the only one, and eventually you root for her to bounce back.

It's an easy book to inhale, too easy to relate to if you've ever been totally sucked in by social media, and just a good book on modern life. It's stupid and fun and a good read.

This is one of those books that is very much anchored in our social-media-driven times with a main character which isn't always very likeable. I spent a lot of time, while reading this book, wanting to shake main character Jenny for being so self-centered and so obsessed with the stupidities of Instagram. You do come to realise that this obsession is rooted in deeper mental health problems but my oh my, grow up woman!

The mother/daughter relationship while entertaining felt a little clichéd.

I wouldn't say this book is wildly original but it does follow the Fleabag trend of not quite lovable main characters. Despite my criticism, I did read it to the end, so I guess it had some gripping qualities.

Disclaimer - this is not my usual choice of book. I haven't read Unsworth's first outing but I have heard people talk about it and apparently she is an alumni of my own university department so I thought I would give it a go.

Good points first - It is searingly honest and contemporary. You can tell that it is a novel about a modern woman written by a modern woman. There are some brilliant one liners and the language was fresh and truthful. I read it quickly and found it pretty engaging, especially towards the end.

However, at times it felt too much like a caricature of a social media obsessed millennial. About half way through I felt like Jenny was becoming too ridiculous that I was losing swift interest in her.

I'm really glad I stuck it out all the way through to the end. Jenny made so much more sense once her backstory was fully explored. The novel became not a look at a social media obsessed 30-something but one that was about far darker, deeper issues. There should have been more of that throughout rather than spending too much time making her a parody of a generation.

In all, I would definitely recommend but I'm not entirely sure I will be returning to it myself.

Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy in return for an honest review.

To say 35-year-old Jenny McLaine is obsessed with social media is an understatement. When we meet her she is doing important work: “I am creating a social media post about a croissant that I am pretty sure will define me as a human.”

This contemporary, funny, tongue-in-cheek tale explores the complex relationship Jenny has with her smartphone, her flamboyant, actress mother and her friends. She works for a digital feminist magazine, owns her own place in London and has a cool photographer boyfriend, so on paper, she’s doing OK. But in this digital-led world, she is full of self doubt as her priorities are warped towards the digital representation of her life. She craves approval from her Instagram icon, influencer Suzy Brambles, “Suzy Brambles only posts in black and white. This is because she has real integrity.”

There are echoes of Fleabag in this book’s wit and tone (“I always feel better about buying wine when the bottle has art on it. It’s classy bingeing.”) and that’s always going to be a hit with me. I did like the fact that Jenny writes emails (but only as drafts) to the people that piss her off – her version of the imaginary arguments people have in the shower – as a cathartic (and very funny) release.

She is a pretty self-involved character, at many points tipping into narcissism. However, this didn’t annoy me as it is balanced nicely by the fact she is just trying to figure out who she should be when she’s not creating content for the squares.

I liked its kind of diary entry structure which added a personal element and actually, structure-wise, it reminded me of Not Working by Lisa Owens and topically it’s not dissimilar to How Do You Like Me Now? by Holly Bourne – both highly enjoyable reads, so these were nice comparisons to have while reading.

This was such a funny, witty read with topical, satirical-tinged commentary on navigating our digitally-soaked era.

Jenny McLaine is a thirty-five year old graduate with a job and a house so, technically, she is an adult but she has become a slave to social media, is incompetent at real personal relationships and requires to be rescued from all this by her mother. That's a strange plot for a novel and this one is certainly quirky.

Jenny feels compelled to post comments on almost anything that happens. She frets about the number of followers and 'likes' that she has and about the people and bloggers she particularly wants to notice her like Suzy Brambles. She has a boyfriend called Art but is so distracted that she is losing touch with him and she has a good friend called Kelly who she could also lose because she simply seeks advice from her about her social media posts. It is clear that both relationships are being damaged by Instagram!

The book is disjointed with short quirky episodes and then Jenny's eccentric mother arrives. Her cure for social media and for forging genuine relationships seems to be alcohol but she also interferes in Jenny's life, texting her boyfriend and moving in with her before flitting off to America with some therapist. Along the way there are lots of contemporary asides and some London scenery.

I'm not convinced that Instagram enthusiasts would recognise themselves in the description of Jenny as she acts out someone else's idea of an obsessed social media person and something of a caricature at that. It also seems like we are expected to believe that the arrival of her mother has been a good thing leading her to have more balance in her life but that's not altogether convincing either. So, although this is a very trendy novel in subject matter and presentation, there is something very conventional lurking behind it with yet another incompetent heroine needing a man to sort her out and a mother to put her on the straight and narrow.

It's an odd read and I can imagine some readers delighting in Jenny's antics and her chaotic life but it didn't work for me.

I don't often have a strong response to a main character. I disliked Jenny so intensely that I almost aborted the book. Then it occurred to me, the author probably wanted to provoke a response and decided to explore a bit more. Jenny is completely self absorbed and opinionated. She is obsessed with the perception she gives and everything about social media. She has a very loose touch with reality and it appears to be compromising a lot of her relationships - boyfriend, friends, mother. The story jumps back and forward in time and we start to peel back the layers of Jenny. She is intelligent and complex and struggling to find her way through life and her emotions.

The book is more about the character development of Jenny, and sort of rambles through a story-line, which is designed to showcase her personality. I'm still not sure how I feel about this book or if I even liked Jenny better by the end. I respect what the author was trying to do and loved the little observations, facts and wisdoms that she seamlessly slipped into the prose. That said, the story also kept me reading right to the end, which means something was working.

A very apt book and I’d say typical of lots of people today always checking their phones and addicted to social media. I have to admit I like to see what’s going on myself.
However I didn’t particularly enjoy the book. The opening scene in the cafe with the overthinking of the pastry didn’t help and kind of put me off.
I love the concept
It’s well written and funny in parts but not really a book for me.
I think it will be really popular and will have lots of people who will love it.

Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth a three-star read that needs to do a little growing up. I didn’t know what to write about this one, in some parts I loved it and in others I was seriously considering not even finishing it. I found Jenny McLaine to be knuckle whiteningly annoying for most of the story, I know she is supposed to be neurotic and insecure and we are supposed to watch her become someone you can cheer for, but honestly I couldn’t get to that point with her. The only redemand feature of this story is the writing, that was very good, and I like the style, I will give this author another try and see if I like any other characters they write.

Brilliant!! This book will take you through the complete range of emotions. Wasn't sure I was going to get in to it...but I was hooked. First I've read by Emma Jane Unsworth. Well written and brilliantly observed.

If you want a heartwarming, heartbreaking hilarious novel then this is the book for you.
Jenny has everything but at the same time she has nothing at all.
Social media being used at it's best or worse whichever way you look at it.

A hilarious and relatable read.

This is not my usual book and it was good to get out of my comfort zone and I enjoyed being taken along for a ride in the characters life.

A truly superb read, and a fantastic follow-up to Unsworth's previous book 'Animals'. It's funny, painful, hilarious, sad, profound, real and raw. Few books are this relatable and empathetic towards love, friendships, relationships and social media. I binged it in less than a day. A must-read for 2020!

Adults is a fanastic look at how we value life in the age of Instagram. Emma Jane Unsworth has almost created a sociological study of how we see someone living a good life by the amount of likes that they get on various social platforms but shown through a fictional account.

In this story we meet Jenny. Jenny has aspirations. She follows people who present their “best” lives and wishes hers could be the same. Whilst doing this she is also dealing with a break up and measuring her life against the expectations of what it means to be 30-something, single, unmarried without children: all of the things that are expected goals to have reached by that time. Jenny is failing miserably and is falling into a pit of despair.

Unsworth brilliantly captures the sense of desperation some people can be made to feel at certain points in their life whilst also highlighting the hypocrisy of a life “online”. Rarely people post the bad times, they show their highlights real which in turn makes others feel bad. Adults calls BS on this.

Adults is a really good book. It is funny – not the laugh out loud kind of funny but the self chuckling kind when you recognise yourself and your bad points amongst the characters. I really enjoyed reading it.

Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth is available now.

For more information regarding Emma Jane Unsworth (@emjaneunsworth) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Harper Collins (@HarperCollinsUK) please visit their Twitter page.

This book is an interesting portrayal of Jenny's life as she negotiates dealing with her friends, her ex, her Mum and her flatmates. I think the way that Unsworth portrays social media is rather apt.

All in all a good read.

When I started reading #Adults I wasn't sure it was for me. As a 55 year old social worker living in rural Gloucestershire I thought it was too young, too London, and too (social) media. There is no way I envisaged it was going to get a #NetGalley five star review from me. I was totally wrong , and I am so happy I persevered, because#Adults is an absolute treasure. Once I began to like it's main characters (thirty-something Jenny, her Mum, and her gorgeous best friend) I was hooked. It is a story about friendship, family, fear of failure (and growing older) and the pressures we put on ourselves. I completely related and I think most people will. I am going to buy this for my friends and for their daughters. I can't wait to see what they think.
I have just bought Emma Jayne Unsworth's previous novels. (I know, I am very late to the party.)
I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to Emma Jane Unsworth, the publishers and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read it.

Goodness - I feel I've been caught up in a whirlwind of immaturity and neediness; fortunately with some humour as well to help me get through the whole book. I'm still not sure if I enjoyed it or not, it was very full on and relentless which I felt meant it was actually quite difficult to get to know any of the characters. I also realised at the end I didn't particularly care about any of them, apart from feeling sad their online lives were quite so important and got in the way of living. I would like to think this was the author's intention, hence four stars, and would certainly read more of her writing.

Thank you to netgalley and Harper Collins for an advance copy of this book.

Sharp, funny and engaging but missing some depth for me; I think I needed a little more plot and some more likeable characters. Still, Emma Jane Unsworth is an incredibly talented writer and I do think that this will appeal to many readers who will enjoy it immensely, it just wasn't quite for me.

I was excited by the blurb about this book, but possibly I read it at the wrong time, following on from an extremely erudite and well written novel.

I do follow social media though not obsessively, so I could on one level relate to the main character Jenny’s obsession with checking her phone every few minutes (although I am not this bad!). However this poor character seems to need reassurance from people both known and unknown to her over every tiny thought and comment, and obsesses over the words she has used in her various comments and posts, and I found this both beyond credible and very sad.

The book has no plot as far as I could see, though there are funny moments, relating to her childhood with her rather off the rails mother, and poor friend Kelly, who I can’t believe would still be friends with this woman!

I tried to persevere with this book but I’m afraid at 30% I had to give it up, my reading time is so precious and I hate to spend it on something that doesn’t engage me in some way. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to pre-read the novel, and would be willing to try another book by this author in the future.

This is the first book I've read by Emma Jane Unsworth but I'm always keen to read a funny book. This promised a light read with humour, a modern tale of a woman grappling with the age of social media.

Jenny is a columnist for a feminist magazine. Her obsession with social media is unhealthy and means that her real-life relationships are suffering: her boyfriend has moved out, she can't get on with her new flatmates, her best friend is despairing and her relationship with her mother dysfunctional. Still, it's all about projecting the perfect life on the internet, so who cares if the reality isn't quite the same?!

I'm in two minds about this book. On the one hand I liked the humour and the way it's written as a slightly disjointed stream of thoughts and emails and texts. I loved the positive messages about women and the bits about the experiences of being female and navigating modern life. I didn't mind the fact that there isn't much of a plot because I was quite happy to go with the flow and, although Jenny is irritating, I assumed she was intended as a tongue-in-cheek expose of the narcissism of social media.

However, I just found it really hard to buy into the fact that Jenny is meant to be 35. Her behaviour and thought processes are quite immature and not like any 35 year old I know - maybe that says more about me, but this made it much less relatable. I also struggled a bit with how the narrative moved from humour to bleakness so quickly - the tone felt quite uneven.

Overall, this is engaging and well-written, if you can overlook the self-obsessed central figure. There are some lovely characters and moments in here and it's sharply observed.