This book had me gripped from the first page. It is written by Constance as a diary for her obsession Dr Samuel Stevens. For Constance it is love at first sight when she meets Dr Stevens at the doctor's surgery where she works. When they secretly get together she thinks they are in a loving relationship but he uses her and dumps her. Samuel continues to encourage her by using her to satisfy his needs without getting back together. She becomes obsessive and begins to stalk him. Add in a roommate that loves her and a eccentric old man who conveniently lives in the flat opposite. All round a great read although the ending was not what I was expecting.

This was a quick read but I was annoyed by the short sentences and so many characters introduced all at once. Showed how quickly a crush can develop into something sinister. I definitely see the You reference, but I am somewhat confused by the Eleanor Oliphant connection. That is one of my favourite ever books and this was not on that level.

I saw one person describe this book as You meets Eleanor Olliphant, and I'd say that's a pretty good description. Constance is a flawed main character, but she's also a likeable and relatable, even when her behaviour veers quite wildly out of control. She works as a receptionist in a doctors' surgery, and her life is tipped upside down by a handsome new doctor that starts working there. They grow close, but what seems to be just a dalliance for Samuel (who is the archetypal shithead) becomes an obsession for Constance. As she is a secretive and shy narrator, the reader has to stick closely with Constance throughout the story before she begins to reveal the truth about her past and her behaviour.

‘If I Can’t Have You’ is a thriller written as a letter from Constance Little to Dr Samuel Stevens. At Constance’s workplace, Dr Williams has just died and Samuel is hired as his replacement. Whilst Constance tries to explore her feelings for this new doctor she is visiting an elderly man, Edward, who unknowingly helps her get closer to Dr Stevens. Back in her flat, Constance is dealing with a roommate, Dale, who is clearly infatuated with her. As if this wasn’t enough to cope with, Constance is trying to come to terms with the recent passing of her mother.
This is quite a slow-paced psychological thriller, less action based and more concentrated on Constance as a character. Although slow-paced, the second person narration is enough to keep you turning the page. Constance is a complex character with a streak of dark humour and a fear of people she loves leaving her. She quickly falls for Dr Samuel Stevens although it’s clear from the beginning he’s not looking for anything more than a bit of fun. Her infatuation and inability to move on makes for an uncomfortably tense narrative. This tension is only alleviated through her unlikely friendship with the lonely Edward, an odd pairing that actually fit together perfectly.
As to be expected in thrillers, there are some tropes that occur too frequently. Personally, I don’t care for the unstable alcoholic female narrator that is so popular but I could move past it in this novel as it wasn’t the only quality of our narrator that was focused on. Trigger warnings for this novel include: self harm, attempted rape, alcohol dependency.
This was a really quick read and although there wasn’t any real shock factor in terms of plot there was a real variety of emotion throughout the story and an undeniable tension. Would recommend for readers that enjoyed ‘You’ by Caroline Kepnes.

As other readers have said it did remind me of You the book/tv series. However, I enjoyed reading from a female protagonist. It was easy to get pulled into the obsession that she was experiencing, I think I would have liked to know more about Constance we got some of this but I wanted more!

It was Ernest Hemingway who once encouraged writers to begin with “one true sentence”. There are many such sentences in Charlotte Levin’s debut “If I Can’t Have You”, but this is her first: “Everyone stared.” Simple, effective, true, because, above all, this is a novel not about looking but rather, about the desire to be seen.

When a lonely young woman, Constance Little, develops an infatuation with Samuel, the new doctor at the private medical centre where she works, she is thrilled when he reciprocates. But when he ends their brief and passionate affair, the emotional wounds from her past come fully to the fore, turning her love into a dangerous obsession. The reductiveness of its premise - designed, no doubt, by the publishers to appeal to readers’ tireless appetite for thrills, is both a pity and a mistake. A mistake because this is not in essence a traditional psychological thriller; a pity because there is a danger that it will be overlooked by others. And that would be a shame, because this is a smart, compelling and utterly fascinating novel that lingers.

One thing it does have in common with others of its purported genre is its readability. There is a creepy compulsiveness to the story, a sense from the start that things are going to go tits up. You just don’t know how and when. In this sense it shares something in common with Harriet Lane’s Alys Always which also features a woman insinuating herself into the lives of others. What makes this protagonist’s journey so seductive, however, is both its plausibility and its possibility. We might like to believe that Constance Little is none of us, but in reality she is all of us, for who can tell what lies around the corner of our lives, what particular synergy of experiences, or accidents of birth will presage the perfect storm towards tragedy?

It is these past experiences which the book is really about, and Levin shows considerable skill in doling out the breadcrumbs that lead us to the complete picture at the end. Writers are often told to be selective in revealing backstory, but here it IS the story, the method of its telling illuminating yet again the novel’s themes of appearances versus reality; of grief; of longing; of loss.

Samuel’s inability to really see beyond Constance’s surface is where the problems begin, an opportunity for Levin to also explore - in often excoriating detail - the issues of class and gender. Samuel’s heedless sense of entitlement to both Constance and other women in the novel is governed by both these issues. Samuel comes from a world of expensive brandy-swilling, back-slapping bonhomie; a social butterfly used to getting what he wants, and whose idea of justifying his deplorable actions is to decide that women are sulking, clingy leeches who don’t know the meaning of a “good time” and dare to mistake shared intimacies and intense sexual acts as a “relationship”. Stereotypical, maybe, but we’ve come too far into the age of “me too” to not also understand the truth and damage in these seemingly natural abuses of power and influence.

This is not, of course, to suggest that Constance is merely a victim of Samuel’s circumstance. Protagonists are - or should be - extremes of their theme, and as her disturbing actions gradually escalate, Levin allows us to see at first hand the depths to which Constance will sink in order to achieve her desire to belong. These include, although are not limited to, manipulating the other men who come into her orbit, especially the eccentric and quietly grieving Edward and her creepily sweaty flatmate Dale. The authorial trick in this regard is to make most of the other characters so unpleasant by comparison, that you can’t help but weirdly root for Constance as the most likeable unlikeable character. One particular instance, involving a foot massage, had me physically squirming with its unpleasantness, as though watching Mike Leigh on acid.

What lends Levin such power in these moments is her inability or her refusal to shy away from the pain of these characters, detailing their idiosyncrasies with a bald, flat prose style that also lends itself to Constance’s increasingly fractured inner dialogue; the psychological and verbal ellipses that show her gradual loss of touch with reality. There are no ten dollar words here, and the novel is all the greater for them as we are allowed to simply sit back and watch her world implode, unencumbered by authorial lectures or agendas. Levin writes with the ear of a screenwriter and the timing of a stand up comedian and there were several laugh out loud moments, interspersed with the reading equivalent of peering through my fingers out of sheer discomfort. If Zoe Heller and John Osborne had a literary love-child, Levin would fit the part perfectly. Though not quite as nuanced as Barbara Covett in her obliviousness, nor as ranty as Jimmy Porter, Constance Little is nonetheless a novelistic tour-de-force to be reckoned with.

To those readers who come for a psychological thriller I say stay with this book, and it will repay you in far greater riches. To those who overlook it as not sounding quite serious enough, I urge you just to come. A rare five stars from me.

My thanks to NetGalley and to the publishers, PanMacmillan for a copy of the ARC in return for an honest review.

Content warning for references to self-harm and suicide.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

I immediately wanted to read this book due to the title, it is a gripping read about obsession with insightful and interesting characters. Highly recommended!

What can I say.? This book grabbed me from the first page, I fell into it completely and loved every page... it was gripping, fast paced and a real page turner. I loved Constance, and really felt for her... and so wanted her to find her happiness.. her friendship with Edward was so heartwarming.. . perfect for fans of ‘’You’ this is a perfect read to snuggle down with a nice cuppa.
I will be recommending this to all my friends as I can see this is going to be a real hit.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read in return for an honest review.

5stars.

Rating 3 stars

Very undecided about this book. I guess I like the premise of it but the actual characters I found to be very annoying. Constance was such a frustrating narrator, obviously she is completely deluded and you see how tries to explain all of her crazy actions, but there’s also such a childish undertone that really makes her character unlikeable. Dr Stevens... what a scumbag, I hated him, which definitely made me feel sympathy for Constance but there’s definitely a feeling of...surely his character should have been a lot more charming or something in order to justify why Constance went so crazy for him in particular. I guessed the ending quite early on, and while it was interesting to see how Constance was at the end, to really drive home that she was disturbed, I didn’t really love it. Lot of negatives there, but for what its worth, the book did keep me hooked, and I still did enjoy it.

I have to say that it took me a while to get into this book. The writing style, from the point of view of Constance, took some getting used to and the layout is not in chapters as such. Constance seemed to be unconnected with life and with those around her and perhaps a little naive. As the story unfolded I appreciated it more, got into her mindset and became totally captivated by her story. By the last part of the book, I could not put it down.
Constance is a doctors receptionist, with a past who becomes obsessed with one of the doctors. From her point of view, you do understand the obsession wiith Samuel though the reasons gradually become clear as the book unfolds. I am not sure that I liked any of the characters (including Constance!) but the story , seen from her viewpoint was totally believable and since finishing, I cannot stop thinking about it. I can see that what starts as fancying some one and him being nice to you could snowball into the events that took place in the book . Lots of swearing , but for me that added to the characterizations .
Thankyou to Net Galley , the publishers and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I will definitely look out for more from this author

Having read the reviews for this I decided to get comfy and start reading! This is a perfect example of peoples diverse taste, because I for one did not like Constance, she was so annoying and I found it hard to relate with her as a person or as a stalker! I like my bitter exes with a bit more about them!
I wasn’t a fan of the writing style either, but glad that other people have enjoyed it.

I read this to the end even though I found the writing style irritating. Short phrases used as incomplete sentences. There is lots of vomiting and getting drunk and the main character is completely out of control, obsessive and delusional. The ending was melodramatic and disappointing.

I got completely drawn in to this book. Constance was written so well I thought I could touch her. My heart broke for this complex character throughout; the issues she had with her mother and the need to be loved by the narcissistic doctor . I got totally caught up in her life and was cheering her on and cringing in equal measure throughout the book. Towards the end I felt quite emotional as the story drew to a close. If you want a fantastically written, character driven novel, where you can invest in the madness of Constance then you won't be disappointed.

I enjoyed this insightful novel very much. The storyline flows at a great pace, and the characters are well fleshed out. Highly recommended!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I found Constance to be quite a likeable character despite her rather childish choices!

Constance is a receptionist at a drs surgery and as a handsome new dr begins working at the practice, Constance can’t help but to fall head over heels for him and an affair starts. For Steven it is just that, but Constance wants more. 

A fantastic story filled with treachery, deceit and lies. This book will keep you second guessing until the very end!

I was excited by this book as soon as I read the blurb. I love novels with flawed protagonists (especially women) and ones which really get under your skin. I love meeting characters who are dysfunctional and real. If you want a light-hearted rom-com, this book is not for you. If you want something raw and unsettling which will make your heart race, buy this book. I read the entire thing in a day.

It follows the story of Constance who develops an unhealthy obsession with a man she works with. We know he's no good for her, but Connie doesn't, and we watch as she descends uncomfortably into a dark place truly believing that he loves her back. As the book develops, we learn more about why she's formed this attachment and we just want to help her (well, I did).

What I loved about this book is that even though Connie comes off as unhinged a lot of the time, many of the things she feels as a woman in her mid-twenties are entirely relatable. It's a smart observation of how women are treated by men in general, particularly today.

This is a well written debut I quite literally couldn't put down. Looking forward to seeing what the author writes next.

Constance meets Samuel when he starts work as a Dr in the practice where she is an admin assistant. She is drawn to him instantly and overjoyed when it seems he feels the same. However, Samuel is not interested in settling down and soon gives Constance the brush off. This story is about what happens next, when Constance develops a dangerous obsession.

I was a bit ambivalent about this book, mainly because the characters were so unlikeable. Samuel was an arrogant, patronising, womaniser. Constance was a stalker with an inability to form a normal relationship. The only redeeming character was Edward who I’d quite like to adopt as a friend myself. He provided some much needed light relief and enabled Constance to become a slightly nicer person.

I felt the story was a bit lacking in pace, it seemed to have gripping moments then long periods where nothing much happened. I enjoyed it well enough, but it’s not a stand out read for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

Great story, I completely sympathised with Constance even though her behaviour wasn’t right, and I wanted her to come out of it all ok. Who hasn’t been treated, or seen someone be treated like Constance. The book was very well written; to have the reader willing the main character to be ok even when she is keying someone’s car means it is a well written character! Definitely read this book.

This book really wasn't for me . I found Constance both irritating and annoying in equal measure . Her obsession with Samuel was a real damp squib as was her relationship with Dale and her colleagues . I perservered so that I could give it a review but I'm afraid that its 2 stars at best .

An emotional read. Interesting, well written and very enjoyable. I liked the main character although on occasion felt annoyed by her and the choices she was making. She seemed very immature. However, the story kept me hooked to the end and I enjoyed it.