This was beyond disappointing I am sad to say. Very messy writing, and the book was nothing like the premise, with absolutely zero comparison to Normal People, and moreover the Idiot. I expected funny and quirky, and it was just very sad and dissatisfying.

Written in the first person, this dark but touching novel grabbed my attention from the first. It was the author's well paced and thought provoking intro that convinced me this was a novel I would enjoy. It's one of those stories in which the plot isn't complex or in your face, but the characters in this novel are so well written and so full of depth you are seeing a much bigger picture and understanding their motives so completely.
You will have very strong opinions about each of the characters and, even if you don't like one of them, you will not be able to stop yourself caring about what happens to them.
I believe this is a first novel by this writer and I'm looking forward to reading more from her. I highly recommend this book of you want an honest, heartfelt and well written read.

Just not for me I’m afraid. To me, the characters lacked motivation. I wish you all the best and hope other readers love it.

*** ARC provided by Netgalley via the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ***

I really enjoyed this book, it’s a quick read with just over 200 pages and very much character driven. If you want action, this is probably not going to be your type of thing. However, it’s a beautiful character study focused on Pizza Girl and her reaction to being 18, just out of high school, pregnant, working as a pizza delivery girl with an overbearing mom & boyfriend and a dead, alcoholic father.

That’s a lot for anyone to take and Pizza Girl latches on booze and to a customer she meets and starts an unlikely friendship with which turns to obsession. This situation escalates quickly to a dangerous place and certainly kept my interest in how things would resolve.

I would definitely recommend this book to others particularly for those who can identify with a teenage crush that has gotten out of hand. I’m sure most people can remember how intense that feels and can to start to relate. 3 stars.

I think this title is an acquired taste. A little like Fleabag or Spike Milligan - esoteric. The two characters one in her forties and troubled about her son who will only eat pizza with pickles included and the pregnant eighteen year old pIzzy delivery girl..
Both characters have problems but the Pizza Girl has peaks and troughs with her depression and drinking in her deceased dads shed. Confused? I was initially but then as I progressed through the book I actually realised I was sympathetic towards them. It’s an interesting read.

Interesting and quirky and... weird.
This felt quite honest, but almost like a topic that people don’t really talk about / acknowledge - not so much a ‘coming of age’ but a meandering into adulthood without the clarity that media often leads you to expect.

Pizza Girl follows our eponymous heroine who is 18, pregnant, and delivers pizzas. She encounters Jenny Hauser when she delivers a pizza for her son, and the two form an unlikely friendship dynamic.

This is such an interesting story, it's pretty short (just over 200 pages), and it's very character-driven. There isn't too much of a plot and what little of it there is, is somewhat disjointed, so you sort of feel like you're drifting through the story with very little knowledge of the time that has passed.

What made me enjoy this book so much is the way it examines the way Pizza Girl feels at this stage of her life. She's just out of school, pregnant, and unsure of what she wants to do with her life. Through the start of her friendship with Jenny, she has something to cling on to, and while most of the story is focused on the relationship between the two of them. By examining this relationship we learn so much more about the dynamics between Pizza Girl and her mother, or between her and her boyfriend Billy. Pizza Girl is clearly unhappy with her life and clings onto Jenny as something that might make everything perfect, meanwhile you get glimpses into her home life and wonder how everything could possibly have worked out like this.

This book just felt really raw, I never knew quite what I wanted for Pizza Girl. I was rooting for her but she wasn't necessarily likeable, and even the ending was a little bittersweet. Things seem like they might be working out for the better but that's really left up to you as the reader to decide.

Overall I wouldn't recommend it if you need a plot-driven story, but this really worked for me. I feel like I'm going to be thinking about this one for a while.

There is a bit of hype around this book, which always spoils it somewhat. My expectations were probably too high for something this low-key.

Considering how little happens in this story, it's beautifully written. Inspiring love story it is not. Instead, it perfectly captures the abrupt mood change of teenagers from aimless to obsessive.

Jane is eighteen and pregnant, living with her mother and lovely boyfriend, and is a mess. She doesn’t know what she wants, is snappy and inconsiderate to those who care about her, and is apathetic about her life and where it is going, She is working as a pizza delivery girl, and in this role helps out older mum Jenny, who herself seems to be struggling with domestic life and losing her sense of self. This strikes a chord with Jane, who develops a crush on Jenny and tries to become part of her life. This description does not really do justice to the book, which is smart, funny and rather intriguing. Jane’s sense of confusion about her future and apathy about her situation is really captured, and the contrast between this lost teenager and the equally aimless and discontented wife and mother she is drawn to highlights how the perfect life is something we strive towards but never really master. A really enjoyable read.

Really wasn't sure where this book was going, and having read it, I am still not sure. I was entertained by it, and finished it in a day, but didn't feel any emotions whilst reading it. I could not identify with the main character or her family.

Quite frothy but fun and really enjoyable on holiday. Made me laugh throughout. I don't always enjoy books like this but there was something light and joyful in the way it was written and it really spoke to me.

'Pizza Girl' tells the story of Jane, a pregnant eighteen-year-old pizza delivery girl, who appears to be completely lost in life. Irritated by her loving mum and boyfriend, her days only seem to come to life after meeting Jenny, a middle aged woman who becomes a new, regular customer. The book explores Jane's new obsession as she navigates through the current period of her life.

It was a strange, yet charming story with a messy, yet likeable main character. I felt like the book was enjoyable but slightly too short; I know that it's meant to be a snapshot of her life,but it could have done with a bit more padding.

An odd but endearing coming of age story of sorts.

Pizza Girl focuses on the life of an unnamed pregnant 18 year old working as a Pizza delivery driver who becomes obsessed with one of her customers. She struggles with feeling deserving of the constant love of her mother and doting boyfriend and grieving her father.

I think on the surface Pizza Girl might seem like a easy short read but there are a lot of important themes and messages throughout. I loved the way motherhood was shown and the expectations that come with being a mother. I definitely got Juno vibes from this book and I enjoyed that movie.

‪I really enjoyed the darkly funny Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier, which focuses on a pregnant, borderline alcoholic 18 year old pizza delivery girl and her all-consuming obsession with a middle-aged female customer. I found Jane to be a very original character and her attraction to Jenny was compelling.

I didn’t think the Fleabag/ Sally Rooney comparisons were very accurate, I’d say Pizza Girl is more reminiscent of Halle Butler or Miranda July‬. Overall though, a quick and original read.

I don't know what to make of this strange little book.it is certainly different, I quite enjoyed it, but there wasn't really that much to it.It was very short and didn't seem to have a point to make.I don't think I have ever read a book like this so it gets a 10 for originality ,but it left me somewhat puzzled. I can't give it more than 3 stars but for anyone who wants a somewhat puzzling read, that won't require much effort this is the book for you!

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

If you've ever wondered about the sad, secret lives of the people who deliver your pizzas then this book is for you. The central character, who is only revealed as Jane right at the end of the story, is a mixed up pregnant seventeen-year-old with a mother who she doesn't really get on with, a boyfriend who gets on better with her mother than he does with her and a missing alcoholic father who has died.

It's not a positive mix and her job at the pizza store doesn't make things any better, and neither does her habit of getting up in the night and drinking beer in her dad's old garden shed. She is clearly looking for something but doesn't know what it is!

She thinks she finds the answer in Jenny, a woman in her 30s who she delivers a pizza to. For all sorts of reasons, but mostly her own loneliness and despair, she becomes fixated on this woman emotionally and sexually and creates, as lonely people do, a fictional narrative about their relationship which buzzes inside her head.

There is an aching authenticity about this section of the story where the helplessly trapped Jane invents a version of Jenny which might help her to escape from a day to day life which she hates. It's not a good idea and things could get much worse than they do but they still get pretty bad. Eventually, things work out and Jane starts to come to terms with who she is and where she is but you wouldn't feel too optimistic about her prospects in the long term.

And, that's it really. It's well written and the transient relationships with the other staff in the pizza store are well drawn as is the earnest boyfriend and the mum who has her own demons. The strength of the novel is how Jane becomes obsessed with Jenny and the way this slowly develops as she deceives herself into seeing something which is not there. It's an interesting read.

(Pizza Girl is published by HQ, a division of HarperCollins. Thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for a fair review.)

I picked this up as a short read in between a couple of longer ones (next up is The Nix, I think, for which I am thankful for a kindle e-copy, it’s pretty hefty!). I was also intrigued by the premise of an eighteen year old, pregnant and working at a pizza place.

It’s a first person narrative, which I always think is interesting as we only see the point of view of the narrator, really, as well as a peek around the edges of what’s really happening. Her and her boyfriend live in her Mum’s house.

It covers a lot of ground in a couple of hundred pages, and I was much more invested in her story than I thought I would be. Her internal monologue flits between pizza and the woman who orders pepperoni and pickle pizza, and her boyfriend and her recently dead Dad and her Mum and what she’s going to do with her life and a million and one other things. She’s surrounded by people who love her and care for her but all she can feel is smothered, and that Is slightly frustrating.

There are a couple of quick plot turns that took me by surprise, maybe because I wasn’t reading closely enough to spot the signs or perhaps because the narrator herself hadn’t been observing closely enough.

I’m not entirely sure of the targeted demographic for this – maybe other teens? I did feel a bit old, if I’m honest, and found myself sympathising with her Mum, which probably wasn’t the idea!

I wouldn’t go out of my way to read this again although I’d recommend it for people who’ve done full time labour intensive jobs which are customer facing and usually minimum wage. I did also dream about pizza while I was reading it and was a tiny bit disappointed when I woke up that dinner was not, in fact, pepperoni pizza with pickled jalapenos.

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ for providing the digital ARC

A pizza delivery girl who is also pregnant becomes obsessed with a girl called Jenny. Her alcoholic father has died, her mother is suffocating her and her boyfriend is un-supportive. Life can be hard and many life issues are covered in this book in a poignant way. I wanted the book to be longer and the story line more developed.

Pizza Girl is 18 years old, preggers and working at a pizza shop. Then she meets Jenny, a middle-aged mom with a son who will only eat pizza with pickles on. And so begins a strange friendship…

… yeah I didn’t like Jean Kyoung Frazier’s debut novel Pizza Girl. The blurb comparing it to Normal People makes me laugh - I don’t think the marketing team for this book read Sally Rooney’s novel because there is no similarity whatsoever, they just saw her sales figures and are trying to make that happen for this!

Almost nothing occurs in the book. Pizza Girl gets obsessed with Jenny for no real reason - I guess she finds out that she’s gay or bi-sexual at least? But that relationship doesn’t go anywhere, it’s never developed and little else happens. She ignores her loving boyfriend Billy (who really deserves better) and she’s generally depressed - her life isn’t going anywhere, she doesn’t know what she wants to do, she’s not ready to be a mother, and she’s still coming to terms with the death of her dad.

It’s just so boring to read and Frazier isn’t able to animate the material into something compelling. It’s also quite jarring right at the end when we find out the protagonist’s name - not because it’s unusual but because I didn’t even notice up to that point that I didn’t know her name. I hadn’t appreciated how important knowing a character’s name is - it’s the most basic connection you can have with them - and feels partly why I didn’t care about her or anything she was doing, besides Frazier’s inability to do this with her prose.

I’ll give her some credit though for several brief scenes in the final act between Pizza Girl, Billy, her mom, and her drunk dad that felt heartfelt and moving - that should’ve really been the novel; forget Jenny and all that tedious rubbish and focus on Pizza Girl coming to grips with her reality and figuring it out.

But it’s very little even for a short novel like this and doesn’t make it worth reading just for that. Pizza Girl is a very unimpressive, dreary and forgettable novel.

I feel i wanted more from the unconventional novel.

The life of a poor pregnant 18 year old filled with depression and smothered by mum and Boyfriend.

Good story line and i read within 24 hours but feel there needs to be a follow up to all my questions.

Overall a good read and excellent first novel by the author.

thanks for the read.