Sadly not as good a read as I was hoping. The storyline of a 20 something in London and the emotionally unavailable man she falls for, along with the requisite opinionated girly flat mates, felt slightly like a story that’s been done to death. There were some insights that I did relate to, and the question marks it raised about who actually was at fault and how do people find themselves in toxic relationships- and remove themselves from those situations - felt relevant. There were also a few nice laughs along the way.

However, the writing was a bit stagnant for me, I never felt like I really got to the heart of the characters as I was being told about them, rather than hearing their actual voices. Perhaps just a style that doesn’t work for me and others will enjoy it more.

<i>A Very Nice Girl</i> by Imogen Crimp is an accomplished debut about not being very confident in who you are and where you stand, and what happens when you enter into a relationship where the balance of power is not skewed in your favor.

Anna is a young, aspiring opera singer at a conservatory in London. She never seems to have enough money nor talent or grit to make it on the cutthroat opera scene, and she scrapes by by singing jazz on the side at a bar with a swanky clientele, while renting a dank room from a stingy couple together with a friend. One night she meets Max, an older man who works in investment banking (or some other interchangeable job in finance) and an instant attraction forms. As Anna enters into what is a relationship in all but name, the reader can only stand by and watch as she, little by little, begins to lose herself.

<i>A Very Nice Girl</i> is a well-written and clever novel that explores the potent combination of people pleasing and power-imbalances in relationships, whose effects are only made worse when combined with the searching for self that often happens in your 20s. The anxiety, lack of control, loss of self and direction that Anna experiences is so convincingly portrayed, I found myself dragged into the same spiral of feelings. I, for one, wasn't bothered by the lack of quotation marks and found that the narration, which becomes increasingly unreliable, has a real drive and tension to it that propels the book forward every time you pick it up. I was also quite impressed by the use of opera throughout the novel, as it is never simply used as a background to make Anna more interesting or "different". Instead, it runs parallell to Anna's story and is skilfully employed to complement and portray the emotions that Anna experiences.

The problem, perhaps, is that I didn't always feel like picking it up, mainly because I don't particularly feel drawn to reading about the world it portrays: a white working class woman aspiring to traditional forms of success in white, affluent circles of London. I also found that though Crimp offers some really sharp and witty analysis of middle-class, privileged Londonders, it sometimes felt like she chose the easiest victims - millennial women - to poke fun at, and didn't give their persective and politics any credibility. These background characters were not treated with the nuance that they might have deserved and where there simply for comic relief.

With that said, I thought the topic was relatively well handled. I particularly enjoyed how Max remains a grey character through-out. It would have been so easy to decide to portray him as a chauvanistic, manipulating and controlling mid-life crisis cliché, but instead, it's not always clear that he is to blame. This makes for a subtle exploration of how women are conditioned to be pleasing and obliging. It is clear that though Anna suffers from the consequences of the relationship, she is happy to make choices geered towards pleasing and meeting Max's needs, instead of her own, partly because she hasn't figured those out yet. But it is also clear that this gradually causes her to lose her self, and perhaps also her self-worth.

I found the ending a bit rushed and perhaps unrealistic but I can't say too much about that without spoiling it. On the whole, however, this was a very strong novel with some subtle and some not-so-subtle commentary on class, gaslighting, feminism, and identity.

I'd highly recommend this book if you enjoy reading about these topics in the novel format, if you don't mind an unlikeable and frustrating main character, and if you want a nuanced depiction of power and relationships which doesn't offer any clear answers.

(This review is based on the ARC and might not fully reflect the finished manuscript.)

I really wanted to love this but there was something I didn't enjoy so much, though I can't put my finger on what, possibly the innocence (or my perceived innocence) of the main character. She's likeable and there are some relatable moments though. Also there was something off about the writing style but that's totally a personal preference, perhaps a bit repetitive and rambly. Overall I did enjoy it, it's an insight into a different type of relationship dynamic and life and the consequences that that kind of relationship leads to, but for me was let down by the points above.

Oh, the joys of falling for an emotionally unavailable man! Anna is studying opera at the conservatoire, and working as a jazz singer in a hotel, when she meets Max. She lives in horrible rented accommodation with her fiercely feminist friend. Unfortunately, the feminists in the book felt like caricatures. Anna's relationship with her parents is complex, and we see echoes of an adolescence suffocated by tendrils of parental fear.

Overall, it's a decent enough read. I particularly liked the singing/opera/conservatoire/gigging bits. Though I was a little dissatisfied by the ending. It felt like the author had opened a massive can of worms and didn't quite know what to do with them. In saying that, I took something from it, highlighting some passages for further consideration. Is this a book about a toxic relationship, though? Honestly, I don't know, and that uncertainty puts me into a headspace I don't want to be in.

There's no denying that Imogen Crimp is a talented writer. This particular plot just didn't completely work for me.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC. This novel is tender and profound. I loved every second of reading

Enjoyable but not very fresh to me. Felt rather run of the mill, although well written and paced. Also, main lead male character rather poorly drawn.

So sharp and insightful, full of tension, honesty and humour, this is the first book that’s made me both glad and sad I’m no longer in my 20’s. Loved all the detail about training to be an opera singer, with both the passion & joy when it all comes together, and the torment & fear when it doesn’t, shining through, I was wholeheartedly along for the journey between the highs and lows of Anna’s early career and her turbulent relationships with all those she cares for. Amazing debut, can’t wait for Imogen Crimp’s next book!

First book read of 2022, and I absolutely loved it. The plot was beautifully woven and characters felt fleshed out with their own arch. Anna and Max's dynamic was realistic and captivating and left with a cliffhanger of where the two characters end up. I could see this being adapted for TV.

"... and it was impossible to say which of these women, if any, she was. Laurie said then that she'd find out if he'd really gone to New York. She'd find out definitively. She called his office and asked to speak to him, but he wasn't available, they said. She encouraged me to to analyse him. Lying wasn't his only character flaw, after all. Perhaps not even his worst. He'd undermined me. Diminished me. Belittled what I did."

Every page is written like this: monotone, flat, indirect speech ('she told me that...', 'he said that...') rather than dialogue, everything told rather than dramatised and internal thought merging into, and indistinguishable from, external conversation. We're completely in Anna's head and it's a dull place for me to be. Very sub-Sally Rooney but without the interest, this tells an over-familiar story of a twenty-something young woman feeling disaffected and at odds with the world and falling into a needy and possibly toxic relationship with an older man.

I found it hard to engage with Anna and her constant self-pity: she's a talented opera singer studying at a prestigious conservatoire in London yet she shows little passion for music. The whiny tone about feeling disadvantaged (why?), not having much money (um, yes, she's a student - and in London there are plenty of free/cheap things to do), her neediness and dependency on male approval all feel like knee-jerk reactions to a certain type of book rather than stemming authentically from her character and situation. There is real potential in the opera background but this never really comes to fruition despite some vague gestures towards aligning Anna with opera heroines.

This book has had plenty of hype and it was involved in a bidding war with publishers, all of which creates huge expectations when reading it, which in a way can be a shame for the author, but also it can be a huge bonus if it is a book worthy of attention. In many ways I would say this book is indeed worthy of attention. It is very much in accord with the type of book Sally Rooney writes, which seems to be the new trend in edgy literary fiction written by women. Even the style seems to mirror Rooney’s latest, which I personally find irritating, in that the lack of punctuation to signal dialogue and also combining into one paragraph different speaker’s dialogue is confusing.

That said, this novel is very compelling and absorbing, telling the story of Anna, an aspiring opera singer who meets an older man while moonlighting as a jazz singer at a club. She ends up spending most nights with him where their relationship evolves into something that is confusing for her and her desire for a career in opera, which up to this point has been single minded. Questions arise about the nature of her relationship --is she just being used, or is she using him for her career. Her sense of self worth in relation to both her career and her relationship are examined in depth and larger issues about the nature of love and the value of art are also highlighted. The result is a novel that lingers in the mind. Definitely recommended.

This had so much promise for me but it didn’t fulfil it sadly. I found it a bit cliche and, at times, uninteresting and rambling. I didn’t particularly like the writing style or the plot and I didn’t receive the exciting new author I was. Expecting,

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Imogen Crimp’s debut presents a nuanced portrayal of modern relationships, female friendships and complicated family dynamics.

The novel follows Anna, an opera singer in training, who has recently moved to London, where she rents a dreary room in a house owned by ‘the Ps’. The only thing she can afford on a student budget, the miserable landlords begrudge her using any part of the house, including taking a bath or cooking any food for herself. The only perk to her dismal living situation is Laurie, who also rents a bedroom from ‘the Ps’ and quickly becomes Anna’s best friend.

At the jazz bar where Laurie and Anna work, Anna meets Max, an older (and richer) man, whom she quickly becomes attracted to. Their relationship is flawed and somewhat toxic, with the recently divorced Max refusing to commit to Anna, and Anna pretending she’s fulfilled by their not-quite-relationship.

As the novel progresses, Anna’s self-worth and confidence are eroded by this relationship, with Max scrutinising and disapproving of all the aspects of her life as an opera singer in training. Anna becomes emotionally and financially dependent on Max, and becomes increasingly withdrawn from her classmates and friends.

Crimp uses Anna’s opera performances to mirror her emotional state and relationship with Max. She embodies different opera characters throughout the novel, and each is infused with the emotion and pain she’s feeling about her own life.

Perfect for fans of Sally Rooney, Candice Carty-Williams or Megan Nolan, this novel gives readers a fascinating look into the world of opera singers, while creating a complex and endearing protagonist that many readers will relate to.

DNF at 50%

I rather enjoyed the first few chapters of this book. It’s introspective and follows Anna, a in-training opera singer living in London. She goes to a special opera school during the day, watches rehearsals at night, while trying to balance a low paying job and trying to cover rent. She meets Max: a man in finance who is a little older than her, has the money, and the looks.

This shows their “relationship” and their tensions. This book also shows the relationships Anna has with her friend, Laurie and her estranged relationship with her parents.

This provided an insight into the poor artist and just trying to make it, as well as a tumultuous relationship.

As I said I was quite interested in this to start off with. I usually love introspective books, but by the 50% mark I was just no longer engaged in the writing. It just seemed that her and Max continuously are at differences and the book wasn’t changing tone or picking up pace, hence the DNF.

I read that this book was in a massive bidding war with multiple publishers and I can see why it was a book many publishers wanted.

It’s very similar to a lot of others books I love - a messy woman in london with questionable romantic relationship, plus the additional context of the character training to be an opera singer which I really loved learning about.

I can definitely see this book being huge next year. It’s messy and dark and complicated and ambiguous. There will definitely be a lot of buzz and conversation around it and I look forward to reading about it.

I read 97% of it in one day. It’s incredibly interesting and compelling and I couldn’t put it down.

4 stars

If this book was a colour, it would be beige. Bland, insipid, dull.

Anna is a talented opera singer, studying at a conservatoire in London, with a promising career ahead of her. She meets Max, fourteen years her senior, and thus begins what might be defined as a toxic relationship.

The relationship waxes and wanes, leaving the reader to speculate if he’s gaslighting her, or if Anna is too emotionally immature and insecure to conduct a relationship with Max. She’s an unreliable, unknowable narrator, so this reader lost all interest in finding out - though there is a resolution at the end.

The power dynamic is Sally Rooney-esque (man is a bit of a pr**k (or is he?), woman is submissive, watery, milksop, spineless), and the story is very much in the vein of Rooney’s books but without the taut writing and perfect pacing. The pacing was very off in this one. Though not a particularly long book, I trudged through it. It could do with a good edit to tighten and sharpen it.

The conservatoire angle had the potential to be really interesting but it fell flat, soaked as it was in the protagonist’s self-pity. Her supposed passion for singing never rang true.

Perhaps a book that might be enjoyed more by someone in their 20s? This reader is over this subgenre. 2/5 ⭐️

*A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp will be published on 3 February 2022. Many thanks to @netgalley and the publishers @bloomsburypublishing for the advance digital copy. As always, this is an honest review.*

A really interesting and addictive read about relationships, power dynamics and finding yourself. Really well written and had me hooked from the first pages.

I really enjoyed this. The main character was frustrating at times, but there were moments the felt so real and well described they were visceral.

The premise of this book was intriguing to me but I'm finding it incredibly hard to get into. The character doesn't immediately grab me and the plot seems jumpy- I'm going to try it again after reading other reviews where people rave about it. I'm finding it jumpy and stunted at the moment!

I struggled with this book. The premise of the book - an impoverished student training to do opera in a prestigious conservatory and a fledgling relationship with the mysterious “something in Finance” older man, Max - was promising. Unfortunately it turned into something rather dull - Anna’s career ups and downs, questioning whether Max is controlling or indifferent, parallels with the opera characters she’s playing or auditioning for, loss, anxiety, recovery and redemption. It reads more like a fictionalisation of a diary - not much plot, believable but dull characters, and a mildly interesting opera setting. Also, lack of quotation marks made it ambiguous as to who was talking, which can be very clever but is also irritating when nobody has a distinctive voice.

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read the book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Imogen Crimp is a clearly talented writer. Beside the predictable lack of quotation marks, her prose is certainly polished and there were many razor-sharp observations that caught my eye. It saddens me then that the story she choose to tell, well, it's a rather tired one. We have a milquetoast protagonist in her twenties who feels remote and vague. Anna allegedly wants to be an opera singer but she seemed very much to be going through the motions...her passion and drive for singing didn't really come through. She meets an older man who is cold and kind of closed-off but there is something alluring about him that supposedly makes Anna feel things. The two begin seeing each other in a casual way but it's quite clear that the man's behaviour will eventually escalate (gaslighting/possessiveness/emotional abuse etc...). Maybe if I hadn't read Promising Young Women I would have been more patient towards this story but ugh, I've reached the 30% and I'm bored. This reads like an amalgamation of other novels following directionless young women, specifically, Happy Hour, Exciting Times, and Acts of Desperation. Similarly to Happy Hour this novel presents us with that clichéd friendship dynamic: our narrator is the more giving one whereas her friend is "louder" and mean (in this instance she shows pleasure at our protagonist's hardships). Their landlords are caricatures that would have been more suited to a show like Fleabag which went at odds with the Sally Rooney-esque tone of the narrative. I am also tired of protagonists like Anna who will present themselves as so disadvantaged when they aren't. Anna isn't wealthy like the other ppl attending her prestigious conservatory but she's still white and conventionally attractive. Don't tell me now that those things don't work in her favour when she's auditioning. I wanted the narrative to expand more on her career and her relationship to art, music, etc. than her "toxic" relationship with that man. But no, we just have scenes of her being kind of passive in a way that will later inevitably make us (and her) question or revaluate her role in this "toxic" romance.