DNF - I have tried to read this book several times & every time I get bogged down by the narrative. I know people will gobble this up & I'm glad for them. This story just did not work for me. I found the premise tiring - almost trying to be edgy which is to say that the rambling & hinting at what was to come is not my favourite literary approach. The story as a whole grasped my attention but, ultimately we're just not the right pair for one another.

My first book for 2023. And as it happens, I’m starting my year by reading two books about Berlin, the other being a travel writing by Dutch writer Cees Nooteboom, Roads to Berlin, which describes the emotional moments in the months leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the months after. Berlin, as a city, is a metaphor for post-modernism. It’s a place where everything could happen all the time, everywhere, as exemplified in the famous saying, “In Berlin ist alles möglich.” (In Berlin, everything is possible). I found that even in the German textbook that I used to learn German that Berlin is described as the least German city among other cities. The city was divided into two parts during the Cold War, which following German reunification is still apparent from the night-light photo of the city as shown by the different colours of street lamps used in the former East and West Berlin.

Bea Setton’s main character, Daphne Ferber, finds herself arriving in the city as she escaped her previous life as a former barista in London. The notion of escapism that Daphne embodies is a relatable phenomenon. Perhaps we are now doing work that we actually enjoy, yet we feel as though our real life is happening somewhere else without us as we grapple with our own reality now. But a life like Daphne’s requires one to belong to a privileged class, something Daphne would admit to herself from the very start of her story.

Daphne imagines her life in Berlin to be a different one, to be a life with a slower pace, lived amidst people she didn’t know before. She learns German with classmates composed of people from different backgrounds, from different countries (which she describes as three variations of Catherine from different countries). She lied to the people around her about her profession, saying that she works as a nanny for a French family while also pursuing a PhD in philosophy (and attending a German class, on top of that, which is the only true part of her description of her activities). Instead of finding herself in a carefree Berlin life, she finds herself in unbelievable situations, such as being pursued by a stalker, making excessive lies for no apparent reason, and being haunted by fear as her window got smashed in three successive flats that she occupied during her stay in Berlin.

At the onset, Daphne’s story seems to be about someone enjoying her sabbatical leave. Yet as she encountered more problems than she expected, it begins to develop into a story of discovering oneself and rationalising self-sabotage. Perhaps Daphne’s behaviours have been motivated by her class consciousness, as she realised that she belongs to a privileged class since her parents still support her financially. She wants to be seen as someone independent, relying on her own merit and earning her place through countless efforts. By sabotaging her own life, she may create an illusion that there is something for her to achieve, be it economically, socially, or academically.

Daphne’s confusion probably resonates most with children from the top-middle class, growing up in relative financial stability after “the end of history”. With more options, there are also confusions, especially grappling with new values and diverging identities. Berlin, as a city, offers an opportunity for Daphne to reassess her life, which she considers very close to the London she escaped (at least, geographically). I felt like this novel is also a critic of modern lifestyle, in our increasingly ‘you live on your own’ society, with people living in megacities, grappling with the epidemic of loneliness and mental health issues – for which online dating apps might be an instant gratification to cope with the situation.

Chosen for its setting, I found this book to be a brilliant and surprising read. It takes a while to decide whether our narrator is reliable or not.
Privilege and entitlement made me really struggle to like Daphne as a main character but the premise and how she was presented did make it a really enjoyable read.

This was a beautiful book with a frustrating, charming, yet altogether very dysfunctional narrator. The plot felt slightly expected, but I love Berlin and I also understand the mental illness at play here (the protagonist suffers from an eating disorder, so...). Can't wait to see what's next!

This book may not have been aimed at me however I thought I'd give it a go.
Unfortunately I managed to get approximately one third of the way through before giving up. There was not very much going on, the character's life was dull and uninteresting, and I struggled to find any reason to continue with it.

It seems will enough written and if books about one person where nothing really happens then I'm sure you'll enjoy. I didn't.

Thanks to netgalley, the publisher and author for the advance review copy.

Read through netgalley for an honest review.
I’m not really sure what I make of this. Nothing much happens to be honest and the most interesting bit is the unreliable narration. I pushed on but it didn’t make me reach for it!
It’s very similar to a few books at the moment about womens friendships, think Lisa Taddeo etc but I think perhaps this isn’t a book for me.

A sad twenty something year old who doesn’t know what to do with their life moves to Berlin to escape from their life in London.

We follow a very unreliable narrator through their compulsive lies and manipulation in the city of Berlin. Berlin was so well wrote - I really want to visit the city now! Berlin was gritty and beautiful at the same time. It reminded me of a (badly worded) t-shirt I saw in S Korea which simply stated: “Berlin: a poor but sexy city”.

This was such a quick and fast paced book and I had a love/hate relationship with the protagonist. Loved that she was so interesting and kept me reading, her anxieties and paranoia and belief in that moving to a new city could solve her problems were a little too relatable. And hated because she was self absorbed, manipulative, and overall, really bloody annoying.

The book was also surprisingly humorous! I found myself finding the phrasing really funny at times.

The writing was especially engaging, I didn’t expect the writing to be so good (as I feel as though the blurb isn’t particularly well written) and it kept me gripped.

The book is definitely character focused with not much of a plot but worth the read, if not for a weird ride, then at least for its depictions of Berlin!

Not quite a 5 star but overall, an entertaining debut in the new “sad girl” / “unreliable narrator” category of contemporary fiction.

I never seem to get sick of the millennial down and out female character. I just can't get enough - I could have honestly read another 100 pages about Daphne she was that interesting.

I found this to be a really interesting, thought provoking novel. It was wonderfully insightful on how a young women, Daphne adapts to the challenges of life in a new city. Descriptions of Berlin must encourage everyone to visit. While Daphne was not a particularly lovable character her progress was thoroughly intriguing.

When Daphne Ferber arrives in Berlin for a fresh start in a thrilling new city, the last thing she expects is to run into more drama than she left behind.

Of course, she knew she'd need to do the usual: make friends, acquire lovers, grapple with German and a whole new way of life. She even expected the long nights gorging alone on family-sized jars of Nutella, and the pitfalls of online dating in another language. The paranoia, the second-guessing of her every choice, the covert behaviours? Probably come with the territory.

But one night, something strange, dangerous and entirely unexpected intervenes, and life in bohemian Kreuzberg suddenly doesn't seem so cool.

Just how much trouble is Daphne in, and who - or what - is out to get her?

I picked up this book for the Berlin setting, and it does well in immersing you in Daphne's version of Berlin, with her narrative voice revelling in setting out how she sees the city. You start to realise that this is very much a picture she is painting from little comments she makes, and as the novel goes on, it becomes clear that Daphne can't help but lie, for many different reasons, and that sometimes includes to the reader. Her compulsive lying, which near the end she categorises, is clearly a problem, but as she starts to acknowledge more by the end, it is her privilege and upbringing that means it rarely causes issues for her, and in general she is protected by the fact she can always call her parents for more money and a flight home.

this is yet another addition to the sad girl subgenre and while it isn't badly written the only refreshing thing about it lies in its setting (berlin). compare this to moshfegh's myorar or luster and this just seems rather forgettable.

I found Daphne rather easy and almost comforting to relate to despite her obviously deeply rooted flaws and her selfish, lost acknowledgement of the privilege and safety she has for being white, educated, and immediately more accessible and favourable for possible friends, jobs, places-really anything in life she knows she has a admittedly biased head start.

For all she was deeply flawed in her almost flashing restlessness to jump ahead of the secured start she already has, of her privileged idea of Berlin, her suffocating need to mould herself to try and make friends, and her excessive and addicted habit to lie about almost anything, Daphne was extremely relatable in her lost and lonely heart, not making any real friends or potential romantic advances despite the wonderfully cinematic idea she’d had of her young, single Berlin adventure,
This is solely about Daphne, a young and privileged woman who wants to make a fresh, bright start in a new city away from all the stale, heavy chains that held her in the old life she’s fled. However, it doesn’t go exactly as planned with the bright, cinematic idea she had in her head. Romantic advances don’t stick or seem so good anymore, friends don’t really develop into more than familiar faces, the streets aren’t at all like she planned, and the more the pages turn the more you’ll realise something is slowly happening Daphne. What, or who, it is we have to be in the dark with Daphne as she slowly tries to bundle up her unravelling mind.

She will fit greatly into the recent hysteric trend of unreliable and broken female narrators having breakdowns in her early to mid twenties, but the way the paranoia and uneasiness comes about won’t be predictable or stale and neither will Daphne.
I feel that the rest of the characters weren’t really developed at all, no one but Daphne felt real to me-the rest were just names in a paper and barely a soft whisper, rather than a memorable echo like the city. I think the pace was done very well, the dread and paranoia was built very slowly and carefully like it should have been.
Paranoia creeps in unheard and unnoticed, and then only when you’re feeling a little dizzy and confused does it latch onto you and break your world down.
Here, that’s exactly what happened with Daphne. She didn’t just suddenly spiral into paranoia, it was built up very methodically and admirably-written in a way that we ourselves could experience that exact same fear, paranoia, and confusion alongside Daphne as we experienced unknown and unnameable things with her,

The descriptions of Berlin were wonderful though, almost more alive and vivid than Daphne herself at times, which I think worked very well. Of course, you’ll be hearing about it through her throned jadedness, so don’t expect glowing, admirable commentary on the streets and people Daphne encounters.
Overall it was engaging and uneasy and the complicated, shaky emotions of Daphne were done really well alongside all the vivid and bright descriptions of Berlin, but I feel the rest of the characters didn’t add anything to the story or to Daphne’s journey and development either, so I do feel they could’ve been written a bit more in depth even for the small times they appeared.
I will be rereading one day to see if my opinion has advanced anymore, as I really liked the profession of paranoia and the overall endless doom that was weaved so intricately and powerfully throughout, and as I’ve said I found the character of Daphne extremely relatable and easy to engage with despite her flaws and wrongs.

Bea Setton’s intelligent, keenly-observed, debut novel has been getting a lot of positive, media attention. On the surface that’s surprising since she seems to be treading all-too-familiar ground with her central character, a disaffected woman in her mid-twenties frantically trying to make sense of her crumbling life. But, Setton’s skilful, inventive treatment of her material made this unexpectedly gripping.

<i>Berlin’s</i> a first-person narrative voiced by Daphne, whose background overlaps with Setton’s own. Born in France, with a background in philosophy, Daphne’s moved to Germany, ostensibly to reinvent herself. She’s an openly-unreliable narrator, a curious blend of self-deprecating and annoyingly self-congratulatory, drifting through her days shored up by financial support from her wealthy family. Daphne sublets an apartment in a bohemian quarter of Berlin, and at first her prospects seem promising, then a series of ominous events start to shift her off-track. It’s not immediately clear if the source of these events is linked to the kind of threat many women will recognise: harassment on the street; a stalkerish ex; a disturbing, male neighbour who seems a little too interested. Or whether Daphne, like Deneuve’s character in <i>Repulsion, </i> is having difficulty negotiating the boundaries between fantasy and reality.

Despite the minimal plot, Setton managed to hold my attention throughout: partly because Daphne’s such an intriguing figure; and partly because Setton’s so good at conveying a sense of unease and growing uncertainty about where Daphne’s journey might lead. Admittedly, Daphne’s oddly formal register grates at times but it’s can be oddly seductive, balanced out by vivid imagery, elegant turns of phrase and sudden, biting humour. Adept too with dry, ironic, observations, Daphne offers up a fascinating, outsider perspective on Berlin, its culture, history, and landscapes.

Daphne can be a fairly sympathetic figure but she’s also an intensely irritating one. She’s incredibly self-conscious and overly analytical – even adding footnotes to comment on her own story. She has a tendency to filter her experiences through an awkward, idiosyncratic mix of popular culture, literature and philosophy - she views her relationships with men as equivalent to Estella tormenting Pip in <i>Great Expectations, </i> and constantly references authors from Dickens to Mann to Woolf and Plath.

Setton’s portrayal of Daphne, the setting, the smattering of explicit references to Kafka and concepts of dread, as well as philosophers like Heidegger, made me think that Setton’s consciously drawing on elements of an earlier, literary tradition here; producing a contemporary, subversive take on the wealth of nineteenth-century and fin-de-siècle literature devoted to male, existential angst.

Really really enjoyed this book, couldn't put it down! Already recommended to everyone in my book club with whom I was reading Bunny not too long ago as it reminded me a lot of it but a more accessible, less gory version.

I'm a little biased because Berlin is one of my favourite cities so reading a book set there and actually going through the city and describing it was half of the appeal but I also got very invested in the character and her story.

I'm in two minds whether we could have a little more backstory to her because I do enjoy a book that's not fully detailed so I can make my own conclusions.

Really enjoyed the writing and highlighted a number of words, sentences and paragraphs.

I've shared it on my IG stories as a 4 out of 5 stars recommending it to fans of Mona Awad and Ottessa. Will write a better review on my GR now + Amazon when it comes out. I'll do a reel to share it on my feed as well + Tik Tok.

I am a sucker for everything set in Berlin, so naturally I had to read it. It’s very well-written and is a page-turner in a way. However, I am getting a bit tired of plotless novels which are very chic and trendy. If I could also strangle and shake Daphne I would - she was one of the most problematic heroines I have come across (which is also another frustrating trend). The main issue for me here was the lack of any kind of climax and lack of resolution of anything. It was a bit like reading someone’s diary in Berlin. Berlin was cool though.

I loved the dark humour and cultural details - I think this really captured the atmosphere of modern Berlin as well as the hardship of starting a new life in a different country - but I also felt that the 'twist' was rather predictable. I don't have a huge amount to say... which I suppose, ironically, says a lot!

I really enjoyed reading this book, it was well written with a compelling narrative and well devloped characters. The book is told from the point of view of Daphne who is unreliable to say the least, the whole time I was reading I didnt know what to think or what to believe and that really added an extra depth to this book. It also had a dark atmosphere that creeped through the text, ever present at a distance. I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading more by the author.

A really impressive debut set in my favourite city, I enjoyed Berlin and its unreliable narrator a lot. Definitely hits on a lot of issues around this field, but I think it is a great debut for Setton and I will be reading more from them

This is a story about Daphne, a spoiled young woman who moves to Berlin looking for a good time, but she has a lot of problems which stop her from enjoying life. The book is written from Daphne's perspective, and it becomes difficult to know what is true and what is illusion or bravado. It is well-written but the story is a bit grim with an unpleasant ending.

"Berlin" is a book about an unreliable narrator that decides to reinvent herself in a new city because of reasons. She is aware of her priviledge and somewhat feels icky about it but in a very passive manner. It is very much a modern books about modern problems, I'd say.