Some parts of the book really drew me in, especially Mae's younger years and experiences. The descriptions of artistic life, the resistance against mass markets and the struggle to stay true to your unique voice when the world isn't really giving back were especially interesting.

Like a lot of other reviewers, I wasn't as satisfied with the ending as I would have liked; but this was presumably an artistic choice by Flattery.

Fascinating premise executed well, much to reflect on here and explore, especially about the art of looking and also what counts as art. Was occasionally repetitive but that also fit with the youth of the main character.

With thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this novel, especially the fantastic character development in Mae. The mother/daughter relationship was another stand out element which is one of the best I have read to date.

In itself, NYC comes alive as another character in this novel and yet again was a big up for me - so beautifully done. If you enjoy art, the exploration of the art scene in 60's NYC was stunning, at times it did go into quite a lot of detail but I felt that it leant itself well to the story and helped build the world Flattery was aiming to create!

All in all, I really enjoyed this novel and feel so many will too!

This is the best book I've read this year so far. The voice (so acerbic, wry, deadpan and funny) is just incredible, and I think the concept is BRILLIANT, absolutely GENIUS. The dialogue is also SO well done. I think this book is 100% about social media, and on the 21st century obsession with being special... and it's set in the 60's!!! Just a really brilliant example of how "historical" fiction can comment on the here and now.

My one complaint is I was confused that the final pages focused on visiting Mickey (her mother's longtime BF) in the hospital, rather than focusing on her mother, or even Maud (her former friend). Mickey just never felt like a super important character to me (perhaps I missed something essential here), so I didn't understand why the book concluded with him.

A five star read for sure.

"I was proud of it; a life where I didn't need to be looked admired. Whenever I felt a hatred towards these girls who judged me in a way that felt uncomfortable and familiar, I thought about their bedrooms: the little sparks of individuality, the postcards from whatever exhibitions they attended, discarded perfume bottles, fashionable but cheap dresses, all the ways they tried to make themselves invincible. I couldn't hate them at all then. In a way, I still gravitated towards their small and fantastic dramas." (224)

I enjoyed this book and warmed especially to the primary character, narrator, Mae. She shares her thoughts with the reader in a conspiratorial way, and she is particularly funny and unpredictable in the many impromptu conversations that take place between her and her work colleague, with total strangers and with erstwhile school fiends. With little regard for the niceties of small talk, Mae goes straight to the heart of things. Slattery is excellent at writing dialogue

"Nothing Special" by Flattery left me underwhelmed. The stories lack depth, often meandering without purpose. Flattery's attempts at wit feel forced, resulting in a collection that fails to leave a meaningful impact. The title is sadly fitting, as the book offers little that stands out or resonates.

This debut novel is set in 1960s New York featuring the Art world. The relationship between the main character Mae and her mother is really well done and very interesting. The descriptions of Mae are realistic and it her characteristics and points of view were strongly written. An intriguing read.

This reading is incomparable to anything else I have read before. The author successfully captures Mae's character development, as well as her complex relationship with her mother. She has recreated the 1960s in our current day, certain to send some readers on a journey through memories.

Although there were aspects worthy of praise, I found the plot to be quite lengthy and uninteresting. Since I am unfamiliar with Art Culture, 'Nothing Special' is beyond my understanding. However, if you possess this knowledge, this book is likely more enjoyable.

Despite not being fond of "Nothing Special", I am still open to reading additional books from this author.

There is a Warhol shaped hole in this book. He never really appears. In my opinion his name shouldn't be listed in the blurb. All the other facts could be the same and the story would be the same, it would just avoid setting up expectations for readers that the novel was never going to address.

He is incidental to the story we witness.

Perhaps I just didn't 'get' this but the voice was very flat for me for the most part, with flashes of brilliance.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Nicole Flattery's short stories, and was excited by the premise of this novel, imagining the story of one of Andy Warhol's typists at the height of his fame.

I really enjoyed this, the depictions of the 1960s art world were great and I liked that Warhol didn't really come too much into the story and it stayed as more of a coming of age.

It's our pick for summer's #nottheohcobookclub, so I'm looking forward to hearing more opinions on it then!

Set in New York in the 1960's, this book follows 17-year-old Mae as she breaks away from her home-life and begins to work as a typist for Andy Warhol, transcribing his book and become immersed in a world much bigger, brighter and vulgar than her own.

This book is very much a coming of age-type novel as we see Mae really grow a lot during the book, and regress at times too, and begin to really understand the true side of the world away from the shelter of her home and school. I myself don't know much about the art world in general and knew nothing about Andy Warhol except his name and some of his art before going into this book. The artist himself isn't much of a character in the book but instead is always on the periphery and never interacts with Mae or her new friend Shelley.

I liked the setting of this and found the concept of the novel very unique and I don't think I've ever really read anything like it before. I think the book was well-written, and we do get a true sense of who Mae is, and who she wants to become in the book, and we see glimpses of her as an older woman as well not completely satisfied with the direction her life took and her complicated relationship with her mother. Despite being a part of something 'big', Mae's life remains small and ordinary.

I enjoyed this but I don't think I'd ever reread the book. However, I'm sure those with a lot more knowledge about the art world and this time period would enjoy the story even more.

I thought this was objectively a very good book: stylised and well-written and it definitely succeeds in what it sets out to do. But I just didn't really care about anything in it, and I found the last third really annoying. So much drama about tapes. I don't care! Funny how sometimes you can recognise a piece of art's intrinsic worth but still not connect with it in the slightest yourself. Anyway, thanks to Bloomsbury for letting me read this. I did try.

I really really wanted to love this book based on the synopsis, it sounds fantastic. But it suffers from the "short story but stretched out" phenomenon. I liked the premise, and the peripheral references to Warhol and the Factory were really interestingly done, but it just didn't grip me. I liked the relationship between the main girls, it felt very realistic and rooted in familiarity. I'd love this if it was a novella.

Based loosely on real life events, Nothing Special by Irish author Nicole Flattery is the imagined story of one of the typists who worked on Andy Warhol’s novel in 1960s NYC, at the height of his creative powers.

Mae, a young girl with a fractured relationship with her mother, leaves school when a chance encounter results in her securing a job as a typist for Andy Warhol at his studio, The Factory.

There she meets Shelley, and the two girls type up what will become Warhol’s novel, an experimental piece of writing based on entirely on tapes of conversations between Warhol and Ondine (the actor Robert Olivo). The novel marked the end of the relationship between Warhol and Edie Sedgwick, his muse, who left The Factory around this time.

Flattery does a good job of portraying the hedonistic lifestyle of the art scene in 1960s NYC, the endless partying, drug-taking and general debauchery that were part of the fabric of the time.

Warhol himself barely makes an appearance, not that it bothered me remotely - just don’t expect detailed historical fiction here. Similarly, Edie flits in and out but isn’t a character. This is sad girl coming of age lit set in the 1960s. Mae is a bland character, with little to remember her by.

I wish I could be more enthusiastic about the book but honestly it was for the most part pretty boring, evoking the familiar ennui and disengaged voice of other young female writers around right now. Descriptions of Mae going up and down escalators read like dream sequences, and a lot of the dialogue between her and a guy she hooks up with is absurd.

Comparisons have been made to Otessa Moshfegh, and Sally Rooney provides the cover endorsement, so you get the vibe. There’s definitely an audience for this but it’s not for me. A lacklustre 2/5 ⭐️ I’m afraid.

*Many thanks to @bloomsburypublishing for the arc via @netgalley. Nothing Special was published this month and is available now. As always, this is an honest review.*

Nothing Special is a hard book for me to review. I tend to review mainly plot or character driven books, which both provide relative easy ways into a review: you can describe what happens (without spoilers!) or you can talk about the people in the book (without spoilers!). Then you can get into the atmosphere, the way the book makes you feel and so on.

With Nothing Special I'm afraid that neither approach will work, which is frustrating because I want to persuade you to read this rich, fascinating story. Plot? Yes, things do happen here, but they're the comforting jumble of everyday life (for value of "everyday life" that fit New York in the late 60s). Fascinating, textured coming and goings but difficult to summarise. Characters? There are indeed well delineated characters. In particular, 17 year old Mae, our window into this world, is a blizzard of a character, full of desires, hopes and already (at that young age) regrets. Her mother, and her mother's boyfriend Mikey, are also richly layered and well observed. But Mae is also vastly contradictory, and she is telling the story of her teens from the perspective of some thirty years later, commenting on it with a great deal of knowingness both about herself and about the events which bring her - brought her - into the orbit, if the distant orbit, of 60s celebrity Andy Warhol.

I'm not sure I can do justice to that, especially as there are really two Maes in the book, the impulsive (but is she?) young woman and the more resigned, but also more understanding, older one. And as the younger Mae, at least, changes and develops rapidly in the hothouse environment of Warhol's Factory, where she comes to work (although here, it's always the 'studio').

Mae has, for example, an affect of rather chilly detachment from what she's witnessing, but it's hard to tell whether that is actually meant to be how the 17 year old saw things, or if it was a teenage pose, an attitude, a protection against what are pretty intense emotional ups and downs. Or it may be an artefact of the older woman recalling her youth? Once I started asking myself questions like that (another arises in relation to Mae's relationship with her mother (who seems pretty unpleasant) and her mother's boyfriend Mikey (generally derided, but he seems one of the more likeable characters here)) the book became almost a hunt for clues, every phrase, every comment turned over and examined. I cam to no conclusions. We are left to wonder, and it's fascinating to do that.

We're also left to wonder about the detail of what is happening - and about what we're not told. Before reading this book I knew very little about Warhol (apart from the Campbell soup cans, and "famous for fifteen minutes") so I wasn't aware of how much in the book to take as literal. (A bit of research afterwards suggested, quite a lot). But actually that's not the right question, I think. What's more important here than "what really happened?" is "what is Mae thinking and feeling?"

For example, she's been employed (though doesn't actually get paid much) for transcribing tapes that will be used as the basis for an experimental novel "by" Warhol. (Incidentally, he's not often named in the book, and when he is, it's with no upper case in his name - like many of the other characters, even Mae's "I" is lower case - except when he is called "Drella", a nickname used by his associates based on "Dracula" and "Cinderella". Make what you want of that.) The content of these tapes horrifies but fascinates Mae and her fellow typists, and their developing relationship with them is central to the book - but the content is never directly described, though it is implied that it is degrading, exploitative. I'm left wondering what I would find if I ever read "a: A Novel"(it has NO reviews own Amazon!)

Another example might be Mae's introduction to and relationship with Warhol's whole operation. Presented here, it's the result of a more or less random chain of events followup a casual hookup she has with a man she meets in a department store. (Early ion the book Mae spends a lot of time in department stores hoping to get picked up). One might be forgiven for thinking she thereforelittle idea where she's going when she turns up to be interviewed for the typing role by "anita" (lower case "a"). But in the succeeding weeks, Mae (and the other typists) seem to have a near obsession with Warhol's circle, some of whose leading personalities appear on those tapes, an obsession that reminded me of the attitude some people have today towards their favourite social media stars and influencers.

While it's perfectly plausible to see this as something that has developed in the hothouse atmosphere of the 'studio' (albeit the typists are corralled in a distant corner, overlooked by the artists, actors and socialites who seem to spent their time lounging around and smoking at the centre of things) I also wondered whether there wasn't something much more intentional in young Mae's involvement, a deliberateness to her penetration of this social circle, its parties and schisms which the older woman has tried to play down but not completely erased?

Similar mysteries abound, so that, while at one level you might indeed say that little actually happens in this book, that wouldn't really be true. You need, as I said above, to pay close attention, and you need to approach everything Mae (both of them!) says with caution, but when you do, you will see all sorts of stuff going on - both about Mae's own circumstances and her growth and coming of age, and encapsulations of wider society at a cultural and emotional crossroads.

I keep coming back, in thinking about this book, to the TV series "Mad Men", some of whose plot threads depict the same 60s New York avant-garde scene. Of course "Mad Men" does it from a different and more privileged perspective this demimonde is a place to be visited and explored... before getting back on the train to a comfortable suburb. It's starkly obvious that Mae doesn't have such a safety net and there is often a sense of danger, of edginess, to the things she gets up to which is heightened by our not being told just how much "young Mae" understands (and intends) that.

Older Mae doesn't elucidate for us here, leaving several different alternatives open from her teenage self deliberately exploring this world, to her falling into it accidentally but then aligning with it, to rather darker interpretations.

By the end of the story I almost had the sense of reading a choose-you-own-adventure story, but with all the switches and alternatives obscured so that it seemed like several stories at once. This was at times overwhelming and confusing but also, increasingly grippy, and deeply thought provoking.

Far from an easy read, but a very rewarding book, I think.

I feel bad for giving this 2 stars, but when I rate films I give a 2 as 'bad, but with some good ideas or execution' and so I guess that's where I've found myself on this. Nothing really seems to happen, and while things aren't happening there are these ongoing rambling sections from the perspective of a character I never managed to connect with - from the synopsis I expected this bright engaging unfolding of a queer coming-of-age story while under the shadow of a famous male artist. Sorry but not for me.

The reviews I read of this were very positive and I 'promoted' it on my TBR pile. It isn't that I didn't enjoy it - but more that I found it over-rated and a bit odd.

The story concerns Mae, a teenager in 1960s New York, who is fed up with school, and her peers, and doesn't really like spending time with her mom, although Mikey, her mom's boyfriend, is better. Mae ends up (through a doctor's referral - quite strange) working with Shelley, and others. Essentially, they are writing a book based on audio recordings from Andy Warhol's life.

Yes, the premise is interesting, and Flattery depicts the era quite well. However, I never quite 'got' it. It's clever how Warhol is not directly in the story, but on the periphery and all the while, the story revolves around him. It left me a bit cold, I'm afraid.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for sending me this advanced copy for review.

The blurb of this book and the hype around this release had me so excited to give it a read — it had a lot of potential, the premise sounded great and I was looking forward to an insight into the lives of the women that transcribed Warhol’s day-to-day.

Unfortunately, I felt like a lot of the book was quite abstract and while I admired Nicole Flattery’s writing, I struggled to get through it. I found out that Flattery write short stories and I think her writing is way more suited to shorter stories where an idea can be explored quickly rather than being dragged on.

An inside look at what it might have been like to work for Andy Warhol - Nothing Special follows 4 teenage girls as they work as secretaries for Andy Warhol's Factory in the late 60s. These young women were perfectly placed to see the underside of the outwardly glamourous lifestyle of the swinging 60s, but still had to go back home to their parents' houses at the end of the day.
I liked the concept but I wasnt totally engaged by the story, the pace and content werent quite what I was looking for unfortunately.
Thank you for letting me read it though.

“They had to make her strange, because it could have been any one of them. Shelley could have done it, but she wouldn’t have missed, those typing fingers nimble and sure.”

In her hotly anticipated debut novel, Nicole Flattery, (author of short story collection, ‘Show Them a Good Time’) takes us to 1960’s New York City and Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory’, where two 18 year old girls, Shelley and Mae, come of age in a silver coated studio filled with models and actors, artists and perverts.

I knew nothing about, ‘Nothing Special’, before reading it, other than that it revolved around a young girl who worked for Andy Warhol- and I wasn’t endeared to the book given this fact. But I had heard great things, and enjoyed Flattery’s short stories, so wanted to give this a go!

I think Flattery’s commentary on fame and celebrity in that time, place and within the cult of Warhol was so well observed and I felt its relevance around contemporary views on celebrity and social media.

The relationship between Shelley and Mae is so brilliantly understood and conveyed in Flattery’s writing, and captures such a specific way that young girls interact- half in love with each other, half in competition. Flattery writes their nonchalance and cautiousness of each other, their desire to be a part of something bigger and exciting than themselves, fantastically.

However, I struggled to engage with the book until the last few chapters, which is when I felt its themes of voyeurism and exploitation really come to a head. I do think as well, that if I had more knowledge or interest in Warhol and that time period, I may have enjoyed the book more. The cult-like, messiah complex, and genuine atmosphere of fear within the studio that Flattery conjures is really well observed- for me, this was the most interesting part of the book.