Kim is invested in making herself unlikeable so as to become loveable. She’s very much the centre of her own universe, but so aware of this that it’s difficult not to like her for it.

Her relationship with her therapist is worthy of a tv series. She says of her that she “was so mean to me that I was sure she didn’t think I could be suicidal, and I took that as a compliment. I liked to think that I was strong enough to weather all the shitty things she would say to me, so I could glean something good from her, like panning for gold.”

The book is full of witty one liners “He was more neurotic than me, which was arousing.” And observations with which every woman who has ever dated a man will relate “This was one of those moments where I was supposed to rise to the occasion and educate a man for the sake of all the future women in his life, but I was tired: so, so tired. And such moments always left the man better informed and me alone again.”

My only criticism of the book is that the frequent darting between the past and present made it occasionally confusing to keep timelines straight, and there were a few characters introduced that felt like they’d be important but were never again referenced making their appearance feel irrelevant or unnecessary.

That said, it’s been a while since I found so much of a book so very quote worthy, and I hate to admit that I found Kim so relatable. I wish I was more like her best friend Bel whom I adored. I would gladly read a sequel dedicated to her. But I’ll be keeping an eye out for what comes next from Pip Finkemeyer regardless.

I need start this review telling I like the manic pixie dream character as protagonist. It worked so well in films before that I was excited to see where this book take us. I never read a thing of Pip Finkemeyer before and I always like to take new authors for me with a pinch of salt. The book isn’t bad written, is just that the plot is confusing for me and thanks to that I find really difficult to enjoy the characters, they own relationships and I end up not caring and enjoying the whole book. I was really hoping to see a book about womanhood and modern life with well writing characters and a amazing plot but it didn’t happen for me. Thank you very much to NetGalley and the publisher to the access to this ARC the book is out the 10 of August of 2023 so give a chance to the author if seems something you may enjoy.

I found the narrative difficult to get into and DNF this. It also seemed like there was way too much telling and not enough happened to show.

Sadly this was a DNF for me as I found the authors writing style too clunky and disjointed. The storyline was somewhat interesting, but, as other readers have attested, the story itself wasn’t that great, and thus I couldn’t bring myself to persevere with it

what went well:It was a very character-driven novel that tackled the crushing pressures of womanhood and modern life. i thought kim and bel's friendship was intresting to explore. as it really epitomised a deep and enduring female friendship. the twist was also interesting to experience.

what could be omproved: it could have had a more diverse cast and the start of the story could be a bit slow so it could feeel dragging

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this!

The concept of this book is beautiful: the turmoil of trying to figure out yourself as an individual in your twenties. Pip Finkemeyer has a wonderful writing style where you find out more context about the characters throughout the novel that you may not have expected. However, in terms of the story itself I’m not sure it completely lands, I kept expecting for there to be a bit more. A good read all the same.

📚 r e v i e w 📚
sad girl novel - pip finkemeyer

as a sad girl ™️ i love sad girl novels. the sadder the girl the harder i relate, (my favourite book is the bell jar. i’m that kind of sad girl ™️) so i knew before even opening this book that i would love it. this kind of thing is basically my manifesto. especially if the sad girl in question is also a writer. i eat that stuff for breakfast.
sad girl novel is just that - kim is a sad girl who wants to write a novel. naturally, i am in.
this book does exactly what it says on the tin but under the surface it dances around the sad girl ™️ trope, pulling it apart and showing you its insides without deviating from its origins. it’s a solid debut and i’m excited about future sad girl novels from pip finkemeyer in the future.
if like me you love a sad girl ™️ novel, get this on your tbr (it also helps that the uk cover is genius). sad girl novel is out 10th august, thank you to @netgalley for the early copy.

💫 swipe to see some of my favourite bits

Pip Finkemeyer’s debut is an offering to one of my (and bookstagram’s) favourite sub-genres, the sad girl literary fiction.
My favourite thing about this one was the prose and sense of voice. Kim, our narrator, is a chronic overthinker, and out of her spiralling mind come some truly stunning quotes. This is particularly true once the novel gets going in the second half – there’s something painfully real about the reflections Kim has about writing and friendship and trying to exist in a world that always demands more of you. Her relationship with Bel was also captivating, taking the bulk of my attention as the novel went on. And I really liked the plot twist in the second half and the light it shines on everything I’d read so far.
I do think I wanted to like this more than I did! The first few chapters (before Bel turned up especially) lost me a little bit, and some of the time jumps were a bit confusing. There’s an important flashback chapter in the first part that I didn’t realise was a flashback until the very end. I don’t tend to place as much stock on character likability as in character comprehension, but unfortunately, it took me a while to get either from Kim! While I now feel like I know how her mind operates, I’m not sure that I know her as a person, and while a lot of this could be chalked up to how lost she is, I still think some more clarity on what made Kim Kim would’ve helped me enjoy this more.
Overall: a few hangups that kept this from being one of my top sad girl novels but still enjoyable and a worthy addition to the genre, particularly with the narration’s way of poking fun at itself.

"Sad Girl Novel" is an example of what would happen if manic pixie dream girl would become a protagonist. Pip Finkemeyer is a crafty writer, some of the passages were simply delicious.

Sadly, that can't be said about the plot which was uneventful and confusing. From Kim's friendship with Bel, the obsession with Matthew to the particularly bizarre therapist, Finkemeyer created the world that it's truly hard to care about.

Thank you so much Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy of Sad Girl Novel.

Being a woman in your twenties is not a fun time. And this book summarises it perfectly. You make big swings, you fail, you get up and fall back down. It seemingly is a never-ending cycle of messing up.

While our main character is pretty heinous, I do love an unlikeable female character. I love her relationship with her best friend Bel. How real this female friendship feels. And how people can feel miles apart in their twenties and still be the same age.

While I did enjoy it, the book is super short and still feels like it drags in some places.

The book every woman should read in their 20's.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me an ARC copy of this book!

Best friends Kim and Bel are both doing well, but their lives look very different.

Kim is on her path to becoming a bestselling novelist, even if most of her success so far has been in her own fantasies. She’s about to set off to Berlin to meet a very handsome agent and finally make it. Meanwhile Bel has just become a mother, and is adjusting to life with her new baby.

But as much as they try to support each other; they can’t deny the envy they feel about their friends life, wondering if they’d really feel fulfilled if they had what the other did. Is the grass really greener, or is it just dead?

Sharp and smart — this story tackles the crushing pressures of womanhood and modern life, and the complexity of female friendship in a male-oriented world.

I loved Kim and Bel — they were wickedly funny, familiar and relatable. They were also bitchy, jealous and petty at times; but they were exceptionally real. Kim acts as our narrator, talking right to us in a casual, conversational tone that was full of personality. At times she was a bit dry, dead pan — but her numbness at constantly being her own critic was clearly the reason for these tonal shifts. She was obsessed with an emotionally unavailable and inappropriate man, jealous of her best friend and lived in a made up world in her head — a furiously chaotic mess. At times she was a little too much of a stereotype of the starving pretentious artist and I lost who she was, but she was definitely an interesting narrator.

At times the narration styles and time shifts changed in ways that weren’t quite clear and made it very hard to get really into the story, but the slow, steady pace left time to catch up as we see snippets of their lives and watch them try to figure out what they really want in life. Some sections did feel like they were meandering without much purpose, but as the story moved we see things start to take shape in brilliant ways.

Dry, witty and relatable — I found a disconnect but still enjoyed reading this and think my fellow sad girls will find something to laugh or cry about in this novel.

I really didn't expect to love this book as much as I did. Kim is such a relatable character for the gals who don't quite know where they are at in life.

If you are like so many others rewatching HBO's Girls, then this will definitely be a book to read this summer.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the advance reader copy.

I had to DNF this book 7 chapters in because I couldn’t read anymore from the main characters perspective. It felt disjointed and filled with forced awkwardness.

So far nothing has really happened and for a relatively short book that’s concerning.

Review in progress and to come.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

Sad Girl Novel by Pip Finkemeyer is about an Australian aspiring novelist living in Germany and how she gets catfished by her friend. Finkemayer manages to capture very well the messiness and difficult feelings of trying to figure out where you want to be in life and how to get there.

This book was okay, it fell a little flat for me and i wasn't really a fan of the characters. There were a few good quotes and moments but overall not my favourite.