Man, this book was absolutely incredible. It felt almost poetically written, and had a really interesting variation of narrative view points. The characters where intriguing, and even though some of their personalities where vapid rich girls, I still felt that their backstories gave them depth. A solid five star for sure. I laughed, cried and couldn’t put this book down!

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
Publication date: 30 January 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Millie wants to graduate, get a job and buy a house. She's slowly saving up from her job on campus, but when a visiting professor offers her an unusual opportunity to make some extra money, she jumps at the chance.

I read Reid's Such a Fun Age a couple of years ago, and loved it so I was really looking forward to her new novel.
Come and Get It is all vibes and very little plot, which is fine by me because Reid is so adept at creating such vivid characters. She touches on the topics of wealth, class, race and micro-aggressions. The humour and the pettiness both felt really true to life. This is full of flawed people, bad decisions and unexpectedly dark.
I love a character study, which Reid delivers perfectly, but I felt I needed a bit more to latch on to and make me feel fully engaged with the story. But one thing that cannot be faulted is Reid's amazing writing. There is one scene in particular where one character describes the body of another character, and the prose was SO gorgeous, I have not been able to stop thinking about it. So even though this book didn't blow me away, I will still read anything Reid writes in the future.

I mean this in a good way -- the best way, really: if you opened up this book without knowing a single thing about it, it would take you just a handful of pages before something clicked in your brain and you thought, 'Ah, I get it, it's a literary novel.'

The dialogue is unusual in that it reads how people really talk; there were moments when I thought, 'Yep, I've overheard this conversation.' Which was unexpected, but I loved it. The characters also felt very lifelike. Everything Millie, Agatha and Kennedy did rang true, not in the sense that I agreed with everything they did but that I could see how they got there; their thought processes and subsequent actions made sense in a way that fictional characters rarely do to me.

Five stars. Read this if you want a book you can finish in a couple of days and feel strangely haunted by for the next month.

Come and Get It is a campus novel featuring a wide cast of characters. There is the responsible Millie, returning to her studies and her role as an RA after a break due to her mother getting sick. There is the confident Tyler, a Regina George type of girl who can be kind and cruel in equal measure and her friends who say the most ridiculous things. There is Kennedy, a transfer from another college who fills her room with so much stuff that there is barely room to breathe. There is Peyton, a girl of few words, who just wants the kitchen to be kept clear. And then there is Agatha, a professor at the college who is dealing with the breakdown of her relationship immediately before taking up her post. After Agatha meets Tyler and her friends, she becomes fascinated with the world of college girls and, through her relationship with Millie, she starts to observe them more and more. Will she write a book about them? Or will things get out of hand?

One thing I will say about this book is damn is it descriptive. Whenever we meet a character or a character appears or we enter a location, we are given about a page and a half of description about their hair colour and their clothes. While I do like a fair amount of description, I believe Reid went a bit overboard with this one as I genuinely think the book would be half its length if those passages were edited down, which would make the book flow much better. As it is, it moves at a snail's pace and does not really go anywhere.

I don't mean to say I disliked this book majorly or took offence to it. It is fine. I am annoyingly ambivalent about it. It was a book and I read it. I didn't like it but I didn't dislike it either. It felt like a bit of a waste of time, as although this novel is essentially a series of character studies which I usually love, the character 'development' seems to be plot-driven rather than coming from the characters. For instance, one of the main characters, Millie, does things that make no sense for her character despite the extensive amount of time we spend in her POV. There are long passages of exposition about characters but then that doesn't actually inform the way those characters behave particularly. There was one passage I highlighted where Millie thinks "Why am I obsessed with you?" regarding her 'friendship' with Agatha, where at that point, there had been no indication that she was! It was just stated and from then on, she was obsessed. It felt a little lazy.

There were things that I really liked though. The depiction of Kennedy's isolation in college was well done, and I saw a lot of my own experience in university in the portrayal. It was sensitive and accurate, but then the conclusion seemed... random? The climax of the plot was a little bizarre, to the point where I think it frustrated me more than kept me riveted and eager to know more. And then even after this contrived plot point, the characters remain largely unchanged, which questions what the point of the story even was and whether there was character development in the first place.

The writing style is readable and the premises of the characters are strong, but I think this needed to be refined a little more to ensure the point doesn't get lost in the extensive descriptions and elongated flashbacks.

Come and get it by Kiley Reid is one of the best contemporary fiction books I’ve read for a long time. After reading her earlier work ‘Such a fun age’ I was very much looking forward to this new release and although this is a very different book, I was not disappointed. Reid is firmly cemented as an ‘autobuy’ author for me now. Firstly, I will say that this book will not be to everyone’s tastes. It is extremely slow paced and the plot is practically nonexistent. However the writing is exceptional and I really resonated with the characters who are highly human and flawed. This book is character and relationship driven and deals with issues of power, privilege, sexuality, race, ethics, friendships and relationships in a very nuanced way. It feels like it’s saying so much about so many topics without actually saying very much at all. Reid uses a light touch and doesn’t drive the point home so the reader is left to put the pieces of the puzzle together, which I absolutely loved. Reid manages to capture the mundanity of everyday life while showing how simple interactions can make a huge impact on those involved. I highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing PLC and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this thought provoking story in exchange for an honest review.

I was THRILLED to read Kiley Reid's second work, having loved Such A Fun Age a few years ago - it was one of my first book club picks! This book didn't disappoint - Reid's ability to build characters while giving every single one a relatable train - "villain" or otherwise - is seemingly innate and beautiful.

I loved the story of Millie and her mom, Glory - understanding what it might be like to be RA'ing when everyone you're working with is just a bit younger, less worldly, less mature overall. They haven't seen "real" life yet. That's what makes her appeal and attraction to Agatha Paul so believable.

For me I think this was a book of two halves - the first half was beautiful character building, a slow burn towards some pending denouement - but the aftermath didn't quite satisfy me in a way I had hoped for. Wouldn't want to give any spoilers, but some of the events go by too quickly to be believed - and while some of the characters themselves don't seem to believe it.... it didn't do the reader any favours to get them on board.

Overall - would thoroughly recommend this book as it scratches the itch of relatable characters and juicy gossip - but it wasn't quite a masterpiece for me.

Kiley Reid's high-anticipated follow up to Such A Fun Age.

Come and Get It is set in a college dorm and concerns women's relationships with money, desire and vulnerability. I would agree with other reviews that this is not a book driven by plot. Reid follows three characters: professor, Agatha, RA, Millie and student, Kennedy across a semester at an Arkansas university.

Reid is brilliant at creating believable, flawed characters and realistic dialogue. The world is recognisable to anyone with an interest in campus novels (or Bama Rush videos......) and the impending doom of the consequences of the the characters' actions is palpable.

Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

really struggled with this - obviously prodigously written but empty and meandering. maybe if this was shorter? maybe if there was a plot? don't know!

Although I've never read Such a Fun Age, I'd heard great things so was keen to read the second book by Kiley Reid. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting so little to happen. While I can absolutely appreciate that it's very character-driven, this just wasn't enough to turn it into an enjoyable read for me, especially when it was so slow and quite a few of the characters (of which there are too many frankly) were so unlikable (probably with the exception of Millie). I kept waiting for it to pick up, for something substantial to happen but nada. The author is no doubt a talented writer and great at character development but sadly the lack of plot made this a really disappointing read.

I really liked the character of Millie. Not so sure about the others though. Millie is working hard and saving up to buy a house while studying. Her job is working as an RA in a dorm. A visiting professor comes in to interview some of the students.
The professor is.pretty self centered, as are the students. It very character driven without a massively complicated plot.
The reason that it pulls you back to reading though is that you want to know how it all works out for people.
I've not read Such a Fun Age so might seek that out.

Unlike, it seems, most of the rest of the reading world, I haven’t read Kiley Reid’s first novel, Such A Fun Age, but had heard enough that I thought I might like her follow-up. I had two very late nights reading Come and Get It, which tells you how much I did. Millie is a sensible young woman with a strong work ethic. When she agrees to Agatha’s proposal, there are all sorts of consequences for both of them.
One indicator of good writing is the degree to which I care about a character or despair about their bad decisions; here Reid has given us several such characters and plenty of iffy decisions. I loved Colette and Ryland’s riffs, and the detail in description. The crushes ring true, as did Kennedy’s making sure she wasn’t ‘outfit-repeating’. There was a real sense of tension as I wondered just how it was all going to pan out. And it passes the Bechdel test in spades.

Come and Get It
by Kiley Reid

This book is getting a lot of negative reviews regarding it's lack of plot, which deflated my expectations somewhat, but anything with a campus setting will usually appeal to me on some level for some reason. And actually, it was fine. More than fine. I had several books on the go at the same time, and this was the one I kept picking up.

It's central characters reek of immaturity and awkwardness, they are complete brats, self absorbed and mean to each other with lingo that drives most older readers insane, which is why I'm guessing it's getting less than favourable reviews. I should have found this tortuous, but actually I was completely intrigued by their behaviour. Having read and enjoyed her previous novel I was curious about where she was bringing us on our education about micro-aggressions, so many ways we demean, insult, denigrate and disrespect those around us, often through complete ignorance, sometimes inadvertently, but just as often by unqualified privilege.

This is not a plot driven story. The interactions between the characters with their various dynamics, agendas, cliques and power tussles are the story. So if you can like, bear to hang out, fly on the wall like with a bunch of vengeful wagons that begin every sentence with either "yeah, no " or "No, yeah", then like, you might even like this too.

Honestly, I preferred this one to Such A Fun Age.

Publication date: 30th January 2024
Thanks to #netgalley and #bloomsburyuk for providing me with an ARC

Other reviews have been quite mixed on Come and Get It, and whilst I didn't enjoy it as much as Such a Fun Age (definitely a fiver star book), I felt the exquisite writing style in this one still made it a great read. It is definitely a very character driven book, and at the start you do need to hang in there so that you can work out who everyone is and how their stories are all going to link together, but the last fifty pages or so really climax in moral dilemmas over who is in the 'right.'

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book, I really enjoyed it.

@currentlyreading__
Book 5 of 2024

Thank you to the author, the publisher and @NetGalley for an advanced copy of Kiley Reid’s upcoming novel ‘Come and Get It’. Having loved Kiley’s first novel a couple of years back I had high hopes for this one. It took some time for me to get into and as there are quite a number of characters, it was difficult to keep abreast of who’s who and how all characters link together. It was ultimately a character-driven novel as although I felt it started well and we were going somewhere, it just fell a little flat and didn’t really develop much for me.

But, we are all different and some will be gripped I am sure. It is the story of visiting professor Agatha who arrives at Arkansas completing research for an upcoming book leaving behind her wife to immerse herself in the lives of sophomores. It meanders through the lives of each student Agatha comes across and in Reid’s style, she opens the forum for moral issues and questions to be considered.



#bookstagram #bibliophile #bookworm #book #booknerd #bookstagrammer #kindle #instabook #reader #bookobsessed

As a fan of Such a Fun Age, I was excited to read this. It's definitely a book for character driven readers. Set in a US college dorm, it follows a group of roommates and their RA. We mostly follow their points of conflict as these people try to live together.

While the description sounds plot heavy, it's really all build up until the last 50 pages. That's not a problem but it's also not what I was expecting. It's still got Kiley Reid's fantastic writing style. This just never really lands as the right arena for it.

You also need to be fine not rooting for anyone. Even the characters who were meant to be our driving force were pretty awful (not in the fun way). That made it feel a little relentless for me, especially as we went over the same conflicts and stressers.

I wasn't the right reader for it but it'll have an audience who will love it. I'll still pick up the next Kiley Reid book.

Kiley Reid, Come & Get It

2017 and dorm RA Millie finds her life tangled between a Professor, vengeful students and her future.

I did not look at the plot of this one before I dove in because I had loved Such A Fun Age so much. I’d find it very hard to pin point the plot of this one, it feels more an exploration of the messiness of life, the consequences of the smallest moments, the complexities of female friendships and class divides. Well written and illuminating, but this isn’t a set up and knock down plot.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Penguin for my copy.

Wow!!! This is so good. Her first book was amazing so I was wondering how it could be followed up. Beautifully that’s how. This is probably the most talented writer to come out in a long time. Her characters are so real. And she makes you think. A lot. Love Millie so much. We all need a Millie in our lives. And Kennedy? Oh, my heart.

I really liked Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age. Her new book, Come and Get It, is a sharply written, highly enjoyable observation on money, race and class, through the medium of students and staff at the University of Arkansas.

The story centres around Agatha Paul, a visiting academic and writer, and Millie Cousins, an RA - Resident Assistant - at the university's Belgrade dorm. (An RA is a specifically American concept - an older student who is paid to live on site and provide general housing support to the other residents.) They couldn't be more different in many ways. Agatha is older, financially affluent and white; Millie is young, skint and Black.

Then there's the all-female residents of the student accommodation, particularly focusing on three ill-matched roommates, who are brilliantly drawn. Reid has a great ear for the speech patterns and frequent idiocies of the young women, without being entirely unsympathetic to them. The one who comes off worst is definitely Jenna, whose inappropriate comparisons are horrendous but also frequently hilarious. (Her response to being told to go back to her room in an emergency situation is "Go to my room? Wow. So this is just a concentration camp now?".) And the twin thing is gold.

Millie herself is a likeable character - kind, well-meaning and conscientious - but Agatha is seriously questionable, and judgemental fellow RAs Colette and Ryland are pretty irritating, if fun. Leaving aside any other issues, Agatha's misuse of the information gathered - often without their knowledge - from the dorm residents is entirely unforgivable. I don't care if you've just broken up with someone, don't do that.

Reid is clearly fascinated by names and their resonances - characters here are surprised by a Keisha who is white, a Peyton who is Black. The female students in the dorm have names which satisfyingly signal the American trends of the current time - Kennedy, Tyler, Peyton, Bailey, Casey, etc. (Kennedy has a sister named Reagan - one wonders if the parents had a presidential theme going on, but probably not.) The name "Becca" is regarded as a terrible insult when assigned as a pseudonym.

The world of US university accommodation is an unfamiliar one to me as a Brit, but I could totally visualise it. This was a great, contemporary read with some highly relevant observations and food for thought. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Kiley Reid returns after the success of her first novel with an equally complex look at power, money and privilege in the campus setting. Reid's writing forces you to think deeply about the issues involved, because her plots are never simple, just like real life. Her characters are constantly forced to choose between what they want, and what is ethically right, with potentially disastrous consequences. Millie is a completely identifiable character (though the idea of being able to afford a house right out of college is probably the least realistic thing about this book!) and Agatha, while less likeable, is just as realistic - partly because she doesn't recognise the power she has. One that will sit with you for a while.

So I LOVED such a fun age but sadly this just didn’t do it for me .
Generally I’m a big fan of character driven novels but this just seemed a bit bland , I didn’t care for the characters at all to the point that they annoyed me ! I also felt it read more like a YA novel but maybe that’s just because I’m the wrong age .
I would still pick up future work from Kiley but sadly this one wasn’t for me .