Following her debut novel Such a Fun Age, I was so excited to get to read Kiley Reid’s newest story.

Come and Get It is a character-based story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students in her dorm.

Honestly? This book was just fine. I feel like it took the book 70% of the way through to get to any type of plot. Most of the conversations in the book are superficial and cringe-worthy, and very far from the type of writing I would expect from this author following her brilliant debut novel. The actions and words of some of the characters aren’t expanded on at all.

It’s really a shame because I was very excited to read this book and would have loved to love it, but it was really missing the depth and character development that the story desperately needs. I also felt that the ending was slightly rushed but at the same time, I was happy to see it come. If you are someone who works in academia or loves stories about college life, you might like the intimacy of the dorm-life in this book, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.

Sincere thanks to @bloomsburypublishing for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review. Come and Get It is out on January 30th.

A character-driven novel set in a dorm in a southern university in the US. Unfortunately the attempt is wishy-washy, with a plot that fails to materialise and characters that act bizarrely towards each other. Quite disappointing as I loved Such A Fun Age.

Having thoroughly enjoyed 'Such a Fun Age,' I was delighted to receive the ARC and approached it with high hopes. There is a lot of the same wonderful writing here with in-depth characterisations of people who, like us all, are not all good or all bad. Some of the characters, especially Agatha, were particularly well drawn. However, I felt there were too many characters, which may be why they lacked depth. More than in the previous novel, I felt this was pitched to the US reader. Not being a US reader, I grappled unsuccessfully with the context and found it challenging to understand and identify fully. The novel is a slow burn, which can work well, but the other issues cited took away from my engagement, so when it did gather pace, my interest had waned.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

I really enjoyed Kiley Reid’s Such a fun age book so was really excited to pick this up! Although I did finish the book, I felt like the characters lacked depth and any real character development. Having not made that attachment to any of the characters I didn’t love this book as I hoped, so have given it a three stars.

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

Millie is a student and Resident Assistant at Arkansas University with a plan - she is saving to buy a house. This goal makes her consider opportunities which come her way to make more money, some more ethical than others, and ultimately she finds herself at the centre of a very tangled web when things inevitably go wrong.

Absolutely loved this - loved the themes of race, class and money; loved the campus novel setting; loved the device of Agatha's research to allow us to 'eavesdrop' on the students in the dorm and really get to know them; and even though the characters were positively unlikeable at tiimes, they were always fascinating! Very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.

Another really interesting story by Kiley Reid. I honestly do not know where she gets her plotlines from, but they are so refreshing and modern. Interesting characters where they all have a good/ bad side, so your sympathies change as the book unfolds and revert back again. I look forward to reading her next book.

2.5* Kiley Reid's Come and Get It is the her second, following the excellent Such a Fun Age which made it onto the Booker Long List.

Set at the University of Arkansas during the academic year 2017/18, the novel is based in a residence called Belgrade which houses students who are on various forms of scholarship. Millie is one of four Resident Assistants, an older student who lives on a corridor and deals with the trials, tribulations and emergencies on her corridor. Adjacent to Millie's room is a 'suite' housing a number of students who are integral to the plot (but who I continually failed to differentiate from each other because there are so many characters in this book and none are well defined and they are all pretty ghastly). Complications and moral issues arise when a visiting academic, Agatha Paul, with a loose interpretation of ethics makes arrangements to interview the students as they move into their residence.

After Such a Fun Age, I was looking forward to this book, but I really didn't enjoy it. The plot is weak with little tension. While it is touted as character driven, that's a tough sell when the characters are a blend of unlikable and vanilla and they are too plentiful. The dialogue is clunky (some of the southern dialect felt heavy handed, leading me to check if the author was from the South - she is from LA) and at times I had to re-read sections because it wasn't clear what the characters were trying to say. It felt like this was a book not quite clear on its goal or what it was trying to say, and in failing to have a focus, it was spread too thinly around lots of smaller issues.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury/PRH for an ARC.

Hmmm hmmm hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I think there's a good book in there somewhere, but ultimately I was left with a feeling of mild meh in the end f it.

It took a good while to get a sense of direction. The characters were not very engaging - I didn't really care what happened to them one way of the other. Having said that, I still enjoyed the writing - it was easy to read, and it kept me turning the pages.

I didn't find the ending impactful, mainly because there didn't seem to be much of a plot in general...

The book was okay. It wasn't earth-shattering but it wasn't the worst one either.

Like Kiley Reid's brilliant first novel 'Such a Fun Age', 'Come and Get It' is a satire about the troubles of young Americans today. In both novels, race, class and money are intertwined but in 'Come and Get It' money really comes to the fore as Reid introduces us to Millie, a 24-year-old RA (Resident Assistant, a senior student who is paid to live on site) at a dormitory at the University Arkansas who is saving up to buy a house. Millie is contacted by Agatha Paul, a 38-year-old who is writing a book about weddings, and helps to set up an interview for Agatha with three students in her dorm, but both Agatha and Millie become increasingly fascinated by these students and their attitudes towards money. We move between the perspectives of Millie, Agatha and Kennedy, a lonely transfer student who shares a suite with Tyler, one of the students Agatha is interviewing, and is struggling to recover from a traumatic event at her previous college.

Reid is such a skilled observer of the awkward nuances of social interactions, of which there are plenty in this novel. She also writes particularly well about secret and unhealthy obsessions - particularly the vicarious thrill of overheard conversations and the desperation to find out what others secretly think about you. These obsessions work in many different directions: Kennedy realises she can hear Millie and the other RAs through the door of her room, but Millie and Agatha subsequently realise that they can also eavesdrop on Tyler and her friends through the same wall. Agatha's obsession starts to extend to Millie as well as the other students, and she realises that they all have the potential to make great material for her work, while, coincidentally, Kennedy harbours a long-standing obsession with Agatha after reading her previous book about grief rituals, little realising that Agatha is often just the other side of her bedroom wall.

Unlike 'Such a Fun Age', which features an explosive inciting incident in the first chapter, 'Come and Get It' begins slowly, gradually setting up the different plot strands. Initially, this book felt like harder work at times - this is no fault of the author's, but much of the story hinges on intricacies of American campus life which may be unfamiliar to many British readers. There are also lots of cultural references which are intended to signify specific details about different characters' wealth and status, meaning that I occasionally found myself unsure of how we were meant to view certain characters. However, it gathers pace and momentum and is well worth persevering with, as the payoff from the various narrative threads Reid has introduced is immensely satisfying and enjoying.

This is both a serious and funny novel, which asks searching questions about our attitude towards money: what are we prepared to do for it and how it colours all social interactions. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

I was firmly gripped and hooked to the narrative of this story. Not a lot going on during the first half of the book, however the depiction of the character's trail of thought had me completely immersed in the story. Later on the story picks up and it's just hard to put down at all! I really enjoyed Kennedy's perspective and would totally recommend this book in the future.

This is a book that deals in many shades of grey—none of the characters is definitively good or bad (although a few sit on the 'selfish' end of the spectrum more obviously than others), which makes for a complex and often fun read. However, I am hesitant to give more than 3 stars: as a professional editor, I kept spotting opportunities for tighter execution. 15% of this novel could do with being shaved off (including a bunch of descriptions and side events), and that wouldn't affect plotting at all though it might improve pacing.

I was expecting to find something even tighter and more brutal than Reid's debut—which, I accept, is probably an unfair way to judge a sophomore work. It almost feels like this should have been the debut, with Such a Fun Age being the follow up. Of the two books, that one feels the most accomplished from both a narrative and a character perspective.

Kiley Reid definitely delivered with this book, I had high hopes as I am big fan of such a fun age and she didn’t let me down. Quick fun coming of age book. Thank you Netgalley for letting me have a sneak peak at this book.

I was eagerly awaiting this novel as I was such a fan of Such a Fun Age and it did not disappoint at all. It's a confident and more mature follow-up, with shifting perspectives that genuinely serve the story rather than functioning as a narrative device. The characters are viscerally real and nuanced in the way that real people are and I loved spending time with them, despite their attimes less than stellar behaviour. I couldn't put it down and I highly recommend it - thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Come And Get It by Kiley Reid* is the much anticipated second release from the author of Such A Fun Age. I loved her debut so was buzzed to receive an ARC of this, until I saw it be almost universally panned and my buzz burned out. However, I'm here to put the cat amongst the pigeons and say that I…really enjoyed it!

Agatha is a writing professor at the University of Arkansas and is linked up with Millie, a returning mature student and Resident Advisor, to get help in securing student interviews for her new book. As she learns more about student’s perceptions of money through eavesdropping on conversations between Tyler, Peyton, Casey and Jenna, Agatha’s book morphs from being about wedding culture in the south to something a lot more revealing - privilege, entitlement, social and the class divide.

As Agatha and Millie enter into an odd quid pro quo, we get each of their perceptions of the girls and life at UA but, most interestingly, we also see it from the viewpoint of Kennedy, one of the roommates who is always on the outside looking in. Her backstory is so rich and I found my heart breaking for her on multiple occasions (kids can truly be so mean).

I've seen this book basically summed up as all vibes no plot which I personally think is unfair BUT even if that is the case, that's totally okay when the writing is as sharp, witty and irreverent as Reid’s is. It reminded me of Big Swiss, an absolutely batshit yet amazing book, for how truly human the characters are - flaws and all.

Kiley Reid is a confirmed auto-buy author after reading this book. She has a masterful way of writing and this book did not disappoint.

A captivating coming-of-age story with a feast of interesting and complex characters, I really lived this new offering from Kiley Reid. The characters were all problematic in their own ways, but this made the story all the more compelling.

Complex moral questions were delivered in a fulfilling way, I'm sure this is a story that will keep me thinking for a long time.

I really enjoyed the new book by Kiley Reid. I requested to read it having enjoyed Such a Fun Age. The plot was gripping in Come and Get It, and I thought all the characters were great. Have already recommended it to a few friends to read when it comes out.

It feels unfair to compare this to Kiley's debut Such A Fun Age - but it's a natural next step after enjoying it so much, and unfortunately this didn't stick with me in quite the same way! I think the thing I struggled with the most is that the plot only picked up towards the end of the book.

The characters felt very fleshed out and real, I found myself very invested in them and their stories, but I did feel like I was constantly waiting to see what happened next. It felt like it was building up to a big event or a catalyst that just never really came which left it feeling a bit flat.

However, saying all of that, I still found myself hooked and eager to keep reading, so I certainly didn't dislike it! I just felt that a very strong foundation had been built with the characters so it was a shame that it didn't reach its peak, I found myself wanting more.

I loved Such A Fun Age so was really looking forward to reading Come and Get It but although I found it interesting it didn't captivate me. I didn't warm to any of the characters, the story was slow to get going and what I guess is the focus of the story happens towards the end of the book but then the story just fizzles out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Come and Get It.

This was a good read - the cast of character pulls you into the story, and the writing is great. Four stars from me because perhaps I expected more after her previous novel, but eminently readable!