It took me a while to get into this but once I was in I was hooked. Really fun and full of heart.
4 stars - thanks to the publisher!

Loved this a lot! Felt really fresh and perfect for sad messy queer millienial lit girls. Laughed out loud at parts!

I raced through this, such a witty, clever, complex look at infidelity, it really challenged all my preconceptions around affairs and power dynamics. The perfect, divisive book club read.

A genuinely laugh out loud book! Slightly unhinged women in their twenties are always my favourite characters, and this did not disappoint at all. Definitely one to read for fans of Fleabag!

‘I have never wanted to be a mistress, that was never on my twenties bingo card…’⁠
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‘....they would tell me to find joy myself. They’d tell me a man won’t solve my depression, but what do they know? I’m trying alternative medicine. I’m a fucking pioneer.’⁠
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‘The fog clears in my mind: no thoughts, just ecstatic pleasure. I understand why people start wars, I understand why people blow up their lives. If the choice is this or not this, I will destroy everything else every time.’⁠
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Oh this book, this book absolutely GOT me! I cannot recall the last time I laughed so much and yet also cringed at our protagonist’s behaviour seeing the destruction unfolding and wishing she would make better choices, alas that would make for a boring novel wouldn’t it?⁠
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Personally I found this novel to be a witty and insightful exploration of modern relationships with humour very reminiscent of "Fleabag." As our protagonist navigates a relationship with a man significantly older than her, Gray delves into the complexities of losing oneself in love and the moral ambiguities of being a mistress. ⁠
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The novel's strength lies in Gray's ability to dissect the nuances of romance while challenging readers to confront uncomfortable truths about fidelity and personal fulfilment. With sharp wit and biting humour, it offers a thought-provoking glimpse into the messy terrain of modern love. ⁠
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And, can we just take a moment to appreciate that this is an #aussielit title - YES!

Green Dot by Madeleine Gray had a strong start in showing the looming anxiety ridden tasks of adulthood (e.g., finding a job, moving out, etc.) I enjoyed the first few chapters of this mid 20s crisis story following a young woman who is depressed and not knowing what to do with her life, until... she meets the married man. That's when the whole leitmotiv starts to waver (for me)... this man becomes her escapism from the pressures of being an adult and her denying that reality. But, really, the focus slowly turns to just being about their toxic affair. The married man is a textbook pathetic man, full of empty promises and the inability to make a decision.

I have no problem with the young woman fawning over an older man trope but.. this story focuses more on this affair, and the main character unable to separate herself from him. There are small nudges about the power dynamics, the imbalances, and the toxicity of an affair. Yet.. that's just it. It offers nothing new. Honestly, I got tired of the endless loop of mental gymnastics because the writing is repetitive and redundant at some parts. In the end, I had to skim the last 20% or so. I saw the ending coming from a mile away and was more disappointed that it took me through endless hoops of repetitive thought processes to get there.

The only thing I liked about this book is the setting being Sydney, Australia. I feel like I never read a book set in Sydney so that was nice. Happy, I didn't buy a copy of this and borrowed it from the library. I'd like to compliment the cover artist for making a wrap around cover of the two main characters.

Hera is a tonic! I found myself laughing out loud on a few occasions and absolutely fell in love with her character. Such an easy and fun read, I highly recommend it!

I really enjoyed this, warm and funny, touching. Hera was an interesting character and I really felt for her at times. Some very witty one liners. Very readable and would definitely recommend.

I absolutely loved it. The book fizzed with this brilliant energy, driven by fantastic observations of modern life and wonderfully sentences that crackled with comedy. I’d like to read it again immediately.

Thanks to Orion and Netgalley for the ARC.

I can't really put my finger on why I liked "Green Dot" as much as I did. It is after all a variaton on a well known motive since the dawn of romantic relationships. Part of it of course is the main character Hera. She is stunningly well written!
So I do not have much more to say than, read for your self and see. It is a great book!

This was a witty tragi -comedy .with some great one liners.

Hera has emerged from studying with limited job prospects and is living at home with her Dad- this relationship is portrayed very warmly.

Nothing that comes her way pays well or stretches her intellectually. She finally secures a job which involves going through content online as a sort of moderator, exchanging sarcastic comments with her neighbouring colleague.

She is portrayed as vulnerable but very endearing. As other reviewers have commented you really "root" for her despite her flaws and the moral low ground that she occupies as she gets more involved in her affair with an older married colleague, who keeps promising to leave his wife.

This is a book in which the use of the first person narrator allows you to see the gap between her perceptions and what might really be going on.
Perfect for fans of Heisey's Really Good Actually, One Day by Nicholls, Heartburn by Ephron, Sally Rooney and Fleabag.

I didn't think I would enjoy this book because the character's experience is so different from my own, but it's the author's skill is to make you really care about Hera despite this disparity. Also it's done in just the right amount of pages which seems like a strange thing to say, but it's a book whose brevity matches the content.

A great debut.

I think this might be a case of me reading this at the wrong time, unfortunately, and not being able to get into it - I found the pacing to be very slow.

I loved GREEN DOT - what a compulsive and readable book, I really felt for Hera. This made me laugh and also made me cringe which is the best possible combo!

Green Dot offers a wonderful insight into the mind and life of Hera, a lost twenty-something who meets and falls for Arthur, a married man. The book follows Hera through the affair, taking the reader on (what seems like) a perfectly realistic and beautifully drawn depiction of the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with infidelity and love. Highly recommended.

Whilst I can’t agree with Elizabeth Day that ‘Green Dot is ‘one of the best books you will read all year’, Madeleine Gray has given us a warm, funny, and sad depiction of Hera, an intelligent young woman struggling to find her place in the world. After university she accepts dull work in a boring office and, perhaps out of boredom, decides that Arthur, an older man working in close proximity, is desirable, witty and what she needs to make her feel good about herself and her situation. Over time an affair develops. He is long-time married and feels his responsibilities deeply – but not deeply enough to turn his back on an office affair. The green dot of the title begins as a signal that a text from Arthur is coming Hera’s way. When his ‘green dot isn’t there [she feels] depleted and stupid and sad.’ Gray’s frequent use of text shows the reader just how intoxicating it can become as well as the opaque nature of this type of communication. So much is left unsaid.
Comparisons have been made with Bridget Jones and Hera certainly is self-deprecating, funny and disaster-prone. However, over the course of the narrative she becomes a good deal wiser than Bridget. An antipodean Mark Darcy does not whisk her away nor will an irresistible Daniel Cleaver’s charm linger. The novel’s conclusion is beautifully written, using the image of a green dot in an entirely different and extremely effective way.
My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

‘Green Dot’ by Madeleine Gray is a debut novel about a young Australian woman who has an affair with an older married work colleague. Hera is a sarcastic graduate in her mid-20s in an office job she hates as a moderator when she meets Arthur who works as a journalist. I can understand how some readers will be put off by Hera’s obsession with someone who is clearly wasting her time and never going to keep his promise to leave his wife, but I think Gray has pointedly made the situation deliberately infuriating, keeping Arthur very distant while Hera tries to make something completely irrational make sense to her. Gray is also very good at depicting the banality of office work and how social media weaves its way through everyday life for millennials. Many thanks to Weidenfeld and Nicholson for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.

This novel remained in my TBR because I was a bit wary and wondering why I requested. Then I started and it was a pleasant surprise as it's a well plotted and well written story.
Hera is the center of the story and the reason I fell in love with it. We think we know what will happen, I couldn't root for her hoping she could find something less sould destroying than a boring job and a being the-other-woman.
Dark humour, desperation, realism.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I’ve heard such good things about Green Dot, I absolutely love the cover and so wanted to love the novel but sadly I just couldn’t connect with it.
I’ve loved many books in this funny, cynical, twenty something protagonist genre but for me the voice of Hera did not feel authentic and I found the pace far too slow. It does pick up towards the ending which I did enjoy.
Others have loved Green Dot so please read those reviews.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

A self-aware, provocative, and charismatic debut . I devoured it in two days and was in a daze afterwards.

Witty, messy, frustrating and heartbreaking. This was an absolute delight of a book that had me both giggling and screaming in frustration at how Hera was acting. Great writing and will instantly have readers hooked.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.