Alli’s style of writing for Brooklyn is some of my favourite that I’ve read in a while. It encompasses the lengths that women go to to hold their family together - even if it means shrinking themselves down and not speaking up about what matters to them.

The way the plot unfurled was so wonderful and allowed so many insights into Brooklyn’s world, the way Penny and Brooklyn’s relationship was written was so raw and real they jumped off the page. The plot line with Henry was also wonderfully written and showed the messiness that relationships can have in your mid to late twenties, also very raw.

This book is such a beautiful story about handling grief and learning how to speak up for yourself. I love this book and I love Brooklyn Thomas 🖤

Brookie is having a rough year. Her friend is missing, she had to leave a job she hated, she has a new job she hates, and her brother is an asshole. Throw in a dose of magical realism as her heart stops beating and she starts to disappear - what a great metaphor for the limbo state she's in.

This is a great read, full of little insights - I don't think I've made this many highlights for ages. Nicely paced, well written, easy to read.

3.5/5
A novel that I enjoyed reading. I found the story good, well written and the protagonist well described.

Wow. I REALLY enjoyed this story and found it exceptional both in storytelling skill and messaging. If you read one "stop apologizing" book in your life, make it this one. Not only does it deliver exceptional lessons on the tendency of so many women to minimize themselves, their pain, and their needs but it does it couched in a brilliant story that feels original even when it's telling a time-worn tale about disappearing into your own life...

Vail does an extraordinary job of making her heroine compelling and fully real, and someone you cannot help but root for - and I almost NEVER say that about a Millennial protagonist. So often it seems to me that stories about the difficulties of being a young woman in this modern era devolve into tales of whinging and blame-shifting. Brooklyn Thomas does none of those things. She knows her life is on a downward spiral. She knows things are tough. And she knows that she needs to do something, she just can't seem to get a handle on where or how to start. The heartbeat forces her onto a path that she follows through to its ultimate conclusion, and I dare you to not root for her at every step along the way - even (if not especially) the faltering ones.

This is one I'm buying for my step-daughter (24) and buying in abeyance for my youngest (currently almost 11 and not quite there yet as far as receiving these messages the way I'd want her to). It's a story that is full of heart and heaviness, with sprinkles of snark and poignancy that flavor it like salt - and one that needs to not only be told but absorbed, wholesale, for the importance of its lessons.

3.5/5


Having both thoughts and feelings after this one.

As a girlie who’s had some seriously low mental health moments, I found myself relating a lot to what Brooklyn was going through and sort of justifying her shittier actions for that reason. So, kudos to Alli Vail for making me root for this woman even when she was being (semi-rightfully) insufferable.

The single issue that I have with this book, and the reason I could not justify rating higher, was the Henry plot. I understand that practically every character in this book was flawed in one way or another, and that’s fine. I can work with that. More often than not, I love a flawed individual.

My problem is that being with Henry — and their entire affair arc — has just… no consequences. Yeah, Henry and Kashvi break up, and yeah Spencer takes the opportunity to be a dick, but I genuinely do not think that either Brooklyn or Henry learned a goddamn thing from this. Like. At all.

Instead Kashvi’s sort of made out to be the problem because she’s studying too much. In med school. To become a doctor. And after Brooklyn experienced SO much sexism throughout the book, you would think that maybe, just maybe, she might not be so willing to fault the woman for getting cheated on.

But no. Brooklyn’s totally fine with it being mostly Kashvi’s fault because she gets to have her happily ever after with knockoff Henry Cavill.

All in all, I enjoyed the book I just wish that the Henry plot would’ve been done different.

⭐⭐⭐.5/5

Brooklyn’s career is going downhill; she’s living in her parent’s basement, and her best friend is missing. Brooklyn believes she’s dead since her heart isn’t beating.

I really liked the concept of no heartbeat. Her being continuously visited by different celebrities named Emily was funny.

Brooklyn is trying to hold herself together, but she’s been let down by others. I really liked how the author has written Brooklyn’s character and her development; I was rooting for her from the beginning. I enjoyed her standing up for herself and her interaction with the new friends she made.

Brooklyn’s relationship with her family was difficult to read, especially with her abusive brother Spencer and her mother, who knew everything was going on with Spencer and Brooklyn and didn’t try to stop Spencer.

Brooklyn and Henry started developing feelings for each other, but Henry never openly talked about his girlfriend, nor did Brooklyn try to bring her up in their conversation, even after knowing who his girlfriend was.

I liked the plot; it was easy and quick to read. It was a thought-provoking and hopeful read.

Thank you NetGalley and co for allowing me to read this in exchange for my honest review !

2.5🌟

I think I misunderstood the description of this book. So let’s get to it

Number 1. I never hated every single character of a book before. Maybe dad was alright, and kailey.

Number 2. Everything was so 🌬️🍃🍃 ?? Felt like everything was breezed though. Her depression her weird eating habits. KASHVI?? Brooklyn and Henry getting together. Her Freaking Character Development.

Number 3. Maybe I wouldn’t have minded the story and the execution of it if I was in a self hatred listless depressed state as Brooklyn was.

Number 4. I didn’t care for her blossoming relationship with Henry due to the journey there (like cmon..). I didn’t care for her character development at all (glad she told her dad though). Also kashvi being portrayed like a high school mean girl is so?? (I know that the pov is Brooklyn so she’ll look like that but.. she still got cheated on by her bf with some random girl) (why didn’t Henry just break up with her!!!)

Number 5. The dysfunctional heart and things.. what was that for. If it was for symbolism, there are greater devices for this. Anyways, I don’t think it fit that well with general fiction (?). It was constantly bothering me that there wasn’t really a reason for it.

Number 6. The social issues that were discussed were. Discussed, um. Again it felt like it wasn’t as impacting? Influential? As it was intended to be. The mother taking gender studies classes and still not going against societal norms or even standing no with her daughter annoyed me big time. Couldn’t tell you what actually happened at her marketing job if I wanted to (don’t know if she was tired of being treated the way she was because of gender roles/ sexism/ misogyny or if there was a real big incident. Don’t think I paid much attention)

Number 7. So yeah, there were parts I had to skim because there was just nothing holding me to it (probably why I didn’t catch a thing about her job/ heart problems). I was 67% and nothing was really happening, just felt like I was tagging along the most dreadful friend that I can’t shake because I’ll feel bad. Anything only happens around 80%.

Number 9. The ending was rushed to me. I wanted to see someone do something to Spencer. I had been hoping there was a conclusion to her heart like a schizoaffective diagnosis and not just “oh I have to accept who I am in order for my heart to beat”. So!

Number Ten. The hallucinations of the emilies reminded me of Hoover’s book where a character writes to Ellen ? Um.

Brooklyn Thomas Isn’t Here discusses women in corporate environments who endure systemic oppression namely sexism; how women have to conform to ideologies of men in authority in order to achieve their goals or simply keep their jobs; grievances and challenges of relationships, be it family, friends, or possible partners.

+ I think I understand how this book would be appreciated by someone who feels similarly to Brooklyn, I feel like if I were still in that state of mindset as I was in the last years of university, I’d appreciate it more

Thank you to Alli Vaill and NetGalley for this ARC. I had such conflicted feelings about this story. First, I love Vaills writing style - it was easy to read and the right amount of descriptive. I definitely liked the development of Brooke- Vaill does this very well. She wrote about Brooke’s trauma, anxiety and depression so well that I felt like I carried it with me. However, from a mental health standpoint this was tough for me to read repeatedly about Brooke’s depression, panic attacks and generally just fading away. I do think that is a great testament to Vaills writing, but for me was very very heavy and was not what I expected when I picked this up. I think I expected more focus on what happened to Penny but it was not so much a plot point but adding to Brooke’s emotional trauma.

I really enjoyed the group of friends that is developed to rally around Brooke and her redemption and support she gets from them standing up to Spencer.

Something I did not care for was the way Henry and Brooke get together and the cheating. You do get the sense that you don’t like his girlfriend already but it almost felt like it was justifying the cheating. Brookes friends still pushing her forward to continue to spend time with Henry leading up to the cheating just didn’t sit well with me. That all just felt very icky and I wasn’t sure that love triangle part was needed.

Overall I would recommend this but readers should know going in that it is extremely emotional and heavy. I think anyone that has struggled with mental health will identify with Brooke but may have a hard time with that as well.

This book had relatable elements to it with how we make ourselves small and invisible for the benefit of those around us. I felt so many different emotions reading this and really felt for Brooklyn.

Thank you to NetGalley and Post Hill Press for the advanced electronic copy of this book.

First off, I loved the author’s writing style. I immediately felt connected to Brookie and thought a lot of the interactions were witty and engaging.

Secondly, the concept of her heart no longer beating and being visited by the Emilies is really funny.

Thirdly, I struggled with Brooklyn’s character development. I wish I didn’t but I did. Because I really loved her at the start! But I struggle with her and Henry not communicating openly about Kashvi. It felt icky.

Additionally, it was hard to stomach (personally) the stories about Spencer and his abuse on top of Brookie’s parents basically ignoring his behavior. It was hard to stomach the treatment that Brooklyn received in her career. I really wanted to see her stick up for herself. This may just be a personal thing for me - but no one was defending Brooklyn the majority of the book and it started to feel too heavy. I REALLY wanted to spend more time with a stronger Brooklyn. But at least Brookie got there eventually.

Again: LOVED Alli’s writing style and the wit! Didn’t love the heaviness of the storyline/ickiness of Henry and the other men throughout the book for what felt like the majority of my time spent with the characters.

I loved this debut novel by Alli Vail. The story centered around Brooklyn who thinks that she's dying. Everything in her life is going wrong. On top of that - she's seeing dead people! I laughed out loud, then cried, and my heart was broken and then healed. I felt all the feels along with Brooklyn and was routing for her happily ever after. What a great first novel! Can't wait to read more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Post Hill Press for allowing me to read an ARC of Brooklyn Thomas Isn't Here by Alli Vail, in exchange for my honest review.

3 1/2 possibly, 4 stars...

I enjoyed this book, although it did start slowly for me. It wasn't until about a third of the way in that I understood what was happening and became a little more invested in the story. Once I understood, the story seemed to flow a bit better. I'm not sure if it was me, the format, or maybe a little of both? PDFs are harder to read as the font is so tiny in the NetGalley app, and the little formatting it did have wasn't compatible with Kindle.

It was a great story/concept, so I think I will read it again after it's published to see if I enjoy it more.

I thought that this was ok. The characters were fairly well developed, I just found my interest waned often and eventually I started skim reading because I didn’t feel like it was getting to the point.

What a captivating and special book! The pain, frustration, anxiety, and hardship Brooklyn goes through, I have felt all the same things myself so I related so much to how she felt.

Clever, unique, and riveting - I am so grateful I had the opportunity to experience the world with Brooklyn Thomas for a while. I didn't want it to end.

Alli Vail has SUCH a beautiful way with words! I was sucked in from the moment I began reading ‘Brooklyn Thomas Isn’t Here’.
With some books, I’m constantly checking my progress, looking at how much I’ve read, or how much I have left to go. I can honestly say that I never found myself curious about how much I had left to read; I was that consumed with rooting for Brooklyn.

Brooklyn wakes to find she no longer has a beating heart.
Can she walk? Yes
Can she talk? Yes
Well, off to work she goes to go through the motions and tasks of her mundane, part time job at Cute Lil’ Doughnuterie.

Over the summer months, Brooklyn Thomas quite literally begins to fade away; her sense of taste, her reflection, her ability to find joy in everyday moments. She has been consistently let down by others; her negligent mother, abusive brother, sexist bosses and coworkers, past boyfriends. In addition to these let downs, Brooklyn has also been trying to cope with the news of her best friend, Penny, missing overseas.
With the help of a few “celebrity ghosts of the past” and a few new “friends in the making”, will Brooklyn find the courage to stand up to those causing barriers on her path towards peace and joy?

You can’t help but root for Brooklyn while also experiencing the pain, heartbreak, frustration, and excitement of her journey.

“I’m being forced to see myself, lately. At least, I’m being forced to see someone I could be.”

Thank you Alli Vail and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy.

Brooklyn Thomas Isn’t Here by Alli Vail stayed with me for a while after I finished it, in all the best ways.

Brooklyn Thomas thinks she might be dead, but keeps on going through a crappy job, missing her best friend, a hard relationship (putting it mildly) with her family, and what she thinks is embarrassing herself in front of her crush.

I’ve experienced anxiety and can relate a to some of what Brooklyn went through and it gave me so much joy to see her find herself, her people, and most importantly in the last few pages, her heartbeat.

It made me laugh and it made me cry.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. All views are my own