Great review. It was really interesting to hear your thoughts as I felt very differently about this one. I thought it was a great book. I completely understand why it's being called meandering in lots of reviews but I enjoy a meandering novel if the themes are well handled and the characters are interesting. I agree that she's a great writer. For me she did a great job handling quite a few themes with such subtlety. I really liked the ending because I felt like she could have given into a more dramatic ending and I admired that she didn't. The end result felt like the 'comeuppance', as it were, was each person living with their actions and what it meant about them as a person. I can't wait to reread both her novels and pick up any new ones :)
I haven't read Come and Get It yet, and I'm not sure I will - I put it on hold ahead of the release, but after hearing some mixed/not great things I decided to cancel my hold and wait and see. After hearing your review I think it's probably not for me, but I'm definitely still interested in her as an author.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this book - really well stated and thorough. I had a weird relationship with it - I didn't really know where it was going (and like you I don't think it got there) but I wanted to keep reading. I think Kiley Reid addresses topics in a really subtle way, which can be great and which I like, but I think this one was almost too subtle, especially as contrasted to Such a Fun Age, where I think she got the balance just right. I liked how she wove commentary about money and class into the story, but I would have been more satisfied if that theme had been a little more prominent and some of the other things had fallen away a bit. Maybe that would have given it a little more direction for me. It was a book club book for me and there was a wide range of opinions in our group. Overall, I'm glad I read it and I've enjoyed hearing people's reading experiences. I've been enjoying your review format a lot!
I feel like this kind of situation happens a lot lately, where a debut novel is super popular and sells really well and gets on a bunch of "best of" lists, and then the follow-up is mediocre at best. I think authors and publishers are trying to hard to ride the coattails of the popular book by rushing a second one out while the author's name is still at the forefront of people's minds, and because of that, there isn't as much care taken with the writing or plotting or editing and it ends up feeling phoned in and half-formed. I'd rather wait twice as long for a great second book than get a so-so book in a year or so. I really liked Such a Fun Age, but most of the reviews of this one make it seem like something I would be bored by or disappointed in. I also heard there was a scene of animal abuse (I assume involving the pig on the cover) so that's a big nope from me.
