Come and Get It
One of 2024's hottest reads – chosen for Fearne Cotton's Happy Place Book Club
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3.1 • 15 Ratings
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
THE UNMISSABLE NEW NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF BESTSELLING PHENOMENON SUCH A FUN AGE
'I couldn't put it down, and I didn't want to either' EMILY HENRY
'The drama is just too juicy – how could anyone resist a binge?' GUARDIAN
'Razor-sharp … Packs a huge emotional punch' DAILY MAIL
Everything comes at a price. But not everything can be paid for…
Millie is a college student, determined to graduate, get a job and buy a house. Agatha is a visiting professor, researching attitudes towards weddings and money for her new book. The thing is, in Millie's world, the best material is unfolding behind closed doors.
When Agatha offers Millie an unusual opportunity to make some extra money, the two women find themselves embroiled in a world of vengeful pranks, illicit intrigue and bad behaviour. But how much of themselves are they willing to trade to get what they want?
'Smart, funny and perceptive' i
'A perfect read' STYLIST
'Wonderfully immersive, propulsive and beautifully paced' PAUL HARDING
'Quiet and intense … A joy to read' JESSICA GEORGE
'Witty and nuanced' RED
'[An] incisive novel everyone will be talking about' TOWN AND COUNTRY
*A 2024 Book of the Year for the Washington Post, New Yorker, Elle, Vulture and Harper's Bazaar *
* THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *
* FEARNE COTTON'S HAPPY PLACE BOOK CLUB PICK FOR FEBRUARY *
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Kiley Reid, who captivated readers with her debut Such a Fun Age, delivers a terrific observational novel in Come and Get It. It follows three women who cross paths at the University of Arkansas: Agatha, a visiting professor; Millie, a broke dorm assistant; and first-year student Kennedy. When Millie lets Agatha eavesdrop in her dorm for research, Agatha relishes the students’ unfiltered conversations and secretly spins them into popular online articles. There’s a clear parallel between reading a book about Agatha and also eavesdropping alongside her, and Reid is exceptional at this subtle layering of story and reflection. The book is filled with ordinary moments that are rich with deep insight, often only apparent in retrospect. With seeming effortlessness, Reid reveals a deeper discussion about ethics, social class and race that is riveting and enjoyable.
Customer Reviews
Disappointing
Author: African-American. Sophomore novel. (Her debut ‘Such A Fun Age’ was the best book I read in 2020)
Setting: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 2017
Plot: This is a character-driven novel. There’s precious little plot until three-quarters of the way through, and only marginally more after that. A student prank gets out of hand. The resident assistant (RA) in the dorm suffers consequences. The end.
Characters: The main protagonists are a black 24-year-old female undergrad who returns to U Ark as senior resident assistant (RA) in one of the dorms after taking time off from her studies, and a white late thirties lesbian visiting professor who enlists the RA in a hustle. Others include several young mainly white female undergrads better off financially than the RA thanks to the bank of Mom and Dad, and several RAs, both male and female.
Themes: The interplay of socio-economic status, race, gender and sexuality in an undergraduate dormitory. I presumed, when I first saw the title, that it was a reference to the Selena Gomez song. Having finished the book, I find it difficult to say.
Prose: Ms Reid writes well, and in more straightforward fashion than some of her fellow Iowa Writers Workshop alumni. However, the character portraits here, while detailed, had a YA feel to them that detracted from the message, in contrast to ‘Such A Fun Age’, which was pitch perfect IMO. As a non-American of great vintage, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the portrait of US undergrad dorm life, nor was I particularly interested.