Writers & Lovers, by Lily King

I loved Lily King’s previous novel, Euphoria, so I was excited to read Writers & Lovers. Sadly, it didn’t live up to my (admittedly sky high) expectations.

The novel centers around Casey, a young woman who’s dealing with the sudden death of her mother and crushing financial problems, all while trying to finish her first novel (that she’s been working on for six years).

While I was interested enough in this novel to finish it, I didn’t love it, and at times I was annoyed by it. I think the main problem for me was that I didn’t much like the main character. Although Casey was grieving the loss of her mother, and did have other stressors in her life, she seemed incredibly self-involved. Her random panic attacks just did not make sense to me. I also did not understand why every man she came in contact with IMMEDIATELY wanted to date her. Honestly, the “lovers” part of the novel smacked of YA to me (Insta-love!).

Also, some of the descriptions in this novel were so weird (“he tasted like Europe” and “my heart felt like a mealy apple” as just two examples) that I would pause while reading and think, not, “Wow, what an interesting way to describe that,” but instead, “Wait, what now?” This happened multiple times, and became a recurring distraction. I don’t know if King was trying too hard to be “literary,” or what, but it fell flat for me.

So, all in all, I give this one a “meh.” It was fine, I just expected it to be exceptional.