So, I know Reid's first book was a banger - the people loved it. But for me, the secondhand stress of reading it (based on the blurb) felt too high. But this one? Despite seeing some mixed reviews about it, this one seemed muchhhh more up my alley. I mean, the major critiques were from people saying not a lot actually happened and there were no likable characters... Well, I'm a major fan of an unlikable/unreliable narrator and I want to add my vote to Team Reid's Sophomore Novel Is a Banger Too."  

I totally get how this novel isn't for everyone. But it was for me. Truly, nothing really does happen - not in a traditional storytelling sense. I mean sure, there are some relationship developments and a dramatic moment at the end, but really, when you finish the book, very little has changed or progressed for the majority of the characters. This book was here to serve the messy lives of everyone involved in university life. A second year senior resident assistant (Millie) who takes a slightly-not-kosher offer from a visiting professor to help with her current writing efforts/contract work and the other RAs and students whose not-quite-accurately-reported lives are caught up in the mix. There is borderline-not-ok dorm pranking, the uncomfortable "light" racism and homophobia that this age group tries to pass of as humor, roommates squabbles, friend group difficulties, uncomfortably unrecognized levels of privilege (mostly racial and financial), and not-quite-illicit-but-not-totally-ethical personal/sexual relationships. 

The minutiae of the internal thoughts and small moments of interaction within and amongst these characters is so impressive. Reid is able to get inside their minds like they're real people, unlikable and flawed and nuanced in a way that all humans are. The observational power she has, to have conveyed all this so realistically, in fully dimensional humanity, is...precise. And while there isn't much plot, watch me not care. Because my goodness is it messy. You can't look away. It's like watching an old school sitcom, the filler episodes where the story-arc doesn't go far, but you're riveted by the drama anyways.       

This was one of the most fascinating, with slight revulsion (but in a good way?), character novels I’ve ever read. So real, so human, I love-hate them all in their flaws. Right at the beginning of the novel, Reid writes that one of the characters finds watching/listening to these students filling her with “intrigue and revulsion.” And I cannot think of a better description for my experience reading this entire novel.