Happy February, everyone! I hope everyone has a had a great month. I’ve been super busy at work, but overall my month was pretty good. I’m up to 5 books read so far this year, which is a slower pace than anticipated but I’m blaming the lack of time. As per usual, one of those books was this month’s selection: Kiley Reid’s latest novel, Come and Get It. And to accompany this month’s review, I made a Cold Comfort.
Cold Comfort Recipe
2oz White Rum
0.75oz Lime Juice
0.75oz Honey Syrup (mix 3:1 honey and water)
Salted Caramel Rim*
*This is an optional ingredient.
Rim a rocks glass with salted caramel syrup. Then, in a cocktail shaker with ice, add all liquid ingredients and shake. Strain over ice into a rocks glass.
I loved this cocktail! It was not very nice looking, but it is definitely the best of the year so far. For this month’s secret ingredient I used salted caramel. I chose this because of the special edibles Millie makes for herself and her mom that come up throughout the novel. I used this as a rim for my cocktail, but you could just put it right in and mix it up with the drink. If you choose to use it as a rim and the caramel you have is super runny, I recommend freezing your rocks glass before rimming it as that helps slightly, but be prepared for a little mess. Messiness and ugliness aside, I highly recommend trying out the Cold Comfort!
Come and Get It Synopsis
(from book cover)
It’s 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue.
Review
“She was angry but also felt protective of Robin and her annoying dancer friends, all of whom had nothing but supplemental income. Tutoring, yoga instructing…”
I know this quote isn’t deep or meaningful like normal, but I felt very called out by this statement as a professional pole dancer who tutors and teaches yoga on the side! Anyway, I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this novel. I haven’t read Reid’s first novel, Such a Fun Age, but I’ve heard only positive things about it. So, I figured Come and Get It might be on the same level, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high like last month. And I’ve seen reviews all over the map for this one, so that made me even more uncertain. In the end, this one was just OK for me. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. But let’s get into it.
Right out the gate, I loved the vibes of this novel. It is heavily character driven and the clique-y, catty nature of the characters was immediately interesting to me. I normally prefer more plot-driven novels, but with Come and Get It I was happy with the character-driven format. I think this is largely because of the writing style. Reid is witty and descriptive, and the combination worked well for me. I know heavy description is not for everyone, but I’m a Tolkien fan so no surprises there. And I loved how Reid’s descriptions focused on the character’s attributes and personalities rather than looks, though there was a lot of that too.
In the same vein as the vibes, I loved the themes explored throughout this novel. Money, greed, privilege, consumption, race, and how these affect each other were the most prominent themes in my eyes. And I found this interplay of money, privilege, and race fascinating. How the different characters perceive each other in regard to these ideas is really what drives the novel. And, overall, I felt like I gained some new insight into the American South and how people in various levels of power and privilege think and feel. From reading the acknowledgements (if you don’t read them in every book what are you doing?), I can see that Reid did extensive research to give this insight and to connect this novel to real world issues and ideas. And this only adds to the believability of the characters and the novel itself.
While I largely found the characters believable and unique, I did have some issues with believability in the dialogue. Because of the character-driven nature of the story, there is a ton of dialogue. And I love how the abundance of dialogue made this a quick and easy read. However, I found a lot of the dialogue awkward and a bit stilted. For instance, I found it strange that a mom repeatedly called her daughter “sis”. I don’t know if that’s maybe an American thing, but it kept bringing me out of the story and felt weird. And I’m certain I could find plenty of examples of believable and intriguing dialogue as well, but overall the dialogue fell flat for me.
And although the novel is character centric, it had enough of a plot to keep me interested in what was happening and what would play out. Unfortunately, the minimal plot there was ended up quite disappointing. To say the least, it was boring. Yes, I was interested in what would happen next, but nothing ever did happen next. Even the bigger events that happened felt inconsequential. That being said, I applaud Reid’s style and ability to make boring content into a fast-paced read. Normally, I dredge through boring books and it takes forever, but despite nothing happening I couldn’t put Come and Get It down.
My biggest negatives with this novel are largely to do with the last half of it. As things felt like they were coming to a head at the end, I found I was let down because it was just a bunch of miscommunications. Even after the climax, characters still decided to not communicate with each other in a normal way. And on top of that, by the end of the book I felt that no real character development had happened. No characters seemed to learn or grow or change in any way and that was a huge disappointment as I really wanted some of those girls to get what was coming to them.
*SPOILER* I did, however, love that so many of the character’s good intentioned actions ended up not working in a positive way or in the expected way. I think it is always interesting to see a character who believes they’re a good person doing good things learn that their actions have not been perceived that way. This was very much a multiple sides to every story story, and that’s probably my favourite part of the novel. Unfortunately, that frustrating miscommunication plays into this as well but oh well.
All in all, Come and Get It is a nuanced story about money, perception, privilege, and race. Through the eyes of three markedly different characters in terms of race and wealth we’re able to see how these things are perceived at different levels and what privilege and wealth means to different people. It’s a character-driven, mildly boring, fast, and sometimes disappointing novel. And that’s why it’s a perfectly middle rating read for me. Will I still recommend it? Yes, to people I think would be interested. Am I still planning on reading Such a Fun Age in the future? Absolutely. Will I be making this cocktail again? No doubt about it and you should too!
My Rating:
Thanks for reading! And, if you read the book or try the cocktail let me know in a comment or on Instagram. Also, if you haven’t yet read my previous reviews, I recommend reading The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and The Kindest Lie if you liked this one!
Teghann
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