The intriguing premise of a writing being challenged with the writing of a novel wears thin as the reader is bombarded with an unlikeable group of characters and a meandering plot. After a hundred pages I gave myself the rights to be guilty free about not finishing the book. ( )

Loved the characters and the setting(s), what influenced her growth and understanding of herself. Interesting tips on writing. ( )

In this book, we follow Casey, who is single, 31, and working in a dead-end job as a server while trying to overcome a severe case of writer’s block on the novel she is writing. Her mother recently passed away and Casey is dating two men simultaneously, and unable to decide between the two. One of my favorite lines in the book is when a character tells Casey that her being unable to decide between the two men she is dating is like the proverbial donkey that is unable to choose between two bales of hay, and ends us starving to death.

I found the book just OK, not great, but not terrible either. There are some craft issues that need to be addressed. The book starts off so slow. It was tough to keep plodding through the first 50 or so pages as so much of it was Casey’s internal monologue telling us about her miserable life. And her life is miserable. She hates her job as a server. She hates that she cannot finish her novel. She misses her mother dearly, and she and her father are estranged. She lives in what is basically a tiny garage. She has no vehicle and her mode of transportation is a bicycle. But to drone and drone on for page after page about her miserable life was depressing. It was all I could do not to DNF the book at this point. The book needed a starting point that would pique the reader’s interest and give the reader a reason to read on.

I never felt engaged with the book or the characters. The characters felt flat, even Casey, the protagonist. Despite her miserable life, I could never work up any compassion for her. She made some bad choices in life and is now dealing with the consequences. Rather than continue working this dead-end job, she should have found something better so she could improve her lot in life, but she didn’t.

There are way too many characters. Some appear, leave, and never show up again. Others do not show up until almost the end of the book. I really do not need to know the name of every server in the restaurant where she works, especially if they do not play a role in the story. I kept track of the number of named characters and there were over 75. That is an average of a new character being introduced to the reader every four pages. It took me two pages of notebook paper to list them all. There were 31 characters named in the first chapter alone, and it was only 22 pages long. This is too much for the reader to absorb.

The dialogue was confusing as well. There were not enough dialogue tags, especially when multiple people were speaking. And multiple characters were speaking in the same paragraph with nothing to determine who was speaking. An editor should have resolved this issue before publication.

The ending felt unrealistic. Casey’s life was miserable, and then all of a sudden everything turned up roses and her life improved dramatically. She could do no wrong and everything just fell in her lap for a happy ending. Life is not like that.

I gave the book two stars, but it needed to be 100 pages shorter and with only a third of the characters. That would at least given the book a chance to garner more stars in my opinion. ( )

Liked how well represented grief was in it . The main character was somewhat relatable, however I could have related to the story better if I was myself a writer . But I finally knew how authors have much more stressful life than I previously thought . The reason for 2.5 stars though was that in the middle of the book , it dragged A LOT . I was bored outta my mind not only that but the pacing was weird , the style wasn't to my liking either , but then it picked up again in the last 15 percent I think .. overall it was okay ( )

Sublime.

Try beating this one. Just try. ( )