DNF’d this title - just not for me, though it’s popularity suggests it’s for others.

Perhaps for fans of Sally Rooney.

Jane is an agony aunt in her spare time, but all her good advice can't stop her from making bad decisions in her own life including starting up a relationship with a senior colleague.

Compelling insight into relationships, predatory behaviour and the lies we tell ourselves when things aren’t right...

Quite unpleasant characters - unlikeable too- give a sense of realism - this felt a long way from fiction at times. Really good, enjoyable isn’t the right word but very compelling.

A strong 4* read

This book was a joy to read, and relatable for any woman who has tried to mask their slightly mad inner thoughts with a collected, professional exterior and failed wildly. It's a great exploration of what it means to know yourself, love yourself, and fight to be yourself even though the world is pressuring you to pretend to be someone you're not.

I've followed Caroline O'Donoghue's career for a while now and if you like her articles, you'll love this. Funny and honest and intimate. Such a joy to read.

An interesting debut which I'm glad to have read. The plot spoke to me, until about 60% of the way through when I felt the genre shifted from Women's Fiction to almost a psychological thriller. A good portrayal of mental illness and also manipulative behaviour. The character of Luddy through me a bit but I did enjoy Jane and her Jolly Politely website.

I might have rated this book higher if I hadn't read it alongside Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends. The two books are amazingly similar—both about fragile Millennial women having an affair with an older man and dealing with visceral medical issues, but while was sharp, realistic and flowed like a cool forest creek, Promising Young Women just got a bit silly for me. I felt neither the sharp feminist angle or the magical realism aspect really came properly to the fore. While it was entertainingly written—it felt like an old-school Sophie Kinsella novel, if she'd been reading a lot of Twilight fan fiction, at points*—I just wanted it to be cleverer, and sharper, and cleaner, and less weird (all that time dedicated to her strange blog posts she didn't remember, and seemingly for no point).

However, props to the author for sneaking a Hamilton lyric into an early chapter.

*I should stress I mean this as a compliment. No one does light, funny prose about office life for women better than Kinsella.

I had high hopes for this debut novel from Caroline O'Donoghue after being a fan of her journalism at The Pool. Thankfully I wasn't disappointed! Promising Young Woman is a story that many can relate to and as someone who worked in a comparable office environment to protagonist Jane Peters and engaged in a very similar relationship so much of the book rang true. This dazzling debut will grip you and take you places you aren't expecting without feeling gimmicky. I can't wait to read what the O'Donoghue writes next.

I really loved this book, as Jane is is such a frustrating yet likeable character who is in a situation which is many women can relate to. I was pleasantly surprised by the turns the story took, especially how much darker than expected it got.

The book does a great job of highlighting everyday sexism, and the lack of equality found in many workplaces. There is also plenty of humour throughout so it doesn’t become too dark and depressing.

A great debut from Caroline O’Donoghue.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

I really loved this debut from O'Donoghue. Twisty and dark, raw and compulsive. I've had a tonne of work on this week, and kept finding myself creeping back to read this. It carries its skill lightly: the complexities of female friendship were particularly well portrayed.

Originally posted on 13th June on zerofiltersaurus.wordpress.com-

The plot (in a spoiler-free nutshell): Jane is 26 and newly single and unhappy with the state of her life, from feeling unappreciated and unheard at work, to her superficial friendships. She embarks on an affair with her married boss and pretty much discovers just how much worse her life can become…

The author: Caroline O’Donoghue, journalist and debut novelist.

You should read it if…you are looking for an eerily timely novel about consent, sexual harassment and the abuse of power.

You shouldn’t read it if…you are in a dark place*, and think the issues the novel deals with might be too much for you

The best bit: Shiraz’ no bullshit approach to life. We could all do with a bit of Shiraz from time to time…

Book hangover severity…Jane who?

The things I liked: Jane’s double life as Jolly Politely and her hilarious response and how realistic the trolling is when Jane’s life goes downhill, her life is quite relatable as are her decisions.

The things I didn’t like: Jane is a whinger who thinks she is over the hill at the grand age of 26, sleeping with your boss is repulsive (cos I’ve done it myself), and after suffering from more trauma than an Eastenders episode Jane is ridiculously upbeat at the end and makes a series of uncharacterically logical decisions. I would love to know what Jolly makes of this tale…

Rating 3.5/5

Final thoughts: A pretty far fetched story of what happens when someone decides they are bored and proceeds to make ultra shitty decisions for the foreseeable future in an attempt to spruce life up, set to a backdrop of a seedy and highly questionable and by all accounts bloody boring office …

*put a light on

Promising Young Women was published on 7th June 2018 by Virago. Thanks to Caroline O’Donoghue, Virago and NetGalley for the ARC

I read an ARC received from Virago via Netgalley.

“Our company is teeming with women under thirty, and men approaching or over fifty. That is how the food chain works. Dozens of attractive young women do the grunt work for a handful of men, and the women get filtered out by motherhood. It’s the corporate version of natural selection.”

I will soon be going to the Inaugural Feminist Book Society event at Waterstones and thought I should probably read at least one of the books up for discussion. This is how I acquired (and fell in love with) Promising Young Women.

The story starts with the clichéd 20-something-has-affair-with-older-married-boss… uh oh. But not to worry, what you think is a modern-day Bridget Jones ends up as something far more clever, and much more sinister.

Edgy and gripping, Promising Young Women has a dark Gothic twist that hooks you in page after page. You’ll start to question the narrator, the people around her – even your own experiences in the workplace.

I also loved what the book had to say about workplace sexism, toxic masculinity and the inequalities that underlie our everyday lives. But most importantly, I loved reading about a 20-something heterosexual woman’s attitudes towards her own self-image and how that affects her relationship to the men around her.

If you read this book, prepare yourself for a few sleepless nights – or as many as you need to finish it.

If you read this book and you’re a woman in the workplace, prepare to find at least a few similarities with your own experiences.

Jane Peters is a 16-year-old women working in marketing. She mainly does secretarial tasks, nothing too demanding and far from the fancy marketing stuff she had expected. It is her private website where she provides advice as agony aunt “Jolly Politely” that keeps her mood up since she spilt with her boyfriend. When she attracts the attention of her boss Clem, an unexpected chance opens up and she can win a new and important customer for her company. Yet, Clem is not only interested in her professionally and thus an uncontrollable spiral of dependence is set in motion.

Caroline O’Donoghue’s debut novel promised a new side of the old man-woman, power-dependence topic with a witty and strong minded female protagonist who is capable of breaking through old walls and securing herself a place in a man’s world. However, this isn’t what I found in the novel and admittedly I am a bit disappointed.

First if all, the characters are full of clichés and quite foreseeable. Jane as well as her colleagues are rather naive and slightly stupid when it comes to relationships and interpersonal dynamics. Why don’t they see the obvious thing in front of them and why are they eagerly abused? That you are not full of self-confidence when you are young and new in the job and quickly impressed by male conduct is understandable, but running into the trap in front of you isn’t necessary either. Likewise, the male characters are also rather one-dimensional and predictable in their behaviour.

Thus, the whole story becomes a bit stereotypical and lacks individuality and originality. What I could expect from a really important and ground-breaking novel would also be a completely different ending, this was a quite disappointing, the message cannot actually be to look out for a more female adequate job where you don’t meet those bullying men.

The style of writing, however, is something I really liked, it is funny and often amusing and full of puns. Caroline O'Donoghue is witty and creative and the light-heartedness with which Jane comments on the postings on her website are not just funny but also very clever and true. Sadly, she herself does not act accordingly. All in all, there was more in the story from a feminist point of view, as it is, it is somehow nice, but without the impact it might have had.

This book is a spikier, darker, funnier update of the “chick lit in an office” novels that were all the rage in the early noughties. I really enjoyed it and read it all in a day - I was drawn into Jane’s story and grew to care about her. I also found all the supporting characters interesting and complicated, which is unusual. I would recommend this as a great summer read, a bit like a millennial version of Marian Keyes.

There is so much to love in Caroline O’Donoghue’s writing. I have been a huge fan of her columns in the-pool.com for years. Needless to say I was excited to hear she had her debut novel out this summer. And she’s a fellow Cork woman! Yay!
Promising Young Women is a novel that begins like a modern Bridget Jones, light and fizzy, about young twenty somethings who work in advertising, BUT it does not continue in this vein. The novel twists, becomes a lot more dark and sinister, and leaves you wanting to jump in and rescue the protagonist.
Jane Peters is a twenty-six year old advertising executive working in London. She has been at her agency for two years and has gone relatively unnoticed by the powers that be. Then she breaks up with long term boyfriend and her life is sets off on a very different trajectory.
There are a plethora of issues which are explored in this novel; abuse of power, complicated work friendships, affairs, and very bad decisions that women make when they are in love (let’s get this sorted, ladies!!) For me, the hero of the novel is Deb, a kick ass manager who doesn’t even pretend to compete with the bravado of her male counter parts and superiors.
Undoubtedly, it is tough being a young woman in a man’s world. This is a novel which depicts a lot of what it is like. It will ring true for many.

such a good book! Great story, fab writing, a consuming tale which will leave you with lots to think about

I was not expecting such a change at 62%, thought it was going to go a bit supernatural.
Was a dark story about a 20 something woman working in a male dominated office, felt it dealt with mental health as well. Very good read.

Caroline O’Donoghue’s incisive, sparkling journalism marks her out as a superb writer, and her first foray into novel writing is a testament to her brilliance. The dark undercurrent running through ‘Promising Young Women’ reveals itself slowly, drawing in the reader much as Jane herself is consumed by her situation. O’Donoghue’s trademark precision and insight makes this a superb debut.

This book is intoxicating. It's something that, once you're hooked in, there's no way you can get out until you've finished and figured out what happened.. Of course, it gives you those familiar man-hatred feelings, which always makes me excited, but there you go. It's a novel that goes through so many incarnations- at the beginning, it feels more like a chick-lit esque novel about sordid romance, then it becomes a little more intensive and sensual, until finally you really get into thriller territory. Jane, the main character, is such an unreliable narrator that often you have no idea what is really going on, but that just adds to the mystery of it all. I read this novel in a good three sittings because you can't put this thing down. It's surely going to be one of the best books of the summer, and for good reason too.

Promising Young Women is a witty and timely novel about a twentysomething woman living in London who is driven to doubting her sanity when she ends up involved with an older man at work, feeling like she's turned into one of the people who submit problems to her anonymous blog. Jane works in advertising and an office party after a pitch starts off something with an older married man, but soon a promotion puts him as her mentor. Power and sex become blurred and Jane at first thinks everything is going well, but soon her friendships, her health, and her career seem to be tumbling down around her.

This novel is like Sally Rooney's Conversations With Friends for the London office scene, where young women are forced to battle one another and older white men hold all the power. At first, it is readable for the millenial trash vibe that it exposes, but as the narrative moves forward, it spirals into something darker. Consent, online presence and abuse, and mental health come to the forefront as part of the difficult battleground that young women face. What is notable about this novel, which doesn't depict a particularly fresh story, is that along with Jane, the main character, there is a whole host of varied female characters, flawed and fighting in an environment where men are holding much of the power.

Promising Young Women is a clever look at the male-dominated office culture world in London. It is also a biting look at mental health in young women and the difficulties of being listened to, taken seriously, and kept safe as a woman. Read it over an overpriced hipster cocktail in a pretentious bar and think about everything that is wrong with the world.