Adults is a fanastic look at how we value life in the age of Instagram. Emma Jane Unsworth has almost created a sociological study of how we see someone living a good life by the amount of likes that they get on various social platforms but shown through a fictional account.

In this story we meet Jenny. Jenny has aspirations. She follows people who present their “best” lives and wishes hers could be the same. Whilst doing this she is also dealing with a break up and measuring her life against the expectations of what it means to be 30-something, single, unmarried without children: all of the things that are expected goals to have reached by that time. Jenny is failing miserably and is falling into a pit of despair.

Unsworth brilliantly captures the sense of desperation some people can be made to feel at certain points in their life whilst also highlighting the hypocrisy of a life “online”. Rarely people post the bad times, they show their highlights real which in turn makes others feel bad. Adults calls BS on this.

Adults is a really good book. It is funny – not the laugh out loud kind of funny but the self chuckling kind when you recognise yourself and your bad points amongst the characters. I really enjoyed reading it.

Adults by Emma Jane Unsworth is available now.

For more information regarding Emma Jane Unsworth (@emjaneunsworth) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Harper Collins (@HarperCollinsUK) please visit their Twitter page.

This book is an interesting portrayal of Jenny's life as she negotiates dealing with her friends, her ex, her Mum and her flatmates. I think the way that Unsworth portrays social media is rather apt.

All in all a good read.

When I started reading #Adults I wasn't sure it was for me. As a 55 year old social worker living in rural Gloucestershire I thought it was too young, too London, and too (social) media. There is no way I envisaged it was going to get a #NetGalley five star review from me. I was totally wrong , and I am so happy I persevered, because#Adults is an absolute treasure. Once I began to like it's main characters (thirty-something Jenny, her Mum, and her gorgeous best friend) I was hooked. It is a story about friendship, family, fear of failure (and growing older) and the pressures we put on ourselves. I completely related and I think most people will. I am going to buy this for my friends and for their daughters. I can't wait to see what they think.
I have just bought Emma Jayne Unsworth's previous novels. (I know, I am very late to the party.)
I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to Emma Jane Unsworth, the publishers and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read it.

Goodness - I feel I've been caught up in a whirlwind of immaturity and neediness; fortunately with some humour as well to help me get through the whole book. I'm still not sure if I enjoyed it or not, it was very full on and relentless which I felt meant it was actually quite difficult to get to know any of the characters. I also realised at the end I didn't particularly care about any of them, apart from feeling sad their online lives were quite so important and got in the way of living. I would like to think this was the author's intention, hence four stars, and would certainly read more of her writing.

Thank you to netgalley and Harper Collins for an advance copy of this book.

Sharp, funny and engaging but missing some depth for me; I think I needed a little more plot and some more likeable characters. Still, Emma Jane Unsworth is an incredibly talented writer and I do think that this will appeal to many readers who will enjoy it immensely, it just wasn't quite for me.

Okay so I’ll start by saying I adore the concept of this book... it’s so now, so relevant, so real.
I’m not sure if it’s my head space or the book itself but I don’t feel it was quite right in some way. It was slow going in the beginning, got better in the middle and end but it felt a wee bit lacking, maybe a little rushed and disjointed too.
But as I say this could be down more to me not being in the right headspace more than the writing *ive purposely not looked at other reviews so I could try to put my own feelings/ thoughts out there and not be guided by others feelings.*

What a fabulous read! I loved the sound of this book and it did not disappoint. Whilst some of the characters are a bit much, I think it provides a really great insight into millennial life and the social media, superficial, “like-based” culture we live it. There are many serious issues raised as well (I won’t detail these as I don’t wish to spoilt thing). Overall I found this an insightful, modern, highly entertaining read and will most definitely be purchasing for friends upon release!

I was excited by the blurb about this book, but possibly I read it at the wrong time, following on from an extremely erudite and well written novel.

I do follow social media though not obsessively, so I could on one level relate to the main character Jenny’s obsession with checking her phone every few minutes (although I am not this bad!). However this poor character seems to need reassurance from people both known and unknown to her over every tiny thought and comment, and obsesses over the words she has used in her various comments and posts, and I found this both beyond credible and very sad.

The book has no plot as far as I could see, though there are funny moments, relating to her childhood with her rather off the rails mother, and poor friend Kelly, who I can’t believe would still be friends with this woman!

I tried to persevere with this book but I’m afraid at 30% I had to give it up, my reading time is so precious and I hate to spend it on something that doesn’t engage me in some way. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to pre-read the novel, and would be willing to try another book by this author in the future.

This is the first book I've read by Emma Jane Unsworth but I'm always keen to read a funny book. This promised a light read with humour, a modern tale of a woman grappling with the age of social media.

Jenny is a columnist for a feminist magazine. Her obsession with social media is unhealthy and means that her real-life relationships are suffering: her boyfriend has moved out, she can't get on with her new flatmates, her best friend is despairing and her relationship with her mother dysfunctional. Still, it's all about projecting the perfect life on the internet, so who cares if the reality isn't quite the same?!

I'm in two minds about this book. On the one hand I liked the humour and the way it's written as a slightly disjointed stream of thoughts and emails and texts. I loved the positive messages about women and the bits about the experiences of being female and navigating modern life. I didn't mind the fact that there isn't much of a plot because I was quite happy to go with the flow and, although Jenny is irritating, I assumed she was intended as a tongue-in-cheek expose of the narcissism of social media.

However, I just found it really hard to buy into the fact that Jenny is meant to be 35. Her behaviour and thought processes are quite immature and not like any 35 year old I know - maybe that says more about me, but this made it much less relatable. I also struggled a bit with how the narrative moved from humour to bleakness so quickly - the tone felt quite uneven.

Overall, this is engaging and well-written, if you can overlook the self-obsessed central figure. There are some lovely characters and moments in here and it's sharply observed.

I felt so lucky to be granted an ARC of this book, having just finished reading Animals. I love the way Emma Jane Unsworth writes, brutally honest and unflinching, often uncomfortable but always tonally spot on. Commenting on the pressures of social media, "grown up" relationships and mothers and daughters. Definitely recommend. Thanks NetGalley!

I'm sorry but this just wasn't for me. I tried, and tried but I just couldn't get into it. The synopsis made it sound really fun and interesting but when reading it seemed to to jump all over the place and I couldn't keep up as it didn't seem to have any reason to it.
I may try again in future but right now it's not for me.

When I first started reading this book I thought "is anyone really like this"? The main character, Jenny, is a really similar age to me, and I expected her to resonate more closely with me than she did. She's a social-medialite. Obsessed with the next Insta post and framing her life exactly as she wants others to see it. I just don't feel that either I, nor the people I know, are like this to such an extent. And therefore, I found it really hard to sympathise with her.

It is funny in places, like laugh out loud funny, and underneath there's a lovely story about friendship and finding yourself and reassessing your values. But to me, it was overwhelmed by this life that I just couldn't comprehend. Towards the end I felt slightly more engaged but it was a little bit of a slog for me.

This book is funny, I will give it that, it's funny and you can really cackle your way through. It's also witty but the kind of witty that is try-hard witty which gets annoying after a while. Whilst I didn't hate this book, half way through I realised the story wasn't going anywhere. There wasn't any growth any back-peddling, nothing! Which I can kind of see why because not everyone gets a moment of clarity but as a book it just made the whole plot stagnant and then boring.
The other thing is Jenny is an awful friend, like so awful and self obessessed and I really don't understand why her friend Kelly tip-toes around it instead of being like "YOU ARE BEING AWFUL." Jenny and her friend Nicole I felt were perfectly matched, it was funny reading about them together because they were both insane together, but her being shit to an actual friend who needs her for something responsible is annoying.
Her love story was also kind of annoying but it worked for her, I just really couldn't relate to the obvious dickhead who clearly didn't deserve 7 years worth of her life.
Overall the story isn't bad, it just doesn't go anywhere you just go round and round in the quirks of her mother, Jenny's social media obessession and her current life. Nothing new or interesting I'm sorry to say.

I was looking forward to reading this and I was not disappointed! Emma Jane Unsworth just hits the nail on the head every time. If you loved Animals, you'll love this!

Jenny epitomises everything that is wrong with social media and our society today. She works in the industry and is constantly on her phone - to the detriment of all the relationships around her. We meet Jenny at a point in her life where she has split from her boyfriend following an unsuccessful pregnancy and her fixation with her phone is driving her remaining friends away, despite them wanting to help her . Jenny is possibly the most annoying and frustrating main character I have ever encountered in a book - I wanted to reach into the pages and shake her. I think the leader for this book was that it was a comedy but I actually found it quite sad for Jenny - though it was all her own making. Not the great read I was expecting.

Wonderfully heartfelt and tragically true, this book deals with both love and loss, the unseen / unspoken parts of relationships and social media dependence.

The story within is so well told and is so eye opening, especially with regards to how easy it can be, to become too reliant on social media. Especially for those that feel the need to seek other people's approvals and are dealing with their own personal insecurities and self doubt.

It was really satisfying to be able to see how Jenny's relationships developed throughout the novel; with her friends, her Mum, her love interests... But most importantly, with herself.

Emma Jane Unsworth depicts a realistic, problematic and humorous picture of our contemporary disease and pressures of social media addiction, its pitfalls and repercussions through the life of 35 year old Jenny McLaine. On the surface, Jenny is living the perfect successful life. She is a columnist on a online magazine, owns her own home but delve a little deeper and her life is a car crash, unravelling at a rapid rate. Her manipulative photographer boyfriend, Art, has broken up with her and found a replacement girlfriend so very quickly, her job is going down the pan, and her best friend, single mother Kelly has had enough of her and her selfishness, and her offbeat psychic mother has come to stay. Jenny is anxious, insecure, lacking any form of self awareness, with a constant need for validation. Instead of paying attention to the issues and people close to her, she obsessively follows on social media those living perfect lives, like Suzy Brambles, which feeds her sense of failure as a woman. As Jenny surveys the wreckage of her life around, she knows things must change.

This is a comic, if heartbreaking, character driven read of a Jenny having to face up to the need to grow up. I found it an occasionally discomfiting read, and Jenny can be really irritating, but it is such a relevant read. It provides an insightful look at mother and daughter relationships, the damage that social media addiction can do and the perils of neglecting real life, and the people who matter. Many thanks to HarperCollins for an ARC.

There were parts of this book I really enjoyed and parts where I nearly gave up.

Jenny is so self-absorbed that for the first half of the book I just didn't like her enough to care. The writing style is almost a modern social media influenced stream of consciousness in places and takes a while to get used to.

As the book progressed and the different threads of Jenny's story came together I did empathise more with her.

Her relationship with photographer ex-boyfriend feeds Jenny's insecurities and her obsession with social media, while taken to an extreme, is realistic and both amusing and horrifying.

By the end of the book I was enjoying the characters and their relationship. Post-intervention Jenny is still flawed and insecure but she has completely reevaluate her life and is far less pretentious and superficial.

I think this a 3.5/5 for me overall. Jenny is definitely a lit more "adult" by the end of the book.

Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I liked it. It’s exactly the sort of book I love to eat up in a night. I felt for and hated Jenny at the same time. Then really felt for her when everything ultimately falls apart. She’s 35, so there’s another thing I could relate to, even though our lives are a bit different.

They’re the sort of characters I love, complex, full and weirdly wordy.

Not much happens, and when it does, it’s a convenient fit. Again, didn’t care that her friend who’s had enough of her saves the day. Or that her mother poses for her ex. I just liked it so much.

*I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

A book I had to really persevere with, and after a couple of false starts got there but can't say I enjoyed it. The beginning is totally tedious stuck on the buying of a croissant but there are a few laughs and gems in the latter half of the book. The main character is totally obsessed with her phone to the detriment of her whole life so much so I felt like shaking her as she wastes so much time on social media that real life is passing her by. She is very self absorbed and comes across as very immature for her age where the number of likes on a posting on Instagram is her be all and end all. The writing style, even away from the texts and internet posts, just didn't flow for me I'm afraid with lots of short sentences, it seemed abrupt in style.

Not for me but may appeal to a younger reader so a possible 3 star maybe for this group. .