I don't know what to make of this strange little book.it is certainly different, I quite enjoyed it, but there wasn't really that much to it.It was very short and didn't seem to have a point to make.I don't think I have ever read a book like this so it gets a 10 for originality ,but it left me somewhat puzzled. I can't give it more than 3 stars but for anyone who wants a somewhat puzzling read, that won't require much effort this is the book for you!

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier

If you've ever wondered about the sad, secret lives of the people who deliver your pizzas then this book is for you. The central character, who is only revealed as Jane right at the end of the story, is a mixed up pregnant seventeen-year-old with a mother who she doesn't really get on with, a boyfriend who gets on better with her mother than he does with her and a missing alcoholic father who has died.

It's not a positive mix and her job at the pizza store doesn't make things any better, and neither does her habit of getting up in the night and drinking beer in her dad's old garden shed. She is clearly looking for something but doesn't know what it is!

She thinks she finds the answer in Jenny, a woman in her 30s who she delivers a pizza to. For all sorts of reasons, but mostly her own loneliness and despair, she becomes fixated on this woman emotionally and sexually and creates, as lonely people do, a fictional narrative about their relationship which buzzes inside her head.

There is an aching authenticity about this section of the story where the helplessly trapped Jane invents a version of Jenny which might help her to escape from a day to day life which she hates. It's not a good idea and things could get much worse than they do but they still get pretty bad. Eventually, things work out and Jane starts to come to terms with who she is and where she is but you wouldn't feel too optimistic about her prospects in the long term. 

And, that's it really. It's well written and the transient relationships with the other staff in the pizza store are well drawn as is the earnest boyfriend and the mum who has her own demons. The strength of the novel is how Jane becomes obsessed with Jenny and the way this slowly develops as she deceives herself into seeing something which is not there. It's an interesting read.

(Pizza Girl is published by HQ, a division of HarperCollins. Thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for a fair review.)

Pizza Girl is one of the most highly anticipated books of 2020. Pizza Girl is a story coming of age tale dealing with pregnancy, obsession and friendship.

The best things in the book is Pizza Girls simplicity in living in the moment. She picks pickles of pizza, she listens to music at a certain volume to she can think at the same time. She lives in the moment and the writings sutile details pick these out, like toppings with equsiite detail. Pizza Girls internal monologue carries the book a great distance as she processes what is and isn’t OK. The novel focuses on her friendship with a older woman, a mother who she clings onto. It is an excellent novel.

I picked this up as a short read in between a couple of longer ones (next up is The Nix, I think, for which I am thankful for a kindle e-copy, it’s pretty hefty!). I was also intrigued by the premise of an eighteen year old, pregnant and working at a pizza place. 

It’s a first person narrative, which I always think is interesting as we only see the point of view of the narrator, really, as well as a peek around the edges of what’s really happening. Her and her boyfriend live in her Mum’s house. 

It covers a lot of ground in a couple of hundred pages, and I was much more invested in her story than I thought I would be. Her internal monologue flits between pizza and the woman who orders pepperoni and pickle pizza, and her boyfriend and her recently dead Dad and her Mum and what she’s going to do with her life and a million and one other things. She’s surrounded by people who love her and care for her but all she can feel is smothered, and that Is slightly frustrating. 

There are a couple of quick plot turns that took me by surprise, maybe because I wasn’t reading closely enough to spot the signs or perhaps because the narrator herself hadn’t been observing closely enough. 

I’m not entirely sure of the targeted demographic for this – maybe other teens? I did feel a bit old, if I’m honest, and found myself sympathising with her Mum, which probably wasn’t the idea!

I wouldn’t go out of my way to read this again although I’d recommend it for people who’ve done full time labour intensive jobs which are customer facing and usually minimum wage. I did also dream about pizza while I was reading it and was a tiny bit disappointed when I woke up that dinner was not, in fact, pepperoni pizza with pickled jalapenos. 

Thanks to Netgalley and HQ for providing the digital ARC

A pizza delivery girl who is also pregnant becomes obsessed with a girl called Jenny. Her alcoholic father has died, her mother is suffocating her and her boyfriend is un-supportive. Life can be hard and many life issues are covered in this book in a poignant way. I wanted the book to be longer and the story line more developed.

Pizza Girl is 18 years old, preggers and working at a pizza shop. Then she meets Jenny, a middle-aged mom with a son who will only eat pizza with pickles on. And so begins a strange friendship…

… yeah I didn’t like Jean Kyoung Frazier’s debut novel Pizza Girl. The blurb comparing it to Normal People makes me laugh - I don’t think the marketing team for this book read Sally Rooney’s novel because there is no similarity whatsoever, they just saw her sales figures and are trying to make that happen for this!

Almost nothing occurs in the book. Pizza Girl gets obsessed with Jenny for no real reason - I guess she finds out that she’s gay or bi-sexual at least? But that relationship doesn’t go anywhere, it’s never developed and little else happens. She ignores her loving boyfriend Billy (who really deserves better) and she’s generally depressed - her life isn’t going anywhere, she doesn’t know what she wants to do, she’s not ready to be a mother, and she’s still coming to terms with the death of her dad.

It’s just so boring to read and Frazier isn’t able to animate the material into something compelling. It’s also quite jarring right at the end when we find out the protagonist’s name - not because it’s unusual but because I didn’t even notice up to that point that I didn’t know her name. I hadn’t appreciated how important knowing a character’s name is - it’s the most basic connection you can have with them - and feels partly why I didn’t care about her or anything she was doing, besides Frazier’s inability to do this with her prose.

I’ll give her some credit though for several brief scenes in the final act between Pizza Girl, Billy, her mom, and her drunk dad that felt heartfelt and moving - that should’ve really been the novel; forget Jenny and all that tedious rubbish and focus on Pizza Girl coming to grips with her reality and figuring it out.

But it’s very little even for a short novel like this and doesn’t make it worth reading just for that. Pizza Girl is a very unimpressive, dreary and forgettable novel.

I feel i wanted more from the unconventional novel.

The life of a poor pregnant 18 year old filled with depression and smothered by mum and Boyfriend.

Good story line and i read within 24 hours but feel there needs to be a follow up to all my questions.

Overall a good  read and excellent first novel by the author.

thanks for the read.

I just didn't get this book, or empathise with the main character at all.. Maybe I'm too old to appreciate this stroppy, hormonal teenager and her reluctance to accept her pregnancy and wonderful boyfriend. Nothing seems to happen apart from her crush on an older woman.

Pizza Girl is not the type of book I'd ordinarily go for, but Jean Kyoung Frazier is a beautiful, beautiful writer and I was hooked on this story from start to finish. It's bleak and touching, prosaic and relatable, with a tone that's not unlike Sally Rooney. Would definitely recommend to fans of Normal People and Conversations with Friends.

The storyline was a bit weird for my liking. Not believable. Would have liked to know know about Jane’s mum and boyfriend

18 pregnant and working as a pizza delivery person. Fixated on an married mother. Not what I expected. Very much an American tale. Not my cup of tea but that is why there are so many books and genres to read. Well written and will appeal to a younger audience than myself.

There's an interesting thread in female-authored contemporary fiction which is challenging complacency and stability narratives and that's where I'd place this: it's a little like Halle Butler's 'The New Me' without such a strong women-at-work aesthetic. Frazier's protagonist confronts a different taboo: pregnancy, and the fact that she's just not sure she wants it. 

With issues of millenial malaise, wanting and yet being suffocated by love, obsession and fantasy, dealing with grief, and tackling the disappointments of the 'American Dream', there are lots of themes thrown into the mix and they don't all have space to breathe. Brevity might not be doing this book favours however welcome it is to find a pared back writing style that isn't bloated with filler. 

JKF mixes up the surreal with melancholy and a dark humour - this feels like a debut but definitely an author to watch.

Our Pizza Girl is 18, pregnant, living with her mother and her boyfriend (the father of her baby) - who get along with each other better than she is getting on with either of them - and she is completely lost in her life. Things take a turn when she meets Jenny, a stay at home mother in need of a pizza covered in pickles to placate her son who is in unhappy in their new neighbourhood. Pizza Girl sorts out the pizza, delivers it to them and feels an instant connection to Jenny and so our story starts.

This book is light but with real depth to it. It's funny in places, moving in others and Pizza Girl is an interesting character, stuck in so many ways and numb to the life she's living. She's looking for something and Jenny becomes that something.

It's painful at times, wanting her to deal with her grief over the loss of her father but also understanding that is what is trapping her, numbing her, preventing her from seeing her future, but she's 18 when our emotional maturity is some way off.

Overall I enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and although I wasn't engaged at all times I think that was very much me. Jean Kyong Frazier is a really good writer and I think she has a very successful career ahead of her.

The pages in this story seemed to fly by.  'Pizza girl's is a pregnant teenager who's struggling to know what she wants in life, coping with loss and feeling muddled. 
I got a little annoyed with her wandering mind, but I think that it also accurately depicts her state of mind.

'Pizza girl' is a confused eighteen year old pregnant girl. She's having a baby with her teenage sweetheart and isn't excited about it and is grieving the loss of her father. Having dropped out of school, she's working in a pizza restaurant and has to make a special delivery one day to a mother in her late 30's. Fondly named 'pizza girl' by her, she becomes infatuated with the older woman. This is a really interesting relationship told from a unique perspective. I found it to be quite a quick read and thoroughly enjoyable.

I flew through this story of a young lady pregnant straight out of school and muddling through her job as a pizza delivery person. The book really reminded me of the Catcher in the Rye with her apathetic feeling towards life and her pregnancy,  her destructive behaviour and sense of feeling trapped in particular. It is however a really interesting read around obsession, and I was very sucked in with what would happen to Pizza Girl. I would recommend this book. Thank you to Net Galley and HQ Publishing for the free advance e-book copy of the title.

This book follows a Korean-American girl, pizza girl,  who starts out pregnant and working in a pizza parlor. I enjoyed the writing style for this - the voice was original and natural. The story has a lived-in feel - there isn't a huge amount of drama, but the relationships and the depictions of daily life felt real and nuanced. For me it was a modern take on a coming of age story whilst dealing with mental health issues, grief and the grind of daily life. It feels like it owes some things to Plath's The Bell Jar and Wurtzel's Prozac nation but with a wry eye towards modern Millennial/Gen Z life. The emotions felt real and messy and the protagonist believably 18. Highly recommend.

Pizza Girl is an 18-year-old Korean-American whose job it is to deliver pizzas, and she is also pregnant. On her rounds, she meets Jenny; Pizza Girl becomes obsessed with her. 
Many issues are incorporated in this story, adolescent pregnancy, bereavement, grief, relationships and denial.
A thought-provoking read, well written and although quite short, it holds your attention while you follow the captivating life of 'The Pizza Girl'. A great debut novel.
I want to thank NetGalley, HQ and the author Jean Kyoung Fraizer for a pre-publication copy to review.

This is a short story of only 200 pages long , tells the story of Pizza girl who 18 pregnant and gets an obsession with one of her customers Jenny .

I enjoyed this book I just wished the it was a longer book. I would recommend this book.

With thanks to Netgalley & HQ publishers for the copy in exchange for this review.

This little character driven book packed in so much and I have lots of feelings. The book follows an unnamed protagonist, a worker at a pizza delivery place who happens to be accidentally pregnant right out of high school. She is lost, doesn't really have any long-term goals, and is indifferent about being pregnant. Then a woman, Jenny, starts calling. She asks for pepperoni and pickles pizza, and our protagonist takes pity on her and buys the pickles to make it with herself.

Pizza Girl and Jenny start hanging out more. Jenny seems lonely, struggling to look after her 8 year old son Adam while her husband is working long days. The book really dives into the struggles of motherhood, into the fears of mothers, the dread of knowing that your children will face all sorts of challenges and difficulties in life, just like you did.

Pizza Girl develops an obsession with Jenny, to the detriment of her relationship with her boyfriend Billy, who has given up college to be a father. Her Dad was an alcoholic and she worries she'll end up the same way.

This book made me feel so much. It's really sad with subtle uplifting sections. So many interesting character dynamics including Pizza Girl and her own mother, Billy and her mother, and of course, Jenny. Overall, an interesting and fast read.