Cover Image: None of this is Serious

None of this is Serious

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

I really enjoyed this extremely timely novel which explores the uncertainties of our day to day lives and retreating into the online world when everything seems overwhelming. A very Gen Z novel which I would recommend to readers who love messy/unlikeable female protagonists and character based literature.

Was this review helpful?

Something a bit different. I really enjoyed it!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read a digital arc in exchange for my feedback.

Was this review helpful?

This book is incredibly relatable and really explores the impact that obsession social media use can have on you. The crack adds an interesting element to the plot.

Was this review helpful?

I started reading None of This is Serious the morning after a night out and the hangxiety was real. This book was not only the perfect distraction – I literally couldn’t stop reading it, but it turned out that it was pretty fitting too for my hungover feeling right then.

I didn’t realise before I started it but None of This is Serious looks at themes of social anxiety and how it hard it is to navigate the real verses digital world. To be honest, it was a comfort to have a lead character more neurotic than I was feeling at the time.

In None of this is Serious we meet Sophie. A 22-year-old University graduate who is job hunting, living at home with her parents in Dublin, feels more at ease in the cyber world than the real one and is more than a little lost. She spends an inordinate amount of time online – she has a true addiction.

Another, slightly more random plot element is a huge crack in the sky that emits a purple glow. It can be seen all around the world and no-one knows what it is. I liked this and thought it worked well as a slightly different way to give commentary on the pandemic. Catherine Prasifka has said that she started to write this book before lockdown and finished it during – so she may well have conceived her the crack idea pre-pandemic, but it spoke to me in that way.

The Fall of the House of Usher reference was a nice way to add more to the general feeling of unease about modern life too.

Sophie is a complex character who has too many feelings that she can’t express verbally. She can tweet a version of them, but this, as we know, is not the healthiest outlet.

As the story develops, we learn that Sophie is trapped in more than a few toxic relationships. She has Hannah, her gaslighting twin, Finn, a friend who sleeps with her but doesn’t date her and Rory, her new love interest who she primarily communicates with online.

In the second half of the book I was so livid and heartbroken for Sophie. There is a sexual abuse storyline that really captures the anger of so many discussions I’ve had with my friends.

None of this is Serious is not always an easy read but I binged it. If you’ve ever been in a toxic relationship, or are a woman who has been on the receiving end of any kind of sexual harassment, or ever used social media to drown out reality, or ever felt alone and confuse about your place in the world, you’ll resonate.

I appreciate I haven’t sold this as the cheeriest read but it is brilliant and so relevant. This is the debut novel from Irish author Catherine Prasifka and aside from the obvious Naoise Dolan and Sally Rooney (who is actually her sister-in-law) comparisons, None of This is Serious also reminded me of other clever, cutting, nuanced and insanely-readable novels by Irish women that cover coming of age, alienation and identity themes.

These include Snowflake by Louise Nealon, Eggshells by Caitriona Lally and The Beauty of Impossible Things by Rachel Donohue. The latter also has a reference to a strange phenomenon in the sky.

Personally, all these stories resonate with me and I really enjoy their niche genre. None of This is Serious is a wonderful addition to the group.

Was this review helpful?

Sophie has just finished her degree in political science and falls in some kind of void between being a student and the future which is totally blurred. All her friends seem to have a plan while she is still meandering and feels left behind. She is waiting for something to happen when one evening, there is a crack in the sky. Quickly the internet is full of photos and comments that she obsessively follows. While the earth does not know what to make if this and if it should be treated like a threat, Sophie’s life goes on or rather: it doesn’t. She has been in love with Finn for a long time, but he is more interested in other women and only needs her for the time between. And then there is Rory who is attentive and nice, albeit a bit boring. Even when the sky opens, Sophie is stuck and cannot advance in her life, so she escapes into the online world.

Catherine Prasifka’s debut novel “None of this is Serious” strongly reminded me of Sally Rooney’s books, not just because it is also set in Dublin and the protagonists are at a similar point in their life, also the style of writing shows a lot of parallels. Just like her sister-in-law, she portrays a generation who is lost when they should finally start their adult life and who struggles of coping with the expectations of their families and the online community which provides them with ideals they should adhere to.

“I refresh the feed every minute and continue to consume, growing fat. I’m like a vampire, leeching off the content of other people’s lives. I’m not even really interested in anything I’m reading.”

Having finished college and waiting for the final results, Sophie has too much time she spends online following her friends but also the comments on the crack. The first thing she does after waking up is checking her twitter feed, the last thing she does before falling asleep is checking her feed. She is addicted and unable to live her real life. Online, she can hide behind the invisible wall, she feels secure when chatting with Rory or others, when meeting them in person, she becomes insecure, shy, and totally inhibited. Without booze, she is totally unable of having any normal conversation at all.

It is not only their struggle with romantic life, successful relationships are rare in her circle of friends, it is also professional life which stresses them out. Finding a job is hard, even harder to find one which would allow them to move out of their parents’ house. Being treated like children, they cannot actually grow up and thus find themselves stuck. They just have their polished social media lives which only make the others feel even worse as they cannot see behind the blinking facade.

I could totally relate to Sally Rooney’s protagonists even though I am a couple of years older. It was much harder for me to sympathise with Sophie as she is much too passive and has made herself comfortable in lamenting her situation without doing something against it. Her best friend accuses her of being selfish and arrogant, an opinion I would agree with. She is too self-involved to notice others and pathetically cries over and over again.

“None of this is Serious” is a perfectly contradictory title as the characters’ believe that nothing they do is of any consequence, thus they remain stuck and constantly hurt each other as they are not the superficial beings who can just put away everything they experience. I do believe the author well captured a generation and their feelings of a hopeless or rather no future.

Was this review helpful?

This book made me want to throw my phone into the sea, get rid of all technology and live off the grid. Powerful and a story that sits with you for a long time, None of this is Serious really emphasises the uncertainty and strangeness of online relationships, and friendships.
I love Irish fiction and this didn't disappoint.

Was this review helpful?

This gave the vibes of "Exciting Times" by Naoise Dolan. And I think fans of Sally Rooney would eat this up.

Was this review helpful?

Fans of Sally Rooney is gonna eat this one up! I stand by my claim, lack of conversation is not a plot driver!

Was this review helpful?

Catherine Prasifka’s part of a generation of Irish women writers whose work forms a wider, ongoing conversation: Naiose Dolan, Niamh Campbell and, inevitably, Sally Rooney who’s also Prasifka’s sister-in-law. All of them are engaged in a project of sorts, a near-incestuous exploration of the banality and trauma of everyday existence for a particular group of predominantly heterosexual, predominantly white, cis, university-educated women. Women who ostensibly count among the privileged yet struggle to find a footing in their worlds. Prasifka’s debut novel’s no exception, it centres on Sophie trapped in a bubble of relentless self-scrutiny, intensified by her immersion in a constant stream of social media. A recent graduate living at home in Dublin, with no job and uncertain prospects, she constantly measures herself against her wealthier or more self-confident friends and, above all, her high-achieving twin Hannah. It’s a difficult book to assess entirely in its own right, it so clearly echoes Dolan and Rooney, with its emphasis on the messy contradictions of life, and its close focus on the minutiae of the day to day. But what sets it apart are its dialogue with genre fiction and Prasifka’s explicit critique of her corner of Irish society, the politics, the social inequality and the lingering after-effects of growing up with Catholicism.

What starts out as realist suddenly tips over into the territory of the speculative when a giant rift appears in the skies. The crack, as it comes to be known here, sits uneasily alongside other aspects of the narrative, at least at first, a potentially annoying gimmick or heavy-handed metaphor for the precarity of the contemporary world. But as Prasifka’s story progressed the juxtaposition between this uncanny event and Sophie’s isolation and social anxieties captured something of the bizarre nature, the uneasiness, of living in this particular moment, in a world made horror film with its round-the-clock scenes of devastation, from famine to climate change, to violent acts, and conspiracy groups. A horror film that plays out on a split screen, global chaos running alongside ongoing mundane and small-scale individual losses and humiliations, tragic in its absurdity.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting, inventive variation on familiar themes of alienation and urban anomie, and a promising start to Prasifka’s writing career. However, it’s not an entirely successful piece, very much a first novel with all the associated ills. Prasifka’s prose’s uneven, there are passages that read like the literary equivalent of stock footage, the central conceit represented by the crack’s underdeveloped, and ultimately I suspect what readers will make of this largely depends on how much they care or feel made to care about this rather select portion of humanity. As for me, I'm pretty much on the fence.

Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Canongate for an arc

Was this review helpful?

What's the book about?

Sophie is graduating but is nowhere near ready for the next phase. Her friends have their lives planned out and are ready to move on but Sophie feels left behind. When she goes to a party, a surreal event occurs and she fixates on it as everything around her falls apart.

My thoughts:
I tried to like the book but I guess it just wasn't for me. I found Sophie to be too destructive and selfish which made it hard for me to form any emotional connection with her. There were a few things I did appreciate though. The feeling of being lost close to graduation, the drama around a controlling best friend and the fantastic way the entire Rory situation unfolded.

Was this review helpful?

If there was ever a book that made you want to switch off your phone, it’s this one. That feeling of constantly being online, being beholden to messaging apps and social media, is starkly felt throughout this book.

Admittedly I’m twenty years too old to enjoy this book as fully as one might (and I think the target audience will love it), but truly I found it whiney and depressing.

Sophie has just finished college and is trying to figure out what comes next. Her friends have it all figured out, and so does her perfect twin sister Hannah. Meanwhile, Sophie is sort of dating two boys, Finn and Rory, fruitlessly searching for a job and spending all of her waking hours online doomscrolling. When a crack appears in the sky, illuminating it with a purple light, it only serves to enhance Sophie’s anxiety and existential angst. Nobody knows what has caused the crack, and nobody can stop talking about it, memeifying it until it’s just another thing to joke/worry about.

There are strong parallels here with Sally Rooney’s novels (Prasifka is Sally’s sister in law), Naoise Dolan’s Exciting Times and Nealon’s Snowflake. I can’t help but feel this style of book is being done to death. It has become wearisome to read about twentysomething Irish Marxists complaining about the gentrification of Dublin and their inability to afford anything whilst drinking themselves into a stupor and spending all their time online. Anti-British sentiment appears in this one too in places and I cringed reading it. It feels as though it was written by someone who has never left Ireland. Exciting Times featured this too. For me as a reader, it’s awkward and pointless and naive. Why the chip on the shoulder?

The dialogue is strange in the book. We get everything everyone else says in quote marks, but Sophie’s dialogue never appears, merely her thoughts. It’s not always obvious when she has responded to something someone has said. It’s a stylistic quirk and one that didn’t really work for me. It interrupted the flow of conversation.

I found Sophie frustrating as a character. Ultimately, she’s sad, lonely, a bit pathetic, very depressed and needs a good kick up the arse which her friends duly give her eventually. There were several passages I highlighted where I just rolled my eyes - along the lines of, our parents had so many opportunities that we are now deprived of. Give me a break. I wanted to shake Sophie: go see the world, get your head out of your phone! 2.5/5 ⭐️

None of This Is Serious by Catherine Prasifka will be published next April 2022. I read an advance digital copy of the book courtesy of the publishers Canongate Books and Netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

For the most part I enjoyed this novel, there were just a few issues I had that I felt held it back.

Although a big part of the story, I felt 'the crack' did nothing to move the plot forward and at times was forgotten.

I also felt that certain parts of the story were very predictable.

I would be interested to see what Catherine Prasfika writes next as I did enjoy the writing style and the way Sophie's dialogue was written as monologue.

Was this review helpful?

Read through netgalley
I thought this book captured exactly what that weird period after leaving uni and having to be a real adult is like perfectly. I thought it was well written and the crack gave the story an interesting dimension. It kind of felt like the whole story was waiting for something to happen with the crack which sums up the feeling the book was trying to capture really well. Would recommend

Was this review helpful?

As someone who has experienced all too well that in-between period of your twenties when you have just graduated university, aren’t quite sure what you want from life and it seems as if your friends have it all figured out, I was immediately drawn to this book.

I found Sophie’s personality traits to be extremely relatable, particularly in terms of her anxiety and ability to constantly compare herself to her peers. Nevertheless, there were times where I found myself feeling as if Sophie didn’t want to be helped by her friends and family and that she seemed perfectly content being stuck in a rut, which I found frustrating at times.

Personally, I wasn’t overly keen on the theme of the ‘crack in the sky’, although I understand what the author was trying to achieve in terms of the fact we consume news and engage with major events predominantly through our screens.

If you are into Sally Rooney’s writing style/the coming of age theme that she explores in Normal People and Conversations with Friends, then this is definitely one for you.

*Thank you to Canongate Books and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Was this review helpful?

Sophie isn't the person she seems online. Her best friend has outgrown her, the boy she loves hardly knows she exists, she's starting a strange new online friendship and she doesn't feel together at all, not in the way everyone else seems to be. Her life as a student is over and now she has to go out and add new worries about houses and taxes to the ever growing pile.

Then at a party she doesn't even want to be at, a crack appears in the sky.

And she finds herself just waiting for someone on the internet to tell her something rather than adding yet another phone-camera picture of the crack to Instagram. Now, all she can do is scroll until something, anything happens.

"I'm not sure when the internet ceased to be a place I could escape to, to get lost down rabbit holes and take care of virtual pets, but it does not offer me the same things anymore. I have a feeling it's to do with cyber and personal space melding, warping each other."

None of this is Serious is a celebration of just how wonderful the world is but also just how strange modern life can really be. Delving into the amazing truth of having worldwide connection at your fingertips - but the dangers that come with it too. The mental anguish that seeing polished, curated social media feeds can cause and of course how easily the internet can become a rumour mill.

Perfectly capturing the very real burnout many young people feel when faced with a hopeless future, this story was full of dryly funny and wickedly witty observations about growing up and getting lost - painfully relatable and delightfully weird. Sophie was a brilliant narrator - chaotic and messy but just trying her best.

Bordering somewhere between the mundane and the absurd - this book will make you take a step back and not take things so seriously.

Was this review helpful?

None of this is Serious by Catherine Prasifka is an impressive debut novel about a recent graduate who is floundering in life as she can't find a job and spends too much time on the internet.

Was this review helpful?

An unflinching look at young Dubliners of today, with the added complication of a literal crack in the universe. This is a sharp and knowing book, the author clearly knows her audience and the addition of the almost science fiction element of the 'crack' was inspired, especially when it ended up being relegated to just so much more Insta-fodder. I'm not the target audience for this book but I imagine that audience would enjoy it immensely

Was this review helpful?

This novel is another addition to the emerging Irish fiction hype which definitely compares to that by the likes of Sally Rooney or Louise Nealon. And I’m here for it!

With the concept of friendship at the heart of this novel, it follows Sophie as she finishes at Dublin University. Sophie feels she is being left behind by her friends as they move on to their next stage of life. She has no job, feels she will never be able to buy a house, and constantly puts herself down.

Sophie must navigate between her friendship with her best friend Grace and the rest of her friend group, as well as her love interests. She has been in love with Finn her whole life and she is also about to meet Rory, who she chats with online.

Throughout it highlights issues relating to social media and it’s impact on the young generation, as well as the balancing act required between the online world and reality. Social media can be a harsh and critical place and this book definitely captures that.

I really enjoyed this coming of age story and feel it’s an amazing debut novel from Prasifka.

If you’re a fan of Irish Fiction I would definitely recommend keeping an eye out for this which is due to be released on 7th April 2022.

@livreads_ on Instagram

Was this review helpful?

None of this is Serious is a novel about growing up, social media, and existentialism in the modern world, and how to act when both your life and the world feel like they're falling apart. Sophie's degree is over and she and her friends have to find what to do next, but whilst her friends seem to have plans, and her perfect twin sister seems sorted, Sophie can't find purpose or a job. When a crack appears in the sky, it feels like just another thing, but Sophie can't help but read everything online about it. At the same time, she's trying to balance being in love with her friend Finn, whose focus seems to be on other girls, and chatting online with Rory who is new and exciting.

The book, told through Sophie's perspective, combines the large scale crisis (the crack in the sky) with both the personal (Sophie's relationships and friends, and her attempts to find a job) and the societal (the housing crisis and the general situation in Dublin with gentrification). Social media and the internet looms over everything, and the way Sophie uses it is perhaps the most interesting thing about the book, showing someone who is drawn into the internet and what people present there in ways that go beyond just being stuck on her phone all the time. The background depiction of how people, both on the internet and not, react to the crack in the sky was also good, with it being something that easily would become memes and references even when it seems to be a symptom of the climate crisis.

I did find at times that the way Sophie is presented, always seeing everyone else as out for her and not recognising the support she gets from her best friend, made it frustrating to read, though it is an important part of the book and her behaviour and viewpoints do lead up to the ending. As it is from her point of view, her friends feel underdeveloped and like you don't really know them, which again, is part of how Sophie is seeing her life.

This is a book that probably some people will find very moving and fresh, and others will find a bit wearing. It's a story about feeling more real in a virtual world and dealing with the absurdity of modern existence, confronting huge scale crises whilst also trying to keep your own life on some kind of track.

Was this review helpful?

I devoured this book, it was such a good read and so relatable with the obsessive nature of social media and the effect and hold it has on peoples lives. It was both funny and heartwrenching, I was engaged straight from the beginning.

Was this review helpful?