As I started reading 'Odd Hours', I was filled with anticipation and excitement. The book had been recommended to me by a friend, and I had heard great things about it. However, as I delved deeper into the story, I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't living up to its hype. While it was still an enjoyable read, it didn't quite capture my attention in the way that I had hoped it would. Unfortunately, this read just wasn't for me.

Gosia, our heroine, is also a sort of anti-heroine- she lies, stalks and is not particularly easy to root for for much of the book.

But yet, we do. She is, at the heart of it, trying, albeit with a lot of failing.

She is stuck in a job she hates, giving the little money she saves to her father to help him pay off his debts, and she does not seem to have any particularly long-lasting friendships. She is in love with a man who will likely never like her, partly because she is stalking him.

And yet in the bleakness, this book has a lot to laugh about. The reader is invited to laugh at the absurdity of it all, as Gosia looks to a self-help guide written with all the sincerity and insight of someone who watched one TED talk and decided they were a guru.

Although I think the book could have pushed some of these to even more absurdity, it was a pleasantly funny and heartwarming book, and you do find yourself rooting for Gosia, who slowly finds that she is rooting for herself too.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Odd Hours by Ania Bas is a novel about an endearingly flawed character - at turns both funny and sad.

Gosia, our heroine, is also a sort of anti-heroine- she lies, stalks and is not particularly easy to root for for much of the book.

But yet, we do. She is, at the heart of it, trying, albeit with a lot of failing.

She is stuck in a job she hates, giving the little money she saves to her father to help him pay off his debts, and she does not seem to have any particularly long-lasting friendships. She is in love with a man who will likely never like her, partly because she is stalking him.

And yet in the bleakness, this book has a lot to laugh about. The reader is invited to laugh at the absurdity of it all, as Gosia looks to a self-help guide written with all the sincerity and insight of someone who watched one TED talk and decided they were a guru.

Although I think the book could have pushed some of these to even more absurdity, it was a pleasantly funny and heartwarming book, and you do find yourself rooting for Gosia, who slowly finds that she is rooting for herself too.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Gosia Golab is stuck. Her parents have dramatically split up and might be leaving her sister homeless, her cheating ex is getting married and writing a self-help book that definitely seems to be referencing her a bit too much, her flatmates are unbearable, and she can barely afford to help her broke dad with the meagre wages from the 24-hour supermarket she works at.

But at least at work she gets to see her true love, even though he doesn't quite seem to want to take it further than occasionally using her checkout. Gosia needs help to get out of the hole she's in … even if it's from a stupid book written by her stupid ex.

First things first - this book is not happy. Gosia is not a likeable character, she's a mean, vindictive, unlikeable and sometimes cringe-worthy person. This book is grey and dreary and bitter - and that's exactly why it was great.

This unique social commentary is compellingly angry, reminding us that sometimes life just sucks, and people are not perfect by any means. Darkly funny, dry and painfully witty - it borders on satire while managing to stay somewhat grounded in reality.

The storytelling was undeniably compelling - told through book excerpts, social media posts, diaries, magazines all weaved in with the brilliantly fast-moving, quirky narrative to create a distinctly interesting reading experience.

If you've ever felt angry at the world, you should definitely read this book.

Odd Hours is the first novel by British author, Ania Bas. The one redeeming feature of Gosia Golab’s dead-end job in a 24/7 supermarket is that the Man Of Her Dreams always chooses her checkout. She hates sharing her flat with Lindsey Oates because that includes encounters with her boyfriend, wannabe cop Kevin Harris, who seems to think she murdered their neighbour.

Her father has apparently told a lie so bad that her mother has thrown him out, something to do with a parcel from Poland, but no one is revealing quite what it was. Her mother’s plans to sell their house have her younger sister fearful she will be on the street with her twins soon. Her mother, though, is set on paying for the upcoming wedding of her favourite child, their brother, Bernie.

Meanwhile, her father is living in the allotment shed and relying on cash handouts that Gosia can ill afford. One outlet for her emotions is the online poetry platform, where contributors’ comments range from encouraging to insulting to self-promotional.

When she discovers that her cheating ex-boyfriend Andy has, with his new wife, Margaret, written and published a self-help book titled “The Bulletproof Guide to Sorting Out Your Life: Work, Money, Free Time, Family, Friendship and Love.” she’s curious, and torn between not wanting to spend a cent that will go to this pair, and wanting to see what they’ve come up with. Improvement on all fronts of her life would be welcome, but how to achieve it? Despite the fact that the book contains many derogatory references to Andy's toxic ex (ie Gosia), she begins to follow the advice contained therein.

The format of this novel is a combination of straight narratives interspersed with posts and comments from the online poetry platform, entries from flatmate Lindsey's personal diary, social media posts, magazine quizzes, and extracts from Andy and Margaret’s self-help book.

Gosia isn’t all that likeable to begin with: her revenge tactic against Andy is really nasty, she has no qualms about reading a private diary or accessing private information on a secure database. She does have a soft side, stemming from the people-pleaser attitude instilled by her Irish mother. Does she eventually redeem herself with those in her life who really matter?

Gosia’s efforts with the Man Of Her Dreams, while a source of some humour, progress from comic to tragic. The astute reader may predict that the loud, fat, obnoxious guy who keeps getting in her space will play an important role, but there are a few little twists on the why and the how to keep it interesting. The story is real and gritty at times but also often darkly funny. An entertaining, thought-provoking and uplifting debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Welbeck Publishing

* I was provided with a free ebook copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for this.

Odd Hours is a quirky novel following Gosia, a woman in her 30s who works in a supermarket, as her life starts to fall apart. Her parents split, she is infatuated with a stranger she serves at work and her living situation leaves a lot to be desired. This book is well written, none of the characters are particularly likeable but they are all interesting and complex. The writing style is very unique, almost satirical but quite poignant at times.

Fans of Convenience Store Woman and Fleabag will enjoy this book.

I rated it 4/5 stars and not 5 stars because I personally thought it was a bit too long, but it is a great read.

From looking at the cover and reading the synopsis I thought this would be similar to Convenience Store Woman perhaps with a little more humour. However I found this book slightly disappointing. I have given it a 2 star rating which is low for me but had it not been for the inclusion of bad poetry and sections written in the style of a self help book it would have been a 3 star read for me. Personally these sections added nothing to the book and I would have preferred it to simply focus on the main character Gosia and her story. Other than that it was a simple easy read that just didn't seem to go anywhere.

It's a debut novel written by an author with a background in arts promotion and I'd like to see her maybe incorporate more of that in her work in future.

**Thank you to Netgalley & Welbeck Publishing UK for the ARC, in exchange of an honest review**

Thank you to NetGalley Welbeck Publishing UK for this ARC.


Throughout the novel, we follow Gosia, she's sad, and pathetic even but she does feel real. Gosia's a 30-year-old cashier in an unethical supermarket. Occasionally, she checks out items for the love of her life (a random man she stares at and is convinced will fall in love with her too). We even witness her beautiful seduction of him wherein she gives him 69 points on his loyalty card every time he shops because obviously romance isn't dead.

Reading this book felt very similar to watching the show fleabag to me. Just as enjoyable and with a character that makes decisions you couldn't justify or understand. There were parts where I couldn't stand Gosia but by the end, I felt like I grew with her. Reading this book was like I was reading her diary where I had to see her mess up and hate her for it but also I see her suffer and love her for still trying. It's a contemporary novel about following a life through friendships, mistakes, lessons learnt and lessons ignored. In the end, you either hate it or you love it.

if this is full of errors idk what to say I'm sleepy

For this particular review I am not so sure how to write about.
I didn’t connect at akl to any of the characters and I couldn’t gel with this particular writing style.
It was a very creative and brave project and really does shake the recent uprising genre of young adrift sad women.
For this particular young sad woman, I felt she was very fleshed out and although I didn’t always agree with the choices she made I completely understood them and knew that it was her purpose not to be entirely likeable or easy-I really liked that aspect, and I felt that was the best developed section of this book,
However, for me, I felt everything was too flat and grey, I didn’t feel anything came to life so vibrant and glowing and I didn’t feel at all connected to any of the characters, situation, writing,
I don’t fault the book on that, this is entirely my personal reaction to the book and I know other reviewers have connected deeply.
The end chapters were the best for me-I felt they were written very well, had a wonderful pace and life to them but overall I just felt some of in between about everything.
I will definitely try coming back to see how I feel another time,

Meet Gosia……She’s a sensitive soul with a filthy mouth and problems with intimacy.
From shifts in a well-lit budget supermarket to nights in a badly-lit Zone 3 flat share, she’s better off inside her own head……
But when a ticket out of there appears at her checkout, she can’t help wondering if there might be more to life than she bargained for! Beautifully written, with such heartfelt Storytelling.

I really enjoyed this book, a bit slow to get started but I soon found myself invested. I loved the writing style and I was really rooting for Gosia. I think this book would be perfect for fans of Naoise Dolan’s Exciting Times.

I feel like this is the perfect blend between "Convenience Store Woman" and "Woman, Eating", and if you check my ratings, you’ll notice I wasn’t keen on either of them. 

This being said, the writing was good, the characters complex and colourful. The chapters are super small and all start with a brief depiction of the scene, and even though a lot of them are set in the same places, Ania was able to give them something new every time, and it almost felt like the description mirrored the mental state of the main character.

The book doesn’t give much of Gosia's personality away to start with, the only snippets being from her flatmate’s diary entries or how her ex-boyfriend describes her in his book, depicting her as an unlikable person until late in the book as the story progresses. It’s very complex and the MC can be quite difficult to empathise with, but you start rooting for her as you go along and her personality develops.

This book is not for everyone, and it certainly wasn’t for me. It is cleverly written, with a witty, almost dark sense of humour. I think I’m just not the right audience.

I don't know if it's the book or if I'm just not the right audience for Odd Hours.
I pride myself on only including constructive feedback for a book, but I have to admit that I'm really struggling.

Gosia is an interesting character with gradually revealed depth, I can understand a difficult family life and have a lot of empathy for an unfulfilling job with no real money prospects.

What puzzles me is... well the point of this tale. It's incredibly introspective and a little depressing (books can be depressing of course but this seems unrelenting and bitter).
It doesn't appear to go anywhere or develop much - I think it has a lot of potential to be something exellent, it's just not there yet.

I blitzed through this book over the weekend as I just could not get enough. Light and witty I enjoyed every second. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Funny, irreverent and rather oddly charming. Think Convenience Store Woman if it was written by Otessa Moshfegh - and edited by Sall.y Rooney

I really struggled to find any empathy for the lead character in this book, so much so that it felt like a chore rather than a joy to read this novel.

Great contemporary read. Memorable.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access an advance copy of this book in exchange for my feedback.

I liked this book, it was well written with well developed characterisation and a good storyline that i found compelling and engaging. I found the protagonist weirdly likeable and detestable in equal measure which just added more to the storyline. definitely worth a read.

I genuinely enjoyed reading "Odd Hours". Not only as a fellow Pole, but mainly as a reader who is quite hard to please, when it comes to novels.

Ania Bas created an engaging, complex story with equally complex main character - one of those unlikable heroines you have your doubts about as the plot goes on.

The author intelligently explores the intersections of one's identity: their heritage, what motivates them, how they process their feelings. As the readers only get to know the main character's side of the story, there is no way to know how Gosia is perceived by her environment (apart from her flatmate's journal entries). But what's also truly compelling is the fact that some pieces of the storyline, i.e. the secrets of Gosia's family, remain unresolved - both for the heroine, and the readers. I also enjoyed the consistent structure of beginning each chapter with the description of the location.

Ania Bas skilfully combined the styles of prose, poetry, a self-help book and a diary that come together to create a truly unique and engaging story. Great debut.