I'd heard lots of people being really positive about this book but it never quite clicked for me, I could see why Piglet acted as she did in some ways but I found her to be a selfish and vaguely unlikeable character over all.
The descriptions of food were overwhelming and for me the depiction of the two eating disorders wasn't well done.
The very final recipe/cook did sound amazing however!

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

Piglet is engaged to Kit, happily ensconced in a new house and planning her wedding. An excellent cook who has made it her profession, she is making her own wedding cake. Her life is one of careful reinvention - she has been brought up in Derby by working class parents with old-fashioned values, set routines and a hopeless lack of understanding of their two daughters, though their hearts are in the right place. Her new home, a decent distance away in Oxford, and Kit, her soon-to-be-husband from a wealthy middle-class family, are her chance to put her childhood behind her.

When, less than a fortnight before the wedding, Kit reveals a terrible secret (never revealed), Piglet's carefully constructed perfect life begins to unravel, and she just doesn't know how to handle it - so she doesn't. She decided the wedding will go ahead, and all will be normal. Except it isn't, because things have to be faced not suppressed. And her physical hunger grows as the emptiness inside goes unaddressed. Her childhood nickname takes on more disturbing overtones as the reasons for it are revealed and binge-eating becomes her own way of not dealing with the threat of chaos in her life.

I didn't really warm to this book, or to Piglet. It is billed as literary fiction, but presented as a lighter read. We see Piglet's life unravelling from the outside, looking in, and she never becomes a real, rounded character. I found it incredibly frustrating that Kit's great confession is never defined - it bothered me that I felt I therefore couldn't make up my own mind about whether Piglet was overreacting, or was right to be stunned, or her trauma was justified. I know what should matter is not the details but her feelings, but it made it much harder to empathise. It also bothered me that in this day and age, a woman who had successfully distanced herself from a family that had traumatised her, and reinvented herself, would be so devastated at the idea of not being married after all. And without giving too much away, some of the metaphors really are laid on rather thick.

It's a moderately interesting read, but not especially insightful as a character portrait or an examination of everyday family trauma or eating disorders.

First big hype book of 2024 from my TBR! And to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about it.

We meet Piglet in the build-up to her wedding to Kit and everything seems to be going to plan - she's got the great job, the attentive and loving fiance from a well-to-do family, just managed to buy a house. From the outside, everything is going well. Piglet LOOOVES food and cooking, and a lot of detail is given to her planning, preparing and eating it.

Then Kit drops a bombshell a couple of weeks before the big day - and, well, things get a bit weird. We don't get much conversation from Piglet even though things are told from her POV, there isn't much in the way of insight into what is going on or the reasons for her acting the way she does or making the decisions she goes ahead with. As a reader, I would have liked to know a bit more about what was going on inside her head.

I don't want to go into too much detail and giveaway any spoilers - I am sure lots and lots of people will read this and absolutely love it - but for me, it fell a bit flat. I enjoyed the food descriptions, I liked meeting the supporting characters, I was initially hooked by what was going on - but by the end, I still wasn't an awful lot clearer about what had been happening. I struggled to empathise with Piglet although it was clear she had a lot going on we are kept on the outside looking in so I didn't feel very invested.

As some other reviewers have mentioned, this is likely to be a love-it-or-hate-it kindof book and while I didn't hate it exactly I think it's fair to say I don't think I really GOT it.

Piglet is the nickname given to our main character in childhood. We join her life in the weeks leading up to her wedding. We find out over the course of the book that Piglet feels disconnected from much of her family and is desperate for a better life. She seems to have found it with her fiancé Kit and his well to do parents. But Kit then shares a secret which not only threatens to derail the wedding but all of Piglet’s carefully laid plans for her life.

This is a promising debut novel from the author who somehow manages to weave together many different themes including classism, eating disorders, family dynamics and the changing nature of friendships as your grow older. And as other reviewers have already mentioned, there are some wonderful food descriptions which will leave your stomach rumbling. However, I found it difficult to understand all of Piglet’s decisions and actions. They become a bit clearer towards the end when an internal monologue summarises it all very succinctly. I don’t want to go into too much detail and spoil it for readers but I just felt like there was something missing from the earlier descriptions.

While I enjoyed reading this book (and I think it will be popular with others) I feel like it didn’t quite live up to the hype that I have seen about it online. But the author is clearly very talented and I look forward to reading future novels from them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Don’t read this book when you’re hungry or you’ll eat your entire kitchen, it’s got some very tasty things to eat in it.

Piglet as everyone calls her is on the countdown to her wedding with Kit, she works for a cook book publisher so she knows her food. Kit confesses to a betrayal 2 weeks before the wedding and everything gets untangled. Piglet uses food as her emotional helper. Will the wedding go ahead?

This is a deep book, it hits nerves about people’s views to larger people. I found Piglets family to her eating problems and didn’t like them much. Kit was an arrogant character who thought he could get everything he wanted. I felt sorry for Piglet, she was sad and food made her happy.

This is a lovely written book with great descriptions especially food. I liked the message that the author is putting across that size doesn’t matter.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy.

Review: Piglet by Lottie Hazell

Two weeks before her wedding, Piglet’s life comes crashing down as her fiancé confesses what he had done. While the storytelling counts down the days towards their big day she tries to hold everything together despite her life falling apart. Piglet, who edits cookbooks as a career, engages in self-destructive behavior to cope with the situation she was put in. The secret she keeps as a promise to her fiancé is tearing her up inside as she struggles with more difficult relationships with her parents and best friend. Would they be supportive of her if they knew?

It’s been some time since I read a book this fast. This study of an imploding relationship only took me one snowy weekend to finish. The book does a great job in exploring the concept of eating your feeling, how commonly bodyshaming is in family settings (Piglet is her family’s nickname for her) and how binge eating can be a trauma response. Using a countdown towards the wedding as a storytelling element does a great job in feeling the pressure that has been put on Piglet to make a decision for herself. Big reading recommendation :)

The cover of this book appeals to the eye, the luscious food descriptions woven throughout this novel are almost like a character in themself, they appeal to the hunger you feel reading this and the unsettling almost claustrophobic story will appeal to some part of you but you won't be sure where. Like a hunger for a specific food but you're not sure what that food is or an itch on your shoulder, you can't quite reach to scratch, almost intolerable but with the promise of future satisfaction.

This is one of early 2024's most anticipated reads, I have seen it everywhere. Is it worthy of its hype? For me, absolutely yes. I think it will be a decisive read, some will love it, some will recognise a lot in this book, some will hate it but it's definitely a book worthy of discussion, a good book club choice.

As the book begins, Piglet ( a childhood nickname that stuck) is a few months out from her wedding to the handsome Kit, they have a lovely home, Piglet loves to cook and is a cookbook editor, she has good friends, she has worked hard to have this dream life and everything is going per her plan . Then two weeks before her wedding , Kit confesses a horrible betrayal and Piglet's perfectly planned life implodes. She is torn, angry and hungry.

This was a captivating, tense and clever read. I can't say it was enjoyable as such ( bar the exquisitely captured food descriptions) but it's exceptionally well written and impossible to put down. It's uncomfortable, familiar, thought provoking, anger inducting, witty, heartbreaking and will make you hungry. Female rage, class, ambition, gender expectations, class divides, loyalty and control. So many themes are subtlety crafted throughout and there is a woman in the centre of it who isn't always likeable but who quietly broke my heart.

A superbly written novel ,I am looking forward to more from Lottie Hazell and to hearing what others think of this book.

4-4.5 stars.

Hmmmm... not sure how I feel about this one! Definitely different and I enjoyed some parts, but it did feel like I was rushing through a lot of it just to get to the ending, which again was a little weird.

"It was too hot for a roast chicken, but Piglet had once heard Nigella say something about a house only being a home once a chicken was in the oven. And anyway, there would be salads. One chopped and scattered with feta and sumac, another leafy with soft herbs. New potatoes, boiled and dotted with bright salsa verde. Bread and two types of butter: confit garlic, and parmesan and black pepper. There would be cold wine and open windows, patio doors thrown wide. It would look and taste exquisite."

If that paragraph alone doesn't make your mouth water and want to read on, this is not the book for you!! It's fair to say that I devoured this book. I was captivated by the writing style and the elegant way the author spools out the story of Piglet and Kit. Piglet has taken such care to build up an image of herself that will be palatable to the outside world and it's devastating to her when Kit reveals a secret 13 days before the wedding that could shatter everything.

Food is used throughout the novel as the way Piglet displays her emotions - elaborate dinner parties showing her care of friends, ordering everything on the menu at an Indian restaurant to comfort herself after the revelation - and this is used to greatest effect with the creation of her wedding cake, a towering croquembouche. I think Piglet uses food and eating it as a way to keep complicated emotions squashed down inside herself - literally, eating her feelings.

I read The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood at university. It's been a few years now, but I think there are similar themes across both novels about marriage and what it means for women - and the complicated relationship we have with food and emotion. I recently read Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda, which also explores similar themes through the medium of vampirism in a contemporary context.

I couldn't read this fast enough. The scenes of Piglet getting ready for her wedding day were so excruciatingly awkward! I just had to know what would happen next throughout the novel. If you're looking for a tense, moving and mouth-watering novel with a layered female protagonist, this is for you. A great novel for a book club too!

I really loved aspects of this, particularly the exploration of indulging your pleasures as a woman and the societal shame around this. These were often expressed through delectable descriptions of food, but they were also corrosive and self-destructive episodes. What I didn’t love was while I understand a certain decision Hazell made, it made me crave more from the ending.

This is definitely a marmite book. It is well written has a great pace and keeps you hanging on to find out what Kit actually did. Quite domestic noir.

Thank you so much to the publishers, I was really grateful to receive an eArc on NetGalley for an honest review, so I feel like I should be completely transparent. The novel left me with more questions than answers, and not in a good way. I can't obviously go into detail with my questioning, as that would reveal massive spoilers. 

I think I'll start with what I did like. Lottie had an unusual way of writing the story and letting the events unfold, which I actually really enjoyed. It created a lot of suspense. I also liked that the information was withheld throughout, so it kept you wanting to read more and more to find out what was going on. The opening scenes were great, and I loved the attention to detail that was put into the food and cooking (sometimes).

I think the main parts that let it down for me, without revealing anything, is the nickname, Piglet. I get it's a family nickname due to them constantly pointing out Piglet's greed, but this was obviously uncomfortable for Piglet, so I'm not sure why it was necessary to use it throughout the whole novel. Another weird thing was the binge eating, it was never actual said, but it was obvious that that's what was happening, however, in some scenes it felt so far fetched and exaggerated, which I felt didn't do the ED justice. I would have liked more internal dialogue from Piglet to understand why she needed to gorge: Was it punishment, pleasure, guilt, greed, all of these? I just felt like the whole novel was lacking emotion, really, and Piglet never actually spoke about anything, which made her quite an unlikeable character. I actually didn't feel any empathy towards her at all, and in fact, it made me feel sorry for all those around her. 

The final scene was strange, in my opinion, too. I did, and I didn't get it. It was a little bit of a letdown, and I just wanted some clarification on a few things, but it wasn't given. Instead, I read how to cook linguine. 

Sometimes, I feel like I just don't GET a book, and this is probably the case in this instance.

This was such a clever story, told largely through (mouth watering) descriptions of food. I really felt for Piglet throughout - for her feeling stuck in her relationship and wanting the perfect life, to seeing her interactions with her family, and how keeping her sister's secret led to her parents having an incorrect negative view of her.
I was gripped throughout, wondering if she was actually going to go through with the wedding.
A fantastic debut.

Loved the way the story unfolds through an unusual narrative choice, with characters developing alongside increasingly intense descriptions of food. Hard to read in some parts (in a good way), I’m absolutely traumatised by the croquembouche…

A great novel filled with musings about betrayal and greed and sprinkled with subtle commentary on social class told through tantalising descriptions of food. Couldn’t think of a more perfect book for me! I devoured this in one sitting. Definite must read.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC :)

Different - definitely different!

Piglet is a young woman engaged to be married and looking forward to wedded bliss with Kit, her fiance. 13 days before the wedding he decides to 'fess up' and tell Piglet a secret which has obviously been bugging him. And still she keeps going, working towards her dream wedding day. A lover of good food, she walks a tightrope between creating veritable feasts and being incapable of stopping herself indulging in them. As the wedding day approaches, will she go through with it?

This is a well-written book which kept me glued to the pages but the one question which kept bugging me was never answered! While I realise that the answer to it wasn't really the focus point of the story, I would have liked to know. Things like that irritate me, and it definitely took the shine off. However, this is very readable. Poor Piglet - I don't think we ever got to know her real name; families can be so cruel, can't they? I'd be lying if I didn't say that this has prompted some considerable thought on my part and I agree that it would be a good book club read, but the missing answer definitely let it down for me. 4*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

I was so looking forward to this book, ever since I saw the tagline "Her life is so full, so why is she hungry?"

I was hungry for a good book and here's how the meal went.

Starter:

It's tasty so far, a well described setting and there are lavish descriptions of food which will continue throughout the book. We're straight away immersed in Piglets world as part of a young couple about to get married. We meet all the main people in her life quickly as well as start to understand the different dynamics within each relationship. We also find out that her childhood nickname Piglet has quite an upsetting back story.

Main:

Something is confessed, Kit (Piglets future husband) has done something or kept something from Piglet but decides he wants to tell her before they are married. What then happens is her deciding what she wants to do about the revelation while also continuing with her preparations for the wedding and having some moments where her hunger overtakes her and she has to sate it. She confides in her friends and family and we start to understand more about the complexity of those relationships too.

Dessert:

After not finding out what Kits revelation was, seeing Piglet make her decision and how the story unfolds felt quite frustrating. I wanted to know what had Kit had confessed! I thought maybe we're not told because the whole point of the story is that it's about Piglet finding her fulfilment within herself and not about the external sources of happiness etc so it's sort of irrelevant what Kit told her. But for that to really work I felt I needed to know Piglet more than I did. I actually feel that considering she's the MC I hardly knew her at all, perhaps that's because she didn't really know herself yet and just knew how she fitted in to other people's perceptions of her.

Digestif:

I would recommend this book but with a pinch of salt, as you may still feel hungry afterwards.

Thanks to #doubleday for my review copy.

This book was a true feast. I read it front to back in less than a day, I couldn't put it down!

The story pulls us through Piglet's life from the run up to her wedding to its aftermath, and wow. What a whirlwind. I won't say much more as I don't want to give the whole plot away - you'll just have to read it for yourself.

This is the sort of book that had me highlighting passage after passage, considering my own greedy behaviours and the encouragement of capitalism on our daily lives. I think that fans of Sally Rooney would really enjoy this, also Ottessa Moshfegh too! There were moments that really made me think of Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss, where you couldn't help but ache for Piglet on her path of self destruction and subsequent rebirth. Exhillerating writing.

Piglet appears to lead the perfect life… lovely home , great job on a food magazine and handsome fiancé. But 98 days before the wedding her fiancé admits to a terrible betrayal and Piglets world falls apart. Agreeing to go ahead with the wedding Piglet turns to food for comfort as she has done all her life. The food descriptions within this novel are wonderful but the character’s relationship with food I found rather problematic. The disparity between Kits and Piglets family was rather formulaic.. the salt of the earth working class( although what parent would use and continue to use the nickname Piglet for their child) verses the uncaring image conscious upper class. The wedding scene did have me chucking and cheering for Piglet. Overall an engaging read. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

I found this an incredibly tense and moving read. As the wedding gets closer and closer and Piglet is unravelling the tension was almost unbareable. I was depserate for someone to notice what was happening to her and stop the car crash wedding from happening. I liked that the reader never learns what the terrible secret Kit confesses to Piglet is, we dont need to know, the fact that it shatters the illusion she has created around their relationship is enough. I really felt for Piglet and hated that everyone called her that, she is the ultimate people pleaser turning herself into whatever they want her to be, to the point that she no longer knows who she is. Food is a very central character in the book, it offers comfort, fear, class and intimidation. This was a really interesting read that I could not put down having to read it in one sitting much like Piglet would. The book offers a look at the different social classes, complicated family dynamics and the importance of friendship and self love.