User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars. A solid debut novel. This would make a great indie film adaptation since it’s like a coming-of-age story for adults in their late 20s. I enjoyed the way this book opened up with the hazy yet romantic memories of the night the protagonist had, right as she is at the cusp of an existential life crisis. The author has a strong grasp of their own writing style where it’s lyrical and contemplative. Pairing this with a coming-of-age narrative will definitely make this book resonate with the specific audience the author is writing for.
The focal point of this book is the self-development of the protagonist rather than her romance with the girl she just married, which more so serves as a catalyst for her existential crisis. I think that’s a great setup, and found many of the issues she dealt with her career to be very relatable. Her struggles dealing with being a minority in a predominantly white field, feeling like she has to give 110% of herself and be the best all the time in order to be recognized at work, but then also questioning why she’s working so hard for something she feels like she “should” excel at but doesn’t give her much joy… all of those things are extremely accurate to my own experience in my industry, as I’m sure it is for many women of color in many areas of work. There’s a specific moment where she indulges in this new relationship she has, and she says: “I just want one thing to be easy”. This is a moment I identified with the most. You work so hard, constantly trying to excel and prove yourself, but it gets so tiring to do that all the time. That desperate need to have just one easy thing in your life where you don’t have to be “on” is such a relatable reprieve.
Although I find the themes to be relatable and am sure will resonate with many readers, I personally couldn’t find myself resonating as strongly. One major reason is that it’s very clear what the author is trying to do with this straightforward storyline and the protagonist’s character arc to the point where I felt like I was spoon-fed these things. The protagonist constantly emphasizes she has to be “the best”, has an overly strict dad that keeps telling her their family must be “the best”, her friends joke about how she loves to plan everything in advance, etc. It’s very in-your-face and sets up a predictable path: you know you’re basically going to read about how a type-A overachiever learns to confront familial and societal pressures by choosing her own happiness and joy. There’s no surprises, twists, or room for interpretation - it’s all spelled out for you.
The second major reason I didn’t vibe as much with this book is that as I kept reading on, I realized the writing was too saccharine for me. I found a lot of the lines and dialogue to be cheesy and trying too hard to be romantic, deep, or contemplative. Examples: the excessive amount of times that the characters call each other by their full names (no one talks like that unless they’re a cheesy indie film), the love interest going on tangents about how we’re all “lonely creatures waiting to be found”, and even a scene where, after the characters got into a fight, one of them texted to the other: “I didn’t know when you said you didn’t believe in monsters that you didn’t believe in me too”. These things were all too much for my tastes and bordered on Tumblr sentimentalities. Ultimately, the story didn’t hit me with the kind of poignancy the author was trying to go for, but I still think the book will be great for specific readers who are looking for this and will feel seen by this.
Rating: really liked it
Fuck me this was absolutely exquisite and I need everyone to read it immediately
This book is for every twenty-something who feels lost in a sea of expectation, for every person dealing with the existential dread that comes with the end of formal education and the start of your life in the real world. This book is for every lonely creature shouting into the dark and hoping that someone is listening.
This book is brillant in so many ways but to step away from the overdramatic poetics let me tell you what this story is about. In Honey Girl we follow Grace Porter, a 28 year old astronomer who has just finished her doctorate and who is struggling to find a job due to a number of systemic barriers in place as her womanhood, her blackness, and her queerness alienate her from her peers in the field. On a trip to Las Vegas, Grace wakes up hungover, with a ring on her finger and champagne soaked memories of a girl that smelled of flowers and sea salt. From here we follow Grace on her delayed odyssey of self discovery as she attempts to naviagate her intense burnout and existential angst.
Grace was so relatable to me and I adored her in all her complexities. This book is full to the brim with love and tenderness, not just romantic love but familial and platonic love so profound that I wanted to cry literally on every page. Grace's found family, her new wife, her new friends and the love they shared together made me so overwhelmed with emotion and any lover of the found family trope will enjoy this immensely. My favorite aspect of this is the fact that Grace has so many people who love her and care about her but this can't prevent her from feeling her lonely, burnt out, overwhelmed feelings. Loneliness is a feeling, not a state of being. That felt so real to me and I just loved being a witness to Grace's internal battles, I loved seeing Grace be loved and loving her friends so much it hurt. I just...I'm truly undone by this book, I'm tearing up just typing this shitty little review. Please read this stunning debut. It made me swoon, it made me cry, the writing is so stunningly beautiful and I've absolutely found my new favorite book. Please read it. Just Read It.
Pre-release thoughts: F/F romance??? Married in Vegas trope??? Black women in love!?? Own voices???? GIMME GIMME GIMME
Rating: really liked it
*1.5 stars*
Y'all... what is this? What. Is. It.
Now, I knew pretty much 30 or so pages in that this book would not be for me, but since this was one of my most anticipated reads for the first quarter, I pushed through. Unfortunately, it only went downhill.
My first impression of this book is that the whole "plot" was covered within the first 20 pages and kind of rinse-repeats throughout the book. Grace Porter (ugh, never wanna see that name again, Rogers repeats it SO MUCH) has just finished her PhD in astronomy and isn't sure what she wants to do next, but she feels immense pressure from her emotionally distant father to make something of herself. She goes to Vegas with her best friends and wakes up married to a Manic Pixie Japanese Girl from Brooklyn. That's really about it. This would be an intriguing story if it was written with any depth.
My biggest issue with Honey Girl is that it doesn't feel authentic AT ALL. Rogers relies far too heavily on corny imagery and dreamy diversity aesthetics in her writing rather than exploring relationships and conflict between the characters.
None of these characters were believable to me. And I didn't care about Grace at all and I found her to be immature for someone who is supposed to be 28 years old. Even though I too am a queer Black millennial with burnout, I didn't identify with Grace's existential dread simply because I wasn't convinced she had any problems!!!! After spending soo many years getting her PhD (in astronomy, which I'm 100% Rogers chose b/c she's into astrology and wanted to make a million universe/star metaphors), she had a job lined up in her advisor's lab but didn't want it. Cool. She bombed an interview. Ok. Then she acted like the world was ending and she would be homeless and her life would be over. Which was absolutely not the case.
She had the opportunity to take a break and do something else, working on an orange grove in Florida with her mother, but she cared way too much about her strict military father's approval, which she didn't have anyway because she didn't become a medical doctor like he expected her to. I can't even say that I understood their relationship dynamics because none of the dialogue was realistic! There's one part where she's about to go on this trip to Vegas and her dad is like "Don't let this trip ruin your chances of having a career" or something to that effect. Who says that to their 28 year old daughter??? No one.
I just didn't buy the characters in this book. No one had any depth, especially Grace's friends, and that made her relationships seem very cringe and forced. She allegedly loves her 2 friends "so much it hurts" but there was maybe one page of context for how they came to be so close, and they often just tell her not to cry and don't really provide meaningful support other than physical contact.
I pretty much didn't care for anyone in this book because they all seemed like distorted facsimiles of what "diversity" is supposed to look like. I didn't like that Grace is biracial--the author is a fat monoracial Black woman and that would've made a more compelling character TO ME--and she honestly read as a white girl. I didn't relate to her and the rare cultural conflicts/moments seemed half-baked and thrown in to remind the reader that you're supposed to be reading about a woman of color. Most of her friends were multi-ethnic and queer but it all felt so fake and more of what someone imagines cool Portland/New York gays are like rather than how they actually could be if they were actual people with depth.
The best line in this book actually is when one of Yuki's friends in Brooklyn is like "fuck white people!" and ironically that's the line that earned most of the 1 star reviews lmao
Even the romance part rang hollow to me. I didn't feel any connection to Grace and Yuki's relationship because it was based on cloudy images from a barely remembered drunken night in Vegas. I honestly would've just preferred if Rogers spent the book focusing on Grace's struggle to figure out her path in life and breaking free from her father's overbearing expectations. But alas, I had to read over and over her stilted entanglement with this Japanese waitress with a radio show who, for unclear reasons, is convinced Grace "was chosen by the sun" and her "honey gold hair" and "sea salt and crushed herbs" and "star girl" so many times I wanted to vom. NEXT!
_______________________________________
Hate to say it but this book was a huge disappointment.
Full, ranty review to come.
Rating: really liked it
5*you have my heart*stars to this!!❤️
Sending all the love I have to Morgan Rogers ❤️
Right now I am anything but calm plus I have been crying for an hour thinking about this book, the lonely creatures and what happens when you work too hard and don't know when to stop.
This book hit a bit too close to me , like if I say it's probably going to be one of my favourite books of 2021 it's going to be a bit of understatement .
"Lonely creatures, what makes us so different from the stories we tell in the dark?"
The book follows up a story of a black, lesbian, astronomer Grace Porter who like worked too hard her entire life to be what she is now and after everything is done she don't know what to do and then she meet a girl and get married to her and now she is like confused , scared , terrified that nothing is going according to her plans.
this is not a romance genre book; instead, it’s a coming-of-age novel with a romance. The book explores the theme of academic burnout, what happens when you want to stop but can't , lonely creatures who lurk in dark, what is loneliness?? , LOVE, friendship , importance of friendship, layers of friendship, mental health, LGBTQIAP+ representation of POC.
We will get back to each one of them.
Now moving on to characters but before that lets all thank the author for creating such likeable and realistic characters!
✒
Grace Porter :- black, lesbian, PhD student, astronomer, Grace has lived a non-stop life because she’s never allowed herself to take a break. Eventually she gets exhausted and explodes. Now speaking of Grace ( sunkissed girl ) , I can marry her , like literally she is a total waifu material plus she makes good coffee what else I need??
But personally her character hit a bit too close , like what happens when you are working nonstop towards something and you want to take a break but you can't because the entire world is gonna go ahead of you. It's this feeling that keeps me awake nights and how Morgan Rogers touched that small niche of my heart that I safe guarded for years. And now I can't stop crying everytime I think about it.
"Who else, Grace wonders, can understand loneliness if not someone who sits in solitude all their own?"
✒
Yuki :- Japanese - American ,lesbian, waitress , radioshow host and monster hunterNow Yuki is my bestfriend, I can go to lengths to protect her, dare say anything about her and her stories and I will break you. She is the most beautiful lonely girl I have ever read about and I just wanna make her mine , like I wanna spend nights with her listening to Japanese mythical folktales and getting drunk and talking anything but life.
"Maybe Plato knew something we didn’t. Or maybe the gods did, when they split us in half and left us to reclaim our missing fragments."
✒
Ximena (bisexual) Agnes ( bi/lesbian?) :- Grace's bestfriend + a couple Now if I get a chance I will make them my bestfriends too , like they are so cool and awesome , Ximena would be like our mom friend and Agnes would be like "dare say anything about my girls, it will be the last words you ever uttered from your goddamn mouth."
✒ Meera + Raj :- Indian- American , siblings duo, Grace's long time friends + extended family Raj would be my dad friend , like you know the one who advises you over life and shit , the wise and mature friend! Meera would be like "it's 2am wanna run off to somewhere". I love them soo much.
✒ Sani(trans character, black), Fletcher(Afro-Dominican-American, gay), Dorian(gay?) :- Yuki's roommates aka chaotic queer squad I loved how they were all chaotic and mature at the same time.
All these biracial and LGBTQIAP+ representation fills my heart with so much joy.
WLW " The words for wanting things to be as simple as they were on a desert night with just two girls and a locked promise."
I was pulled in because of the romance plotline: Grace gets married in Vegas to someone she doesn’t know, and after that, they start talking on the phone, getting to know each other and actually falling in love. But Again, this isn’t a romance genre book so it’s not super heavy on the romance after a certain part. That being said, I did love how Yuki helps Grace grow. They have such a soft love and I couldn’t help but smile at their scenes.
"Lonely creatures, she has learned, will always find each other."
The book also acknowledge how parents play a really really important role in shaping kids and what it means to actually fullfill there expectations and what happens when you try hard.
In short :- Honey Girl is a story of burnout: when you realize that you’re not happy and that you haven’t been happy in a long time and the journey to healing and finding happiness again.
"How long she can burn before there’s nothing left. How long a thing can be buried before it combusts."
And I think I have said enough and given you enough reasons to read this book. JUST READ IT.
Rating: really liked it
If you like:
- very purple and try-hardy prose with a style that is immediately apparent, never lets up, and is what I would politely describe as "not my cup of tea"
- characters who call each other inexplicable...nicknames? Including girlfriends call each other by their full name, first and last, or parents who call their children by their last name, which is also their last name, or ex-wives and offspring and current wives all referring to their ex-partner/permanent father/present husband as their military title
- adult novels that read like young adult novels but also don't
- spending the first two-thirds of a book thinking it's a clear easy one star and then kind of liking the last third but not really and maybe you just like it because it's different and that's refreshing
- cartoonish background characters with showy-not-telly relationships to the protagonist that don't make sense
- cartoonish main characters with...marriage to the protagonist? but ALSO it's a showy-not-telly relationship that ALSO doesn't make sense?
- 43 uses of the term "lonely creature"
- disliking a book so much that even though a copy of it has been waiting for you to pick up your order in your favorite bookstore, you'd rather cancel the order entirely than get any pile of novels that includes this one
then this is the book for you!
I, unfortunately, don't like any of those things.
Bottom line: Thank god I had my buddy read dream team to talk sh*t about this with. Otherwise I would have perished, probably. Or just been very annoyed.
Hard to say which is more likely.
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pre-reviewTragedy Befalls Four Cutest Readers As Extremely Belated Buddy Read Called "Universally Disappointing"
review to come / 2 stars
---------------
currently-reading updatesif the contents of this book aren't as lovely as the cover i'm giving up.
buddy read it took us four months to get to with the dream team---------------
reading all books with LGBTQ+ rep for pride this month!
book 1: the gravity of us
book 2: the great american whatever
book 3: wild beauty
book 4: the affair of the mysterious letter
book 5: how we fight for our lives
book 6: blue lily, lily blue
book 7: the times i knew i was gay
book 8: conventionally yours
book 9: the hollow inside
book 10: nimona
book 11: dark and deepest red
book 12: the house in the cerulean sea
book 13: the raven king
book 14: violet ghosts
book 15: as far as you'll take me
book 16: bad feminist
book 17: a song for a new day
book 18: one last stop
book 19: to break a covenant
book 20: honey girl
Rating: really liked it
I'm sure this book will work really well for a lot of people, but it was way too sappy and woo-woo for me. It's like the book version of a manic-pixie dream girl. Everyone in this book is Quirky™ and behaves like they're in a highly stylized indie film. So much of the dialogue made me cringe into myself. Like, seriously, who the fuck talks like that? It's all just so damn
corny.
I also struggled a
lot with the depiction of diversity and queer culture. My friend, with whom I was buddy reading this, had this to say: "It almost feels like they perform their social identities and their realities are refracted through these essentialist snippets of what it means to be part of that social identity." Which I think is just so
apt. Everything about these characters' identities feels so performative.
But I mean, who knows. The people in this book hit really close to a very specific subset of Brooklyn yuppie liberal, so maybe there
are people who are this corny in the real world, and it's just so far from my experience it feels unrealistic to me (even though I
am a queer woman of color living in NYC!).
The writing was sometimes really pretty, sometimes really over the top. A lot of scenes and conversations felt random and contrived. I preferred the book a lot more when Yuki, the love interest, was out of the picture. Honestly, if I hadn't been buddy reading this, and if it hadn't been so short, I probably would have DNF'd it. It felt like the worst combination of pretentious literary fiction and sappy romance. It was like walking through a cotton-candy soaked fever dream; nothing in it felt real.
Rating: really liked it
if this book is not a new favorite I am going to feel so betrayed
update: …I feel so betrayed
(get you a group of friends who all have unpopular opinions like you, though)
2.5 rounded down possibly, rtc
// buddy read with my favorite people
Rating: really liked it
"My question to all the lonely creatures out there is who is your siren? Who is your fellow lonely creature who sees into the very core of you and knows which song to sing? What song do they sing for you, and do you follow? What would happen if you did?"
this book. THIS BOOK! i went in hoping for a great sapphic romance and i came out with a new favorite book. this is a call to all the lost and lonely people stumbling to find their way in the world. to honey girls touched by the sun and girls who bloomed roses. it is so sapphic and wonderful and i loved every word.
its a coming of age story for everyone in their twenties who have been following one path for so long they don’t know where to go when they reach the end. with queer found families, sapphic love, monster hunting and discussions of mental health, this book is truly special.
Rating: really liked it
ARC provided by the publisher the layers of this book? everything. this is such an important (and such a swoon-worthy, lyrical, beautiful) read. rtc! <3
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Rating: really liked it
4.50 Stars. This book! Honey Girl was on my list for most anticipated books of 2021. When I found out I was accepted for a review copy, I could not have been happier. I went into this book with a lot of high expectations and I’m happy to say that this book was excellent.
Grace is a hard worker and planner. She wants to be the best and needs to be the best, but everything starts to change after a drunken night in Vegas. A night that leaves her married to a women she doesn’t even know and who lives on the opposite side of the country. Can Grace pick up the pieces to get right back on track, or will Grace realize there is more to life than just what she planned?
I want to first start off by mentioning that this book is really more contemporary fiction, and coming of age, then it is a romance. It does have a romance, I just figured it would be more romance focused then it actually was. I ended up still loving the book so it wasn’t an issue for me, but if you go into this expecting more of a heavy romance you might be disappointed.
My biggest recommendation would be to have a box of tissues next to you while reading this. This book made me a blubbering mess and I stopped counting after I went through twelve tissues. This is not a depressing book, but it is a very emotional book. It’s about being lonely even when you are surrounded by people, it’s about needing to be accomplished and to prove to others that you made it in your life, and finally it’s about dealing with sexism and systematic racism. While there were some things I could personally relate to, there was plenty that I could not relate to. And in those cases, not relating didn’t matter one bit. It’s like I felt every emotional part deep down in my soul and the book just kept wrecking me. It’s such a testament to the fantastic writing that you feel so completely invested in the main character of Grace. Trust me and bring the tissues, you will need them.
While this book could be a little more cerebral at times, I still found it very easy to be just completely absorbed by it. I read this in one sitting and I could not put the book down until I was done. I only paused to get more tissues and that was it. I loved the mix of diverse characters and found all of the secondary characters to be almost as well written as Grace. I thought the book talked about mental health in an honest way and everything just seemed well done. Really, the only baby complaint is that I wished for a little bit more. I could have used a tad more time on the romance, say maybe another chapter. And I wished the ending was just a hair longer. Actually, what would have been perfect would have been an epilogue. I know this is not a story that needed to have everything tied up in a big fat bow, but I still wanted a little more. I wanted one peek at future Grace and I think an epilogue would have made this book just about perfect for me.
This is one of the better books I have read this year and I would easily recommend it. Just be aware, this book is a bit more on the cerebral contemporary fiction side than the romance side. It was wonderfully written and really got to me emotionally. Morgan Rogers is a name I won’t soon forget and I can’t wait to read more by her.
An ARC was given to me for a honest review.
Rating: really liked it
loved this <3 beautiful, contemplative, and very very healing for anyone feeling like there's just too much closing in on them
Rating: really liked it
April 30, 2021
“It’s hard. This living in the real-world thing? Facing my problems head-on? A hundred percent don’t recommend.”
The thing is, I can't stop thinking about this book. And during the last 20 days I couldn't stop thinking about these characters and how they make me feel loved, I realised something.
It'll be a weird comparison, but I want to recommend this book to all of my fellow Wolfsong/Green Creek fans. If you are looking for similar vibes to the writing style and the family/friend relationships, you are in the perfect place.
April 10, 2021
I wanted to start my review with how I don't understand why the overall rating is not above 4 star, but watching/reading other opinions I think I get it.
It was advertised as a rom-com, and it's not. It's more about mental health, family, and finding yourself, your purpose. The romance is actually the subplot, so I can understand if those who came for that were disappointed. But fortunately for me, hard-hitting contemporary is my favorite genre. It made the story even better for me.
The prose was so beautiful and warm. The main friendship... oh lord. I'm a hoe for friendships with a lot of physical contact/touching, and what these three ladies have came directly from my dreams. I want that for me. They were one big comfy hug. Like when you can't decide if the love is romantic or very deep friendship? *chef's kiss*
I can't do justice to this beautiful, magical book with my review. You should go read it.
A new favorite. Absolutely adored it.
Definitely a reread material.
Rating: really liked it
3.5 stars I liked this book. A lot.
What I loved about this story was Grace and
her story. Meaning that I was really invested in reading about her struggles and how she comes to understand herself more through a lot of soul searching. That whole
existential dread and burnout element really worked because I think it’s a prevalent issue among 20- somethings who have finished higher education but haven’t stopped to think of what comes next or if what comes next aligns with all their personal goals or if it’s just another tick on the long list of existence.
I could relate to the main character even if on paper we couldn’t be more different. Maybe it’s a commonality that our generation shares.. I don’t know, but all her doubts, her disappointments, her questions, they rang highly familiar.
The one part of the story I wasn’t so engrossed in, was the romance. I understand that the whole “
got married in Vegas and don’t even remember doing it” is how the plot gets put into motion, but I just didn’t like Yuki and their blossoming relationship just lacked something.
But, all that being said, I did love the overall message of the book and that the main focus was on Grace figuring out who she is and what she wants. Learning to accept and love herself. The reflections on mental health were also well handled, and the many other issues discussed such as education did make for a very introspective read.
Rating: really liked it
ok so i really enjoyed this book. it’s character driven, funny, and super relatable. the writing was phenomenal in my opinion. it’s very lyrical and poetic, i found myself underlining and tabbing my favorite parts throughout the whole book. it’s super quick and easy. if you’re looking for a book that will have you smiling cover to cover but also get your emotions going then this is for you.
it’s definitely not plot heavy but these characters make up for it. it’s so good just read it ok!!
Rating: really liked it
This story was beautiful. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but it’s a great coming of age story and I really related to a lot of what Grace was going through. I adored the romance in this book, and I love that Grace has a phd in astronomy, and that most of this book takes place in New York 😍 Here’s a reading vlog where I read this book and explain more of my thoughts on it: https://youtu.be/p06Cutmiyco
