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Alice Sadie Celine
It’s opening night, but Alice’s performance in the local Bay Area production of The Winter’s Tale is far from glamorous. She doesn’t have dreams of stardom, but the basement theater in a wildfire-choked town isn’t exactly what she envisioned for her career back home in Los Angeles. To make matters worse, her best friend Sadie is not even coming.
Pragmatic, serious Sadie and flighty, creative Alice have been best friends since high school—really one another’s only friends—but now that they are through with college (which they attended together) and living on opposite ends of California, Alice would at least expect her friend’s support. Sadie, determined not to cancel her plans with her boyfriend, ends up enlisting the help of her mother, Celine.
A professor of women’s and gender studies at UC Berkeley, Celine’s landmark treatise on sex and identity made her notorious, but she’s struggling to write her new book in a post-second-wave feminist world. So, when Sadie begs her to attend Alice’s play, she relents, if only to escape writer’s block. But in a turn of perplexing events, Celine becomes entranced by Alice’s performance and realizes that her daughter’s once lanky, slightly annoying best friend is now an irresistible young woman.
Set over the course of decades—from Alice and Sadie’s early friendship days and Celine’s decision to leave her husband to the radical movements of 1990s Berkeley and navigating contemporary Hollywood—Alice and Celine’s affair will test the limits of their love for Sadie and their own beliefs of power, agency, and feminism. Witty and relatable, sexy and surprising, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s debut adult novel is a mesmerizing portrait of the inner lives of three very different women.
Pragmatic, serious Sadie and flighty, creative Alice have been best friends since high school—really one another’s only friends—but now that they are through with college (which they attended together) and living on opposite ends of California, Alice would at least expect her friend’s support. Sadie, determined not to cancel her plans with her boyfriend, ends up enlisting the help of her mother, Celine.
A professor of women’s and gender studies at UC Berkeley, Celine’s landmark treatise on sex and identity made her notorious, but she’s struggling to write her new book in a post-second-wave feminist world. So, when Sadie begs her to attend Alice’s play, she relents, if only to escape writer’s block. But in a turn of perplexing events, Celine becomes entranced by Alice’s performance and realizes that her daughter’s once lanky, slightly annoying best friend is now an irresistible young woman.
Set over the course of decades—from Alice and Sadie’s early friendship days and Celine’s decision to leave her husband to the radical movements of 1990s Berkeley and navigating contemporary Hollywood—Alice and Celine’s affair will test the limits of their love for Sadie and their own beliefs of power, agency, and feminism. Witty and relatable, sexy and surprising, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s debut adult novel is a mesmerizing portrait of the inner lives of three very different women.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published November 28, 2023
221 people are currently reading
8,956 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 464 reviews
June 24, 2024
a friend and i jokedrecently that whenever someone says "can you believe ai made this," we watch every video and read every paragraph like...yeah. yes, we can.
this book manages to do the inverse: i'm pretty sure it was written by a person, and yet it would make a whole lot more sense if it were by artificial intelligence. and it seems like the author's only other publication is the novelization of a forgotten movie, so maybe it was.
we follow alice, who is pretty. alice's best friend is sadie, who is controlling. sadie's mom is celine, a camille paglia-esque feminist scholar who alice starts sleeping with. that, in all of its cliched and cringing drama, is our plot.
it's overwritten to the point of feeling heavy. this book barely scrapes 250 pages, but it wouldn't make it over a hundredwithout taking advantage of a thesaurus and an innate desire to record one's own uninteresting thoughts as ascribed to flat characters. (you wouldn't believe how much time we spend wondering alongside sadie if one is supposed to apply sunscreen to one's eyelids.)
this book made me wince: at its sex scenes; at its page-long years-late diatribe to making a murderer; at its inconsistencies and errors; at the single weird voice shared by every character regardless of gender, age, or personality; at the dialogue so divided by paragraphs of internal monologue that the actual responses make no sense. it seems like even the copyeditor couldn't get through it.
and i'd say what this book needed a strong edit, but what it actually needed was one more editor saying no.
bottom line: it's not that i hated this book. it's just that it doesn't do anything well.
------------------
pre-review
how could i not want to read this?
update: i shouldn't have.
(thanks to the publisher for the copy)
this book manages to do the inverse: i'm pretty sure it was written by a person, and yet it would make a whole lot more sense if it were by artificial intelligence. and it seems like the author's only other publication is the novelization of a forgotten movie, so maybe it was.
we follow alice, who is pretty. alice's best friend is sadie, who is controlling. sadie's mom is celine, a camille paglia-esque feminist scholar who alice starts sleeping with. that, in all of its cliched and cringing drama, is our plot.
it's overwritten to the point of feeling heavy. this book barely scrapes 250 pages, but it wouldn't make it over a hundredwithout taking advantage of a thesaurus and an innate desire to record one's own uninteresting thoughts as ascribed to flat characters. (you wouldn't believe how much time we spend wondering alongside sadie if one is supposed to apply sunscreen to one's eyelids.)
this book made me wince: at its sex scenes; at its page-long years-late diatribe to making a murderer; at its inconsistencies and errors; at the single weird voice shared by every character regardless of gender, age, or personality; at the dialogue so divided by paragraphs of internal monologue that the actual responses make no sense. it seems like even the copyeditor couldn't get through it.
and i'd say what this book needed a strong edit, but what it actually needed was one more editor saying no.
bottom line: it's not that i hated this book. it's just that it doesn't do anything well.
------------------
pre-review
how could i not want to read this?
update: i shouldn't have.
(thanks to the publisher for the copy)
Read
October 11, 2023Told through interwoven timelines, you'll follow the lives of three very different women � Celine, her daughter Sadie, and Sadie's best friend Alice. When Sadie is unable to attend Alice's opening night performance, she asks her mother Celine to go in her place. What comes next is an unexpected affair that will test the limits of family, friendship, and the women's own beliefs. I couldn't put it down.
Shelved as 'dnf'
November 28, 2023DNF @ 39%
I tried.
Believe me when I say I gave this one my BEST shot. I actually put it down for over a week, hoping after I cleansed my palate with a couple of VERY different reads, this one would suddenly be the captivating literary experience I'd been hoping for, with an 'offbeat' May-September romance that would somehow jump from "icky" to "intriguing" (Even if it was STILL a little bit icky...I mean, when your best friend gets romantically involved with your mom...it's hard to completely avoid the ick.) 😣
But after page after page of blathering, quasi-feminist prose, where the author was consistently TELLING and not showing me anything, I not only lost focus, but interest. The so-called sordid instance between mom Celine and daughter Sadie's friend Alice not only was a TINY portion of the plot so far but was hardly mentioned, explored, or described after its initial mention. Other early reviews sort of confirm that this is not the focal point of the book at all, and to be honest, it almost feels like the 'scandal' was set up as a selling point for the plot more than anything else.
I think the actual tipping point occurred when I stopped at one point and realized just HOW OFTEN the author uses these character's names in the book. I felt like all I was doing was reading Alice, Sadie, and Celine over and over, sort of like "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." So I decided to pull up the counter on my Kindle just for reference...and I kid you not, one of these name actually appears ONE THOUSAND times throughout the text. For a book that clocks in at just under 300 pages, this just seems excessive to me...not to mention distracting, and in this case, it kept me distracted enough to dissociate from this book entirely.
If you have the patience to wait for the other shoe to drop, can put preconceived notions and expectations aside, and just REALLY enjoy reading about female characters whose names end in "E"...this might be the book for you.
But even though my name is Catherine... it just wasn't for me.
*Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC*
I tried.
Believe me when I say I gave this one my BEST shot. I actually put it down for over a week, hoping after I cleansed my palate with a couple of VERY different reads, this one would suddenly be the captivating literary experience I'd been hoping for, with an 'offbeat' May-September romance that would somehow jump from "icky" to "intriguing" (Even if it was STILL a little bit icky...I mean, when your best friend gets romantically involved with your mom...it's hard to completely avoid the ick.) 😣
But after page after page of blathering, quasi-feminist prose, where the author was consistently TELLING and not showing me anything, I not only lost focus, but interest. The so-called sordid instance between mom Celine and daughter Sadie's friend Alice not only was a TINY portion of the plot so far but was hardly mentioned, explored, or described after its initial mention. Other early reviews sort of confirm that this is not the focal point of the book at all, and to be honest, it almost feels like the 'scandal' was set up as a selling point for the plot more than anything else.
I think the actual tipping point occurred when I stopped at one point and realized just HOW OFTEN the author uses these character's names in the book. I felt like all I was doing was reading Alice, Sadie, and Celine over and over, sort of like "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." So I decided to pull up the counter on my Kindle just for reference...and I kid you not, one of these name actually appears ONE THOUSAND times throughout the text. For a book that clocks in at just under 300 pages, this just seems excessive to me...not to mention distracting, and in this case, it kept me distracted enough to dissociate from this book entirely.
If you have the patience to wait for the other shoe to drop, can put preconceived notions and expectations aside, and just REALLY enjoy reading about female characters whose names end in "E"...this might be the book for you.
But even though my name is Catherine... it just wasn't for me.
*Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC*
January 22, 2024
Alice is an aspiring actress starring in a Bay Area Shakespeare play. Her best friend, Sadie, cannot attend and sends her reluctant mother, Celine, in her place. Celine is surprised by Alice’s performance and by Alice herself, no longer the awkward teenage friend of her daughter. She becomes entranced and they begin a secret relationship.
Sadie and Alice have always had an opposites attract friendship and while Alice and Celine are spending time together, Sadie is creating arbitrary timelines for herself to accomplish things.
The writing started off strong in Alice Sadie Celine. I did not care for Alice, Sadie, or Celine as characters, finding them to be realistically flawed, yet also consistently unrealistic in their expectations of others. Despite not caring for them, I was curious to see what they would ultimately do to resolve this conflict of their own making. I found the ending a bit “neat� considering the complicated dynamics among the 3 women.
Sadie and Alice have always had an opposites attract friendship and while Alice and Celine are spending time together, Sadie is creating arbitrary timelines for herself to accomplish things.
The writing started off strong in Alice Sadie Celine. I did not care for Alice, Sadie, or Celine as characters, finding them to be realistically flawed, yet also consistently unrealistic in their expectations of others. Despite not caring for them, I was curious to see what they would ultimately do to resolve this conflict of their own making. I found the ending a bit “neat� considering the complicated dynamics among the 3 women.
October 24, 2023
this is a work of aaaaaaaAarrrrrtttt (insert that annoying tiktok sound). this novel is weird, yes, but it’s fucking beautiful. ok ok i’ll tell why!
for the majority of this book i mostly just felt icky and uncomfy (*cough* CELINE) but then at some point around the end of the second part i started to think past that uncomfortableness and digest what was actually happening but wasn’t explicitly being said. reading between the lines haha and i realize that the subtext was really that, to me anyway, this is a novel of awakening: of sexuality, of living deliberately and on ur own terms, of self-ownership; this is a reckoning of who u think u are, how u wanna be, how u wanna be perceived, and, maybe, in spite all of that, how u are actually perceived by others despite ur efforts. repulsion shifted into compassion for these characters and for this story. then as the novel progressed, it became clear to me it was also a story of growth, and desire, and mothering (oneself, from parent to child then from that child to their child[ren]). and how ur mothered effects all of the above. and family � who ur dealt, who u choose, and who u continue to choose despite their wrongdoings and shortcomings. ughhh it’s just so! good!
in terms of these characters� relationship to one another individually and as a whole, i didn’t see enough tangibly between sadie & alice. they’re best friends sure but i didn’t see enough of their commitment to one another, didn’t *see* much of how they are best friends and why even after all this time. and perhaps that’s the point but i would have liked a crumb more. i was pleased though with how they each view(ed) and understand(stood) themselves and one another and that intersection of self-aware and delulu was entertaining to read. also their internal lives were so raw and real and discomforting at times so don’t say i didn’t warn u of the ick (once again!) u may feel esp with celine. but also it’s the taboo of her thoughts that compelled me to keep reading so obviously something was done right. right?!
the pacing was a bit off in part one. the bits of the past could have been interwoven differently which is to say more smoothly so the story did lose me bit by being taken so far out of current events into the past. what was given in the past is necessary, it just could have been done differently tho i do wonder how? idk it was just clunky but once those past events and feelings were revealed and we stayed in the present, things moved along and the pace never slacked again for me personally.
as for the introduction of a new pov for the very last chapter� it works for me so so so so well. the story of these three women came together and really solidified how i feel about the novel and the story it tells holistically. i don’t think i would have liked the novel as much without it. i think that maybe the new pov will to be a polarizing opinion. i can imagine why some would hate it and go “what’s the point of it then???� but for me, it made total sense. it was a necessary addition. it couldn’t have ended any better.
i’m going to be thinking a lot about alice, sadie, and celine for a while i suspect.
read it 😁
thank u netgalley and simon & schuster for the arc in exchange for an honest review🤗🥰
for the majority of this book i mostly just felt icky and uncomfy (*cough* CELINE) but then at some point around the end of the second part i started to think past that uncomfortableness and digest what was actually happening but wasn’t explicitly being said. reading between the lines haha and i realize that the subtext was really that, to me anyway, this is a novel of awakening: of sexuality, of living deliberately and on ur own terms, of self-ownership; this is a reckoning of who u think u are, how u wanna be, how u wanna be perceived, and, maybe, in spite all of that, how u are actually perceived by others despite ur efforts. repulsion shifted into compassion for these characters and for this story. then as the novel progressed, it became clear to me it was also a story of growth, and desire, and mothering (oneself, from parent to child then from that child to their child[ren]). and how ur mothered effects all of the above. and family � who ur dealt, who u choose, and who u continue to choose despite their wrongdoings and shortcomings. ughhh it’s just so! good!
in terms of these characters� relationship to one another individually and as a whole, i didn’t see enough tangibly between sadie & alice. they’re best friends sure but i didn’t see enough of their commitment to one another, didn’t *see* much of how they are best friends and why even after all this time. and perhaps that’s the point but i would have liked a crumb more. i was pleased though with how they each view(ed) and understand(stood) themselves and one another and that intersection of self-aware and delulu was entertaining to read. also their internal lives were so raw and real and discomforting at times so don’t say i didn’t warn u of the ick (once again!) u may feel esp with celine. but also it’s the taboo of her thoughts that compelled me to keep reading so obviously something was done right. right?!
the pacing was a bit off in part one. the bits of the past could have been interwoven differently which is to say more smoothly so the story did lose me bit by being taken so far out of current events into the past. what was given in the past is necessary, it just could have been done differently tho i do wonder how? idk it was just clunky but once those past events and feelings were revealed and we stayed in the present, things moved along and the pace never slacked again for me personally.
as for the introduction of a new pov for the very last chapter� it works for me so so so so well. the story of these three women came together and really solidified how i feel about the novel and the story it tells holistically. i don’t think i would have liked the novel as much without it. i think that maybe the new pov will to be a polarizing opinion. i can imagine why some would hate it and go “what’s the point of it then???� but for me, it made total sense. it was a necessary addition. it couldn’t have ended any better.
i’m going to be thinking a lot about alice, sadie, and celine for a while i suspect.
read it 😁
thank u netgalley and simon & schuster for the arc in exchange for an honest review🤗🥰
February 6, 2024
It's actually impressive how insufferable this book is. That was definitely among the most ridiculous eye-roll inducing things I've ever read and also set lesbians back 40 years
Read
March 31, 2024By now, I fell asleep twice while listening to this, so: Sorry, book, I'm abandoning you.
August 23, 2023
This book was advertised as a hypnotic, sexy, and incisive novel following one woman's affair with her daughter's best friend that tests the limits of love and affection.
What I found was a relationship put to paper in a tone that reminded me of Joanne from Company, without any of the LuPone sparkle. Just the "I'm smarter than you and I thought you should know that" attitude.
Gun to my head, by 85% in- I was wondering WHY I'M STILL READING. I started 7/18, and by hook or by crook- today is my last day trying to finish. NOTHING IS HAPPENING. I waited for 70% for the daughter's reaction to her BFF having sex with her mom and the reaction was a non-entity told primarily in conversations between lovers Alice (BFF) & Celine (Mom). The MAY-DECEMBER FORBIDDEN SAPPHIC SEX was BARELY REFERENCED. This is NOT a romance. It's not even a hate story. As my queen Taylor Swift said- "It isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference." I don't need 300 pages of people being indifferent to each other.
I cannot wait to forget this book exists.
What I found was a relationship put to paper in a tone that reminded me of Joanne from Company, without any of the LuPone sparkle. Just the "I'm smarter than you and I thought you should know that" attitude.
Gun to my head, by 85% in- I was wondering WHY I'M STILL READING. I started 7/18, and by hook or by crook- today is my last day trying to finish. NOTHING IS HAPPENING. I waited for 70% for the daughter's reaction to her BFF having sex with her mom and the reaction was a non-entity told primarily in conversations between lovers Alice (BFF) & Celine (Mom). The MAY-DECEMBER FORBIDDEN SAPPHIC SEX was BARELY REFERENCED. This is NOT a romance. It's not even a hate story. As my queen Taylor Swift said- "It isn't love, it isn't hate, it's just indifference." I don't need 300 pages of people being indifferent to each other.
I cannot wait to forget this book exists.
January 11, 2024
Insipid, poorly written, one-note characters and an eye-roll-worthy plot!
January 2, 2024
Wow. What a pleasant surprise! This book hooked me as soon as I finished the first chapter. Normally, I don't like novels with multiple points-of-view, but this one was different because the writing and dialogue was so addicting and fresh. The only character that got on my nerves was Celine, but I am sure that was intentional from the author. Celine is emotionally immature and selfish. Alice is more of a flighty and naive character. Sadie was the character I most identified with. She's neurotic, high-strung, and sarcastic. The subject matter is very taboo, but I really enjoyed this delightfully creepy story. I didn't want to put this novel down. Very strange and yet relatable at the same time. I will definitely read more from this author in the future. Her prose is stunning. Her metaphors are heart-stopping. Highly recommended!
Thank you, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC.
Thank you, Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital ARC.
Read
January 5, 2025This is wild because like halfway through the book I was like okay maybe it’s getting better! And then it just went downhill in the most rapid and spectacular way. The final chapter was possibly the most confusing and annoying choice the author could have made. I liked the older dyke representation tho but unfortunately Celine is so ridiculous.
May 1, 2023
This is such an enjoyable and original novel. The triangle at tge center of the book is a mother, daughter and the daughter’s best friend. The author has filled the book with unexpected variations. The romantic/erotic relationship is certainly unusual. There are consequences involved as the trio plays a game of moving relationships and oneupmanship.
Yet, the bond remain strong as these three and their progeny stumble through life. This is a very interesting and original novel that I highly recommend.
Thank you Netgalley for this original and fascinating novel.
Yet, the bond remain strong as these three and their progeny stumble through life. This is a very interesting and original novel that I highly recommend.
Thank you Netgalley for this original and fascinating novel.
December 15, 2023
Reading both Bright Young Women (a book with a beautifully tragic and complex Bly Manor esque sapphic relationship) and Alice Sadie Celine (something that to me, was very insidiously and disturbingly lesbophobic) within the same two weeks was the kind of emotional whiplash that I did NOT want during my longest depressive episode in four years.
April 29, 2024
In my efforts to read more literary sapphic fiction, I picked up Alice Sadie Celine. And, well, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright's attempt in this novel is a good reason why I usually stay away from the genre. As a queer woman reading his, the novel felt super lesbophobic. It also felt extremely anti-feminist. Oh, and it also had no plot.
Alice, Sadie's best friend since high school, is starring in play that Sadie can't attend due to the fact that she has a weekend away planned with her boyfriend. A weekend where Sadie needs to complete a self-imposed milestone. So Sadie begs her mother, Celine, to attend on Sadie's behalf. The request itself doesn't make sense as Sadie can't stand her mother. And it's easy to see why. Celine, a women's study professor at Berkeley, is a narcissist who acquired a small amount of fame by writing, The Body Borne, which has become a seminal feminist work. Sadie's childhood, if one could call it that, was difficult with a mother who would continuously put her needs first, who exiled Sadie from any and all family, and who imposed and demanded on Sadie her view of the world with the fervor of a religious zealot.
It is Sadie's friendship with Alice that provides Sadie with a semblance of normalcy. Alice who is rich and beautiful and nice. Alice who Sadie uses as a buffer and an antidote to Celine. But Alice, for her part, is intrigued by Celine, despite her firsthand understanding of Celine's eccentricities, uncouthness, and flaws.
Celine doesn't want to attend Alice's play. Celine doesn't do things she doesn't want to do. But in the end, she does attend the play. And, well, Celine and Alice end up in bed together—a one-off that turns into a full-blown affair and something they agree not to share with Sadie.
My problem with the novel is that it makes no sense. Celine, by Blakley-Cartwright's own description, is not physically attractive. And while she is described as charming to her students, Alice has seen Celine’s narcissism firsthand. She is supposed to be brilliant, though. But it still makes no sense to me why Alice, who is beautiful and charming and nice and loyal to Sadie, would find herself in bed with Celine, who is 20-25 years older than her. And because Blakley-Cartwright doesn't succeed in this very integral narrative point, nothing about the book works.
The biggest disappointment (and ick factor) for me is that fact that self-proclaimed feminist Celine succumbs to one of the biggest, vilest, patriarchal cliches by seducing a much-too-young-for-her woman—a woman she knew when Alice was still a girl.
I do give Blakley-Cartwright credit for writing realistically-flawed characters. But, overall, the reading experience was slow, confounding, and rage-inducing � mostly because I don't think the author likes queer women or feminism.
1.5 stars
Alice, Sadie's best friend since high school, is starring in play that Sadie can't attend due to the fact that she has a weekend away planned with her boyfriend. A weekend where Sadie needs to complete a self-imposed milestone. So Sadie begs her mother, Celine, to attend on Sadie's behalf. The request itself doesn't make sense as Sadie can't stand her mother. And it's easy to see why. Celine, a women's study professor at Berkeley, is a narcissist who acquired a small amount of fame by writing, The Body Borne, which has become a seminal feminist work. Sadie's childhood, if one could call it that, was difficult with a mother who would continuously put her needs first, who exiled Sadie from any and all family, and who imposed and demanded on Sadie her view of the world with the fervor of a religious zealot.
It is Sadie's friendship with Alice that provides Sadie with a semblance of normalcy. Alice who is rich and beautiful and nice. Alice who Sadie uses as a buffer and an antidote to Celine. But Alice, for her part, is intrigued by Celine, despite her firsthand understanding of Celine's eccentricities, uncouthness, and flaws.
Celine doesn't want to attend Alice's play. Celine doesn't do things she doesn't want to do. But in the end, she does attend the play. And, well, Celine and Alice end up in bed together—a one-off that turns into a full-blown affair and something they agree not to share with Sadie.
My problem with the novel is that it makes no sense. Celine, by Blakley-Cartwright's own description, is not physically attractive. And while she is described as charming to her students, Alice has seen Celine’s narcissism firsthand. She is supposed to be brilliant, though. But it still makes no sense to me why Alice, who is beautiful and charming and nice and loyal to Sadie, would find herself in bed with Celine, who is 20-25 years older than her. And because Blakley-Cartwright doesn't succeed in this very integral narrative point, nothing about the book works.
The biggest disappointment (and ick factor) for me is that fact that self-proclaimed feminist Celine succumbs to one of the biggest, vilest, patriarchal cliches by seducing a much-too-young-for-her woman—a woman she knew when Alice was still a girl.
I do give Blakley-Cartwright credit for writing realistically-flawed characters. But, overall, the reading experience was slow, confounding, and rage-inducing � mostly because I don't think the author likes queer women or feminism.
1.5 stars
August 8, 2024
nope!
i knew right away that this was not going to be a good book, but i’d already had a false start with two other books and i also knew after that realization that if i didn’t force myself to read it anyway that i never would, and i didn’t want to essentially waste the money i’d spent on it.
execution? bad. writing? bad. you can really always tell when an author is trying to emulate a specific kind of literary voice in their writing � they constantly use extravagant and just slightly off synonyms for basic words, overwrite a simple sentence to death, try to say something poignant and hard hitting at the end of every paragraph. it’s the worst kind of book to read, and this was the worst example of that.
it’s like the author had an outline for the story with planned scenes and conflicts and she forced her characters to follow the script with absolutely no deviations allowed, and because of that the book is just consistently trying to hit the next plot point rather than the characters actually having any true motivation behind anything that happens.
to make matters worse, this book feels like the literary equivalent of lesbian porn that’s really just for men. the sex scenes are SO incredibly cringeworthy it’s almost hard to believe that they were written in the first place. and somehow they also manage to sound like they were written by a teenager and give off big YA vibes.
the dialogue was unnatural and odd; every character spoke in the exact same manner and were all equally insufferable; i’ve never seen somebody be so obsessed with the word ‘tufty� in my life; your mother annoying/embarrassing you is not a “micro aggression�; i’m not even going to touch the last chapter, at that point the book was no longer any of my business.
i knew right away that this was not going to be a good book, but i’d already had a false start with two other books and i also knew after that realization that if i didn’t force myself to read it anyway that i never would, and i didn’t want to essentially waste the money i’d spent on it.
execution? bad. writing? bad. you can really always tell when an author is trying to emulate a specific kind of literary voice in their writing � they constantly use extravagant and just slightly off synonyms for basic words, overwrite a simple sentence to death, try to say something poignant and hard hitting at the end of every paragraph. it’s the worst kind of book to read, and this was the worst example of that.
it’s like the author had an outline for the story with planned scenes and conflicts and she forced her characters to follow the script with absolutely no deviations allowed, and because of that the book is just consistently trying to hit the next plot point rather than the characters actually having any true motivation behind anything that happens.
to make matters worse, this book feels like the literary equivalent of lesbian porn that’s really just for men. the sex scenes are SO incredibly cringeworthy it’s almost hard to believe that they were written in the first place. and somehow they also manage to sound like they were written by a teenager and give off big YA vibes.
the dialogue was unnatural and odd; every character spoke in the exact same manner and were all equally insufferable; i’ve never seen somebody be so obsessed with the word ‘tufty� in my life; your mother annoying/embarrassing you is not a “micro aggression�; i’m not even going to touch the last chapter, at that point the book was no longer any of my business.
July 30, 2023
A story about motherhood, sisterhood, and friendship, and about how messy things can get when the lines between relationships blur. This book was incredibly human and, mostly, incredibly readable and good—except for the last chapter, which made a few choices that baffled me.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC!
Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC!
August 19, 2023
living for the drama in this book
June 1, 2023
2.5 rounded up.
I wanted this to be so much more than it was. It started off well enough but then began to drag at about 65% or so and went downhill from there. The final chapter, a complete and total tone change that introduced entirely new characters, felt forced, unnecessary, and tbh, a bit corny. Life is messy, and trying to neatly tie up loose ends in the way the author did here kind of left me rolling my eyes so far back in my head that I could barely read the last 10% of the book. That may not annoy everyone, but it did me.
My other major bugaboo here was the way the author talks about age. I literally had to Google to see how old Sarah Blakely-Cartwright is (35, apparently) because I was convinced she must only be in her early 20s from the way she was talking about Celine. The character is meant to be 44.- NOT OLD in any way, shape, or form, by the way! - as if she was getting ready to start using a mobility scooter and cash her first social security check. At one point, she literally described her as being "fat and gray" now that she's in her 40s and I was reading it thinking, "Girl, no..." If this is how the author feels about ageing as a woman, I feel really bad for her.
I have to also take issue here with the descriptors of "sexy" and "hypnotic" as this was neither. Zero decent sex scenes (not what I'm reading for, but if you're pushing this as "sexy," help a sister out) and the story really focused very little on the relationship between Alice and Celine or anything that happened between them.
IDK, I feel like to have impact, this book would have needed to be twice as long and a bit more nuanced. However, I also felt the cookie cutter cliche characters here - butch lesbo academic who's super emotionally withdrawn and a total dick, wannabe actress who's super pretty but doesn't have much more to offer, tortured daughter who seeks the "normal" life her mom could never give her - left a bit to be desired.
This review seems harsh, I know, but that's because the idea was so good that the bad execution was extra disappointing. Sigh!
I wanted this to be so much more than it was. It started off well enough but then began to drag at about 65% or so and went downhill from there. The final chapter, a complete and total tone change that introduced entirely new characters, felt forced, unnecessary, and tbh, a bit corny. Life is messy, and trying to neatly tie up loose ends in the way the author did here kind of left me rolling my eyes so far back in my head that I could barely read the last 10% of the book. That may not annoy everyone, but it did me.
My other major bugaboo here was the way the author talks about age. I literally had to Google to see how old Sarah Blakely-Cartwright is (35, apparently) because I was convinced she must only be in her early 20s from the way she was talking about Celine. The character is meant to be 44.- NOT OLD in any way, shape, or form, by the way! - as if she was getting ready to start using a mobility scooter and cash her first social security check. At one point, she literally described her as being "fat and gray" now that she's in her 40s and I was reading it thinking, "Girl, no..." If this is how the author feels about ageing as a woman, I feel really bad for her.
I have to also take issue here with the descriptors of "sexy" and "hypnotic" as this was neither. Zero decent sex scenes (not what I'm reading for, but if you're pushing this as "sexy," help a sister out) and the story really focused very little on the relationship between Alice and Celine or anything that happened between them.
IDK, I feel like to have impact, this book would have needed to be twice as long and a bit more nuanced. However, I also felt the cookie cutter cliche characters here - butch lesbo academic who's super emotionally withdrawn and a total dick, wannabe actress who's super pretty but doesn't have much more to offer, tortured daughter who seeks the "normal" life her mom could never give her - left a bit to be desired.
This review seems harsh, I know, but that's because the idea was so good that the bad execution was extra disappointing. Sigh!
July 5, 2023
Celine, a tenured professor at Berkeley, a famous feminist, single mother to Sadie whose best friend is Alice. Told from all their perspectives, we get the history of each, their upbringings, their emotional tenors, their ways of dealing with themselves, life, and the world, the closeness and discord between mother and daughter, the best-friendship between Sadie and Alice, how it began, what it means, the story moving back and forth in time. Where it starts - Alice, from a wealthy family, and trying to be an actress in LA is back in the Bay area to play a role in a Shakespeare play being put on at a neighborhood playhouse. Sadie, in new first-time love, asks her mother, Celine, to go instead. Unwillingly Celine does go, and then returns for a 2d and 3d show, taken with Alice. We learn much about these characters and I was engaged, but I also felt that it could have and should have gone much deeper. The writing is good, but rides on the surface, no matter what is revealed, and it all has the same register. The ending, that jumps forward in time, after the whole mess is over, after many years have passed, is told in first person by a character new to the novel, which felt like a strange authorial choice to make, moving away from the main characters, and though it neatly ties up the loose ends, it fails to satisfy. Still, a fun breezy novel run through with feminist polemics.
Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC.
Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC.
January 16, 2024
This book appears to be way more escandalo than it actually is. The pay off is not worth the work imo. Celine is insufferable and her thoughts are against what she stands for as a lesbian feminist ? I felt the building of the back story of Alice and Sadie was very dragged out for no reason bc I still feel like I don’t know anything about either of them. The dynamic of their friendship wasn’t shown very well. I wanted to like it. I really did.
January 11, 2024
Bruh. I can’t believe I finished this book. It picked up towards the middle but ultimately fell oh so flat. Riddled with flowery prose but lacking any sort of substance or structure. I couldn’t have cared less for the characters.
January 4, 2024
Is this just a smutty book about an eternally messed up friendship and family? Yes and no. Alice and Sadie are best friends. Alice is a cypher and Sadie is an anal-retentive nightmare. Sadie's mom, Celine, is a slightly fading iconoclast of the 90s radical feminist movement. The whirlpool of ego between these three is absolutely deadly. Sadie can barely function without molding Alice's every move. Alice is an actress and therefore, a sponge. She can't help but soak up whatever attention comes her way. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the attention is now coming hot and heavy from Celine. You know, her best friend's mother.
What are these girls to do?
Make a big, dishy mess. The dynamics are a disaster. The lust is off the charts. The assumptions are acid-wrought, and the consequences are vicious but juicy. Alice Sadie Celine is what happens when Sally Rooney quits navel gazing and starts, uh, probing into other orifices. This is a quick and dirty feel-good-feel-bad romp; you can enjoy the drama, keep your empathetic distance, and judge until Judgement Day has come and gone.
Why not kick off the New Year by getting deep into someone else's juicy issues and leaving yours far behind? Sometimes it feels right to enjoy messy things happening to messy characters.
What are these girls to do?
Make a big, dishy mess. The dynamics are a disaster. The lust is off the charts. The assumptions are acid-wrought, and the consequences are vicious but juicy. Alice Sadie Celine is what happens when Sally Rooney quits navel gazing and starts, uh, probing into other orifices. This is a quick and dirty feel-good-feel-bad romp; you can enjoy the drama, keep your empathetic distance, and judge until Judgement Day has come and gone.
Why not kick off the New Year by getting deep into someone else's juicy issues and leaving yours far behind? Sometimes it feels right to enjoy messy things happening to messy characters.
January 1, 2024
Mini Audiobook Review: Thank you so much to Simon Books for a copy of this book!
I did decide to do the audio of this and I kind of wish I read along with the physical book.
The premise of this book caught my attention but I felt it wasn't executed or perhaps the format of the book could have been better?
I have read another book where a mother falls for their daughter's friend but the circumstances were different and what made this one even more questionable was that it is a high school friend so Celine has known Alice since she was a teen. I thought maybe because I had some stuff going on that kept distracting me while I was listening but it was definitely hard to follow. One minute we are in one place and next Alice & Celine hooked up and I never saw or maybe I missed the lead up.
The last chapter was interesting as it was told from a new perspective.
I had no issue with the narrator, actress Chloë Sevigny. I thought she did well reading the book. I just wish I followed along with the text because perhaps it would have made more sense. I do not recall each chapter being called out as to whose POV it was so that could have helped as well.
Content Warning from Storygraph:
I did decide to do the audio of this and I kind of wish I read along with the physical book.
The premise of this book caught my attention but I felt it wasn't executed or perhaps the format of the book could have been better?
I have read another book where a mother falls for their daughter's friend but the circumstances were different and what made this one even more questionable was that it is a high school friend so Celine has known Alice since she was a teen. I thought maybe because I had some stuff going on that kept distracting me while I was listening but it was definitely hard to follow. One minute we are in one place and next Alice & Celine hooked up and I never saw or maybe I missed the lead up.
The last chapter was interesting as it was told from a new perspective.
I had no issue with the narrator, actress Chloë Sevigny. I thought she did well reading the book. I just wish I followed along with the text because perhaps it would have made more sense. I do not recall each chapter being called out as to whose POV it was so that could have helped as well.
Content Warning from Storygraph:
December 20, 2023
This was so different from the books I usually read. It was so interesting, the relationships of the three women and their thoughts. I like how the last chapter summed up what happened with their lives after everything went down.
August 12, 2023
I had relatively mixed feelings on this one! There were some elements which I felt really worked, and others which I was less certain about.
The good: lots of queer drama, a delightfully messy premise (character has queer affair with their best friend's mother), really well-developed characters.
On the other hand, the pacing felt a little awkward and uneven at times, and the ending was narrated in a very different way than the rest of the book (and introduced an entirely new character), which felt a little disruptive and disorienting. I also think (after my similarly lukewarm reaction to the romance MISTAKES WERE MADE, which has a very similar storyline) that perhaps this premise is just not for me?
All in all, a decent read, though ultimately not exactly my cup of tea; I'd say it's worth the try if you're on the fence. Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the e-ARC!
The good: lots of queer drama, a delightfully messy premise (character has queer affair with their best friend's mother), really well-developed characters.
On the other hand, the pacing felt a little awkward and uneven at times, and the ending was narrated in a very different way than the rest of the book (and introduced an entirely new character), which felt a little disruptive and disorienting. I also think (after my similarly lukewarm reaction to the romance MISTAKES WERE MADE, which has a very similar storyline) that perhaps this premise is just not for me?
All in all, a decent read, though ultimately not exactly my cup of tea; I'd say it's worth the try if you're on the fence. Thanks so much to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the e-ARC!
December 30, 2023
This was a strange book, I don’t know what to make of it. I think I went in with the wrong expectations. I thought the main focus and main scandal would be the May/December affair, but that storyline was tame in comparison to the wildly narcissistic mother and her toxic relationship with her daughter. That whole element was just unpleasant to read about. I was more interested in the two friends.
This was a great quote:
“To the question What do you want to do? Alice had always wanted to reply, Can’t I just be?�
This was a great quote:
“To the question What do you want to do? Alice had always wanted to reply, Can’t I just be?�
January 3, 2024
If the last chapter had been different, this would be 4 or even 5 stars. The last chapter irked me and ruined it (who introduces a new character in a pointless POV chapter as the last chapter? Like huh??) Sloppy way to tie a bow and try to make the ending pretty
September 5, 2024
oh wow. i love a character study; i love a slow story; i love yucky uncomfortable books with characters who are, perhaps, bad people; and i love lesbian sex. and i love an age gap! sue me!
but somehow, this book did all of those things poorly. the author claimed to be writing about lesbianism and feminism and parenthood with careful thought and nuance and actually said nothing about any of them. she thought it would be so cool and edgy if she wrote a butch character who was, in her own words, a chauvinist (i have to agree with other reviewers—this story seemed to harbor some weird hatred toward lesbians). she didn’t put an ounce of silliness or love or warmth into a story that really needed it for me—the whole thing felt so absorbed in just being Interesting. maybe i’d like it more if i hadn’t listened to the audiobook, because, all my love to chloe sevigny, but she read this like she was bored. either way, though, that last chapter was horrible. the thing i love about queer books is their open endings, and this didn’t even do that. this wasn’t even really a story about being queer, which is fine, but then what WAS it about? all of this added up to a big flop and truly put me in a mean-spirited and hateful mood.
hey, it was about time i read a bad book! i’ve been having too much fun lately! been talking too much about Big Swiss!
but somehow, this book did all of those things poorly. the author claimed to be writing about lesbianism and feminism and parenthood with careful thought and nuance and actually said nothing about any of them. she thought it would be so cool and edgy if she wrote a butch character who was, in her own words, a chauvinist (i have to agree with other reviewers—this story seemed to harbor some weird hatred toward lesbians). she didn’t put an ounce of silliness or love or warmth into a story that really needed it for me—the whole thing felt so absorbed in just being Interesting. maybe i’d like it more if i hadn’t listened to the audiobook, because, all my love to chloe sevigny, but she read this like she was bored. either way, though, that last chapter was horrible. the thing i love about queer books is their open endings, and this didn’t even do that. this wasn’t even really a story about being queer, which is fine, but then what WAS it about? all of this added up to a big flop and truly put me in a mean-spirited and hateful mood.
hey, it was about time i read a bad book! i’ve been having too much fun lately! been talking too much about Big Swiss!
November 28, 2023
Alice Sadie Celine is probably one of my favorite books of the year. It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s engrossing and so fascinating to see the three perspectives of these intertwined ladies. I constantly changed who I was rooting for, but ultimately one character stood out far and beyond for me. It doesn’t get as hot as I was anticipating, but you get the gist.
Alice is Sadie’s best friend and Sadie is Celine’s daughter. Dreamer Alice and brash Celine start having an affair that neither one of them expected, and the buildup is to how Sadie will react. Sadie is not known for going with the flow and has her own intimacy problems on top of an incredibly complicated relationship with her mom. The book ends with an abrupt shift, and I had to go back and reread a few pages once a reveal was made. But it works.
This is essentially boiled down to one month of Alice, Sadie, and Celine’s lives with a lot of reflection on the past and insight into the future. It works. I’m so glad I decided to read about these flawed and fascinating women. Normally, I don’t always follow celebrity book endorsements, but the way Chloe Sevigny was going on about it, I decided to look it up. So thank you very much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Alice is Sadie’s best friend and Sadie is Celine’s daughter. Dreamer Alice and brash Celine start having an affair that neither one of them expected, and the buildup is to how Sadie will react. Sadie is not known for going with the flow and has her own intimacy problems on top of an incredibly complicated relationship with her mom. The book ends with an abrupt shift, and I had to go back and reread a few pages once a reveal was made. But it works.
This is essentially boiled down to one month of Alice, Sadie, and Celine’s lives with a lot of reflection on the past and insight into the future. It works. I’m so glad I decided to read about these flawed and fascinating women. Normally, I don’t always follow celebrity book endorsements, but the way Chloe Sevigny was going on about it, I decided to look it up. So thank you very much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review.
February 4, 2025
dnf -- 45%
not impressed by this one. it's meant to shock you -- oh my gosh, she slept with her best friend's mother! -- and honestly i was a little intrigued by that storyline, but then immediately it jumps into the past and becomes all summary. the characters all feel distant and unlikable to me, and the plot feels literally nonexistent.
here's an example of a badly written sentence: "Sadie was so discriminating in all things that for years Celine had searched to perceive what was unparalleled in Alice." um... what?
bad dialogue: Celine looked seriously at Sadie. "Daddy reduces us. If one is not careful, one's whole life passes without incident." sure, that's how people speak. ironically, i read this as the lowest rated book on my to-reads list, and i don't disagree with that at all. i only added this bc Taylor Jenkins Reid suggested it, and it turns out she lied to me.
not impressed by this one. it's meant to shock you -- oh my gosh, she slept with her best friend's mother! -- and honestly i was a little intrigued by that storyline, but then immediately it jumps into the past and becomes all summary. the characters all feel distant and unlikable to me, and the plot feels literally nonexistent.
here's an example of a badly written sentence: "Sadie was so discriminating in all things that for years Celine had searched to perceive what was unparalleled in Alice." um... what?
bad dialogue: Celine looked seriously at Sadie. "Daddy reduces us. If one is not careful, one's whole life passes without incident." sure, that's how people speak. ironically, i read this as the lowest rated book on my to-reads list, and i don't disagree with that at all. i only added this bc Taylor Jenkins Reid suggested it, and it turns out she lied to me.
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