"!!!! Thought I didn’t care about scammer stories and had Anna Delvey inspired fraud fatigue, turns out I just don’t care about them if they’re not THIS scammer story. Also thought I hated books only told through emails, texts, diary entries etc, but I absolutely loved this format for the story. All’s to say if the premise doesn’t appeal to you, or you think it’s not something you’ll enjoy: just pick it up anyways.

This one was such an absolute wild roller coaster and I loved every minute of it. Read it in one sitting and sat staring and blinking ahead after I finished trying to figure out what tf I had just read. Still not sure I completely know. No words for the ending except wow wow wow. And another WOW for emphasis."

"Written by a publishing exec, Pineapple Street is one of those books that has been marketed heavily for months now. But is it actually any good?

It’s the story of the Stocktons, an über wealthy family living in Brooklyn Heights whose generational wealth was acquired through property. They’re pampered, privileged, well-educated but still don’t know that the UAE is a country.

We meet Tilda and Chip, their children Cord (short for Cordington), Darley and Georgiana. Cord has married beneath him to Rhode Island graphic designer Sasha. Darley married her true love Malcolm, a wealthy investment banker of Korean heritage. Georgiana is working for a non-profit and going through a quarter-life crisis.

I was expecting something witty, biting, clever, ironic - rich people swiping and sniping - but Pineapple Street was none of these things. I found the book pretty bland.

The writing is good/perfunctory, but there’s an absence of plot, a lack of depth to the characters, and a heavy-handed approach to social issues like racism, classism, gentrification - I actually winced reading some of the statistics blatantly dropped in at times without a hint of irony. It’s about as subtle as the Stocktons are self-aware.

Sure, it’s an easy read but it’s dull, riddled with stereotypes and that abrupt ending and weird epilogue read like a pointless afterthought. There are many better books out there this year that haven’t received a fraction of the hype this one is getting. 2/5⭐️

*Many thanks to the publisher for the arc via @netgalley. Pineapple Street was published on 13 April. As always, this is an honest review."

"Perfectly readable but felt completely pointless by the last few chapters as if unsure about what it wants to say about Old Money and trust fund babies. Despite clocking in at just under 300 pages, the resolution felt too slapdash and anti-climactic that I think the author missed an opportunity to dig deeper and challenge its characters to do more than just surface-level soul-searching."