Writers & Lovers - Lily King

Writers & Lovers was quite the divisive novel, or so it seemed from the perspective of this lowly bookstagrammer; complaints about descriptions of pointless things and zero plot abounded. I don’t want to sound like a snob - which we all know is a preface to a sentence in which I’m going to do precisely that. I think those that didn’t enjoy Writers & Lovers are perhaps those that prefer a less cerebral type of reading experience to the one that Lily King offers in this, her fifth novel. Yes, there are lots of descriptions about seemingly trivial things; and no, there isn’t much in the way of a plot, but those are two of the reasons why I adored this novel.

The title of Writers & Lovers essentially tells you everything you need to know going into what is a brilliantly written, and fleeting beauty of a novel. Casey is a writer, as are many of her friends, and, throughout the book, she takes a lover or two and recalls past lovers–that’s pretty much it. No whodunnit, no mystery to solve, no invented place names or magic spells to learn or remember–just a novel about a woman wanting to finish her book, and make the right decision about her love life. Simple.

There is, of course, more to Writers & Lovers than that. Casey is a waitress, working at a job she hates, crippled by debt, coming to terms with the recent loss of her mother, and writing a novel she’s desperate to finish and sell. She has flaws, fears, doubts, anxieties, desires, passions, and a hell of a lot of thoughts. It’s these thoughts that bring her to life so vividly, because we experience mundanity along with her. Most importantly, she is a richly detailed character that came to life beautifully in my mind, and I loved being on a 300-page journey with her.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Support independent bookstores by ordering Writers & Lovers from the What James Read (and Recommends!) Bookstore.