What readers say
this is the story of casey. she is recently broken up with, grieving her mother, and is a writer who works as a waitress. amidst all of this, she meets two different men, promising different kinds of lives. the story focuses on her deciding between the two, trying to write her novel that she has been working on for six years, paying off her debt, and finding herself. before i picked up the book, i was certain i was going to love it, but during the course of reading, i found myself demotivated to pick up any book for some reason. despite showing early signs of a reading slump, i pushed myself to finish it, and i’m so glad i did. i resonated with so many parts of the book. even though the synopsis talks about a love triangle, i was more interested in other areas of casey’s life (not that the love triangle was uninteresting, but i was simply seeking something else from this book). i was rooting for casey in the same way i wanted to root for my own life and get my shit together. i could feel the insides of her skin humming like my own, i would feel a sense of peace wash over me whenever books and writers were discussed, and deeply feel the threat that it’s never going to be okay. but it did get okay for her, and it filled me with hope that it will get okay for me too. i admired how the demise of her mother, finishing her book, and other major events unfolded in an ordinary sort of way. it reminded me not to make things bigger than they are. because that’s what makes them scary. and “fear holds us back every step of the way,” which is something that was said in the book. thank you, lily king, for making me want to work towards being a fearless blue giraffe. i would recommend this book to anyone who is feeling a little lost. my dms are open for anyone who wants to discuss it with me. p.s. i loved the writing style for more bookish yapping follow me on instagram
“i just like to record things. so i don’t forget” i read this backwards, it was meant to be read before ‘heart the lover’ as it was published first. i don’t really think it mattered. if anything, i think it helped that i read the other first, because i enjoyed it a considerable amount more. writers & lovers tells the story of casey peabody, a 31 year old woman trying to navigate the unfairness and uncertainty of life. her mother dies abruptly while on vacation, she becomes estranged from her father, she lives 3000 miles away from her only brother. she is massively in debt. she works a simple lunch shift at a fancy restaurant near Harvard, where both her boss and the line cook hate her. her landlord is malicious, unkind. she has numerous health issues appear out of nowhere. to sum it all up, everything is going to shit. on top of all the chaos she is drowning in, she is stuck in a love triangle. option one is the 3x publisher author and father, his two kids, a glitzy, glamorous life filled with oyster appetizers and red wine and bedtime (oscar). option two is a boyish smile with a chipped tooth, a beat up car, flighty, funny, fireworks. (silas) casey has also been writing a novel for the past six years. the process of writing has carried her through her personal trauma and grief, it has been the one constant while everything else around her has crumbled and changed. she finishes the book, sending her manuscript to agents via snail mail (i guess this was before email existed) it is every author’s dream. i didn’t love the plot as much as i loved the emotion and understanding of being a writer. the spiral of thoughts questioning whether your story is actually good, questioning the names of your characters. every little small detail being over analyzed by no critic as harsh as yourself. the process of writing- the slumps, the revisions, receiving positive feedback that makes your heart flutter and your body tremble. just the brain of a writer itself as told through t