Grown Ups
Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends in this brutally honest, observant, original novel about a woman going through a breakup…but really having more of a breakdown.
Jenny McLaine’s life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She’s just lost her column at The Foof because she isn’t the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny’s mother is about to move in. Having left home at eighteen to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her thirties and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood.
Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue, and social media messages, Grown Ups is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age. It reckons with what it means to exist in a woman’s body: to sing and dance and work and mother and sparkle and equalize and not complain and be beautiful and love your imperfections and stay strong and show your vulnerability and bake and box…
But, despite our impossible expectations of women, Emma Jane Unsworth never lets Jenny off the hook. Jenny’s life is falling apart at her own hands and whether or not she has help from her mother or her friends, Jenny is the only one who will be able to pick up the pieces and learn how to, more or less, grow up. Or will she?
Reviews
“Too funny, too clever, satisfyingly satirical, and with just the right amount of Zodiac chat, Grown Ups is incredible.”–Candice Carty-Williams, author of Queenie
“So funny, arch, and tender, this novel shows what really goes on beneath the shiny surface of our online lives. A must-read for anyone who has ever wondered what it means to be a daughter, a friend, or a mother, when sometimes you don't even know how to be yourself.”–Jessie Burton, New York Times bestselling author of The Miniaturist
“Dazzling observations and snarky one-liners, with a heroine who is vulnerable, funny, intelligent, and feels so real. I wish I'd written it!”–Marian Keyes, internationally bestselling author of Anybody Out There?
“This book made me guffaw and took my breath away in equal, knocks-you-sideways measure. Confronting, heartbreaking, and hilarious—it is both a timely parable for modern anxiety as well as a timeless examination of men, women, sex, desire, friendship, family and the female psyche. I completely and utterly adored it.”–Dolly Alderton, internationally bestselling author of Everything I Know About Love
“Emma's insight into the complexities of thirtysomething womanhood in a time of social media floored me. I've never felt so seen by a book. Generous, tender, and moving—a must-read.”–Laura Jane Williams, author of Our Stop
"A sharp, funny tale of trying to be yourself in the age of Instagram."–The Times (UK)
"Jenny McLaine is having something of a crisis when we meet her. This witty novel could not be more spot on for our day and age, told through texts, emails and social media posts as Jenny navigates floundering friendships, career failures and best of all, living again with her mother in her 30s."–Newsweek, "40 Must-Read Fiction and Nonfiction Books to Savor This Spring"
“Jenny’s voice is strong, sharp, occasionally disgusting, and alternately charming and horrifying as she narrates every one of her stumbles through life. A bracing look at a breakdown that’s sometimes difficult to read but always completely captivating.”–Kirkus Reviews
"Emma Jane Unsworth’s latest is chatty satire on our worst online behaviors. For fans of Fleabag." –Marie Claire
"If you loved Fleabag as much as I did, this novel will take you 'across the pond' and fill you with the deep satisfaction that only dry, snarky humor can. Add some feminist themes, some clever observations about relationships, and you’ve got all you need for a girls’ night out from your own living room — except the wine!"–Wendy Walker
“Unsworth’s wise and invigorating novel captures something essential in the ways Jenny rules, and is ruled by, her digital self; readers will be hooked.” –Booklist
"[A] blistering tragicomic send-up of a life documented on Instagram.... Emails, internet searches, online posts, and even a screenplay comprise the varied and playful forms through which Jenny’s surprisingly poignant drama unfolds. Though directed squarely at millennials, Jenny’s stumbling journey toward authenticity will resonate with anyone who’s taken the bold, hard step of assessing their life without any filters."–Publishers Weekly
“Grown Ups is being described as ‘Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends’ and also ‘a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age,’ which are pretty much the same thing, the same thing being just what I want to read when I need to get away from the internet, and/or myself, and/or all my friends.”
–Lit Hub, "Most Anticipated Books of 2020
“So funny, arch, and tender, this novel shows what really goes on beneath the shiny surface of our online lives. A must-read for anyone who has ever wondered what it means to be a daughter, a friend, or a mother, when sometimes you don't even know how to be yourself.”–Jessie Burton, New York Times bestselling author of The Miniaturist
“Dazzling observations and snarky one-liners, with a heroine who is vulnerable, funny, intelligent, and feels so real. I wish I'd written it!”–Marian Keyes, internationally bestselling author of Anybody Out There?
“This book made me guffaw and took my breath away in equal, knocks-you-sideways measure. Confronting, heartbreaking, and hilarious—it is both a timely parable for modern anxiety as well as a timeless examination of men, women, sex, desire, friendship, family and the female psyche. I completely and utterly adored it.”–Dolly Alderton, internationally bestselling author of Everything I Know About Love
“Emma's insight into the complexities of thirtysomething womanhood in a time of social media floored me. I've never felt so seen by a book. Generous, tender, and moving—a must-read.”–Laura Jane Williams, author of Our Stop
"A sharp, funny tale of trying to be yourself in the age of Instagram."–The Times (UK)
"Jenny McLaine is having something of a crisis when we meet her. This witty novel could not be more spot on for our day and age, told through texts, emails and social media posts as Jenny navigates floundering friendships, career failures and best of all, living again with her mother in her 30s."–Newsweek, "40 Must-Read Fiction and Nonfiction Books to Savor This Spring"
“Jenny’s voice is strong, sharp, occasionally disgusting, and alternately charming and horrifying as she narrates every one of her stumbles through life. A bracing look at a breakdown that’s sometimes difficult to read but always completely captivating.”–Kirkus Reviews
"Emma Jane Unsworth’s latest is chatty satire on our worst online behaviors. For fans of Fleabag." –Marie Claire
"If you loved Fleabag as much as I did, this novel will take you 'across the pond' and fill you with the deep satisfaction that only dry, snarky humor can. Add some feminist themes, some clever observations about relationships, and you’ve got all you need for a girls’ night out from your own living room — except the wine!"–Wendy Walker
“Unsworth’s wise and invigorating novel captures something essential in the ways Jenny rules, and is ruled by, her digital self; readers will be hooked.” –Booklist
"[A] blistering tragicomic send-up of a life documented on Instagram.... Emails, internet searches, online posts, and even a screenplay comprise the varied and playful forms through which Jenny’s surprisingly poignant drama unfolds. Though directed squarely at millennials, Jenny’s stumbling journey toward authenticity will resonate with anyone who’s taken the bold, hard step of assessing their life without any filters."–Publishers Weekly
“Grown Ups is being described as ‘Fleabag meets Conversations with Friends’ and also ‘a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age,’ which are pretty much the same thing, the same thing being just what I want to read when I need to get away from the internet, and/or myself, and/or all my friends.”
–Lit Hub, "Most Anticipated Books of 2020
Emma Jane Unsworth
Emma Jane Unsworth has written two award-winning novels: Hungry, the Stars and Everything and Animals. She wrote the screenplay of Animals and
the film, directed by Sophie Hyde and starring Holliday Grainger and
Alia Shawkat, premiered at Sundance 2019 and was released in the UK
later that year. She regularly writes essays for newspapers and
magazines, including The Guardian Weekend. She also writes for television.
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