Published By: Abacus
Pages: 224
Released On: 06/11/2025
Avery is flailing financially and emotionally. Struggling with graduate school and the collection of cultural reports she is supposed to be writing, she dates older men for money, and others for the oblivion their egos offer. In desperation, she takes a job at a right-wing dating app.
Meanwhile her wealthy best friend, Frances, drops out of grad school, gets married, and somehow still manages to finish an experimental documentary about rural isolation and right-wing conspiracy theories. Frances’s triumphant return to New York as the toast of the art world sends Avery into a tailspin, pushing her to make a series of dangerous decisions.
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Abacus for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
The synopsis really interested me, this honest look at competitiveness. We are brought up to feel proud of our friends, to support them, to encourage each other, particularly woman-to-woman, and celebrate their achievements. But it’s an open secret that we also feel jealous and upset and despair at your own career, relationship etc. progression, and that’s okay. Especially in the creative world, it’s a difficult industry and it can be difficult to feel genuinely happy for someone else when you’ve tried for so long.
Another review says “Reading Flat Earth is like opening your best friend’s diary and finding out what she really thinks about you, and then falling even more in love with her”, and I think that’s an appropriate assessment.
It is written very retrospectively, as if the main character is reciting everything that has happened to her previously, which made it feel a little passive.
It is harsh and raw and above all, honest. It shows all the ugly sides to life and doesn’t apologise for them.
It’s a real look at female friendship as you get older. During a time where you’re not that carefree kid, but you’re also not settled yet as a proper adult. You’re somewhere in between, trying to work out your place amongst everything and that’s not always easy, and Anika has been very honest, and it’s not always pretty.
The characters for me were probably the weakest link. I just didn’t feel much for them. They were just, sort of, there. I was interested in their journey and relationships, but them as standalone characters, they just felt a bit flat.
I would have preferred a slightly more concise and ‘normal’ narrative. It flits back and forth and all over the place, and there isn’t always this consistent, chronological, easy-to-read narrative, which made it a bit uncomfortable to read at times.
It is a short book, a quick book. Part of me thinks it was the perfect length to get everything across that it needed to, but part of me wanted more, more time for more depth, especially with the characters.
I think it’s a promising debut. It does have its flaws, and there are definitely things that, in my opinion, need ironing it. But it’s a very honest, open book about female friendship and coming of age, and I think readers, especially young female readers of a similar age and point in life as the characters, will get a lot out of it. But a thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking story.
Books By Your Bedside 