Come and Get It is Kiley Reid’s breathlessly anticipated follow-up to her 2020 Booker long-listed triumph Such a Fun Age, which was lauded as an essential and nuanced satire of white privilege, racial microaggressions and gender politics. Published just before the Black Lives Matter movement, it became a key work in the canon of educational literature being shared on Instagram at that time. It was a slam-dunk of a debut. Yet, those who loved the razor-sharp observations and biting depictions of casual stereotyping should approach Reid’s second offering with expectations firmly lowered.
In Come and Get It, Reid, who is currently an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, attempts to give the themes of class and money the same satirical treatment. Sadly, what begins with spark in the first couple of chapters fizzles out spectacularly and meanders weakly through nearly 400 pages. It’s a slow burn extinguished before it ever gets going.
