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A SMART, SEXY AND SPIKY MODERN LOVE STORY, FROM DEBUT NOVELIST JENNY MUSTARD
‘A perfect Millennial love story . . . with its acidic dialogue and languid sex scenes. A charming and clever romance, a perfect summer read’
Irish Times
‘Reminiscent of Sally Rooney . . . a complex and joyous ode to being in love, messing up and finding your way’ Stylist
Sam is 28, Swedish, carefree and chaotic. Doing a work placement in London over the course of three sticky summer months, she falls hard for Lucas, a man she first met as a teenager.
Lucas, 27, sensitive and calm, is trying to get a foothold in the adult world while struggling to hold the pieces of his life together. Sam is a gorgeous distraction.
But you can only avoid reality for so long, and both Sam and Lucas know their relationship can’t last. Nobody can be this happy forever, surely?
Okay Days tells the story of the rise and fall of Sam and Lucas’s affection for each other, while looking unflinchingly at male body dysmorphia, women’s reproductive rights, and the pitfalls of modern love.
When is okay good enough? And what are we willing to lose in the search for a life that is much better than just okay?
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Reviews
I'm obsessed by Okay Days. A gorgeous, twenty-first-century London love story: intelligent, honest and moving
Reminiscent of Sally Rooney . . . a complex and joyous ode to being in love, messing up and finding your way
Jenny Mustard's writing is fresh and sharply observant. A writer full of insights on the human condition and relationships, I loved the off-kilter tone, and clever shifts in perspective between Lucas and Sam. Mustard is definitely reminiscent of Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan but Okay Days is ultimately a slice of a new writer. She has her very own original rhythms; a smart eye for detail and compelling insights into love and life. One of the most intriguing books I've read in some time.
Reading Okay Days is like drinking the ideal lime cordial, sweetness clarified by sharpness.
A beautiful, bruising novel about love, sex and finding your place in the world. Okay Days is tender and humorous and ultimately uplifting. Sam and Lucas are unforgettable. Simply brilliant.
I absolutely loved Okay Days. It's so sharp and witty, and the relationship between Sam and Lucas is real in its complexity. With compassion, Jenny captures something raw and true, in beautiful, sparse prose
Okay Days is an achingly beautiful modern love story. Smart, dazzling and arrestingly original, Mustard is a blazing new writer who dares to limber up before gifting a blistering vision of what it means to be human. A thought that echoes through is: will okay ever be good enough? And with each chapter, a fresh and deep meaning rises. It is a searching and tender tale. I loved it.
I adored spending time with Sam and Luc, separately and together, and found my thoughts straying to them when away from the page. Okay Days is charming and clever and somehow manages to be both warm and affectionate and coolly detached. Bravo, Jenny Mustard, I eagerly await whatever comes next
As fresh as a spring morning. Naoise Dolan vibes. Witty, observant, stylish, tender, sharp, and delightful
A delicious mix of sweet and salt, ennui and excitement, Okay Days crystallises something essential about the Millennial zeitgeist that will be devoured by fans of Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan. This debut is so much more than just okay
A truly wonderful novel which I absolutely tore through. Sexy, tender and so intelligent on its navigation of modern life. I adored it! With clear-eyed prose and laser focus, Okay Days is a rare thing. Both a love story with the intimate quality of the overheard and a modern parable of how we find meaning amidst a culture of transience
A thoroughly modern love story. Characters you know intimately, maybe you've slept with, but have never seen on the page. And very readable - I finished it in a day. Fresh, sexy, spiky, and very special. If you liked Normal People, you'll love Okay Days
Jenny Mustard has crafted characters and prose that bristle and sparkle on the page. Sam and Luc are so real to me now that they still live on inside my head, long after I closed the book. A fantastic debut from a promising literary talent.
A razor-sharp debut . . . exploring contemporary issues through the relationship of two characters that felt viscerally real . . . Jenny Mustard where have you been hiding? This debut is nothing short of brilliant, a love story that is achingly contemporary and will no doubt be relatable for so many readers . . . the perfect balance of humour, observation, hope and vulnerability, the anxiety of finding yourself and the constant need for more . . . Loved it
With dreamy descriptions and a Sally Rooney-esque vibe, Okay Days is an ode to figuring life out as you go
Emotionally realistic . . . desperately romantic. Simply brilliant
A beautifully observed portrait of self-discovery and uncertain love. Jenny's sharp and evocative prose gave me a feeling of immense nostalgia for London's long summer days
Mustard's debut is a charming indie love story with a highly contemporary message at its heart . . . Okay Days is a perfect Millennial love story to be filed alongside Sally Rooney and Naoise Dolan. This is romance with a sharp dash of bitters. And with its acidic dialogue and languid sex scenes, I wouldn't be surprised to see it adapted for the screen. A charming and clever romance, a perfect summer read.
A literary version of the Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy film Before Sunrise . . . a sweetly awkward romance
Tender and spell-binding, Okay Days breaks you all the way open
Beautiful . . . So tender, with so many gorgeous details. I'm always in awe of writers who are able to draw out our quietest, most complicated modern feelings in such a sensitive way
So smart and insightful on the quiet dynamics of relationships, in crisp, perfectly paced prose
Okay Days is an immersive deep dive into lust, love and London. It's not often a book can so totally immerse you in its universe but I felt like I could see, hear, smell and taste every moment. This novel gives a raw and relatable account of the white-knuckle ride that is navigating a relationship in your late 20s and we can all learn something from it.
Okay Days is an effervescent novel that distils precisely the aches and shifts of modern love - reading it feels like an act of tenderness and intimacy that lingers long after the last page
Jenny Mustard's debut, Okay Days, is an intimate drama of what matters in stories: relationships. Mustard is a talented portraitist in whose hands these two characters become real, enthralling, and viscerally realized. It is one of the most entertaining novels I have read of the times we live in.
