Walter is a writer whose work deserves a wide readership

One of our most gifted builders of fictional worlds

Walter is a believer in capricious destiny with a fine, freewheeling sense of humour

Louise O'Neill steps into areas that lesser writers are daunted by. She is a pioneer.

O'Neill continues to push at the murk around contemporary taboos, shining a compassionate and compelling light on what drives our appearance-obsessed society, marking us all as complicit. IDOL is a gripping, shocking read I could not put down.

IDOL is utterly compelling and totally fearless. I literally had to ban myself from reading it after 8pm as I couldn't sleep otherwise. Louise isn't afraid to grasp nettles and IDOL is a confronting exploration of toxic female friendships, consent, and the gross hypocrisy of influencer culture. Destined to be rightly huge. It will take a long time to get these characters out of my head.

Compulsive, disturbing and totally addictive, I couldn't put IDOL down. No-one writes the dark extremes of womanhood like Louise O'Neill and I think this might be her best novel yet.

Sharp and sharply plotted, muscular, propulsive, visceral. So good on illusion and self-delusion; the lies we tell ourselves and each other; the damage of toxic friendships, and the legacy of betrayal or imagined betrayal. There were phrases that stopped me in my tracks, they resonated so hard. I hope it flies far higher than Samantha Miller.

I read it in one sitting! Louise has a way of making her characters deliciously, unapologetically human and gloriously messy. Sometimes you want to look away but it's impossible. IDOL is her best yet.

Electrifying. I devoured IDOL in two greedy gulps - it is so smartly and sharply observed. It's going to stay with me for a long, long time - Louise's writing is so compelling, gripping and addictive.

As an author I am envious of the incredible achievement IDOL is, but as a reader I am so thankful for the three days of page-turning reading it provided. Sophisticated, gripping and compulsive, I couldn't tear through the pages fast enough. I was just so desperate to find out what happened! I'd even go as far to say that IDOL is my book of the year. This is going to be massive.

IDOL is such a cleverly constructed novel, taking a scalpel to the superficiality of social media and the wellness industry. O'Neill writes so perceptively about adolescent friendships, toxic relationships, and how our personal truths can be littered with self-delusion. It's a timely story - a morality tale for the Instagram generation - and all the more compelling for it.

I don't think I've ever enjoyed hating a character as much as I hated Samantha Miller. This fierce tale of toxic female friendship is unlike anything I have read. Highly original, unflinching and with a devilishly dark conclusion, I loved every page of it.

Idol is sharp, unflinching and timely, and made me question what's real in a world where likes and clicks matter more than ever. It's a book that dazzles and mesmerises, and will linger in your thoughts long after you finish reading.

I'm completely in awe of what Louise O'Neill has done with this brilliant and riveting book. Idol is absolutely astonishing. It's one of those rare novels you desperately want to eke out - to make it last forever - but then can't help yourself rushing through, staying up all night to finish. It's so well-written and pacy, I was literally breathless for the last 100 pages.

IDOL is that rare combination of thought-provoking and page-turning - the very definition of a novel for our times

IDOL is Louise O'Neill at the very top of her game. This is a clever, zeitgiesty read, which will play with your emotions as if they were scrabble tiles and give you characters that you love then hate on the turn of a page but you won't be able to stop reading. This is going to be one of the most talked about books of the year

Brutal, compulsive, brilliant. Louise O'Neill exposes the contradictions and quandaries of influencer culture with her usual perceptiveness.

'An absolute must for your book club, with so many issues up for discussion'

A tinder box of a book... smart, sparky, and packed full of combustible emotions.

Incredibly readable

A whip-smart read which you'll love

Utterly compelling... 5 stars

A smart, addictive page-turner

O'Neill's darkly compelling thriller asks disturbing questions about memory, truth and the power of social media to destroy its own idols

Lyrical and excoriating

Each of the muses had an extraordinary story to tell... I was utterly absorbed from beginning to end.

Smart, sophisticated and fun

Delightful. The woman narrating ROMANTIC COMEDY is hyper-aware of the conventions of romantic comedy, and she knows full well that real life is no fairytale. But could it be this time?

Sittenfeld's latest takes a shot of SNL and makes sparks fly

Hilarious, heartwarming

If you're looking for a romance with edge, this book is for you. The writing is as intelligent and funny as you'd expect from the author of classics such as American Wife and it's a properly swoonsome love story

Cancel plans and dive into bestselling author Sittenfeld's hilarious take on the classic will-they-won't-they storyline

Written by one of the very best out there, Romantic Comedy is a novel that you won't want to put down and one you'll want to recommend to everyone you know

An enthralling, humorous and subversive tale set in the world of a live TV comedy show

Whip-smart, funny and a fascinating look behind the scenes of a sketch show. Curtis Sittenfeld has penned another exquisitely written novel

A piercing look at the genre of Romcom set against the backdrop of a Saturday Night Live-esque TV show - a rollercoaster of modern love and dating

I ate it up whole. Joyful

Get lost in a modern romantic fantasy

A humorous take on Hollywood romcoms

Sexy, funny, thought-provoking and everything I hoped it would be. Her best novel since American Wife.

Romantic Comedy combines humour with poignancy and a lot of heart.

Sittenfeld's novel continues her wider project of exploring the possibility for a kind of redemptive idealism within our flawed world

Sittenfeld has penned another exquisitely written novel

A fizzy love letter to the prototypical romcom

So much of Sittenfeld's work exists in the dissection and comprehension of female desire

Flirting with the tropes of its namesake genre, this playful novel follows Sally, a writer on an "S.N.L."-like show called "Night Owls," who falls in love with one of its guest hosts. Their relationship develops via e-mail in the post-grocery-wiping, pre-vaccine days of covid-19. When Sally decides to visit her beloved in L.A., their time together in his Topanga mansion requires her to navigate incredulity, insecurity, and an offer that she feels is an "affront to my independence." The novel is preoccupied with the instinctual nature of self-sabotage, and with the fulfillment that can come from defying ingrained impulses

Insightful romcom sparkles with real wit and wisdom

Whip smart and really funny

Scores big on giving readers an insight into the machinations of a TV writers-room

Full of dazzling banter and sizzling chemistry

If you ever wanted a backstage pass to Saturday Night Live, this book is for you

Excellent

Both a brilliant portrait of the comedy world and a witty grown-up love story. Lives up to its name