Marlowe Granados

Refreshing and wry in equal measure, Happy Hour is an intoxicating novel of youth well spent. Isa Epley is all of twenty-one years old, and already wise enough to understand that the purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure. After a sojourn across the pond, she arrives in New York City for a summer of adventure with her best friend, one newly blond Gala Novak. They have little money, but that’s hardly going to stop them from having a good time.

In her diary, Isa describes a sweltering summer in the glittering city. By day, the girls sell clothes in a market stall, pinching pennies for their Bed-Stuy sublet and bodega lunches. By night, they weave from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side to the Hamptons among a rotating cast of celebrities, artists, Internet entrepreneurs, stuffy intellectuals, and bad-mannered grifters. Money runs ever tighter and the strain tests their friendship as they try to convert their social capital into something more lasting than their precarious gigs as au pairs, nightclub hostesses, paid audience members, and aspiring foot fetish models. Through it all, Isa’s bold, beguiling voice captures the precise thrill of cultivating a life of glamour and intrigue as she juggles paying her dues with skipping out on the bill.

Happy Hour announces a dazzling new talent in Marlowe Granados, whose exquisite wit recalls Anita Loos’s 1925 classic, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, updated to evoke a recent, golden period of hope and transformation—the summer of 2013. A cri de cœur for party girls and anyone who has ever felt entitled to an adventure of their own, Happy Hour is an effervescent tonic for the ails of contemporary life.

Happy Hour

I want money so I can have beautiful things—surround myself with them. 

I have tried to stitch together tenderness from each person. Wring them of it. I want all the tenderness in the world. 

Beauty is a funny thing. It fools you into thinking you like someone when really all you want is to possess them.

With the verve and bite of Ottessa Moshfegh and the barbed charm of Nancy Mitford, Marlowe Granados’s stunning début brilliantly captures a summer of striving in New York City Refreshing and wry in equal measure, Happy Hour is an intoxicatingnovel of youth well spent. Isa Epley is all of twenty-one years old, and already wise enough to understand that the purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure. She arrives in New York City for a summer of adventure with her best friend, one newly blond Gala Novak. They have little money, but that’s hardly going to stop them from having a good time. In her diary, Isa describes a sweltering summer in the glittering city. By day, the girls sell clothes in a market stall, pinching pennies for their Bed-Stuy sublet and bodega lunches. By night, they weave from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side to the Hamptons among a rotating cast of celebrities, artists, Internet entrepreneurs, stuffy intellectuals, and bad-mannered grifters. Resources run ever tighter and the strain tests their friendship as they try to convert their social capital into something more lasting than precarious gigs as au pairs, nightclub hostesses, paid audience members, and aspiring foot fetish models. Through it all, Isa’s bold, beguiling voice captures the precise thrill of cultivating a life of glamour and intrigue as she juggles paying her dues with skipping out on the bill. Happy Hour is a novel about getting by and looking great in a system that wants you to do neither.

A Novel

Helen 

I have tried to stitch together tendernes trom each person. Wring them of it. I want all the tender- ness in the world. It's a natural urge to want to be important in someone's life. The soft underbelly of a coarse man. A preview is never enough because I am insatiable. 

Beauty is a funny thing. It fools you imto ing you like someone when really all you want is to possess them. Ultimately, I guess that's what desire is. 

If only I could exist as perfect lightness, always laughing with my mouth open. I would float through life with ease, believing in my own unserious personality. It takes no effort to convince people you are in fact just that. They start to expect that of you, and nothing more.

People love Paris, but they forget it smells like a urinal. Being there is like paying someone to be rude to you and deciding to like it. 

Seeing someone you used to love is like visiting a house you once lived in. Everything about them is familiar yet strange. The greater the distance between you, the more unbelievable they seem. Maybe I have always been involved in some kind of fieldwork.

abi a

I do wonder whether my memories should stay only mine, or have they ever been? Each time I tell someone a story over a watery Pernod, it opens that someone to the possibility of the memory; that's why I adore talking. Then maybe the stories really are mine, not because they happened to me but because of the indelible details I give. Maybe it is the how that makes them valuable. 

When men are in the kitchen, it is considered work, and when women are in the kitchen, it's considered duty. That's why there are so few women chefs in duty. restaurants. The kitchen is hostile territory. It's a wonder nice things come out of it.

Am I some kind of destroyer? Privately, men are concerned with self-preservation. I guess I, too, only feel desirable when I'm holding back, when I keep something for myself.

 I was under the impression that I loved him, simply because I never knew what he was thinking.

If I didn’t zone out some of it I think I would’ve rated it higher. Isa is very relatable to myself and she’s a Filipina baddie duhhhhhhh

Angeleeka

With the verve and bite of Ottessa Moshfegh and the barbed charm of Nancy Mitford, Marlowe Granados’s stunning début brilliantly captures a summer of striving in New York City Refreshing and wry in equal measure, Happy Hour is an intoxicating novel of youth well spent. Isa Epley is all of twenty-one years old, and already wise enough to understand that the purpose of life is the pursuit of pleasure. She arrives in New York City for a summer of adventure with her best friend, one newly blond Gala Novak. They have little money, but that’s hardly going to stop them from having a good time. In her diary, Isa describes a sweltering summer in the glittering city. By day, the girls sell clothes in a market stall, pinching pennies for their Bed-Stuy sublet and bodega lunches. By night, they weave from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side to the Hamptons among a rotating cast of celebrities, artists, Internet entrepreneurs, stuffy intellectuals, and bad-mannered grifters. Resources run ever tighter and the strain tests their friendship as they try to convert their social capital into something more lasting than precarious gigs as au pairs, nightclub hostesses, paid audience members, and aspiring foot fetish models. Through it all, Isa’s bold, beguiling voice captures the precise thrill of cultivating a life of glamour and intrigue as she juggles paying her dues with skipping out on the bill. Happy Hour is a novel about getting by and having fun in a world that wants you to do neither.

my first 5-star read of the year!

it felt like reading someone else's diary—there were so many characters and not much plot structure, but i thoroughly enjoyed it.

the writing made me feel like i interacted with everyone isa did, and i really liked that!

(i can only wish to be as spontaneous and adventurous as isa and gala.)

i’m tempted to see gala as a bad friend, but since it's told from isa’s perspective, i can’t really decide, which is why i’d love a sequel from gala’s point of view.

as someone still trying to find their place in this world and navigate (also see: survive) it one day at a time, i highly recommend this. however, please don't expect an ending that will bring about a sudden epiphany or help you figure everything out—this is NOT that type of book.

Erin G.

Listened to audio. Light, easy no-stakes. Quote that totally sums up the plot: "It's decadent and it goes nowhere."

Angelyn Francis

Well written. Enjoyable read, especially perfect for a pandemic lockdown when you just want to go out and about in a city. This was even more interesting to me as someone who hasn't used charm and femininity as social currency. But as I reached the halfway mark of the book, the substance felt like it waned and the lack of plot left me wanting.

Ryan Mateyk

Happy Hour is basically the diary of Isa Epley, a 21-year-old spending the summer of 2013 in NYC with her best friend Gala. They are the picture of youth and spontaneity; selling clothes at a market stall by day, cavorting with the rich and famous and other by night, seriously just living their best lives. 
.
This was breezy and refreshing. I had drawn comparisons in my head that it was going to be like Broad City in book form. The adventures of Isa and Gala weren’t quite as zany or chaotic, but it was kind of like Broad City-lite? The adventures still there just with a damper on them (smh that Isa and Gala never traveled to North Brother Island). I found the voice wasn’t always reminiscent of a 21-year-old (what 21yo name drops Lorca or says ‘quel dommage’, what does that even mean?), but by the time I was done I fully believed it just was Isa. It was fun and youthful and always quick witted. 
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Having said it was fun and youthful, I do need to point out that within the last 50-ish pages were some of the most tender and vulnerable passages in a book in any recent memory, particularly the 5 pages of the chapter titled August 6th. Don’t want to spoil so I’ll leave it at that. 
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Reading this during the coldest days of the winter really left me longing, for summer, yes, but mostly for everything that the world has missed out on the past year: drinking a little too much at parties, saying yes to a random adventure, getting angry with your friends about something trivial and laughing about it later. I miss it ☹

armoni mayes

If I am reckless, it is because I am tired. 

The quote above is probably my favorite quote from this novel, although there are so many other contenders. The quote sums up essentially the motivations of our main character, Isa, throughout the story.

Happy Hour is my favorite book I’ve read this year. It follows Isa and Gala, but from Isa’s point of view, as they trample their way through the NYC scene during the hot summer months. This book will leave you with a yearning to live in a big city and experience life in a similar way to them. This is definitely not a plot heavy book but a character study of the two friends and their many adventures during a 4 month period. 

This book is so funny, literally had me laughing out loud at multiple points, but also insightful and discusses a multitude of themes. The themes being feminism, the male gaze, friendship, sorrow, grief from losing a loved one, and where spontaneity can land you. 

I also loved the discussion that Isa had with herself as well as other people about her ethnicity because she is “racially ambiguous”. I related so much to this because allegedly I am also racially ambiguous haha. 

Also, although Gala is not narrating this book I felt like Granados did an amazing job at not leaving her character stagnant and surface level. Marvelous book and I’d read anything else Granados writes. 

 My favorite quotes  

 I feel as though becoming a woman is like a long tradition of going through things and coming out strong, but I am tired and weary! 

I concluded his rage came from a history of scorn and bitterness. Some people think that in order to make an impression on a pretty girl, one has to be mean to her. People think girls who have certain magnetism have never known Real Struggle, so they take it upon themselves to give a little bruising and a hard time.

People treat grief as though it is contagious, like it must be isolated, snuffed out, and forgotten in those that suffer from it. Whenever I catch people on the empathetic end of a night of drinking, they look at me and say, "I don't know how you do it. I am not strong! I want to tell them. I am simply enduring. Mothers hug me with an intuition of what I lack, and I am thanktul for that. I love them for it.

I don't think I've ever started out liking a book this much only to truly turn on it the longer it went on. It seemed like the two main characters fucking hated each other so why are they best friends? Why is every single scene Isa running into people she's met somewhere and then going to a random party with them, where she meets someone else who's obsessed with her and can't shut up about how charming she is? How do she and Gala have no money but they can constantly take cabs from Brooklyn to Manhattan???? Why don't they ever just say they're Canadian??? But most importantly IN WHAT UNIVERSE DOES SOMEONE MEET A PUBLISHER WHO'S LIKE SURE, I'LL PUBLISH YOUR DIARY. Some truly beautiful prose in here though.

Regan Martin

aileeeeeeen

this book is telling about your 20s is going to be eventful. you will happen to experience about friendship, heartache, delight, enjoyment and everything that your life can offer. it may not be good, but it is not bad, because your life will keep going even though one bad day might occur. I like how it is written, it feels like this is what I have felt for so long, so some events, words, and scenes were hit on spot. and somehow, this book telling me of “you are capable to do something because you have many chances” which stuck in me.

Malia

Isabella 

i enjoyed reading this. no plot just vibes type of book. witty and fun but also reflective!! honestly felt like a non-fiction book at times because of how seemingly real the environment and characters are.

something to devour in if you want a story with no plots and of a light read. didnt like it very much though

izzah

Zahra

3.5/5 stars

"It takes practice to have restraint and we're not yet at an age to try it out."

"It's the summer of 2013, and while New York swelters Isa and Gala scrape and hustle to get by. Among a rotating cast of artists, academics, and bad-mannered grifters, they discover that desires aren't for denying. But as money gets sparse and circumstances grow precarious, the pair struggle to convert social capital into something more tangible"--

i can see why people would find this boring and repetitive but it wasnt boring TO ME. no plot no conflict just vibes. my type of book

readingsnmusings 

People who don't like this book just don't get it!
It's one of those books that you are unaware you've been searching for your whole life, then you randomly select it one day, read it and suddenly everything clicks!

had the rare influence of actually wanting to make me move back to ny. fun story and girl vibes that appeals to me more in the sense that i hope to emulate it rather than makes a compelling story. think in the end it just had the misfortune of being read after a long line of cool girl protagonists, which is not the fault of the book and truly a fault of mine! if i could summarize what made me fall out of sync, it felt more like i was getting to know a character through her essay collection, rather than a narrative. 

tiff <3

Caroline

I read this book on a cusp of winter to spring and it made me remember how hot it will be very soon. Isa and Gala are very serious for being 21 and living in ny. However Isa makes a lot of wisecracks that made me smile.

Chloe Garcia

love this one actually! — refreshing and digestible writing that reminds me of post WWII existentialist fiction (like hemingway and all those other old guys) but with a drink-in-hand casual vibe that lets the more melancholy parts sink in even better. hard to explain.

markelle e. e.

Lia Yuliana

this novel is just like the title. a series of happy hours stringed together into a story following two girls on holiday in new york city, hustle by morning and party by night. they are beautiful. attractive, and fashionable. zero plot and just hot summer nyc vibes. 

its like those youtube videos of young 20 something year olds moving to NYC to rediscover themselves or find their truth. each chapter is like a weekly vlog but more destructive and less self care. 

its a fun book though.

Lauren Attaway

Happy Hour follows Isa Epley on a summer of working hard at not working with her friend Gala Novak. They venture from one night of parties and people with no one- businessmen, artists, and celebs – safe from their critical eye. 

The classification “Hot Girl Summer as a Novel” is an honest and very fair one. This book is refreshingly quotable and entertaining in a way that I had hoped for but did not expect. 
I remember the fragility of counting every coin and worrying about being hungry, while others around me sabotaged me so easily. Female friendships, especially the early broke ones are such a trip. Being broke in a city like New York is a ride. 

During Isa’s trip to the Hamptons, Marlowe writes about that upper-class racism in a way that I deeply felt, where Isa’s otherness is a steady sense of danger.

This is the kind of coming-of-age novel, slice of life tale that we are often fed by young male authors, and if she were one there would be a million accolades at the ready. Granados has a gift for calling out New York City types that feels very of the moment and timeless at the same time. She’s that girl who stands off to the side of a party/event/bar/club watching the room and you’re aware that she’s judging everything, and this is what she’s thinking. Smart, funny, a must read. 

Thanks to Net Galley and Verso Books for the ARC!

Linn 

Happy Hour chronicles the journey of two women in their early twenties spending the summer months in nyc doing odd jobs to sustain their fun lifestyle of spending the evening/nights out meeting new people and drinking. The book is told in the style of a journal with very little plot and short sentences with most of the journal entries being structured in essentially the same way, which for me started to get a bit repetitive after the first 50 pages. The novel does tackle some interesting topics such as loss and feeling of being lost in the world which I liked, but overall it felt like an early 2000s teen drama; it was fun and quick to read and experience but it won’t really be something that will resonate with me. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Verso Books (US) for sending me an advanced copy.

(2.5/5)

Happy Hour

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