Careering: 'I loved loved loved it' Marian Keyes

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I found myself relating to some of Imogen's thought processes and difficulties, but every time I had to sit through a chapter from Harry's perspective I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head because it was so boring and so nothing. A love story about work, self-worth and modern womanhood, Careering is, quite simply, the funniest novel I've read all year. Will she wake up to the way she’s being exploited before her protégé realises that not everything is copy? This novel should be a must-read for everybody who has ever thought life will be better once their work rewards them.

Hilarious, astute and full of human truths, Careering is a compelling and thoughtful read that every woman (and man) should have on their shelves. Exploring the exhausting push-pull of trying to pin down a career you love but that doesn't love you back, Buchanan's book is set to capture the zeitgeist as so many of us question where we're at' Stylistcareering (verb) 1. Much thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review! I couldn’t connect between the Imogen I was reading about, having a panic attack, hiding in a cupboard and the Imogen who would go to a sex party. I laughed a lot at the way things were described and the thoughts that came to mind during Imogen’s chapters.

It is not all so perfect, however, as the prose reads like a Netflix original series plagued with cringe phrases and POV switches that allowed little depth to be added to the story or its characters - that, may I add, were easy to root for despite this, as a woman who understands the pressures faced.

She is working an unpaid internship at Panache magazine and whilst she is thankful for the opportunity, she is fed up of being given the shit jobs and earning no money whilst working pretty much full time. But Imogen's fairy-tale ending soon sours as she finds herself putting more and more of herself into writing for a company that doesn't care if she sinks or swims.The slightly cringeworthy humour put me off this to begin with, but I eventually fell into the main characters and their relatable dual storylines of extreme burnout, crushing creative self doubt, and the bubble burst realisation that your ‘dream job’ might not be such a dream after all. there’s also some great (and to me, very relatable) commentary on the class and financial inequities that come with working in the media industry, and also the struggle of being a working class 20-something living in london. As she did with sex in her first novel, Insatiable, now Daisy Buchanan holds up a mirror to the changing way we work in the raw and relatable Careering . This is a story about Imogen's long fight for her 'dream job' and the pressures women face getting there, especially in the media industry.

Buchanan portrays women and their lives better than anyone and I came out the other side feeling thoroughly broken and yet somehow stronger than before. This is a fabulous and fierce take on womanhood in the workplace and the toxic relationship we can have with our vocation.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Though entertaining – you can’t help but cringe at some of the situations Imogen finds herself in – the novel takes a hard look at the very real challenges women still face in the workplace today. Not to mention that within these hard scenes, she sprinkled such an effortless amount of humor, that had me laughing out loud on my commute. Careering is about modern womanhood, giving a funny, honest take on what it's like when a dream job turns sour - and what happens when you reach the other side of a toxic relationship with your career.

And only skimmed them for the sake of it, rather than exploring a handful of the most interesting ones properly. Oh how much did I love this book - so insightful, so relatable and it just happens to combine two of my favourite things, reading and magazines (not that I ever have time to read them anymore with that out of control TBR but hey 🤷‍♀️). After two years of lockdowns and working from home I think a lot of people can relate to the tag line of 'Imogen has a toxic relationship with her job'. Daisy has that magic gift, of capturing the nuance and detail of a very specific world in such a way that it feels universally, eternally relatable.This all jarred with her sex blog, a girl so confident she would publish her sex life for all to read, including her possibly violent father. Apparently the dozens of unpaid internships where she was treated badly were what "made" her who she is today.