A BEST BOOK OF 2024 IN STYLIST, DAILY MAIL, THE I, IRISH TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND RED
A GUARDIAN SUMMER READING PICK
‘One of the best books you will read all year’ ELIZABETH DAY
‘Brilliant. What a writer’ NIGELLA LAWSON
‘Incredibly funny’ CAITLIN MORAN
‘Wonderful’ GILLIAN ANDERSON
‘This year’s Sorrow and Bliss. Hilarious and heartbreaking’ DAILY MAIL
‘The book of the summer’ IN STYLE
Hera is in her mid-twenties, which seems young to everyone except people in their mid-twenties.
Since leaving school, she has been trying to kick and scream into existence a life she cares about, but with little success so far.
Until she meets Arthur.
He works with her, he is older than her, he is also married. But in her soulless office – the large cold room she feels destined to spend her life in – he is a source of much-needed sustenance.
And though Hera has previously dated women, she soon falls headlong into a workplace romance that will quickly consume her life.
Laugh-out-loud funny, deeply moving and whip smart, Green Dot is a story about the terrible allure of wanting something that promises nothing and the winding, torturous, often hilarious journey we take in deciding who we are and who we want to be.
‘If you liked Fleabag you will love Green Dot‘ PANDORA SYKES
‘Gray nails the angst of being young. You’ll tear through the pages’ HEAT MAGAZINE
‘A hilarious novel about falling in love with someone you really shouldn’t’ DAILY MAIL‘Gray has written the novel of the summer’ RUSSH
‘The debut of the year’ THE i PAPER
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Reviews
Funny, whip-smart, and unbearably realistic, Gray nails the angst of being young, directionless, and desperate for an emotional anchor. You'll tear through the pages, judging Hera's decisions, and wi11ing her to recognise her value, before realising you've had green dot moments of your own. Genius
Full of sharply penned scenes that fans of Fleabag will love . . . In Green Dot there are no outright villains, nor is anyone 100% angelic - and it's that skill in layered characterisation that will have you riveted until the final page
An acutely witty debut . . . Green Dot's potency lies in its narrator's distinctive voice, ruthless self-scrutiny and droll observations on the absurdities of young adult life . . . Gray brilliantly satirises the indignities of office life on the bottom rung . . . Although ironic and flippant, Green Dot avoids nihilism, and is ultimately about the search for meaning through love
If you're a fan of Fleabag you will love this
One of the must-reads of 2024 . . . swaggering, laugh-out-loud and moving
A sure-fire bestseller. . . deeply moving but hilarious
Gray paints Hera with strokes of authenticity that make it almost impossible not to connect with her. She captures that tricky period between university and the start of grown-up life perfectly . . . I inhaled this book in one weekend
Green Dot is an irresistible story about the skin-crawlingly bad decisions many of us make in the name of love. Scorchingly smart and readable
A droll coming-of-age story that explores what we're really looking for when we fall for the wrong person
Impressive . . . As the story unfolds, what begins as a laugh-out-loud observation of office politics, slowly gives way to a deeply poignant and, at times, heartbreakingly detailed journey of messy self-discovery. The layered characterisation that will have you riveted
Like a Gen Z Bridget Jones... A sparky, snarky, sassy debut novel.
One of the funniest books I've read in a long time.
Gray skillfully blends a rom-com-like breeziness with incisive, nuanced commentary on societal expectations, modern disconnection, responsibility in relationships and selfhood.
There are few greater joys for me than reading a book that gives me a proper laugh as I turn the pages and Madeleine Gray's debut novel does exactly that. The story follows 24-year-old Hera as she tries to find meaning in life with hilarious results. The author has penned a queer love story for modern times that's so readable I've found myself wishing my time on the Central Line on the way to work was longer. Think Fleabag meets Sally Rooney with all the sass.
Green Dot is a sparkling debut - laugh out loud funny and achingly sad . . . Makes us consider that age-old question: why do something even though we know we shouldn't? Madeleine Gray is a dazzling writer - a huge talent
Razor-sharp.
Green Dot manages to do something few books can with intelligence, humour and excellent observation: hold a mirror to the most naked form of humanity, our ability to be good, bad and everything in between. I loved every second of this novel, and as everyone else should, am eagerly awaiting whatever Madeleine Gray writes next!
I absolutely adored Green Dot. It was so emotionally astute, and heartbreakingly cringe, and hilarious, and perfect in its depiction of being young, lost, and lonely, even when you're out drinking most nights with friends. And it brought back so many repressed memories of terrible office jobs. I'm telling everyone to read it
Madeleine Gray takes a scalpel to millennial malaise, office romance, and infidelity, and the result is a brainy, gutsy, nervy - and hilarious - wonder of a novel
Brilliant. Riveting. Sharp. Funny. Dark. I want to give Green Dot all the adjectives but will content myself with saying it is one of the best books you will read all year
I am obsessed with this book. I am obsessed with Hera, with her dad, her friends, her dog. I am obsessed with how funny she is, and how hopeful and dark and tender and bleak the world is through her eyes. Green Dot is a book about love, and how stupid and funny and absolutely beautiful life can be
Just brilliant. Hilarious and sexy but so wise about the human heart, too. Witty as Fleabag, psychologically insightful as Sally Rooney - everyone will be talking about Green Dot
A gripping read that's smart, funny and highly relatable
I wolfed Green Dot down over two nights. An incredibly funny book about a woman having an affair that's a really bad idea. Every sentence sparkles
If you liked Fleabag you will love Green Dot
What a treat. It's positively indecent that a book this funny should also be so moving and wise and well-observed. Everything I read after finishing it felt a bit anaemic in comparison. Every sentence is a joy
Is there anything more deeply cursed than being a woman in your 20s? Novelists have been mining this period of life for years, but few get it as well as Madeleine Gray . . . Staggeringly good and wickedly funny
As funny as it is bleak, Green Dot is a compulsive read that grapples with the quest for meaning and happiness in our fractured world. Madeleine Gray's luminous debut echoes the canon of literature centred around affairs whilst achieving something completely fresh and asking questions that will stay with readers in the same way her protagonist Hera's voice is sure to do
This book! What a gutting, funny, smart, smart, smart book it is, one that I absolutely inhaled while almost constantly emotionally bracing myself. Madeleine Gray is a hilarious, humane, and highly perceptive writer
Excruciatingly brilliant. I snorted with laughter and winced in recognition. So painfully, sharply true - this is without a doubt the best book about an affair I've read, and I'm including Graham Greene in that
Madeleine Gray's brilliantly sharp Green Dot wrenchingly captures what so many of us yearn for: to be loved in the eyes of another for who we are . . . a book so hilariously real and devastating, you'll never stop hoping (or reading)
One of the most buzzed-about books for 2024 is Green Dot and it's a gulp of a read thanks to Gray's fizzing protagonist, Hera . . . Hera's longing, hope and pop culture references (everything from The Wire to Rupi Kaur and British pub opening times are used for proper laughs) make it one of the most entertaining reads we've had in a long time
Hilarious and heartbreaking, Green Dot might just be the debut of the year. It's the type of book you can devour in no time
Fresh and funny
This year's Sorrow And Bliss . . . a hilarious and heartbreaking story about a young woman's affair with an older colleague
The hype around Australian author Madeleine Gray is hard to ignore, with writers from Caitlin Moran to Elizabeth Day earmarking this brilliantly funny and observant debut as a must-read
Green Dot is sentence by sentence perfection. Razor sharp, hilarious, clever, and devastatingly honest, this is going to the book everyone will be talking about in 2024
A novel everyone will be talking about . . . Messy 20-something love from a witty new voice
So droll, bawdy, sexy, hilarious and good fun, everything you read thereafter seems dull in comparison
A hilarious novel about falling in love with someone you really shouldn't . . . I raced through it with increasing delight . . . Sharp and wise
Full of incredibly sharp sentences and darkly comic moments
Green Dot is for anyone who has fallen for the wrong person, remained in a relationship that is hurting them, witnessed a close friend going through that, or has simply made mistakes . . . It is so droll, bawdy, sexy, hilarious and good fun, everything you read thereafter seems dull in comparison
Wildly funny . . . Fans of Fleabag will adore Green Dot
Darkly funny . . . Gray's writing is witty and sharp and 24-year-old Hera is a character you'll root for
The intensity of Annie Ernaux's Simple Passion written with the lightness of Bridget Jones's Diary and the irreverence of Fleabag