A Hot Mess We Can All Relate To
Have you ever read a book and thought, “Wow, this character is just as emotionally unstable as I am, but in a way that makes me feel both comforted and slightly attacked?” If not, let me introduce you to No Hard Feelings by Genevieve Novak – a novel that is basically the chaotic millennial experience distilled into 300+ pages of witty self-destruction.
Meet Penny: The Queen of Self-Sabotage, our beloved, trainwreck-y protagonist – is an overworked, under-appreciated, and perpetually this close to a nervous breakdown 20-something living in Melbourne. She’s got a toxic boss, a confusing love life, and a habit of making terrible decisions.
Her job in advertising is soul-sucking. Her love life is a disaster. Her ability to function like a normal adult is questionable at best. Honestly, Penny is every one of us who has ever stared at their bank balance in horror or responded to stress by eating an entire block of chocolate.
One of the strongest (and most painfully relatable) aspects of No Hard Feelings is its cutthroat workplace satire. If you’ve ever worked in a corporate job where you were expected to be grateful for the opportunity to be treated like garbage, then welcome to Penny’s world. She’s surrounded by gaslighting bosses, entitled co-workers, and enough office politics to fuel a season of a bad sitcom.
And because Penny is a true millennial hero, she deals with all this by drinking too much, eating emotionally, and making questionable romantic choices. (Honestly, same girl.) There are moments where you want to shake her and scream “STOP TEXTING HIM”, but also, who among us hasn’t ignored every red flag because of loneliness and a vague hope that maybe this one won’t be a complete dumpster fire?
Penny is stuck between two men: one who is genuinely kind, stable, and emotionally available (I know, unheard of!), and another who is basically a human-shaped hazard sign (take a wild guess which one she’s drawn to). And honestly? Same. If I had met my husband in my early 20s, I would’ve written him off as too nice while fully committing to my ongoing collection of 🚩🚩🚩. My dating history from that era reads like a cautionary tale—if any of my exes are reading this... well, hey there, hope you've grown!
Penny’s romantic decisions are painfully real. She’s got that classic mix of “I want love, but I also want to avoid intimacy at all costs” that makes her dating life feel like a slow-motion car crash. And yet, we root for her. Even when she does something incredibly dumb (which is often), we still want her to get her happy ending – or at least figure out that self-worth is more important than lukewarm text messages from a guy who only responds in memes.
The best part of No Hard Feelings is Genevieve Novak’s sharp, self-deprecating humour. This book is filled with laugh-out-loud moments that make you feel like you’re reading the group chat you have with your most brutally honest friends. Penny’s internal monologue is the perfect mix of hilarious, unhinged, and depressingly accurate.
But beneath all the comedy, there’s a lot of heart. This isn’t just a book about bad dating choices and corporate misery – it’s about mental health, self-sabotage, and learning how to be okay with yourself.
No Hard Feelings is smart, messy, painfully relatable, and laugh-out-loud funny. If you loved Sorrow and Bliss or Everything I Know About Love, this book will speak to your soul—and possibly expose you in the process. It’s a solid 4.5 stars from me.
Genevieve Novak has given us a heroine who is flawed, funny, and just trying to keep it together—basically, all of us at some point. If you’re still in your 20s, this book might hit a little too close to home (brace yourself), but from the safe distance of my far-past-20s perspective, it was more relatable and hilarious than soul-crushing.
If you’re after something light, sharp, and wildly entertaining, No Hard Feelings is absolutely worth picking up—because life is too short to read bad books.