Nothing Special

Reviews / Votes

Every line seems to thrill and break in an indifferent social space, and the result is very moving * Anne Enright, Irish Times, Books of the Year * [A] blade-sharp coming-of-age debut novel . . . [Flattery] captures the absurdity and the pain, the texture of city streets and the squalid luxury, and brings a deadpan wit to the whole sex and drugs and Pop-art scene * Spectator * A raucously talented young Irish writer ... Flattery is witty, propulsive and darkly delightful to read * Economist * Sixties New York is vividly conveyed, but the triumph is in the capture of moody, prickly, ambitious Mae through whose eyes everything is seen . . . [A] witty and unique coming-of-age novel * Daily Mail * The author of short story collection Show Them A Good Time is one to watch . . . Exploring the rift between their public and private selves, this darkly funny tale draws parallels between 60s New York and today * Stylist * Flattery has a fine ear for dialogue . . . In fitting her complex, heartfelt, vexing characters into the spaces left where the names of Warhol's typists should have been, Flattery is finally giving those egos, or a version of them, a chance to tell their own story, in their own words * Guardian * The assuredness of her writing belies the fact that Nothing Special - a tale of identity and purpose set in Andy Warhol's infamous Factory - is her inaugural novel . . . [Nothing Special] does an excellent job of evoking 1960s New York, and balances its ideas of voyeurism and longing expertly * Harper's Bazaar * This debut novel is that rare thing, an original, off-kilter coming-of-age story, in which life and art collide in unsettling ways * Mail on Sunday * Nothing Special is as stylishly written as its predecessor Show Them a Good Time. Indeed there are shades of Saul Bellow, in her rendering of New York that 'shrieking cartoon hell' . . . [Flattery] deserves only praise * Sunday Independent * Nothing Special confirms Flattery as a bracingly original writer; her observations clear-eyed and cool-headed, never pretentious. Readers may be tempted to underline every other sentence in this striking debut from an exciting new voice' * Irish Independent * Flattery demonstrates here how she can shape on a larger scale and be incredibly inventive in the process . . . [Her] willingness to be ugly and merciless on the page is what makes her work so relentlessly engaging * Financial Times * A riveting read about fame, myth-making and finding your own identity * Good Housekeeping * Flattery is a keen observer of relational dynamics in groups of women, and how these connections can both support and strangle. Her characters feel complicated and real * Telegraph, Highlights for 2023 * If you've ever found yourself obsessing over Edie Sedgwick (her biography by Jean Stein is a must-read) then Nothing Special will be right up your street. Set against 60s New York and Andy Warhol's Factory, this is a coming-of-age story that conjures up the lure of the era * Stylist, Highlights for 2023 * Nicole Flattery's treatment of determined, bewildered young women - as they discover the vast distance between how they are perceived and how they feel themselves to be - is brilliantly gloomy, droll and so out-of-body as to be real . . .They try on and take off their survival instincts like costumes, in a painful, beguiling, apt twist on art for art's sake. The authenticity of Flattery's work offers its own reassurance that sometimes art is good -- Caoilinn Hughes There are many things to enjoy in Nicole Flattery's debut novel ... Mae is an engaging protagonist with a wit about her coming-of-age struggles * Independent * Nothing Special evokes the same literary lost-girl vibes as recent bestsellers like Emma Cline's The Guest, but the narrative is wrapped around an intriguing exploration of art, work and fame. * The Seattle Times * A sharp portrait of New York's art scene in the sixties and one woman's place in it. Through inventive prose, Flattery writes into history the under-celebrated voices, and she does it in a masterful way. A superb novel -- Elaine Feeney In enviably elegant prose, she manages to be both arch and deadly serious. Wonderful stuff. -- Louise Kennedy Audacious, original and fully achieved - this is a remarkable novel -- Kevin Barry One of the most exciting releases of 2023 . . . A dizzying exploration of sex, freedom, art and voyeurism, seen through the coming-of-age of 17-year-old Mae. Deftly woven and captivating, it signals the arrival of a new literary talent * Harper's Bazaar, highlights for 2023 * Told with dry wit and sharp observation, Nothing Special speaks in a profound and original way to our age of vacuous consumerism, our empty quests for self-discovery, and our parasitism on celebrity and trend . . . A bold and funny coming-of-age novel about the emptiness of the cult of self, the fetishisation of fame, and the aimless drift of late-stage capitalism -- Imogen Crimp, author of A VERY NICE GIRL Flattery's sentences are astonishing. Their wit and ingenuity, the apt oddness of her metaphors, are addictive and relentlessly delightful, and then all of a sudden her language snaps into an exactness of feeling that knocks you sideways. A special, singular, blazingly original and truly achieved first novel -- Colin Barrett, author of YOUNG SKINS I couldn't put this razor sharp, darkly funny coming-of-age story down -- Louisa Reid, author of THE POET A wry, witty and wonderful novel from a brilliantly captivating storyteller -- Joseph O'Connor I derive so much energy from Nicole Flattery's writing. Nothing Special casts such a stylish and transportive spell, perhaps it's better to dust off adjectives like "marvelous" and "fabulous." I'll never again ride an escalator without thinking of this book -- Sloane Crosley