Pairing the irreverent humor of shows like “Fleabag” with the sardonic humor of works like THE ROXY LETTERS, Emma Jane Unsworth’s GROWN UPS is the satirical, deeply human and surprisingly poignant answer to the question: “What do you do when your life is falling apart?”

In short, the answer is not to do anything that Unsworth’s lead character, Jenny McLaine, would do. Self-conscious to a fault but bitingly funny and capricious, Jenny would tell you that she was only going through a breakup, and not a particularly bad one at that --- but the truth is much closer to a full breakdown. While she was once a cool and self-assured 20-something, the end of her seven-year relationship has left her 35, borderline friendless, burnt out at work, and nothing at all like the adult woman she imagined she would be at this age.

"Brutally honest, breathtakingly current and laugh-out-loud funny, GROWN UPS is a modern-day BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY for readers who enjoyed MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION and irreverent television shows like 'The Office' and 'Fleabag.'"

Writing in stream-of-consciousness prose, text messages, emails, tweets and Instagram captions, Unsworth immerses her readers in the immediate wreckage zone of Jenny’s life and mental health. With her life crumbling around her, Jenny has become obsessed with social media, drafting and redrafting captions of her latest coffee order, a clever sign at a pub and even a stale croissant, often calling upon her best friend, Kelly, to reassure her of her coolness and social media savvy. When she is not posting herself, she is neurotically tracking her “likes,” confirming her status as a follower of her social media crush, a picture-perfect woman named Suzy Brambles, and sending increasingly worrisome emails to her ex, Art (and, oh yes, he is an artist named Art who makes moody and often meaningless art).

Rather than inspiring her or making her feel less alone, Jenny’s social media obsession only amplifies the distance between her --- lonely, flawed, unmoored --- and the women she follows. She is desperate for validation and weighs her self-worth in likes and follower counts, even as her real-life friends and coworkers rally around her, offering advice and support while asking for nearly nothing in return. And then the unthinkable happens. Her mother catches wind of her breakup and hops in a van full of nothing but gin, mismatched eyebrows and tarot cards to give her the best gift she can think of: herself.

Cooped up in her tiny house with her equally self-centered mother, Jenny is forced to reconcile with some hard truths. Unsworth turns a keen, sardonic eye to the plight of the 21st-century woman, poking fun at social media, fashion, alcohol and the particularly painful self-consciousness that plagues so many millennials. Without pushing Jenny into a transformation too soon, Unsworth manages to highlight the ridiculousness of her situation, while still pushing her into new challenges and periods of rapid-fire development. With an experienced and sharp eye, Unsworth breaks down the way that Jenny has allowed curated feeds to influence how she perceives others and herself --- and forces her to break down her own fear-built walls to allow herself to break free from her self-imposed chains. But not only is this a satirical and hilarious novel, it is also highly relevant and searingly current, making it a sharply drawn portrait of our time.

It would be wrong to call Jenny immediately likable --- she is often cringeworthy at best and completely intolerable at worst --- but Unsworth infuses her with such brutal honesty that you still cannot help but root for her. Though highly self-aware, Jenny often misses her own best qualities, like her sense of humor and her success at work and in life. By throwing these traits up against her innermost thoughts, the “why can’t I be like her” thoughts, Unsworth highlights not only the pervasiveness of the toxicity of social media, but also the universal desires for validation and acceptance.

Although GROWN UPS is a truly funny and sharply written novel, at times I felt that the message was a bit forced. Much like her main character, Unsworth occasionally tries too hard to make every moment laughable and “grammable,” a failure made even more noticeable by her remarkable capacity for nuance during the book’s weightier moments. There is a lot to love about this story, from its poignant takes on the digital age to the slowburn resolution of Jenny’s relationship with her quirky and eccentric mother, but the authenticity was often marred by the “look at me” tone.

Brutally honest, breathtakingly current and laugh-out-loud funny, GROWN UPS is a modern-day BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY for readers who enjoyed MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION and irreverent television shows like “The Office” and “Fleabag.”