It’s a sad thing when people take a beautiful old building and try to modernize it. Some things are meant to be restored, not re-interpreted.” A glitzy coming-of-age saga about two friends navigating the singular experience of getting by in New York City. Juliana Ukiomogbe, Interview Magazine Reading this book is like watching a video from the party last night and wishing you'd been there. Mariah Kreutter, Soft Punk

Granados does a masterful job at touching on race and class without hitting the reader over the head with overused tropes or stale language. Ama Kwarteng, Coveteur Those who knew Frank invariably react to her with sorrow, pitying looks and melodramatic sighs, something that threatens to undo her, something she wants to avoid. Wayne at the liquor store, though, she appreciates: “He’d arrived in the bottle shop a year after Frank’s death, so he never asked about her home life or ‘how she was coping’. He saw her as an entity unto herself, not the remaining half of a once fine pair.” Byron’s tale examines grief, blame and forgiveness, reclusiveness and loneliness, and does it with humour and sensitivity. Her characters have depth and appeal, displaying very human flaws and, in Franny’s case, occasionally disappointing the reader with poor behaviour. Her inner monologue is often darkly funny. I’ve also seen comparisons to Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I kind of get what people are going for with this one in that it’s conceivable fans of one book may enjoy another. However, I think it’s important to note that the comparison on its face makes no sense at all. Don’t get me wrong: MYORAR is also one of my favorite novels ever. But it’s Completely Different! MYORAR is a (albeit darkly comic) novel of having reached a nadir of depression and nihilism, about the absolute meaninglessness and pointlessness of everything and about being impressed and inspired and interested by nothing whatever.Byron puts her characters in difficult situations that make the reader stop and think about their own reaction to these situations. Josh, Dee and Sallyanne are great as well and again, Byron has given us characters who could easily be clichés but instead they’re strong and vivid, but at the same time, subtle. Franny Calderwood is sixty-five, widowed and retired and she’s quite the character. Since her husband was killed tragically three years earlier she has become a recluse, she’s rude at times and lives a solitary life separating herself from the previous life she had. She doesn’t want social interactions and prefers to chat to photographs of her dead husband Frank she has placed throughout her home. The less time spent in public, the safer girls feel. That’s not incidental; the world was built that way. A wonderful, hilarious, pleasurably exhausting reminder of what it is to be young in a big city...a swig of a very cold martini on a balmy evening. Megan Nolan

The support characters will charm, and Joshie, in particular, is a delight. The dialogue is natural and Byron endows Franny’s best friend with wise words indeed: “No one can criticise the way someone else handles grief.” Funny, moving and thought-provoking, this is an impressive debut. A dreamy account of one heady summer, Marlowe Granados’s début is a dispatch from another land; not only New York City, but youth itself. Happy Hour is aptly titled – it’s an intoxicating book, at once heartbreaking and joyful.” While, yes, I did dislike and was bored by Isa as well her story’s supposed storyline (don’t get me wrong i love a good ol’ slice-of-life now and again but here these parties & co were so samey and intent only on satirising millennials & the-so-called upper-crust) I actually liked the author’s style.Happier Hour is filled with loads and loads of practical, evidence-based advice for how to live better by investing in what really matters. It's the kind of book that can change your life for the better." The voice is authentic, barbed, a delicate balance between striking observations about the world (and its expectations for her) and the naïveté you must possess to think you can make it in NYC with only a few dollars to your name.

Granados’ debut is even more raw and vulnerable when you see Isa as a stand in for the author. This fiction is a thinky veiled retelling of her own, evidenced through the book’s journalistic style and narrative voice. It’s incredibly brave and a pleasure to read. Isa, our protagonist, is valorous and confident and has the self-assurance and naivete needed to make it in the cruel city. Granados writes with a distinct voice and shrewd social commentary, her protagonist is very endearing - perhaps unlike Moshfegh - and her characterisations are so enjoyable. When a troubled single mother, her teenage daughter and flamboyant eight-year-old son move in next door she can’t help but become involved in their lives and becomes drawn to them. So much potential, but ultimately disappointing. Happy Hour was marketed as “social criticism” yet the book is comprised of repetitive chapters depicting two fairly shallow friends hopping from hotel to bar to art gallery while attempting to hustle people for money on the side. There were glimpses of societal critique about academia, capitalism, and the party scene in New York, but they were often in the form of cliche outbursts and generalized homespun phrases. Happy Hour is My Year of Rest of Relaxation’s less mature younger sibling. Isa is reminiscent of the unnamed narrator, and Gala is Rava-esque. We would’ve gone home, but putting a cap on an evening of adventure can be tough. It takes practice to have restraint, and we are not yet at an age to try it out.” Anyway, I know that not everyone who has tried to read Loos’ novel recently has loved it - but hear me out! Even if you don’t legitimately think it’s still funny today (and I do), I’d urge you to appreciate its uniqueness and innovation within the context of its time and as a critical part of a long and illustrious history of women being funny, and writing funny, when women have been historically and strenuously discouraged both from being funny and from writing.

Success!

Happy Hour is filled with charm, memorable insight, and witty aperçus, adding up to the realization that life, while unfair, is antic enough to be worth all the trouble. A. S. Hamrah, author of The Earth Dies Streaming Also, because we have made at least some Social Progress for Women, Happy Hour is able to fully omit the misspellings, malapropisms, and repetition (So…I mean…I mean) relied upon in GPB. In fact, Isa’s voice is delight to behold, with many an elegant turn of phrase. And I want to be clear that Happy Hour should be read for Joy as much as for Importance! First and foremost, a huge thank you to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

A wonderful, hilarious, pleasurably exhausting reminder of what it is to be young in a big city…a swig of a very cold martini on a balmy evening.” A] sharp and beguiling debut ... Granados's nuanced characterization, biting observational humor and intoxicating prose make Happy Hour a delicacy to be savored, as well as a poised takedown of New York's cultural elite. Devon Ashby, Shelf AwarenessProfound … At their core, books are about the beautiful, but here we have a book where our narrator is not only an observer of beauty but in possession of that beauty too.”