Nothing Special

[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

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

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

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