Down Time

by Andrew Martin

A terribly funny and lovably louche novel about five friends growing older, if not always up, from Andrew Martin, author of Early Work and Cool for America.

Without Cassandra, Aaron would probably be dead. Fortunately, she won’t leave him—despite the drinking, flirting, solipsism, armchair socialism, overspending, infidelity, catastrophic depression, and disparate but increasingly frequent spells of drug- and booze-addled debauchery. Unfortunately, she might be reaching the end of her rope.

Cass and Aaron, like the other neurotic, ambivalent intellectuals in their orbit, are getting older. There’s Malcolm, with his own alcoholism and marginally more successful writing career; his partner, Violet, a doctor with little patience for both; Antonia, a teaching fellow whose book about ecocide may get her tenure at a prestigious university near Harvard Square—yes, that one. When Sam, a charming trust-fund punk at the center of this loose network, dies suddenly, and a global pandemic takes hold, all five must contend with the lives they’ve their desires and disappointments, habits and hang-ups, pathologies and addictions, and the possibilities of making art and being good as the earth whirls to its end.

Down Time marks the delightful return of Andrew Martin, the author of the pitch-perfect slacker classics Early Work and Cool for America. Compulsively readable and contagiously intelligent, this is a wryly comic social novel of settling down, selling out, growing up, and getting out that turns a terribly funny and hyper-literate eye on our most desperately guarded to love and be loved, to know and be known, to stay sane, if only just.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Ebooks, Novels

305 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2026

Reviews

[Kate O'Shea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm afraid this book simply wasn't for me. Whilst the premise of a group of people's experience (before, during and after the Covid lockdown) in the US, sounded interesting I am afraid I was quite bored for a substantial part of the novel.

I lost track of the names, the circumstances and locations of all the characters. I didn't find any of them particularly sympathetic. There is some soul searching, some sexuality searching, some career changes, some fooling around but it was far too introspective a novel to keep my interest.

If you enjoy a book where there is little action except within the minds of the characters then you will enjoy this book but I needed a little more plot.

Thankyou to Netgalley and Farrar Strauss and Giroux for the digital review copy.

[Tiernan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I flew through this and would follow these characters anywhere. Clever, funny, gripping, and refreshing. It's tough to write a compelling "pandemic" book, but Andrew Martin has done it. So perfectly captures the millennial malaise of the early 2020s.

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an extremely relatable read for me not just as a millennial but as someone who can relate to parts of every character and obviously the pandemic as a back drop. The characters were great and so many themes hit home. As the characters navigate life, a pandemic, relationships, addictions, careers and losses it’s fascinating to watch it all unfold. I laughed, I cringed, I frowned. What an amazing book.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Eric Sutton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointed, tbh. I really enjoyed Martin's debut novel, Early Work, and his story collection, Cool for America, was excellent. In a literary fiction age awash in naval-gazing, self deprecating, slightly ironic prose writers, Martin seemed to balance intelligence, wry humor, and contemporary existential dread as zeitgeist rather than showmanship. His newest, however, a novel entitled Down Time, never coalesced for me. The characters, I felt, were more or less interchangeable. Aaron could have been Malcom; Antonia could have been Cass or Violet. I kept having to remind himself who was with whom, which character had done what, which goes to show that none of them were very memorable. It's a pandemic novel, and I haven't read a decent one of these yet. I think it's because everyone has to be so isolated, so, in this case, each character's narrative section was told as exposition of a sort, "what had been happening in their lives lately," bringing us up to a present where no one could go outside or really do anything. The writing is great in places, and Martin manages to create tensions despite not having a ton of actionable material to work with, but the major flaw of Down Time, as I find with a lot of writers trying to capture the essence of Trump's America, is that the characters descend into a lot of whiny complaining, itself a form of satire, and when you couple that with the fact that they're trapped in a pandemic, the result is too much cerebral angst with little relief. Then again, maybe that's the whole point.

[Gregory Duke]

Read a quarter of it. I don't care enough about bourgeois millennial ennui during the pandemic to keep going.

[Leanne Shearsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down time follows a loosely connected group of friends as they try to make sense of early middle age and the years around Covid. It’s a pandemic novel that never feels gimmicky. It captures that strange, foggy period when everything stopped and people were forced to sit with themselves. Ambition and burnout, bad relationships, too much drinking, the sense of wanting to change but not quite managing it. It’s about people who keep messing up but are still, somehow, trying.

The characters feel real and a bit painful at times – funny, frustrating, often selfish but familiar. Martin doesn’t judge them, just shows them as they are. It’s not a book with a big plot, more like snapshots of people drifting through work, love, and loss, trying to figure out what being an adult is supposed to look like.

It’s sharp, funny in places, and sometimes quietly sad. I liked how honest it felt about ageing, friendship and the messiness of trying to get life together. If you like character-driven books that feel true to how people actually are, this one’s worth reading.

Thanks to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus & Giroux for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[belton :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I was fooled by the marketing.

I added this book instantly to my TBR a few months ago, when FSG advertised this book on their instagram as "sally rooney-esque," and, as a wh*re for sally rooney, of course I had to read this book.

but there really wasn't much going on in this book in the first place. most of the "action" in this book occurs inside the tortured minds of these poor millennials, and at a certain point, I just kind of got . . . bored?

this story is told in 3 different POVs, and I definitely liked more POVs than others. for instance, I really didn't care for Antonia at all. Actually, I pretty much wanted to skip her chapters every time they came up, but I powered through them anyway. but another thing that made the POVs so unappealing to me was that they barely overlapped at all; it was like reading three different novels/stories in one. Yes, all of them are friends and yes, they do see each other a handful of times, but it's incredibly rare, and they're all dealing with their own stuff that they just don't meet up with each other. i don't know—I guess I wanted this book to feel a bit more cohesive; I wanted the characters to feel more connected.

I did like reading about Aaron, Cassandra, and Malcolm, though (for the most part). Aaron and Cassandra actually quite interested me the most in the beginning, then towards the middle, I liked reading Malcolm's POV, then towards the end, I slowly stopped caring about all three. meh.

I didn't think it was all bad. I actually really enjoyed the beginning. It's just a bunch of complex characters and complex relationships, and I eat that stuff up. And then COVID hits, and its descriptions of life during COVID are really realistic. But I just hate reading about COVID, to be completely honest (save for a few exceptions). I already lived through it, I don't need to relive it again through these books.

I also took a break from this book for a while. I got too caught up with schoolwork, then I got tons of anxiety, and my anxiety definitely affected my enjoyment of this book. Curse you, anxiety! I think I would've definitely enjoyed this book more if I was at a more peaceful time in my life right now. Perhaps I'll revisit this book again in the future.

Listen, I love a book where nothing happens, but these characters are incredibly introspective and are so stuck in their minds all the time that genuinely they're only torturing themselves (and me). It's still not the worst book I've ever read, though. Maybe I'll enjoy it during a reread, who knows. Ok bye!!!!!

[A Dreaming Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (eARC) and Macmillan Audio (ALC) for providing me with advanced copies.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I suppose I should have read the synopsis more closely. For some reason, in my head I thought this was a group of retirees when I read "growing older". I love books about actual old people. This book is more of a coming of age novel. I almost never click with this genre because the overarching themes typically revolve around sex and drugs. I don't understand why there aren't enough coming of age books with friendship (without sex and drugs), career, family and the like.

Talking about the actual book now, I couldn't relate to or bring myself to like a single character. Honestly, at some point they all felt the same to me and I could barely differentiate them. The entire book just felt like the author was trying to push his political views onto the reader. I'm not someone who says books are not political but to me it should either be subtle or actually be the main focus of the plot. In this case, it just kept coming with no break. I also feel like the pandemic part wasn't explored well enough despite that being one of the main themes of the book. It felt like it was glossed over. Despite all of this, there weren't any graphic sex scenes which I do appreciate. I didn't feel like a lot was going on in the book in general but that's probably just me. I see a lot of people have enjoyed this book and I'm glad. I think people who like coming of age novels will enjoy it.

The narrators did a great job of bringing out the characters' personalities. I did notice a speed difference between the different narrators which took me a while to get used to. But it wasn't bad enough for me to keep switching speeds between chapters.

[Lai Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

We follow four “friends” through Covid, after the death of a mutual friend. I put quotation marks around friends because we never see them all in one place together, we just hear about their tangential relationships via past memories or through their texts to each other. Are they really friends?

Cassandra and Aaron are a couple, but Aaron is an alcoholic, has been to rehab several times, and is “medium gay.” The death of Xavier really marks the end of their relationship. I didn’t learn that much about Cassandra and feel like she could’ve been taken out of the book.

Malcolm is a loser! He’s cheated on Violet twice, and the book alludes to him wanting to wear drag? Be trans? Be bi? Polygamous? But he moves forward with marriage and having a kid because that’s what he thinks his past and future self would want. Violet is a doctor and is out of his league. Malcolm and Aaron are both struggling writers. Malcolm secretly wants to be a freak.

Antonia is also a writer, and her character is all over the place. She’s bisexual, and trying to get on a tenure track at a school. We see her with Lev, her stepbrother, brother, her grandma, suddenly a random love interest named Cynthia, then with Cassandra. It was hard to follow what her story is.

There were definitely references to Covid that brought me back flashbacks (hanging out on porches, doing everything outside, wearing masks, online classes, but it didn’t elicit the type of sadness or fear I thought reading a book about Covid, would.

The last thing I’ll say is this book had SO many words that I did not know. I had to look up several words per page to see what they meant. The vocabulary just wasn’t for me and attributed to my lack in enjoying the book.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have really enjoyed Andrew Martin’s previous work. Unfortunately Down Time wasn’t a hit for me.

This is well written but thematically nothing we haven’t seen many times before. As a fellow millennial I’m always interested to see how my generation’s experience is portrayed, but this degree of misery and personal stagnation here just isn’t relatable or interesting.

The central female characters in this run together in terms of voice and are hard to distinguish. That leaves us (unfortunately) mostly in the mind of Aaron.

I’ve said many times that I don’t think addicts make good protagonists, and Aaron is a good example as to why. He also has the kind of broody, mopey energy that I find abhorrent in men of my generation, endlessly expecting their self-inflicted suffering to be revered as holy because they can describe it eloquently. Is he realistic? In some ways I suppose he is, but that didn’t make him any more appealing to spend so much time with.

I’m also really not in on novels set during the pandemic (I’ve yet to read one that uses this experience successfully). Perhaps this is a preference issue for me, as I feel like it’s just too soon, but I also don’t think it lends well to narrative reflection.

Martin certainly knows his way around a phrase and he’s a notably good observer, but the book is a letdown. Hit the back catalog and read Early Work instead.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[sully · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

well written but i just don't think i want to read about the pandemic, ever.

edit: i did enjoy discussing it and i think it gave me a better appreciation for the parts that weren't during the pandemic, and the unique perspective of before/"after" and for this age in particular, but still i DON'T want to read about the pandemic. i do recommend the book tho. want to convey that for sure.

[Juliet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about how East Coast intellectuals are all sad perverts (complimentary.) Martin's writing voice continues to be one of my favorites. Sorry to whoever is behind me in line at the Brooklyn library for this book, I am returning it 3 days late.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this as a time capsule, but it's not really sticking with me. I preferred (loved) his short stories in Cool for America.

[Ben Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very readable but also - what was the point??

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. A very sharp and funny novel. After spending time with interesting young people, Cassandra and Aaron, Malcolm and Violet and Antonia, you begin to see why this intellectual generation never gets married, much less pulls it together enough to think about kids. Even as you laugh at the messes that they twist themselves into, you do want to reach into the pages and shake some common sense into most of them. When an old friend, Sam, suddenly dies it does make a few of them wonder how they’re living, it really takes a world wide shutdown to really make them face who they really are and try and change. Such a clear eyed book about who we are.

[Chr*s Browning]

A bit less angular than Martin’s previous books, but perhaps with age comes a certain rounding, a sanding off of the edges - that’s not to say that the characters here are any less of a mess than past protagonists, but more so that they seem to open themselves to a less ambiguous hope by the end (the promise of parenthood, of life going on - the end calls to mind Rooney’s Beautiful World although I’m not sure if Martin would like that point of reference. Still, there’s a settling to be seen in these elder millennial novels that feels hopeful, or at least settled. Sometimes they come close enough to being the same thing). Some has been made of this as the “first good pandemic novel” and although I can’t say I’ve read much pandemic novels to judge, I do think this is the first I’ve read where the pandemic really works, not so much as plot agent, but as textural background (relatable background, maybe) for the characters to struggle with themselves against. I feel lucky, to an extent, in that the pandemic came before I was even starting to be established in anything, and so it didn’t fundamentally change my plans as I hadn’t made any concrete ones yet - sure, I was working at the library and then I wasn’t and may never again, I knew nothing of clinical trials and then I was working on one for a Covid vaccine (but ultimately not The Covid Vaccine, which I think makes it even more interesting, in a way), but it’s not like anything was really stolen from me - my 2020 breakup dropped about a month before Shutdown City and for the 18 or so months that the events of this novel take place within, I mostly just chilled on the porch of my first post-college apartment with my roommate, watching movies and reading down my backlog until I started working at the hospital. Not a bad way to spend it. That doesn’t really have anything to do with the book, but then most of my Goodreads reviews don’t - as before, the main reason I like reading Martin is that his characters have familiar sets of cultural references - I too watched that Wildwood documentary on the Criterion channel - and maybe I don’t really hate relatability after all. Was hoping from the plot description that this would be more of a single location Millenial Big Chill but we can’t always get what we want. I liked this, I’d read his next one. Sometimes that’s all you need.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-observed set of character studies, but not one that ever really came together as an overarching story. 3/5.

Down Time by Andrew Martin is about a loosely-connected group of adults dealing with the challenges of early middle-age: career success (or not), addiction, owning their true sexual identities and their relationships with those around them.

On the main it does this ... fairly well. The prose is elegant and flows nicely, and the characters *feel* believable: you could imagine real people making these mistakes, having their lives run on (or off) course in this way, facing these problems and having them pervade their whole lives. There's also the occasional very sharp, on-point observation about human nature, as well as moments where characters do something that reminds you of people you know (or of yourself). These features are Down Time's greatest strengths.

However, as a novel... I'm not sure it really works. While character study works don't promise a lot in terms of plot, Martin's novel has next to none. To exacerbate things, the characters are, in the main, extremely loosely connected - so rather than feeling like a whole novel, it feels more like three novelettes (Cass/Aaron, Malcolm/Violet and Antonia) told in sequential instalments where these people's lives roll onwards. These factors together mean you don't get to see the characters interact with each other all that much, so a lot of the sense of character comes from description and narrative: 'tell' rather than 'show'. This feeling is exacerbated by the large time chunks between each character's instalment - often a good portion is taken up with telling you what happened since you last saw them.

On the whole, Down Time's cast feel like real people, but that's not quite enough to make this a successful, cohesive reading experience.

I'd cautiously recommended Down Time for those who want a little look at some of the struggles of middle age, less so for those who prefer a tighter, more driven story.

Finally, thank you to Adrew Martin, Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy of Down Time, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

[Chelsea Knowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.*

Down Time follows Cassandra, Aaron, Antonia and Malcolm as they navigate their lives including the Covid pandemic. Aaron is an alcoholic and relies on his girlfriend Cassandra to keep him alive. He cheats on her, embarrasses her with his drinking and expects Cassandra to pay for everything. She hasn’t left him but she is more like his mother than a girlfriend. Cassandra and Aaron are friends with Malcolm who has his own issues with alcoholism and depression. His girlfriend Violet is a doctor who doesn’t have much patience for Malcolm and struggles during the pandemic. Antonia wrote a book about ecocide and hopes it will get her tenure at a prestigious university near Harvard Square. Their friend Sam dies and then the Covid pandemic makes them contend with their lives.

This is such an excellent book and it is like it was written for me. I loved it and connected to each character. Each character had issues and it was easy to relate to how messy they were. None of these characters really know what they are doing with their lives and I just found that so relatable and realistic. It has the vibe of just living life day by day and seeing what happens. I didn’t think I would enjoy novels about Covid but I found this to be very cathartic. The writing was brilliant and I found this to be such a compelling read. This was told from the POV of each character and I found the character voices to be distinct and real. I will be recommending this and I think it should be on everyone’s anticipated books for 2026. I loved this so much and I cannot stop thinking about how good this was.

[ROLLAND Florence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel takes millenial existential angst, dumps it with ice in a cocktail shaker, and serves it in design glasses in a hotel lobby.

It's fun, relatable, easy to read. Sometimes profound and sad. Doomed relationships that somehow survive "the test of time" because none of the characters finds the courage to leave... Instead, they cheat on each other. Lots of sex scenes, but here sex is another addition, a broken promise, and a desperate attempt to connect to people. It just makes sense, it goes with the flow of their lives. A lot of the novel revolves around New York and the cultural life of New York. The city has its own language and its own way of chewing out people, with its unaffordable real estate, easy access to drugs, and the pressure to make money in order to afford both.

And yet... Andrew Martin describes this network of friends (and all their problems) with tenderness. There is no judgement in this novel. He lets them fail, repeatedly, and picks them up along the way. They are millenials reaching their midlife crisis, and they definitely haven't got their lives together. But they have careers, and sometimes success even. What does it mean to age when you refuse to grow up? And what does growing up even mean, for a generation that collectively feels betrayed by their parents?

Add to that mix the sudden death of a friend, and a global pandemic. You will get a novel that is easy to read, fun, entertaining. I liked it. This is exactly the type of "easy read" that is perfect in between two more difficult books.

Thank you Andrew Martin, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and #NetGalley for a very nice ARC.

[Heidi Zuva · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up for being pandemic fiction.

I seem to be one of the few people who desperately wants more Covid-19 era fiction, so I obviously requested this one as soon as it popped up on my NetGalley dashboard!

Premise - The story follows five friends, all intellectuals, over the course of their adult lives. There's Cassandra, the all-obliging partner of Aaron, an absolute disaster. There's Malcolm, an alcoholic writer. There's Antonia, a teaching fellow up for tenureship at a prestigious university in Cambridge (summon the smelling salts). Finally, there's Sam, a trust-fund punk who holds the group together.

But then Sam suddenly dies. The pandemic sweeps the world. And the four remaining friends? Well, they're going to have to figure out how to deal.

WOW did Aaron absolutely enrage me. They were all pretty navel-gazing, which is to be expected, and I didn't fall in love with any of the characters... it's a slow-moving, small stakes (within huge global pandemic stakes) story and I didn't realize how much I'd hate having to relieve all the election discussion, but I guess that's part and parcel if you're writing from the viewpoint of a group of coastal intellectuals in 2020.g Overall, I enjoyed the read but wouldn't jump to shout about it from the rooftops.

... I think what I really want is a pandemic thriller, like a Yellowface but set during peak covid.

I listened to the audio ARC, narrated by Abigail Reno, Gail Shalan, Major Curda, and Patrick Harrison. They did a great job and made me enjoy the slow-moving story more than I like would have otherwise.

Thanks, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alternating between the perspectives of Cassandra, Aaron, Malcolm and Antonia, Down Time grapples with trying to find meaning to outweigh the struggles of life. It has that very specific Brooklyn-writer-centric thing going on (even when they’re in Boston), striking a great balance between self-centered and self-mockery.

I generally don’t have a high tolerance for pandemic novels, but I really liked the author’s debut novel (Early Work) & story collection and knew I’d like this one too (I did!) because the writing is just so good. The novel starts out as Cassandra picks Aaron up from his latest stint in rehab and takes them on a well-intentioned but ill-advised trip to New York City, where he quickly relapses into a multi-day bender with Xavier. Malcom is working through his own addictions and dissatisfaction with his normcore life with his girlfriend Violet, who is working on the frontlines of COVID as a doctor (and whom, he thinks, is a bit too satisfied with herself for doing so). Antonia, a tenured-track professor specializing in ecocide, seems to have her life together on the surface, yet she too feels lost.

The novels treatment of alcoholism/addiction is especially well done, both when the characters are in the depths of it and when they’re on the other side, doubting their sobriety and unenthusiastically searching for new ways to confront the oblivion. It was also interesting to enter the mind of their partners, to see how they look the other way and end up enabling them—and how everyone is constantly resenting each other (often while doing the exact same thing to someone else).

[Ray Kluender · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so bummed by this one! Andrew Martin is one of my favorite emerging literary voices. I was an evangelist sending my friends copies of Early Work and Cool for America. They were both 5-star reads for me and I consider him one of the rare voices actually trying to speak to our contemporary experience.

I don't know why he wrote this novel. No one actually wants to revisit the 2020 COVID play-by-play of who moved to their parents' beach house and who did or didn't lift their mask when the bartender came over to serve them. The most interesting and only even halfway empowered character with any agency (Violet) is sidelined and does not get her own POV chapters while Malcolm and Aaron (distinguishable only because Aaron is just out of rehab) and Antonia (who has no connection to anything going on but sure does love carping about Trump-era politics) do. Cassandra seems to exist only to shed light on Aaron. Strange choices on both the setting and structure.

The characters are all interchangeable mouthpieces for a very particular millennial stereotype (all four POV characters are varying degrees of sexually confused DSA members afraid of commitment or making any empowered choices about their own lives). I feel like I lived this whole novel in one irritating afternoon on twitter in 2020 and I did not enjoy returning to that afternoon.

I'll happily read what Martin writes next and the prose is incisive even if the topics he takes on in this particular novel were already beaten to death 3-4 years ago. Maybe there's a reason everyone else shies away from writing about contemporary times but I hope he continues trying.

[LLJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to #NetGalley and #FSG Publishers for the opportunity to read and review #DownTime by Andrew Martin (pub date 3.10.2026).

I was pulled into the book immediately through the story of Cass and Aaron, a tumultuous relationship steeped in addiction and codependency, duplicity and secret desires. From that point of entry Martin continues to do a wonderful job creating additional core characters through multi POV, alternating chapters. Each character presents with unique dialogue, tension, stakes, and inner vs. outer lives. Malcolm, Violet, Antonia, and other more peripheral, though still important, characters populate the book and much of it takes place during the Covid pandemic shutdown. This carried an inherent angst and bittersweet nostalgia in itself.

While I really enjoyed Martin's writing and character creation, the storylines did not keep me consistently invested nor connected to the overall book. I ordered Martin's "Early Work" along with his story collection - "Cool for America" - because of how much I enjoyed his writing. Honestly, my inability to connect with the characters all the way through may have had more to do with where my mind was while reading it (over the winter holidays) than the quality of the book.

Martin's writing is sharp, funny, and compelling, I just had trouble relating to the "problems" of these millennial characters and, again, that may have been more about the timeframe in which I read the book than the book itself. Thank you again for the loan of this book and I wish everyone the best of success.

[Eric Rovie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I just really want something good to happen, you know? Is that so much to ask?”

A recent article in The Atlantic by Lily Meyer spent a lot of time discussing how this novel fits into the “Seinfeld theory” of fiction: novels where the characters are meant to be irritating and annoying. I’m not sure if that’s what Andrew Martin intended, but I disagree with Meyer. The characters in this novel (a set of five friends in New York and Boston and their various partners) often have privileged attitudes and make poor choices, but none seem to be the tropes that Meyer claims. They are all sad and broken in an invariably modern way, some sexually, others romantically, others professionally, but all of them seem redeemable in my eyes.

The thread (other than friendship) that ties this novel together is the pandemic, and it addresses COVID without being cloying or overly sentimental. The impacts of lockdowns and the first Trump administration loom large in the dissatisfaction felt by these characters.

I’m sure I have more to say about this but I’ll leave it here: one of the side characters in the novel acknowledges the narcissism of every generation because she realizes that hers (Gen Z) “never stopped complaining about everything, as if we were the only generation that had ever had to deal with difficult shit.” If coping with that reality is annoying, c’est la vie.

[Olivia Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

"the world's density - the continued presence of people who mattered to you - was a beautiful thing."

down time is, without a doubt, compulsively readable. it was so easy for me to breeze through large chunks of this in one sitting. andrew martin's writing flowed in a way that made it so easy to get into a groove and just let it carry you until next thing you know you've devoured 50 pages without blinking.

the concept, and much of the book itself, reminded me a lot of my favorite book of all time beautiful world, where are you by sally rooney. as much as i wanted to love this in theory, it fell just a bit flat for me. i had thought the characters of this book would be much more intertwined, but they're just very (very) loosely connected and you never see them all interact. this is fine, it just felt more like i was reading three separate stories (malcolm + violet, cassandra + aaron, and antonia).

overall i did really enjoy my time with the novel. i'll always be a fan of a book that reminds us that despite it all we keep living and loving - and the world moving forward can be enough

3.5 stars
thank you so much to fsg for the gifted ARC!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially, this was a character study of a group of millennials who are stuck in place, and the story itself mirrors that lack of forward motion. As someone who hit early adulthood right as the world shut down, the pandemic timeline felt incredibly accurate, capturing that weird, stagnant "in-between" energy and a constant melancholy undertone. While the characters can be a bit extreme, they’re written with enough cleverness that it's easy to find pieces of yourself (or people you know) in their various hang-ups and addictions.

To be honest, reading about the pandemic still feels a little too soon for me, and I wasn't always sold on revisiting that specific timeline. However, I really appreciated how each character offered a distinct perspective. Even if you aren't a fan of plotless novels, the distinct voices make it a compelling look at what happens when a generation that's already struggling to grow up is forced to sit still and face themselves.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and FSG for the ALC

[Swapna Peri ( Book Reviews Cafe ) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Down Time" by Andrew Martin is a funny and smart novel about five friends in their late twenties and early thirties trying to figure out their lives. After their friend Sam suddenly dies and the COVID-19 pandemic hits, they all start thinking deeply about their choices, relationships, and what they want from life. The book looks at their struggles with love, work, addictions, and the pressure to grow up while still feeling lost. I found the characters real and relatable, and the mix of humor and emotion made the story very engaging.

The novel also captures the feeling of being young adults on the edge of midlife during a strange time in history. Each character faces their own problems and tries to make sense of their lives in different ways. The story is sharp and sometimes sad, but also funny and full of honest moments. It’s a good read if you want a book that shows how complex and confusing growing older can be, especially with the world changing around us.

[g.m. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Somehow knowing that you would get it wrong didn’t absolve you from worrying. It just made you feel worse for having wasted your time.”

Structurally this was not a novel that would keep me interested. I prefer sole, maybe dual, narratives but never anything more. But if you like multiple character third person POVs then this might be your thing.

Inside the structure, however, there were some interesting relationships going on. Martin's observational narrative voice captured something about what it means to be a good person or citizen in a time of difficulty — pandemic, grief, suffering and addiction. There's this millennial tiring optimism that runs through it all.


What I found interesting was the way the novel grapples with contemporary malaise. The characters aren't particularly likeable, but they're realistic. They're trying to exist in a world that feels increasingly difficult to navigate, and Martin doesn't offer easy answers or redemptive arcs. It’s real life.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar Strauss and Giroux for the digital review copy.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5? maybe 4?

This book started out really strong, and I was completely hooked at first. But somewhere in the middle, I got lost and found myself constantly rewinding and going back to figure out what was happening. I listened to the audio version, so maybe a physical copy would have been easier to follow, but the middle section felt confusing and disorienting.

It did rally toward the end. I usually love unlikeable, self-sabotaging characters with strong arcs, and I don’t mind messy, arrest-development energy. But these characters didn’t feel especially redeemable, and I never fully understood them. I wanted more clarity or payoff. I got through the first half and the end quickly; I just wish the middle tied it together better.

I think if you like a lot of character-driven, existential dread, you would probably like this, and I might try to reread it later in physical form.

Thanks netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the arc!

[Paloma · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal and relatable read!
The global pandemic was a horrible time for all of us. Reading about it now feels like a type of healing and a reminder of what we went through. Through its characters, this novel portrays the lives and changes that we all had to adhere to in order to survive mentally and physically. This novel isn't just about the pandemic, it is about mental health, life, friendships, relationships, life choices ,careers and so much more. The pandemic made us all see how we would reacted in an enclosed environment with a impending virus looming around everyone. It was hard time and we all navigated it as best as we could and the author doesn't judge us for it or question our actions. A heartfelt read that will leave you feeling some type of way that you may not be able to describe.

Thank you Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this eARC. All opinions are entirely my own.