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Bonnie Garmus

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Reviewed

Read Time

8 min read

Our age bandAdult
Reader rating
4.2 · 1,069 Amazon ratings, as of Nov 2026
reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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Our review

Peck & Peck

Peck & Peck Review: Critics Praise Its Humour, Note Slow Start (Bonnie Garmus)

by Bonnie Garmus

Peck & Peck is Bonnie Garmus's second novel, about Batter Gray, a young poetry lover hired at a dysfunctional 1982 New York poetry quarterly. Reviewers praise its humour and invention, with caveats about a slow start and some tired jokes.

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Our age band: Adult

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers who want a warm, funny workplace farce set in an eccentric 1980s New York poetry magazine, with a caper plot and an underdog hero who grows over the course of the book.

Worth it if

Worth reading if you enjoy inventive comic worldbuilding and can push through a slow opening and a sagging middle for a stronger finish.

Skip if

Skip it if you need relentless pace or a sharply angry heroine: Kirkus Reviews says the middle bogs down and the Princeton Book Review's blogger found the start slow, while BookBrowse's Rebecca Foster spotted uneven handling of diversity.

Where reviewers agree and split

Readers rate it 4.2 on Amazon. The reviews we read that discuss it in depth split on some points:

  • Positive

    The Guardian · Press review: A witty follow-up with less anger but plenty of fire and sharp humour

  • Mixed

    Kirkus Reviews · Press review: charming but occasionally twee, with mid-book sag and lovely poetry insights

  • Mixed

    The New York Times · Press review: an antic novel that opens with obvious provocation, mixed signals in review (from its headline)

  • Positive

    Book Club Chat · Book blog: an unexpected gem offering charm, humour and an engaging look at poetry

  • Positive

    Emma's Biblio Treasures · Book blog: an unforgettable, must-read story with original characters and surprising twists

  • Positive

    Princeton Book Review · Book blog: A warm, big-hearted story with positive early reviews and rewarding ending

  • Positive

    An Unlikely Story · Book blog: A perfect, magical novel that captivates with beautiful prose and twists (from its headline)

    Overall verdicts are our summary of each review we read, from its headline, rating and conclusion.

    Reviewers lean positive overall: The Guardian calls it a zany, witty follow-up with less outrage than Garmus's debut, while Kirkus Reviews is more measured, finding it "Mostly charming, sometimes twee" and saggy in the middle. A reviewer notes that the story follows a young man who loves poetry, and BookBrowse's reviewer praises the farcical scenes.

    “Mostly charming, sometimes twee, with some really lovely things to say about poetry.”

    — Kirkus Reviews
    Sources: The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, BookBrowse, Book Club Chat
    4.2from 1,069 Amazon ratings, as of Nov 2026— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

    Ask LuvemBooks

    Was this helpful?

    Peck & Peck follows Batter Gray, an underemployed poetry lover who lands a job at a dysfunctional 1982 New York poetry quarterly. Reviewers across The Guardian, Book Club Chat and Emma's Biblio Treasures praise its invention and humour, while Kirkus Reviews and the Princeton Book Review's blogger flag a sagging middle. A comic workplace caper more than a sequel in spirit to Lessons in Chemistry, it rewards patience.
    Is it worth reading?
    Mostly yes, with a pacing caveat. The Guardian found it laugh-out-loud funny, and Book Club Chat said she laughed repeatedly, even on a plane. The Princeton Book Review's blogger felt some sections long but thought the ending was worth the wait, and Kirkus Reviews flagged a mid-book sag.
    Similar books
    The closest match is Garmus's own Lessons in Chemistry, though Book Club Chat judged the two too different to compare and called both entertaining. For another eccentric workplace comedy about a young person out of their depth, The Nanny Diaries is a catalogue option, and Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada and Steven Rowley's The Editor sit in the same office-and-ambition territory. BookBrowse's own read-alikes were The Other Black Girl and Amor Towles's A Gentleman in Moscow.
    Who should read this?
    It suits readers who want an underdog hero inside a self-contained eccentric world, which is the angle BookBrowse's read-alikes point to. The Princeton Book Review suggests it works for book clubs. It is a weaker fit for anyone expecting steady pace.
    What age is it for?
    It is written for adults, and none of the reviews we hold gives a recommended age or flags content concerns. Its workplace setting and subject matter point to an adult readership.
    About Bonnie Garmus
    Bonnie Garmus is the author of Lessons in Chemistry, a historical fiction novel set in the 1960s that follows Elizabeth Zott, a female chemist navigating sexism in a male-dominated scientific field while becoming an unlikely television personality. Peck & Peck is her second novel.
    How does it compare to Lessons in Chemistry?
    The tone shifts from anger to farce. The Guardian noted muted outrage on the page this time, while Rebecca Foster of BookBrowse linked the book's handling of a more diverse cast to criticism of the very white world of Lessons in Chemistry, an effort she felt was not always organic. Book Club Chat found the two novels difficult to compare directly.
    Does the humour always land?
    Reviewers split on consistency. The Guardian's reviewer called Garmus's humour irrepressible and compared the book's gleeful originality to early John Irving, and BookBrowse's Rebecca Foster praised the dialogue.
    Summarize this book

    Summarize this book

    Set in 1982, the novel tracks Batter Gray from folding T-shirts at the Gap to a job at Peck & Peck, a secretive publication run by feuding twin Editors in Chief. Among its thirty-nine editors he becomes entangled in their private affairs and in a war between the brothers. The Princeton Book Review says the emotional spine is Batter's own development rather than a romance, and that he starts out disliked by everyone who matters.

    Follow up

    Is there a romance?
    Do I need to know poetry?

    Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review

    Ask LuvemBooks

    What would you like to know about Peck & Peck?

    Answers come from our editorial notes on this book. If we haven't covered something, we'll say so.

    Readers often ask

    Our Review

    We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.

    The strongest case for Peck & Peck, as The Guardian frames it, is that it is laugh-out-loud funny and a paean to the power of poetry, set in an eccentric 1980s New York magazine. Weighing the reviews, the main caveat is a slow start and some stretches that run long, plus a few tired jokes and uneven handling of diversity.

    What is Peck & Peck about?

    It is 1982 in New York, and Batter Gray, a recent college graduate with an "ear" for poetry nobody wants to pay for, is folding T-shirts at the Gap. His closest relationship is with Sallie Mae, the student loan company.
    Then he lands a job at Peck & Peck, billed as the most prestigious, secretive and dysfunctional poetry quarterly in the world.
    Inside, he is drawn into a secret war between the two Editors in Chief, the twin Peck brothers, and into the private affairs of the magazine's thirty-nine editors. Their shared creed is "Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest."
    The burning is literal: rejected submissions are incinerated by parolees who staff the mailroom.
    The Princeton Book Review adds that Batter was born in 1957 in a small California town and named after a brave family dog. At first, it says, everyone who matters at the magazine dislikes him and none can pronounce his name.
    This is not a romance; the emotional line is Batter's own development.

    What did critics make of the humour and invention?

    The Guardian called the novel an offbeat tale of machinations at an eccentric poetry magazine, and said it is impossible not to be beguiled by Garmus's irrepressible humour and freewheeling imagination. The paper compared the magazine's glass-domed building, with its pneumatic tube delivery system and alphabetised balcony topiary, to something from Hogwarts, and the book's gleeful originality to early John Irving.
    The New York Times described it as an "antic sophomore novel" and joked that Garmus may have produced the first "poemantasy". It also observed that the magazine employs 39 editors, far more than The Atlantic Monthly.
    The book blogger behind Book Club Chat said she laughed out loud repeatedly, even on a plane, and that Garmus made the poetry world readable and engaging. Emma's Biblio Treasures singled out the evocative setting, the offbeat cast and Batter's dog namesake, who exists only in his mother's tall tales.

    How does Peck & Peck treat poetry itself?

    Book Club Chat read the book as lovingly teasing poets: the magazine keeps a security guard because poets handle rejection badly. It also saw a real appreciation of what poetry can do when it is done right.
    The Guardian noted that even Batter's mother, Rainey, concedes poetry is the bottom of the barrel arts-wise and that poets never make a dime. The Guardian also argued that the book carries lessons that feel vital in an age of AI, quoting an editor who tells Batter that when you are interested in poetry, you are interested in everything.
    Back cover with praise quotes from bestselling authors against a warm-toned cityscape background.
    Back cover with praise quotes from bestselling authors against a warm-toned cityscape background.
    The Princeton Book Review said Garmus raises serious questions about culture and ambition, and about who has real talent and who does not. A Time review quoted on the Simon & Schuster listing says the same, calling it "part caper, part time capsule".

    Where does Peck & Peck fall short?

    The Princeton Book Review's blogger found the start slow and some sections long, though she thought it worth the wait. She also warned that readers expecting a male Elizabeth Zott may be surprised, since Batter challenges convention in quieter ways.
    Rebecca Foster, reviewing for BookBrowse, praised the farcical scenes and dialogue and compared Batter to Pip in Great Expectations: a young man who keeps getting things wrong but means well. She also spotted some tired jokes and tokenism.
    In her reading, Garmus was criticised for a very white world in Lessons in Chemistry and here seems to have tried to remedy that, not always organically.
    The Guardian observed that there is less outrage crackling on the page than in Garmus's debut.

    Is Peck & Peck worth reading?

    Weighing these reviews, the tension is between delight and polish: the invention and humour draw consistent praise, while the notes of reservation concern pacing and a few clumsy choices rather than the premise. That points the book towards readers who enjoyed the comic warmth of Lessons in Chemistry and want a workplace farce with a caper plot, and it suits book clubs, as the Princeton Book Review suggests.
    It points away from readers who want a close sequel in spirit or a sharply angry heroine. It also points away from readers who need steady pace, given the slow opening and long stretches the Princeton Book Review blogger noted, and the mid-book sag Kirkus Reviews flagged.
    BookBrowse's read-alikes include The Other Black Girl, another novel of New York publishing, and Amor Towles's A Gentleman in Moscow, a comparison for readers who like a self-contained eccentric world. Book Club Chat judged that Peck & Peck and Lessons in Chemistry are too different to compare and called both entertaining.
    It was published by Scribner in October 2026, so it is a recent release.

    Sources & Further Reading

    The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

    1. Cited in this review
    2. 1
      Bonnie Garmus’ book Peck & Peck is just as charming as Lessons in Chemistry.

      slate.com

    3. Further reading
    4. 2
      Book Review: ‘Peck & Peck,’ by Bonnie Garmus - The New York Times

      nytimes.com

    5. 3
      Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus review – the zany follow-up to Lessons in Chemistry | Fiction | The Guardian

      theguardian.com

    6. 4
      Review: Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus - Book Club Chat

      bookclubchat.com

    7. 5
      BOOK REVIEW: Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus – Emma's Biblio Treasures

      emmasbibliotreasures.com

    8. 6
      Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus: Summary and Reviews

      bookbrowse.com

    9. 7
      Peck & Peck: A Novel | An Unlikely Story - IndieCommerce

      anunlikelystory.indiecommerce.com

    10. 8
      Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus - Book Summary | PrincetonBookReview.com

      princetonbookreview.com

    11. 9
      Peck & Peck | Book by Bonnie Garmus | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster

      simonandschuster.com

    12. 10
      Peck & Peck a book by Bonnie Garmus - Bookshop.org US

      bookshop.org

    13. 11
      Kirkus Reviews

      Kirkus Reviews

    14. 12
      BookBrowse

      BookBrowse

    Age & Reading Level

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    Adult

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    More by Bonnie Garmus

    In our catalogue

    Lessons in Chemistry

    Bonnie Garmus

    Garmus's debut: another offbeat heroine up against an absurd institution, with the same barbed deadpan humour and a bigger emotional payoff.

    Elizabeth Zott is a chemist sidelined by her all-male lab who ends up hosting a television cooking show, and readers get the same mix of deadpan humour and institutional absurdity that drives Peck & Peck. The stakes run higher here, with grief and single motherhood under the jokes. Suits anyone who mainly wants more of Garmus's voice.

    If you liked Peck & Peck

    In our catalogue

    The Nanny Diaries

    Emma McLaughlin, Nicola Kraus

    Another comic novel about a young woman chewed up by an absurd New York job, with sharp class satire running under the jokes.

    On Amazon

    The Devil Wears Prada

    Lauren Weisberger

    A young woman lands at a dysfunctional New York glossy run by a tyrant; the same fish-out-of-water workplace comedy, faster and more vicious.

    On Amazon

    The Editor

    Steven Rowley

    Publishing-world comedy with real warmth: a young writer discovers his editor is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, blending literary in-jokes with family feeling.

    On Amazon · reviewing soon

    The Wedding People

    Alison Espach

    Deadpan comic voice and an unlikely friendship that jolts a stalled life back into motion, balancing dark edges with genuine warmth.

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    Yellowface

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    If the slow start put you off: a publishing satire that moves like a thriller, all momentum and bite from the first page.

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