The Adjunct

by Maria Adelmann

From the acclaimed author of How to Be Eaten, a fresh take on the campus novel that follows an adjunct professor gigging her way through academia’s poor job market when she crosses paths with her old PhD adviser whose new novel might be about her—for readers of Worry, Vladimir, and Less.

Meet Sam, an adjunct professor at a public university in Baltimore who takes a last-minute gig at the private liberal arts college down the road. Overworked and underpaid, her life is a blur of back-to-back classes, side hustles, and job applications as she attempts to claw her way toward a full-time position. But her already precarious existence is thrown into disarray when she runs into her former grad school adviser, Dr. Tom Sternberg, on campus.

Tom and Sam have a complicated history, the lasting impact of which has haunted her academic career, and it’s the last thing she wants to think about as she navigates academic politics, institutional hurdles, and romantic entanglements with men and women that further complicate a sexuality not even she can define. Then she learns that Tom left his old job for undisclosed reasons—and his long-awaited second novel is about a professor’s reckoning with his checkered past. As whispers spread that Sam is the inspiration behind a central character, she fights to regain control of the story while questioning everything she thought she knew about her future—and herself.

With biting humor and a keen eye for detail, Maria Adelmann offers a fresh twist on a tangled #MeToo story and turns Sam’s downward spiral into a searing critique of class and the hollow promises of the American dream. A hilarious yet sobering look at how hustle culture has come to define modern academia, The Adjunct Who really controls the narratives of success, identity, and power?

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Adult, Academia

Audible Audio

Expected publication March 31, 2026

About the author

Maria Adelmann’s work has been published by Tin House, n+1, The Threepenny Review, Indiana Review, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, and others. She has been awarded prizes by the Baker Artist Awards and the Maryland State Arts Council, and her work has been selected as a Distinguished Story in The Best American Short Stories. She has an MFA in fiction from The University of Virginia. She enjoys learning complicated new crafts and letting personal projects take over her life. A longtime resident of Baltimore, Adelmann recently ended up in Copenhagen after getting stuck there during the pandemic.

Reviews

[DianaRose · Rating 5 out of 5]

if the gym is the place people go to stay healthy, academia is the place people go to be completely unwell… in all forms…

full rtc

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

**BIG SPOILER at the end of my review**

Thank you, NetGalley, for this uncorrected eproof ARC of 'The Adjunct' by Maria Adelmann - expected release date of 03/31/2026.

ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

After reading all the reviews, I know I'm in the minority here but I just couldn't get into this book. There was only one main character, Sam, who was too much yet at the same time, not enough. I was overwhelmed and annoyed by the constant drama and the lemons life gave her (enough already) yet I also felt like I didn't know her enough to feel bad for her. She was basically one giant question mark. We were given no back story about her life before becoming an adjunct, she was constantly questioning her career, her living situations and her sexuality, it felt like she was an incomplete character. And what was written about her made me not like her, she came off as a whiny, woe-is-me, opportunistic user of people. I'm also really mad at the ending, like, really mad. One of the only positive things she had going for her was that she didn't sleep with her married professor, even though he claimed she did. He used her as a scapegoat to avoid admitting he actually slept with his wife's best friend. That lie basically ruined her college life yet at the end, she insinuates that they're going to meet up to sleep together, many years following the lie. Why go that route for her?

[Athena A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this raw and perhaps unprecedented take on a campus novel, the author lays out the perils of desirability in academia and the liminality of being an adjunct (and questioning your sexuality) in the style of chaotic girl literary fiction. I was entertained and genuinely stressed out for her. Girl save yourself from this spiral!

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC.

[Angel **Book Junkie** · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Scribner, Maria Adelmann, and NetGalley for a copy of The Adjunct in exchange for an honest review. Honestly, this one fell a bit flat for me. I didn’t feel like the book had a real plot, and there was nothing that truly got me excited or invested in the story. On top of that, the main character just didn’t click for me — they were more irritating than relatable.

That said, the writing itself has moments of clarity and thoughtfulness, so it’s not a complete miss. It’s just one of those reads that left me underwhelmed overall.

[thecriticalreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

The Adjunct by Maria Adelmann is an essential addition to the campus novel genre that tackles themes of class exploitation, identity, and feminism with refreshing, and often humorous, directness.

Like our protagonist Sam, I once had a dream of becoming a humanities professor. I loved academia and teaching; I couldn’t imagine a cooler job. My academic mentors alternately encouraged and discouraged me from pursuing a PhD: they knew it would be an amazing path for my abilities and interests, but they also knew how minimal my chances at tenure-track employment would be. I heard horror story upon horror story about the academic job market, and I remember feeling shocked when I realized that one of my adjunct professors was teaching seven classes in one semester—like Sam, across two campuses—while raising two children and battling cancer. The shock grew when I learned that adjuncts only get paid a couple thousand dollars per class and receive no benefits. That’s about $250 per week for a job that demands an exorbitant amount of time and effort. Reading The Adjunct was like glimpsing into a dark alternate pathway in which I “followed my dreams” and got that history PhD.

Sam is in her mid-thirties and working as an adjunct for several classes to scrape by in hopes of eventually securing an elusive tenure-track (or at least full-time lecturer) position. Her life is a constant scrabble to avoid homelessness as living expenses, student loan debt, and medical bills stack up. On top of her destitution, she feels misplaced in the #MeToo era that demands clear categorization of identity. Her past comes back to haunt her when she discovers she is working at the same university as her old grad school advisor, Tom, with whom she had a close relationship in graduate school. Their relationship inhabited a sort of murkiness at odds with the clean-cut narratives of the #MeToo movement; while it never quite veered into a sexual relationship and took place between two adults, their differences in age and power left Sam feeling used and betrayed. Her thoughts and feelings on their relationship come to a head when she learns Tom has published a fictional novel that appears to be based on their relationship.

Adelmann very much uses The Adjunct as a soapbox for her takes on the exploitations of adjuncts, the broken academic system, and the complex, invisible webs of power that ensnare the vulnerable even in an age of increased “awareness” and “visibility.” Her takes are insightful and incisive—she holds nothing back, but it never feels preachy. The gaps in our literary consciousness she’s addressing are real, and her skilled writing adds urgency and depressing hilarity to her message. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complex ways patriarchal and capitalist power reshapes itself in a modern academic context.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for providing me with an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[mikaylabry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loveeeeed this my god
4.5

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is an adjunct, I loved this...and related so much to this book
This book is like looking into a fun house mirror that somehow still manages to show your exact real face, exhausted, underpaid, and grading papers in a car between campuses...lol

Maria Adelmann absolutely nails the quiet madness of being an underpaid, overqualified academic surrounded by people who think your job is a cute little hobby.

I love a good satire. (but honestly too realistic to be satirical??) book about academia. An interesting take on a power dynamic/#metoo story that definitely won't be for everyone, but I liked it.

Thank you netgalley for the arc!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I flew through this book! Such a unique take on the professor student relationship plot line…and wow what a commentary on the deterioration of our higher education system. Currently an adjunct myself and this was TOO REAL

[rosie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, Simon & Schuster and Netgalley, for providing this Advanced Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest review.

Have you ever read My Year of Rest and Relaxation and wondered what the protagonist would be like if she went into academia? I have not, but when reading this book, that was what I envisioned.
Adelmann combines sophisticated yet readable prose with the incredibly engaging narrative of things going wrong. Where do we put our locus of control? Is our adjuncting a fault of our own in part, or is it purely the result of modern academia being, well, Modern Academia? What are the ethical considerations of publishing autofiction that incriminates others? How do we know we have hit rock bottom? How many years of doing your PhD is too many?
Perhaps my favorite trope is when a book ends on a precipice, which is probably what made me think of MYORAR. After a series of unfortunate events and passivity, it is most powerful when the character takes action. Here, the structure of the post-factum diary, the first chapter/prologue that reveals the ending, makes us reflect on what led Sam to the precarious situation that is her life. Amazing work from Adelmann.

[Tilda · Rating 5 out of 5]

will forever think about this ending !!
(also prevented me from thinking about applying to PhD programs ((again)) thank you for your service)

[em · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed 75% of this book and was planning on rating it high, but then i read the ending. and the ending alone made me want to scream and throw this book off the nearest tall building.

if you love a pathetic main character, this is the book for you. one bad thing after another happens; sam truly cannot catch a break. i understand it's the nature of being an adjunct professor and a commentary on the state of higher academia in general, but wowie. it was a slog to get through. at what point does a story stop being realistic and instead become trauma porn the reader is made to sit through? it got old fast. sam spirals constantly and is always sabotaging any decent person she meets. while then going back to the most terrible person she knows!!!!!!!!!!!! which leads me to my biggest gripe about this book...

i cannot get over the ending. truly what the fuck????? the entire book posits on the fact that sam's entire career, but more importantly personal and social life is affected because of her affair with her professor. we discuss this relationship in the context of #metoo, as being a woman, as being a (maybe?) bisexual woman. we seen unfortunate thing after unfortunate thing happen to our mc and we understand tom's role as a catalyst for this spiral. and then we watch sam walk right back to that giant waste of a fucking human being at the very end of the story. the ending didn't have to be redemptive or happy or cliche, but i wanted it to be true to the story we just sat through. sadly, it was not. perhaps it was sam reclaiming her power/narrative in the dynamics with tom, but it was not convincing. it was an incredible injustice to sam, our story, and the poor reader sitting through this book.

it was interesting in its exploration of intersectionality of identity, and coming to terms with being ambivalent, or still not knowing where you stand within specific identities. being half of something can sometimes feel all of nothing. sam's grappling with this as a main character was relatable to me, and i think written well overall.

as i said, i enjoyed this book for the majority of the time i was reading it. i really planned to give it a much higher rating and praise, but the ending made me rethink all of it. idk, i just think we can do better.

thanks for netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Adjunct was more of a literary fiction novel than I usually read. We follow Sam, an adjunct professor at a university in Baltimore, where her former doctoral mentor Tom has recently relocated. During her graduate studies, it was suspected that Sam and Tom had a relationship, and Tom is now publishing a book using those suspicions as the plot line.

Adelmann says multiple things about our current culture throughout the novel. First, she weaves in depictions of the division of Baltimore, between the Black and white neighborhoods of the city, while telling the story. Sam, as someone with a low income, lives in the poorer neighborhoods of the city. Also, as the title suggests, we read the unglamorous life of an adjunct professor, someone who does triple the work and receives very little pay. Compare the adjunct to Tom, a full professor who has gotten to spend the last decade writing without publishing and who still receives full confidence that his new novel will be a bestseller. Lastly, we see the shifting power dynamics in each of Tom’s relationships throughout the novel. Relationships aren’t always what they seem.

Though I don’t typically enjoy literary fiction novels, this novel stood out because addresses higher education, a topic I am intimately familiar with. I would recommend this to other grad students and people in the higher education space. If societal commentary and metaphor is your thing, I would also recommend this. The adjunct professor is just one profession where the lower ranked employee is doing MUCH more work than the long-time employee (i.e., tenured professor). This novel shines light on the unfair system that we’ve created.

An ARC was provided by NetGalley and Scribner in exchange for an honest review.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a semi-retired professor with a penchant for academic novels, I could not wait to read this book. It promised to be a contemporary skewering of the tragedy that academic life has become for so many in recent years. It delivered on its promise and more! Sam, the narrator, is a not-so-freshly minted literature Ph.D. adjuncting at two different schools and living on the poverty line, while hoping to manage her debts long enough to snag the gold ring of a tenure-track position. At the outset, the book appears to be a comic romp that offers humor while showcasing the challenges, indignities, and injustices of contingent employment as an adjunct instructor. However, partway into the book, one realizes that Sam's downward spiral has no end in sight. The indignities and injustices mount one upon the next, and each of her possibilities for escape seems to evaporate. The book successfully combines critiques of contingent university labor, predatory professors, the #me-too movement, and the cruel ironies of academic hierarchies. Having worked in three different universities/liberal arts colleges over the course of several decades, much of what Maria Adelman writes rings true, from aging professors seeking ego boosts via young students to adjunct faculty members barely making ends meet (even obliged to sleep in university offices). I wish that the main character (Sam) had been more appealing, as I think that would have made this a "hit the ball out of the park" contemporary academic novel, but unfortunately, she is pretty unlikeable. Even then, the fact that despite an unlikable main character, I stayed up way past my bedtime reading this book attests to this being a good read.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

~ I received an ARC copy of The Adjunct in exchange for an honest review ~

Adelmann's The Adjunct explores the experiences of non-tenured educators in the field of professional academia within the context of the #MeToo movement. Our main character is in her thirties but struggling with the realities of finding permanent work in her field, reevaluating her choices in life and trying to make sense of her own choices and sexuality. Her life which is perpetually upended is further upended by the release of a book that eerily echoes to a relationship she had with a former professor. Throughout the story she tries to navigate understanding herself, the nuances of being part of the #MeToo movement (but not really) and the struggles of trying to make a life out of academia.

To be honest, this book was painful to read - it seems like our main character's sole purpose was to perpetually be a victim of the system or the people around her. The little autonomy she does have seems to be fraught with problems and she seems to be a punching bag for many of the characters around her. The people who used to befriend see her with a level of disgust, she can't seem to get her life together and can't afford to either.

I'm sure Adelmann intended to make the piece a reflection and critique of power structures in the college setting and the cold reality that some who look for futures in academic face, but the point gets lost if you're wincing at each thing that goes wrong for the main character.

[Patricia Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. So wanted to affirm 'Sam"...it doesn't get better. Her clear "I" writing in the first person took us from the prologue (which prepares us for the ending!) through the mechanizations of academia and the devaluation of a university education. Sam is one of the ROAD SCHOLARS; The Full Time Part Timers; getting a wage less than their working students and teaching a course load just under full time. Thus, there would be minimal contract wage and no benefits. That Is, working for an educational system that devalues education. This exploitation of adjuncts is integrated with her struggle of just staying alive in a systemic patriarchy.. Her graduate advisor Tom has written a book that centers around an affair between a Prof (presumably Tom) and his grad student ( who many assume to be Sam). Yet they had no affair. He has written it to pander to the 'me too' movement. Maria Adelman's writing gives clear insights into the pain of being devalued, loss of control over your life, the shattering of the 'magical dream' that education is THE way to a full, useful life... In her words " I was essential to the University but ENTIRELY REPLACEABLE"... I also found gems of wisdom in her writing to treasure and carry with me e.g. " I also knew that dividing people into hierarchies of suffering was stupid...and what did winning get you anyway???p. 302) Thank you Good Reads and Maria Adelmann for this Good read...

[Andrew Langert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley.

This is about and narrated by Sam, an adjunct college professor in the Baltimore area. She has a PhD, but is only work as an adjunct at two different colleges, teaching two classes at each. Adjuncts get a minimal amount of pay, so Sam can’t afford her own apartment and sleeps on a couch at someone else’s place. A theme of this book is the trend developing of a big economy, where people don’t have traditional jobs, traditional pay and benefits or any kind of job security.

The book is written as sort of a stream of consciousness. You learn every thought that is going through Sam’s head. She is single, but is tainted by the belief of many that she had an affair with an older (and married) professor when she was a graduate student, ultimately causing the professor to lose his job and end his marriage. The professor has just come out with a novel, supposedly fictional but more likely autobiographical, in which his main character is a professor with a similar story as his own.

The book has a sad tone. Sam is a loner, seemingly living life without a purpose.

[Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not really sure about this one. It seemed like a story with no real plot and no real resolution, just a stream of consciousness from the narrator. It started off sad, and by the end it was just even sadder.

Sam starts out with a new job as an adjunct professor at a couple colleges and while it’s not a promising path, she at least makes a little money for bills. Unfortunately she ends up working at the same college as an older professor she had a fling with in school, who may have written a book about her, and it makes everything awkward. By the end of the book, Sam’s lost her job, her home, and all her friends so it’s just sad.

I didn’t find Sam particularly likable, but none of the characters really were. And I still wanted things to work out for her in the end. I also really didn’t like that she ended up with the professor who started her whole downhill spiral.

**ARC review. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read it early.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Adjunct explores the gig economy and feminism through narrator Sam, who is an adjunct trying to make ends meet by teaching classes at multiple colleges. Sam is also struggling with her sexual identity and is forced to reckon with the MeToo movement when her former academic advisor publishes a novel that is supposedly about their past relationship.

This book is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, and the narrative is quite bleak. The story is a 3.5 for me, but I rounded up for the quality of the writing. Sam talks about her love of words and reading beautiful sentences that stick in her side like a thorn. I found many such sentences in this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

[Pietro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book. I love campus novels and especially academic satire. However, this book was too realistic to be satire, in my opinion. I remember what it was like to be an adjunct, so the premise of this novel was appealing, but I did not find Sam to be a compelling protagonist. She is messy and struggling, and that is the point; perhaps I simply found it too depressing. I also spent some time wondering exactly where the plot was going. Ultimately, this was not the right book for me. Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to provide an honest review.

[James B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the ebook. Sam is trying to survive in her little corner of academia as she flies across town daily, teaching at two colleges to try and scrap together a living. A living that is drained by rent, student loans, car mishaps and a root canal that literally can’t wait one more day. In this eye opening view of what’s really going on with teaching at this level, Sam is also haunted by her old professor, who she has an ugly history with, but he may have also written a novel about them.

[sophie! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked the prose, felt like it created a sense of anxiety in me that made me want to tear through this book. It started to wander a little bit in the second half, and I wasn’t sure what to expect in the end. I felt like balancing the exposition between Sam’s relationships with Tom, Gabe, and Sophie felt like just a little bit too much with the amount of text that we had. Although this is a bit bleak, I honestly feel like it would do well in a college syllabus. Adelmann paints a picture of academia that actually feels realistic.

[Lydia Hephzibah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

setting: Maryland
rep: queer protagonist

this isn't always an easy read - especially after about the 80% mark, as Sam's life spirals downwards more and more - but I enjoyed it, and there is a lot of very intellectual and interesting discussion in here about academia, sexuality, MeToo, the gig economy. Sam's life is ultimately a very depressing one. a must read if you're thinking of working in higher education in the USA!

[Jennifer N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know the life of an English adjunct and I think Adelmann nailed it. I wish the protagonist had been more likeable, because it was hard to root for her, but I guess part of the point was that the life is so draining and exhausting that there is no room to be likeable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

[Georgette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. This was so good it pissed me off. The adjunct in question goes through hell and back trying to get the monkey of a fictionalized account of her affair (that never happened) with a former professor while she was a student. It is a whip smart lure of a book but that ending? No no no.

[Remi]

if someone's writing a story about me, they'd better pay me

*thank you to Scribner for the ARC*

[Caitlin Kindervatter-Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A darkly funny and politically damning take on the campus novel. Adelmann keeps it highly readable, for those both in and out of academia. People will be talking about this one--don't miss it!

[Emily Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!! If writers and lovers had a darker more bleak sister. Great ending. Loved the ending so much.