Give Me Everything You've Got: 'Read the book of the summer' - Harpers Bazaar

by Imogen Crimp

Ruby has spent her twenties scraping by in unfulfilling jobs. But now she's tasting her first success as a film director – and she's caught the eye of Ellen, an iconoclastic feminist filmmaker, critical darling and Ruby's idol.

When Ellen invites Ruby down to her sprawling country house and offers to mentor her through writing her next film, Ruby can't believe her luck. Arriving in the middle of an oppressive heat wave, she is overawed by the glamour of the house – and finds herself quickly drawn into the middle of a dangerous dynamic between Ellen and her elusive daughter Lara.

Because Ellen and Lara, it seems, like to play games with promising young women. As tensions escalate, Ruby begins to ask why was she brought here, and what exactly do these two women want from her?

Give Me Everything You've Got is the incendiary new novel from Imogen a fearless, sultry and deliciously dark exploration of art, power and sex that grips to the final page.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, LGBT, Adult, Queer, Gothic, Audiobook

307 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 7, 2026

About the author

Imogen Crimp studied English at Cambridge, followed by an MA in contemporary literature at UCL, where she specialized in female modernist writers. After university, she briefly studied singing at a London conservatoire. She was born in 1989 and lives in London.

Reviews

[SJARR ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I’m not sure this one was for me. I’m disassociating, which isn't my favorite feeling.

I think i'm running the risk of coming off as overly sensitive, but I was a little bit uncomfortable for most of this story.
Some of the topics discussed (and the way in which they were discussed), and some of the behavior by an older mentor toward her younger protégé, just, gave this an overall bad vibe for me.
I know that some of this has to be part of the point, but, I just wasn’t able to enjoy it.

I think the writing style is another place where we went a bit wrong.
I didn’t really feel immersed in the story, as much as I felt like I was watching stuff happen from a very far distance.
The synopsis does refer to this book as being like a “fever dream”, and I can certainly see that coming through. So, you might like this if you enjoy reading things like that.

As for the plot, I'm unsure about it.
I read this in full, but I didn’t really understand it.
I was confused, but I was fully expecting the end to have a massive turning point, or some type of revelation, to give me that “AHA!” moment.
It didn’t come though.

I am really not sure if this is just a case of my specific dislike for particular things plaguing my ability to enjoy a book as a whole, and perhaps it lead me to form a decision too quickly and I stuck with it.
Maybe other people would have an easier time grasping the plot, and would be able to like this more than I did.

Thank you to Netgalley, Henry & Holt Company and author Imogen Crimp, for providing me with the eARC of "Give Me Everything You've Got", in exchange for my honest review!
Publication date: July 21, 2026

[Claire Fuller]

This feels like horror without the horror. It's a long hot summer and Ruby has been invited to stay in film director, Ellen's country house for a couple of weeks. There she meets Lara, Ellen's daughter. Crimp is so good at describing the heat, the hazy days, all the unsaid things and insinuations. Make sure you go into it not expecting a big revelation or a horror moment, and you'll love it.
A subtle, claustrophobic, seduction of a novel. I loved its dreamy, hazy surface, and its uncomfortable undertow. 

[Heidi Zuva]

Stylist magazine comped this to Rebecca and Saltburn, so naturally I had to read it.

Premise - Ruby, an up-and-coming filmmaker, moves into the guest room of her idol, Ellen's, house. Surrounded by luxury and in the nest of her inspiration, writing her next film has to be a breeze. Right?

Only Ellen has an angsty 20yo daughter, Lara. Of course. And Ellen? She can't stay away from the mother, nor from the daughter. This family, this house -- the whole shebang could be a haunting.

...but it's not though.😅 I think the comps (Rebecca! Saltburn!) and the description of it as a gothic had me expecting a very different kind of story. This is not horror, at least no more so than any other slow-paced, minimal plot mostly vibes, angsty self-discovery lit fic.

It is gothic in the sense that the house is a character and you get a bit of a claustrophobic feel. I came to this after reading CLEANER, another installation in the weird girl subgenera, and this is definitely more focused/less meandering than that one, but I just kept waiting for the beat to drop and it... didn't. It's a me problem.

Definitely check this out if you're in the mood for a litfic, coming of age, #metoo but they're all women, critique of 'feminists' who turn around and do the same thing when they get a sniff of power kind of read.

But the comps? Eh... I don't see it. I mean, maybe. If I squint, really *really* hard. Whilst being concussed. And not wearing glasses, nor contacts.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Mei Mei MacLeod. She did a great job with the read! It would have taken me much longer to get through this if I were reading it as a physical book, so the audiobook was a win.

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

[Christine Bobby · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be completely honest, there wasn’t anything I enjoyed about reading this book. I didn’t care about any of the characters. I found everything about it to be infuriating and just plain unlikable. Confusing from start to finish. And it just dragged on without any point.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company publishing for the early access.

[Alaina]

Imogen Crimp deftly explores the many facets of what it means to be an ambitious woman in the arts in this slow-simmer of a summer novel. The scene-setting is incredibly effective here; you can practically feel the sweat drip down your back. I also really enjoyed Crimp's keen observations throughout; I'm just coming off a binge of the Neapolitan quartet, and Crimp had many moments here that felt Ferrante-esque in their astuteness. It's a gift, to be able to capture those universal-and-yet-nobody-really-talks-about-it experiences. While I do wish there had been more of a payoff for all of that boiling tension, I enjoyed this nonetheless.

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seductive writing, amazing dialogue, and a stunning plot - this book has it all. I was consumed and did not want to step away from the world inside this book. The feelings between Ruby, Lara, and Ellen drew me in and had me in awe. The feminine vibes oozed from the pages and the setting itself was like walking into a beautiful painting and living inside of it. At times haunting, this book is truly a work of art. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Kristina Bulovic · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't finish it. It's a personal thing, but I don't enjoy reading books that have no quotations. Especially if it reads like run on sentences in long paragraphs. And most especially when they say the names of the characters over and over.

It's impossible to tell who is talking, who they're talking to, and if they're really even talking at all...

That said, if you like Sally Rooney you'd probably like this one. I was curious about the setting and the dynamics, I just couldn't do the massive dialog with no quotes.

[Maddie Marriott · Rating 2 out of 5]

good and then it all went to shit about halfway through. how many times can you “suddenly realize” something you’ve “always known?” i’m tired

[Kris the retired librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every book has its reader. This one's reader just isn't me, and I want to tell you why.

Back in the 1930s, a librarian named S.R. Ranganathan wrote a set of guiding principles for library science. Two of them have stuck with me for 20 years: every reader their book, and every book its reader. The idea is simple. Every person can find books they love, and every book will find the people who love it.

That's my roundabout way of telling you I'm not the reader for Give Me Everything You've Got. And that's genuinely fine.
The premise: Ruby is a young filmmaker just starting to taste success when she's invited to spend the summer at the country house of Ellen, the feminist director she idolizes and who's promised to mentor her. The retreat sours fast. Ruby gets pulled into the mind games between Ellen and her magnetic daughter Lara, and the house itself starts to feel haunted by the sense that she isn't the first promising young woman brought there.

On paper that's gothic Rebecca territory, and I wanted to love it. I just didn't feel it. The characters stayed vague and hard to root for, the pace crawled, and the whole thing is written in long unbroken blocks with no quotation marks around the dialogue. If the goal was to read like one long stream of consciousness, the writing pulls it off. I found it tough to follow.

But not connecting with a book isn't the same as a book being bad. The prose is doing something deliberate, and there are readers who will fall hard for exactly that. If you love literary fiction that asks you to sink into a mood instead of a plot, this could be your summer obsession.

Thank you to Henry Holt for the gifted copy.

[Sally Horna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wtf even happened??? It’s a lot of nothing and THERE ARE NO QUOTATION MARKS A LA SALLY ROONEY AND IT PISSED ME AWWWWFFF

[Christina Pace · Rating 3 out of 5]

A big thank you to Henry Holt and Co., Netgalley, and the author for providing an ARC for review!

2.5, rounded up to 3 for the descriptions and the prose.



Give Me Everything You Got started out promising for me. Female and sapphic obsession, unhealthy fixation on a personal idol, creepy vibes, weird actions/reactions, and a creepy house? Okay, you got me! However, as it went on, I began to realize how meandering it is.

I loved reading the descriptions in this book, and the way Imogen Crimp describes the malaise of a heat wave is so perfect. I could easily envision the setting in my mind. The main cast -Ruby, Lara, and Ellen (lol) - and how they played off each other was something I couldn't wait to see evolve further, as well as their views on film as 'feminist' filmmakers, but then... it just stopped. There is a specific point in the book where you can feel the narrative tension sputter out into pages of hallucinogenic freeform. I'm not completely opposed to a stream-of-conscious style of writing (I really liked Brittany Newell's Soft Core, for starters) but there are so many bizarre red flags that pop up at the beginning to pique your interest, only to never be further interrogated. Maybe they were supposed to be red herrings, maybe not, maybe it's answered in some subtext I didn't pick up on, but regardless it's still unsatisfying to read these plot threads come up, only to be dropped in favor of obsessive, dream-like angst.

I'm also trying to remain spoiler-free, because this book won't be out until July 2026, but BIG BIG BIG content warning for one sequence in the book that involves animal death - specifically that of a chicken. It's not super graphic but it's so luridly detailed that I started skimming, and the character reaction to it adds to the nausea of the sequence.

[Chelsea (gofetchabook) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know, this one wasn’t really for me. I went back and reread the synopsis after I finished the book, and I didn’t really get that from the book at all.

Ruby is as aspiring screen writer and she goes to stay at a famous director’s house for the summer to work on her screenplay, but gets tangled up with the director’s odd daughter. I didn’t feel like the story was super parsed out. I kept expecting more to happen, but it didn’t.

At first I was kind of bored and then it got tense and weird and then I didn’t understand the ending.

Maybe it went over my head, maybe others will enjoy it, but for me, it just didn’t really work.

[Jaimes_Mystical_Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good read. This book was well written, and told a unique story but was a bit slow to unfold. As intriguing as this book’s concept was, I failed to relate and feel for the characters and between that and the pacing there were times where I struggled to want to continue reading. I think this book had some good moments and had a lot of potential, but I’m not sure I would categorize it as a horror. Overall, I’m not sure what I thought of this one.

Thank you to Henry Holt for sending me this gifted copy.

[Bia]

o verão é uma grande historia de terror

(não entendi como o storytel me deixou ouvir esse livro sendo que ele aparentemente ainda não foi publicado mas muito que bem)

[elyse.]

I really tried, but my ADHD cannot handle this writing style.

[Megan Beauregard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review as appears on IG @megansreview.
Thank you to Henry Holt Books and NetGalley for the ARC!
“Give Me Everything You’ve Got” (out July 21) follows a young filmmaker who is invited to spend the summer at the home of a prolific director. Quickly, hope for a productive summer working on her script turns to disappointment, as an unsettling sense of foreboding takes over the novel. The premise: the director and her daughter are not quite what they seem, and neither is the house they are living in. This novel promised a seductive, gothic story, and at the start, it reminded me of Parasite, or House of Leaves. Is the house haunted? Is the protagonist being gaslit? Tensions builds in the story, and I was hooked, waiting to see what would happen, and what the “big reveal” might be.
Instead, I was disappointed to find that the novel was all tension and climax, but lacked any resolution. The characters were impossible to figure out - was our narrator going mad, or were the director and her daughter truly behaving that erratically, without explanation? What could have made for a great novel about the pressures put on female creatives, about loneliness, queerness, and isolation, became a book that made the promise of being a sexy, sapphic, provocative novel yet failed to deliver on it.
I considered DNFing this book, but I made it to the end based solely on the hope that there was a final-act reveal coming - instead, I got to the final page and felt nothing but disappointment. This wasn’t for me, but I can definitely imagine there’s an audience out there for this book! I think this book would appeal to fans of Sally Rooney’s philosophical and social commentary, and anyone who enjoys unreliable narrators and confounding storylines.

[asa ave · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started reading this book, I wasn't too sure what I was getting myself into. I found myself annoyed that none of the dialogue was in quotations.

But before I knew it, I got sucked into the summer haze that the characters found themselves in. I got wrapped up in the drama and eventually paranoia that Ruby found herself in. I couldn't stop reading, I finished the book in less than two days. I'm going to be thinking about this for some time to come.

I was provided with an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Courtney Pityer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won this in a giveaway. I will read and review at a different time.

[Lucy Skeet · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

Imogen you’re a phenomenal writer!! I loved this novel so much too, thanks to Bloomsbury for my copy. Book of the summer incoming!

[Elle Spohrer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this entire book during layovers at PDX and Sea-Tac on my way back to school from winter break, which probably impacted my experience with it in some capacity, though I’m not sure how. In any case, it kept my attention amidst the horrors of air travel in early January.

The best way I can describe Give Me Everything You’ve Got is horror without the horror. The story is filled with tension—Ellen, Lara, the house, her impending script deadline, the heatwave, and her place in the world are all sources of anxiety for Ruby. The tension never breaks, though. It just sort of dissolves incrementally. There’s no big reveal or climax, and there isn’t much resolution at the end. Still, I kind of liked it. The writing style is very dream-like, and the setting is incredibly vivid. In tone and energy, I would describe this book as Saltburn (2023) meets Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).

The strongest part of this novel is the depiction of the toxic relationships Ruby has with Ellen and Lara. Ellen is an influential director who prides herself on making room for other women in the industry, and Ruby, along with many other young female filmmakers, is enamored with her. Ruby wants to be Ellen and wants to be admired by her; she wants to be her lover and wants to be her daughter; she is afraid of her and obsessed with her. In addition, Ruby finds Lara’s cold, aloof demeanor both off-putting and intriguing.

Crimp’s writing, told in first person from Ruby’s perspective, paints a clear picture of who these women are, and the power dynamics between them, through their interactions with each other. All three are deeply flawed in different ways, and could be quite unlikable. While I did enjoy reading about them, I suspect that if I had read this book over several days rather than all at once I would have grown tired of their melodrama.

Unfortunately, this book was very tedious and slow. There was very little character development, and my impression at the end was that most, if not all, of the seemingly high-stakes issues in the story were fabricated in Ruby’s mind. The majority of the narrative is just living in the head of a woman with low self-esteem, and I’m not really sure what that accomplishes.

I was also confused by the broader message. What I got from it was “people want women to tell stories that are autobiographical” which… okay? I guess? I’m not sure how much that’s supposed to resonate with a larger audience of mostly non-filmmakers. There was a little bit about media fetishizing women’s pain, which was more coherent, but is not exactly a fresh topic in feminist discourse. The commentary on class discrepancy I thought was a bit better; it was incorporated into the narrative and made sense, though again, felt a little stale.

One final thing, which I didn’t mind, but I know some readers can’t stand: Crimp doesn’t use quotation marks or standard indentation formatting for dialogue in this book.

All in all, I thought this book was fine. It kept me entertained for about five hours of a nineteen-hour travel day, so I can’t be too harsh, but if I had put it down and then gone to sleep, I’m not sure I would have been excited to pick it up again the next day.

I would recommend this book to readers who like reading about the idyllic English countryside, the negative parts of the film industry, and women who make bad choices.

***Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.***

[Abby Soghomonian · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, thank you to Matt and Shawnee from ‘The Bookstore (and Get Lit Wine Bar)’ in Lenox, MA, for trusting me to read their advanced copy of “Give Me Everything You’ve Got” and provide my honest feedback. If you find yourself in Lenox, you’ve got to stop by their store and have a glass of wine while you read a new book! Brilliant place and wonderful people who thought to combine two of my favorite things!

Grimp’s upcoming novel follows Ruby, a struggling film maker, as she spends part of the summer at the private home of her idol, Ellen.

Ellen is a feminist film producer, and Ruby imagines that the short retreat will include Ellen mentoring her and even envisions the two of them strolling in the garden, glasses of wine in hand, while exchanging ideas. However, once Ruby arrives, the situation becomes increasingly unsettling. Ellen’s house appears glamorous and idyllic, but beneath the surface there is tension and manipulation. Ellen pressures Ruby to turn her personal trauma into art for commercial success, while Ellen’s daughter Lara draws Ruby into complicated emotional and sexual dynamics. Over the course of the summer, Ruby realizes that she may not be the first young woman to be drawn into Ellen’s orbit and used for artistic or personal purposes.

While many reviewers remark about their frustration with Crimp not using quotation marks, I found my frustration and utter disgust rooted in Crimp’s glaring dichotomy of feminism…

In the book, Ellen embodies a contradiction at the heart of performative feminism. Although she is celebrated as a feminist filmmaker and mentor, her treatment of Ruby reproduces the very power dynamics feminism seeks to dismantle. Rather than empowering Ruby as a young woman entering the film industry, Ellen manipulates her ambition, pressures her to commodify her personal trauma for artistic gain, and positions herself as the gatekeeper to Ruby’s success. This dynamic reflects how hierarchies can persist even within spaces that claim to support women, suggesting that simply placing women in positions of authority does not automatically create feminist environments. Through Ellen’s exploitation of Ruby, the novel critiques the dangers of “performative feminism,” revealing how feminist language and identity can be used to mask systems of control and inequality rather than challenge them. Especially in our current political climate, my sincere hope was that Ruby might even challenge Ellen, or point out her misogynistic behaviors, but Crimp failed to resolve this inconsistency, leaving me feeling completely frustrated and disheartened. This tension highlights a key theme: feminism can become hollow when it is used as branding rather than practiced ethically.

I gave this book only 1 star. While the story started off slow and took awhile to grab my interest, I had hopes that it would pick up and some sort of resolution would occur. The book ultimately left me feeling like I was stuck in the middle of nowhere and the day would never end. I’m not sure if it was Crimp’s objective to force the reader to look into the ways that women suppress women, but this was the overall message I took away from this story, a message which felt defeatist to say the least.

#bookstoreinlenox.com #notreallyfeminism #books andwineinoneplace #twoofmyfavoritethings #lenoxmassachusetts

[liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5⭐

Give Me Everything You've Got brings us Ruby, a filmmaker desperate for a breakthrough in the film industry, that has just arrived at the stunning country estate of her idol, the legendary feminist director Ellen. Outside, a ruthless summer heatwave. Inside, Ellen and her daughter, Lara, are warmly helping Ruby to settle in, and beginning to play a game whose rules Ruby isn't privy to.

Imogen Crimp prose made me feel completely lightheaded and out of breath. It just kept going and going under the oppressive insecure and anxious way with which Ruby navigated life, but especially life around Ellen and Lara.

What made me love it so much is how unapologetically suffocating it is and how well Mei Mei MacLeod's, the audiobook narrator, voice worked with making Ruby sound as winded as we felt. I'm usually not a fan of first person point of view, but it was one of the best things Crimp could've done with this story. Because Ruby is entirely consumed by her need for Ellen's validation, everything passes through the filter of her obsession, she can't see outside of her need to be seen by Ellen so se misses all the obvious red flags. We as the reader get no respite, we are trapped inside Ruby’s spiralling thoughts, experiencing everything like she is at the same time as she does.

There's an obvious power dynamic between them, they're mentor and mentee, and Crimp handles it with amazing precision. I'd even go as far as to say the obsession is mutual, it's just there is a power dynamic and you can't escape that. While Ruby wants to be consumed by Ellen, Ellen wants to consume Ruby and by doing so she exploits Ruby's desperation, mining her already waning confidence under the guise of getting her to the next level.

I couldn't look away even when when it felt too much, just as stuck in Ellen and Lara's enticing ways as Ruby was. Ellen's presence was almost overbearing, every time she was in the scene it felt like she consumed all the air in the room and that worked wonders to install this predatory energy about her.

The pacing is agonizing as the author stretches the tension so taut that it had me wondering if this wasn't a psychological horror. It wasn't, but it certainly felt like one at times. Again, at the risk of sounding repetitive, there is absolutely NO emotional relief, even the brief moments of apparent warmth between Ruby and Lara are tainted by the dread that everything is being staged, and honestly I'm not completely convinced it wasn't.

The unrelenting heatwave serves as the perfect sensory metaphor for the story itself. The air is thick, the constant building pressure between the characters is as exhausting as a night after an afternoon under the summer sun, it feels like you're trapped in the same fever dream that is slowly swallowing Ruby whole.

Give Me Everything You've Got is a beautifully dark exploration of corrupted mentorship and a mesmerizing masterclass in tension that demands you give it every ounce of attentions you can muster.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me this ALC in exchange for an honest review.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Give Me Everything You've Got, Imogen Crimp's sophomore outing, is a sweltering, claustrophobic novel with a highly cerebral foundation. To get it out of the way: no, this book does not use quotation marks. That has never bothered me (and it never will!!!), and I think it was an intelligent choice here. Our protagonist and POV character Ruby, who tells us this story in first-person, is a complicated, fawning people pleaser and director actively working on a script that's meant to tell a "female" story. This question of what is or is not a female and/or feminist story persists throughout the novel.

The crux of this story is that Ruby spends two weeks in residence at the countryside estate of her workshop director, Ellen, alongside Ellen and her 20-year-old daughter Lara. Ruby gets caught in and between their orbits, and their sometimes-opposite influences and impulses feel like spiderweb silk with Ruby trapped and wriggling in the middle. There's a surrealist edge to the story that makes it clear why this has been referred to in reviews as a modern gothic tale. The house itself has a presence that's at turns ominous and welcoming, and some scenes (Ruby trying to leave down the driveway and realizing the gate will only open for a car, Ruby snapping the neck of a half-drowned chicken after fishing it from the pool) drive home the strangeness of this time for Ruby, which sits at a stark remove from the London life she left for this opportunity.

There was a lot about this that worked for me. I think Crimp is excellent — dare I say unmatched? — when it comes to writing about women who are desperate for approval. That's such a through-line between her first book and this one, and I appreciated that the theme itself continued to be explored in depth but that the books didn't feel like they were treading the same ground. I loved Lara's character and her mercurial moods, her unpredictability, how utterly 20-years-old she is. I also really appreciated the ending, which wasn't particularly bombastic but did feel like a classic way to end a gothic tale.

Thank you to the publisher & NetGalley for the advanced e-copy in return for an honest review of the novel.

[Julia DeLuise · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Instead, she was looking intently at my hands. I was cutting a cucumber. I wondered if I was doing it wrong.”
That single moment captures the quiet, creeping unease at the heart of Give Me Everything You’ve Got by Imogen Crimp.
Ruby, a young and deeply insecure filmmaker, enters the orbit of Ellen: a celebrated, confident director who leads a workshop Ruby attends. Ellen doesn’t just mentor; she magnifies. Every glance, comment, and silence seems to sharpen Ruby’s self-doubt. When Ellen invites Ruby to spend a couple of weeks at her country house outside London, the power imbalance only intensifies.
The house itself—a vast, beautiful mansion with an odd layout - feels almost sentient. It seems to hold secrets… or maybe it’s simply a mirror for Ruby’s unraveling mind. Under pressure to finish a script as her deadline looms, Ruby’s anxiety blurs the line between perception and paranoia. Is something truly wrong here, or is she misreading everything?
Adding another layer is Lara, Ellen’s 20-year-old daughter, who appears to be battling demons of her own. Her presence deepens the emotional tension and raises questions about inheritance -not just of talent or privilege, but of pain.
Crimp writes incisively about manipulation, ambition, anxiety, and the painful process of growing up into oneself. The novel hums with psychological tension, carrying a quiet mystery and strong My Year of Rest and Relaxation–style vibes, though here the unease is social rather than sedated.
“You don’t realize how much everything was hurting, do you? You don’t realize how much everything was hurting until the pain stops.”
That line lingered with me long after I finished.
I genuinely enjoyed this book - its atmosphere, its restraint, its emotional precision. If anything, I found myself wanting just a little more from the ending, a sharper turn or deeper release. Still, it’s a confident, unsettling debut that stays with you.

Ironically, I can totally see this being turned into a Netflix show or movie. And I am here for it.

With thanks to Henry Holt & Co., Andy Tang, and The Hive for the opportunity to pre-read this book as an ARC reader.

[Andi Cantrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Give Me Everything You've got follows Ruby, an up and coming filmmaker, who is invited by a prestigious feminist flimmaker Ellen to her countryside estate with a promise to be mentored. However, one week in and Ruby has become nothing more than a nanny and maid to Laura, the filmmaker's daughter.

But just like Ruby, readers will be sitting around wondering, "Why am I here?" Touted as a "queer summer gothic," I immediately wanted to pick this one up, but was quickly disappointed. The pacing is slow at the summer heat, the characters -all of them- are insufferable, and the only thing "gothic" is Ruby questioning reality when finding evidence to Laura's constant stream of lies. Who knew gaslighting could be gothic?

To make matters worse, I felt that the queerness of this novel wasn't realistic; perhaps its due to Laura's youth and Ruby's lack of spine, but this facsimile of a relationship felt like a heterosexual relationship trying to pass a queer. Honestly, I'm not sure if even Laura counts as a queer character; rather she feels like a straight young woman cast in a queer role for a movie, and in fact, there is actually quotes depicting Laura as an "actor" in life, and not rather one's "true self."

If you like your character's lied to by annoying ass young adults, still desperate for their liar's attention, and t h i s close to crying "poor, pitiful me," this is the book for you. Ellen's characterization is entirely one dimensional with her only trait being snobbish and demeaning, while Laura is a manic pixie dream girl who would push a whole glass of water off the table, go "oops," and smile because she thinks it's cute. Ruby is just a pushover with a victim complex.

The writing itself has no quotation marks, and if this novel were actually good and gothic, I'd argue that this maybe a way to show the readers the confusion Ruby herself is dealing with. Instead, because the book fails at this, it just feels unpolished.

At the end, Laura goes missing, and for once, readers think maybe we're at a climatic scene! But no. Even the ending leaves something to be desired: the desire to know how such a poorly and uninteresting book was published.

[SVL · Rating 2 out of 5]

This advanced readers copy publishes this upcoming summer, but unfortunately the plot is anything but hot. Not only did nothing really happen in the story, the inner world of the characters were lacking in detail and personality. This is a book that tries to be deep, it tries to say something, but in reality it ends up saying nothing. Luckily, it was pretty short.

The plot follows a young screenwriter Ruby who, after taking a workshop with a renowned director named Ellen, is invited to spend a couple weeks at her summer house in the English countryside. When she arrives, she third wheels the unsettling relationship between Ellen and her daughter Lara before Ellen leaves Ruby to essentially babysit Lara for a few days (Lara is 20). What follows is a singular, peculiar, and messy relationship that develops between Ruby and Lara before Ellen’s inevitable return.

Here’s my issues with this book: all the characters are annoying in different ways, and they’re annoying in a non-respectable way. They are genuinely boring and underdeveloped. Additionally, I despised the formatting that left character quotes unquoted. This was terrible because so much of this book relies on commentary and it gets lost in the formatting. Also, the ending infuriated me given how the book started in a future scene. The reader is left totally hanging on multiple regards.

The reason this book does get two stars is because Crimp succeeds in delivering a story that is truly unsettling. All the characters are unwell in different ways and I truly wanted to scream at all of them at different points in the plot. Ruby lies to herself, Lara needs anti-depressants and a therapist, and Ellen is truly just a loudmouthed know it all b*tch. For a book about three women with so many problems, nothing happens.

Thanks to the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Erin Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Give Me Everything You’ve Got: A Novel
by Imogen Crimp
Thank you to Henry Holt for the ARC.

Give Me Everything You’ve Got is less interested in plot than it is in atmosphere, and whether that works will depend entirely on what you are looking for. This is a slow, heat soaked, deliberately disorienting novel that leans into mood over clarity.

The setting does most of the heavy lifting. The isolated summer house, the oppressive heat, the stillness that feels slightly off, it all creates a quiet sense of unease that runs through the entire book. Crimp is clearly more focused on tension that simmers rather than anything that fully boils over.

The dynamic between Ruby, Ellen, and Lara is where the story centers. There is a push and pull of power, admiration, and something more complicated underneath it that never quite settles into something clean. At times it is compelling, at others it feels intentionally uncomfortable, which seems to be the point.

The writing is strong, but distant. It creates that “fever dream” effect the synopsis promises, though that also means the story can feel hard to fully connect with. There is a sense that something meaningful is happening just out of reach, and for some readers, that lack of clarity will be frustrating.

If you are expecting a traditional gothic or a clear narrative payoff, this likely will not deliver. If you are open to something more abstract, focused on tone, ambiguity, and the darker edges of ambition and mentorship, there is something here.

A well written, atmospheric novel that prioritizes mood over resolution, for better or worse.
3 stars.

[Rowan's Bookshelf (Carleigh) · Rating 3 out of 5]

ALC provided by publisher via netgalley.

I'm pretty mixed on this. It isn't straight up bad, but it never fully came together. By the end I was just over it and wondering what exactly it was trying to say.

Ruby as a main character isn't strictly unlikeable, but she doesn't have much of a distinct personality. It makes the already slow pacing feel even slower. She's just very neutral about everything around her, with a few splashes of anger or anxiety, but I never really cared for her. 

The dynamic with Lara started out okay, but it takes a very long time for anything genuinely unsettling to emerge. For much of the book, it feels less like a thriller and more like a slow-burn romance with a slightly odd atmosphere. By the time Lara starts becoming truly creepy, there's not enough time left for that tension to fully develop.

The book also introduces several strange elements, but they never really build into anything substantial. Instead of escalating, threads are just dropped. By the end none of it really matters are all. The result is a story that feels more tedious and vaguely strange than genuinely suspenseful or thrilling.

I was also left confused by some of the book's larger themes. There are repeated themes of feminism, trauma, and artistic expression - like Elena's attempts to convince Ruby that she has experienced a form of sexual trauma that should be transformed into creative work. Rather than deepening the narrative, they often felt like ideas being discussed without a clear conclusion.

Overall I am mostly indifferent to this. I wouldn't turn anyone away from it, but it has a killingly slow pace and I didn't feel the ending was satisfying. 

[LLJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to #Netgalley and #MacmillanAudio for the opportunity to read and review #GiveMeEverythingYouveGot by #ImogenCrimp (Pub date 7.21.2026). Happily, for me, this is her second novel so I now get to go pick up her first ("A Very Nice Girl").

Grateful to have found this latest - a slow cooker of a thriller which takes place over some hot days at the secluded English countryside home of a famous artist who is mentoring a 29-year-old guest filmmaker, Ruby. This is all in the company of the mentor's 20-year-old seemingly troubled and aimless daughter, Lara. It becomes apparent that the elder woman, Ellen, has invited Ruby to pseudo-babysit her daughter while also helping her get on track to return to college where she has been unsuccessful in the past.

Lara, in the meantime, seems to have a codependent relationship with her mother who both uses her for her art and also dissuades her from pursuing her own interests in photography (according to the daughter). Lara may have a bit of a dark past -- that may not have remained fully in the past,

Lara is, in my opinion, an exasperating and compelling character who moves the plot along in a "loose cannon" kind of way and she seems both unpredictable and untamable. At times she seems downright dangerous which does so much to move the story onward. She seduces Ruby, with her mysterious behavior and wild character, and Ruby begins to feel unhinged. The novel gains a lot from its setting, the sultry time of year, and the mystery inherent in the major players. I loved it and recommend it, especially as an audiobook, as it was beautifully narrated by #MeiMeiMacLeod. Thank you again for this great read!

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of Uncorrected Digital Galley

Director Ellen has a reputation for helping other women in film. Ruby is one of the students in her workshop.

Ellen has invited Ruby, ex-tutor and aspiring screenwriter, to spend some time at her summer home where the past six weeks or so had been dominated by a vicious heatwave. Ruby settles into her room, unsure as to why Ellen feels compelled to apologize for her daughter, Lara, not being particularly friendly.

But Ruby is supposed to be working on her film; she’s hoping Ellen will help her and is a bit taken aback when Ellen asks her to help Lara with her college application.

And then Ellen leaves for a week . . . .

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In this exploration of determination, influence, and yearning, there’s a lingering sense of uneasiness that tends to keep the reader on edge. Stifling heat, questionable loyalties, and uncertain relationships create an atmosphere for the telling of the tale, but the story moves slowly and the convoluted plot seems determined to remain unresolved.

Nevertheless, the creeping uneasiness keeps readers feeling tense as the story slowly plays out. Sadly, the author’s unnecessary overuse of a particularly objectionable expletive is likely to be offensive to many readers . . . and this lowers the rating for this book.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Henry Holt & Company / Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving this review.
#GiveMeEvrythingYouveGot #NetGalley