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Is It Too Early To Bitch?
In the first week of their drama undergrad degree, Grace Rouvray and Katie Lees become best friends, bonding
through a timeless bitching.
Over the next 13 years, this lightning in a bottle friendship becomes the most constant and important
relationship in both their lives. Carrying them through miserable second jobs, breakups and the creation of a
comedy duo, it survives long-distance years sustained by voice notes, and thrives when they live just one
minute (and eleven seconds) apart in Sydney's Inner West. They become each other's rock, each other's
person. Until the impossible happens, and Katie dies suddenly and tragically.
What follows is an unravelling. Does Grace deserve to grieve Katie as deeply as her family? What value do we
place on friendship? Can 'just a friend' be the most important person in your life? And how do you move
forward when you've lost someone who was ostensibly your whole world?
Hilarious, heartbreaking and deeply honest, Is It Too Early to Bitch? is a love letter/memoir of the magic of a
unique friendship, and a celebration of all friendship and its lifechanging power.
'Sharp and intimate . . . Equal parts devastating, funny and frank, Is It Too Early To Bitch? is a meditation on
love, guilt, self-acceptance and grief. I cried and I laughed and I gasped in recognition at Rouvray's ability to capture the messy, powerful essence of friendship, and how we can honour it once it's gone.' - CLARE
STEPHENS
through a timeless bitching.
Over the next 13 years, this lightning in a bottle friendship becomes the most constant and important
relationship in both their lives. Carrying them through miserable second jobs, breakups and the creation of a
comedy duo, it survives long-distance years sustained by voice notes, and thrives when they live just one
minute (and eleven seconds) apart in Sydney's Inner West. They become each other's rock, each other's
person. Until the impossible happens, and Katie dies suddenly and tragically.
What follows is an unravelling. Does Grace deserve to grieve Katie as deeply as her family? What value do we
place on friendship? Can 'just a friend' be the most important person in your life? And how do you move
forward when you've lost someone who was ostensibly your whole world?
Hilarious, heartbreaking and deeply honest, Is It Too Early to Bitch? is a love letter/memoir of the magic of a
unique friendship, and a celebration of all friendship and its lifechanging power.
'Sharp and intimate . . . Equal parts devastating, funny and frank, Is It Too Early To Bitch? is a meditation on
love, guilt, self-acceptance and grief. I cried and I laughed and I gasped in recognition at Rouvray's ability to capture the messy, powerful essence of friendship, and how we can honour it once it's gone.' - CLARE
STEPHENS
- GenresMemoir
329 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 26, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
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June 13, 2026An incredible audiobook.
July 28, 2026
10/10 no notes!!! Sobbing.
---
This book was so beautiful. I felt Grace and Katie’s friendship so viscerally. I have so many thoughts:
- I’m furious that Katie died because of the Covid vaccine and the government didn’t even acknowledge her death!! I have so many thoughts about this but I know the point of this book isn’t to get into a vaccine debate…
- I am roughly the same age as Grace and this book me me reflect on the “golden age” and how Covid really robbed my generation of this. I turned 28 in 2020. I should have been able to enjoy more carefree (childfree) years living in San Francisco. But I needed to gtfo of the city when covid hit. Everyone in my life scattered to different parts of the country and nothing was ever the same. There was no closure - no send-off parties. Just a mass scattering. Then intense loneliness. I am lucky in that I already lived with my now husband when Covid hit so I didn’t have to go through the pandemic alone, like Katie did. I know it wrecked the mental health of so many people, especially those living alone (and those who lost their jobs - Katie was both). Most of my friends bought homes in the suburbs due to the extremely low interest rates. This sped up the suburban isolation timeline. No one had kids yet but everyone was living far away in the burbs. We no longer lived down the street from one another. Gone were the impromptu meet ups and catch ups. It makes me really sad to think about. It’s something that I’ve just quietly buried because - what else can you do? This time isn’t coming back! It’s a small window in time and if you miss it, it’s gone. Millennials born in the early 90s were forced to miss it. Those a few years older were already ready for burb life. I don’t envy them having kids during the pandemic but I do envy that they got to flee to the burbs on their own terms.
- I have always been fascinated by best friends, partly because I’ve never truly felt like I’ve had one BEST FRIEND, even though I’ve desperately wanted one. Seeing other people with a best friend hurts me. Maid of honor speeches during weddings where they describe meeting in kindergarten gut me in a special way. I know these friendships are rare - they are not the majority. Most of my friends do not have one singular best friend but some of them do and I can’t help but feel jealous. Grace and Katie obviously had that special connection. They were each others person. It was so delicious to be privy to their years of love. Being known like this in a platonic way is like (as the synopsis says) lightning in a bottle.
- I can’t explain why I’m so drawn to stories of grief, having never lost someone beyond grandparents. I think grief is one of the most profound human experiences. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone but it’s the most inevitable and life altering feeling. Perhaps it’s because I feel like life is a constant compilation of smaller losses to grieve. I have had so many friendship break ups over the years and I still grieve them all (even if I initiated the end). Life is constantly changing and you have to leave behind prior versions of yourself and your life. This ties back into the forced end of my “golden era.” It makes me think of the ending of the show “Friends.” It’s so emotional because they all know that this chapter has ended. They will never live this close to one another, see each other this regularly, know the intimate details of each other’s daily lives. It’s heartbreaking and inevitable - just like grief.
I gobbled up this grief memoir in a day. It’s exquisite. My husband is getting sick of me sobbing on the couch but I can’t stop. I love these stories. Grace did such a beautiful job honoring Katie.
<333
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This book was so beautiful. I felt Grace and Katie’s friendship so viscerally. I have so many thoughts:
- I’m furious that Katie died because of the Covid vaccine and the government didn’t even acknowledge her death!! I have so many thoughts about this but I know the point of this book isn’t to get into a vaccine debate…
- I am roughly the same age as Grace and this book me me reflect on the “golden age” and how Covid really robbed my generation of this. I turned 28 in 2020. I should have been able to enjoy more carefree (childfree) years living in San Francisco. But I needed to gtfo of the city when covid hit. Everyone in my life scattered to different parts of the country and nothing was ever the same. There was no closure - no send-off parties. Just a mass scattering. Then intense loneliness. I am lucky in that I already lived with my now husband when Covid hit so I didn’t have to go through the pandemic alone, like Katie did. I know it wrecked the mental health of so many people, especially those living alone (and those who lost their jobs - Katie was both). Most of my friends bought homes in the suburbs due to the extremely low interest rates. This sped up the suburban isolation timeline. No one had kids yet but everyone was living far away in the burbs. We no longer lived down the street from one another. Gone were the impromptu meet ups and catch ups. It makes me really sad to think about. It’s something that I’ve just quietly buried because - what else can you do? This time isn’t coming back! It’s a small window in time and if you miss it, it’s gone. Millennials born in the early 90s were forced to miss it. Those a few years older were already ready for burb life. I don’t envy them having kids during the pandemic but I do envy that they got to flee to the burbs on their own terms.
- I have always been fascinated by best friends, partly because I’ve never truly felt like I’ve had one BEST FRIEND, even though I’ve desperately wanted one. Seeing other people with a best friend hurts me. Maid of honor speeches during weddings where they describe meeting in kindergarten gut me in a special way. I know these friendships are rare - they are not the majority. Most of my friends do not have one singular best friend but some of them do and I can’t help but feel jealous. Grace and Katie obviously had that special connection. They were each others person. It was so delicious to be privy to their years of love. Being known like this in a platonic way is like (as the synopsis says) lightning in a bottle.
- I can’t explain why I’m so drawn to stories of grief, having never lost someone beyond grandparents. I think grief is one of the most profound human experiences. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone but it’s the most inevitable and life altering feeling. Perhaps it’s because I feel like life is a constant compilation of smaller losses to grieve. I have had so many friendship break ups over the years and I still grieve them all (even if I initiated the end). Life is constantly changing and you have to leave behind prior versions of yourself and your life. This ties back into the forced end of my “golden era.” It makes me think of the ending of the show “Friends.” It’s so emotional because they all know that this chapter has ended. They will never live this close to one another, see each other this regularly, know the intimate details of each other’s daily lives. It’s heartbreaking and inevitable - just like grief.
I gobbled up this grief memoir in a day. It’s exquisite. My husband is getting sick of me sobbing on the couch but I can’t stop. I love these stories. Grace did such a beautiful job honoring Katie.
<333
June 16, 2026
A memoir about Grace’s friendship with Katie, who died suddenly at 34, and the best portrayal of female friendship I’ve read in ages. It captures how significant and life-defining that kind of love can be. A great reminder to tell your friends how much you love them ❤️🩹
June 25, 2026
What a book. I loved reading the relationship between Katie and Grace.. the friendship, the adventures.. it has me laughing out loud one moment and then bawling in the end. Thank you for sharing your friendship with the world and I’m sorry it looks different now without her. Those chapters really shook me up. What a shit thing to happen. I’m sure she’d be stoked with how many friends will be encouraged to do a nothing call, grab a meal together or meet up for a beer. May the joy of your friendship with Katie live on!!
June 15, 2026
Grace and Katie share the type of friendship that people aspire to have.
That one special person who knows all of you, who loves your crazy and quirks and moods.
And don’t be deterred by the title - there’s very little bitching in this book. These aren’t humans who survive on gossip and malice. These humans are consistently kind and inclusive with a healthy embracement of ones’ mental health.
This is the good stuff.
We know from the start that this is Graces’ open love letter to Kate following her sudden and particularly cruel death.
A detailed account of their shared history.
The writing is nostalgic and relatable in this coming of age story (oh the party DMs!) and I zoomed through it.
And many, many tears to be had 🥹
Oddly enough - it was the darker final 100 pages that had me most engaged. The chapters of Katie’s loss, the dark humour, the grief club and floor bed. Perfection.
This a great one to read and pass around the friendship group.
Grace has popped in words the things we feel and think but perhaps don’t say often enough.
As you’re sobbing at the end, you’ll most definitely want to call your person for a nothing call 🥰
That one special person who knows all of you, who loves your crazy and quirks and moods.
And don’t be deterred by the title - there’s very little bitching in this book. These aren’t humans who survive on gossip and malice. These humans are consistently kind and inclusive with a healthy embracement of ones’ mental health.
This is the good stuff.
We know from the start that this is Graces’ open love letter to Kate following her sudden and particularly cruel death.
A detailed account of their shared history.
The writing is nostalgic and relatable in this coming of age story (oh the party DMs!) and I zoomed through it.
And many, many tears to be had 🥹
Oddly enough - it was the darker final 100 pages that had me most engaged. The chapters of Katie’s loss, the dark humour, the grief club and floor bed. Perfection.
This a great one to read and pass around the friendship group.
Grace has popped in words the things we feel and think but perhaps don’t say often enough.
As you’re sobbing at the end, you’ll most definitely want to call your person for a nothing call 🥰
June 23, 2026
LOVED! A deeply honest, heartbreakingly raw and then somehow hilarious memoir that, at its core, is a love story… but not as you know it.
Just make sure you have the tissues handy, and then get ready to text your best friend once you finish and organise that long overdue catch up!
Just make sure you have the tissues handy, and then get ready to text your best friend once you finish and organise that long overdue catch up!
August 9, 2026
So many tears! I hope everyone has a best friend like this. I’ll never be able to hear ‘These Days’ by Powderfinger the same again 💛
July 14, 2026
Adored this memoir. Unbelievably devastating and heartbreaking.
Read
June 20, 2026A very sad but beautifully written story about female friendship that left me feeling very grateful for my friendships that have lasted over many years.
June 5, 2026
Well…
Shit.
🥲
I started this book at 5.30pm tonight and finished it less than 5 hours later. I couldn’t put it down. I told myself if I just sat and kept going that it would hurt less. Like ripping off a Band-Aid really quickly. I was incorrect.
I spent the first half of the book falling absolutely in love with Grace and her ‘wife’, Katie. I was there. Caught up inside the beautiful, messy, relatable friendship that didn’t have anything particularly special or remarkable about it, yet that’s exactly what it was. Two women bonding over a shared moment of bitching that sparked the flame to a glorious fire and that was it - they had found their people in each other.
I adored Katie’s family - Ian and Penny were just beautiful. I loved how they embraced the importance and relevance of Grace and Katie’s connection and really seemed to respect that - even when things got really, really awful. Grace was more than their daughter’s friend, she was her soulmate.
Ugh. I just loved it. It was easy to ready, pulled me in and kept me turning those pages until I reached the end.
Thank you to Grace Rouvray and Pan Macmillan for the physical copy I received as a gift. My opinion is honest and of my own!
Shit.
🥲
I started this book at 5.30pm tonight and finished it less than 5 hours later. I couldn’t put it down. I told myself if I just sat and kept going that it would hurt less. Like ripping off a Band-Aid really quickly. I was incorrect.
I spent the first half of the book falling absolutely in love with Grace and her ‘wife’, Katie. I was there. Caught up inside the beautiful, messy, relatable friendship that didn’t have anything particularly special or remarkable about it, yet that’s exactly what it was. Two women bonding over a shared moment of bitching that sparked the flame to a glorious fire and that was it - they had found their people in each other.
I adored Katie’s family - Ian and Penny were just beautiful. I loved how they embraced the importance and relevance of Grace and Katie’s connection and really seemed to respect that - even when things got really, really awful. Grace was more than their daughter’s friend, she was her soulmate.
Ugh. I just loved it. It was easy to ready, pulled me in and kept me turning those pages until I reached the end.
Thank you to Grace Rouvray and Pan Macmillan for the physical copy I received as a gift. My opinion is honest and of my own!
June 12, 2026
Thank you for sharing this book with the world. I adored it, I couldn’t put it down, I got nothing done this week while reading it! Compelling & beautiful, every woman should read this.
August 22, 2026
Is it too early to bitch? By Grace Rouvray
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half ⭐️
This book had me by the heart. What an incredible story about friendship, sisterhood, finding your person and horrendous heartbreaking grief.
I was absolutely captured by this story, the misjustice of covid, system failure and societal and political pressure. Those covid restrictions really robbed people of saying goodbye to loved ones and giving them the send off they deserved. This book made me feel so many emotions and it will stay with me forever.
This book was so wonderfully written you can see, feel and be all encompassed by Kate and Grace.
"We talk about romance as life’s greatest love story, but sometimes the rarest thing will ever find is a soulmate and a friend.’
In the first week of the drama undergrad degree, Grace Rouvray and Katie Lees become best friends, bonding through a timeless tradition: bitching.
Over the next 13 years, this lightning-in-a bottle of friendship becomes their most constant and important relationship in both their lives. Carrying them through miserable 2nd jobs, breakups in the creation of a comedy duo, it survives long distance years sustained by voice notes, and thrives when they live just one minute (and 11 seconds) apart in Sydney’s in the west. They become each other’s rock, each other’s person. Until the impossible happens and Katie dies suddenly.
What follows is an unravelling.
Does Grace deserve to grieve Katie as deeply as her family? Can ‘just a friend’ be the most important person in your life? And how do you move forward when you’ve lost someone who was ostensibly your whole world?
Hilarious, heartbreaking and deeply honest, is it too early to Bitch? Is a love letter to and a memoir of the magic of a unique friendship, and a celebration of all friendship and its life changing power."
This book is an absolute must read @gracelaceface took me straight to her memories and emotional journey.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half ⭐️
This book had me by the heart. What an incredible story about friendship, sisterhood, finding your person and horrendous heartbreaking grief.
I was absolutely captured by this story, the misjustice of covid, system failure and societal and political pressure. Those covid restrictions really robbed people of saying goodbye to loved ones and giving them the send off they deserved. This book made me feel so many emotions and it will stay with me forever.
This book was so wonderfully written you can see, feel and be all encompassed by Kate and Grace.
"We talk about romance as life’s greatest love story, but sometimes the rarest thing will ever find is a soulmate and a friend.’
In the first week of the drama undergrad degree, Grace Rouvray and Katie Lees become best friends, bonding through a timeless tradition: bitching.
Over the next 13 years, this lightning-in-a bottle of friendship becomes their most constant and important relationship in both their lives. Carrying them through miserable 2nd jobs, breakups in the creation of a comedy duo, it survives long distance years sustained by voice notes, and thrives when they live just one minute (and 11 seconds) apart in Sydney’s in the west. They become each other’s rock, each other’s person. Until the impossible happens and Katie dies suddenly.
What follows is an unravelling.
Does Grace deserve to grieve Katie as deeply as her family? Can ‘just a friend’ be the most important person in your life? And how do you move forward when you’ve lost someone who was ostensibly your whole world?
Hilarious, heartbreaking and deeply honest, is it too early to Bitch? Is a love letter to and a memoir of the magic of a unique friendship, and a celebration of all friendship and its life changing power."
This book is an absolute must read @gracelaceface took me straight to her memories and emotional journey.
June 29, 2026
A Heartbreaking, Hilarious Masterpiece for Anyone Who Loves:
Is It Too Early to Bitch is marketed toward women, but it is a book for anyone who has ever had a best friend or experienced grief. It manages to be both brutal and incredibly funny, creating an emotional rollercoaster that needs to be read in private. Do not make my mistake and read any of this on the train; you will want a place where you can let go.
It is a great love story, but one that will make you scream at the bloody unfairness of it all. The dramatic tension built around a falling-out between friends, right before THE tragic event is harrowing and effective. I paused at that moment, knowing I'd need space for what was about to happen. The second half of the book, though upsetting, is unputdownable. Crying for Grace and her journey through the aftermath was something I found myself unable to stop.
The book tackles the crushing weight of grief, guilt, and shame with raw honesty and some humour. The takeaway is this: tell your friends that you love them, right now.
A must-read.
Is It Too Early to Bitch is marketed toward women, but it is a book for anyone who has ever had a best friend or experienced grief. It manages to be both brutal and incredibly funny, creating an emotional rollercoaster that needs to be read in private. Do not make my mistake and read any of this on the train; you will want a place where you can let go.
It is a great love story, but one that will make you scream at the bloody unfairness of it all. The dramatic tension built around a falling-out between friends, right before THE tragic event is harrowing and effective. I paused at that moment, knowing I'd need space for what was about to happen. The second half of the book, though upsetting, is unputdownable. Crying for Grace and her journey through the aftermath was something I found myself unable to stop.
The book tackles the crushing weight of grief, guilt, and shame with raw honesty and some humour. The takeaway is this: tell your friends that you love them, right now.
A must-read.
August 22, 2026
Is It Too Early to Bitch? by Grace Rouvray is a powerful, deeply moving ode to enduring friendship that cuts straight to the raw reality of loss. While the central friendship sits a generation after my own—making some of the characters' lifestyle choices around drinking and drugs feel a bit foreign and occasionally hard not to judge—the emotional core of the story is completely universal. Rouvray delivers a devastatingly clear portrait of grief that had me in tears by the final chapters. It serves as a sharp reminder that profound grief isn't reserved exclusively for old age or children losing parents, but is simply the steep, inevitable price we pay for love.
August 8, 2026
Excellent. My first non fiction in a while but felt like a conversation, or at least an immersive theatre monologue that you don’t even notice the time whizzing by, you’re just -there- with it. Obviously a love letter to a lost friend, but-
Moulin Rouge style- even though you’re told that’s how it ends in the beginning, you’re just hopping along for the seamless ride until you’re suddenly whacked over the head with the loss- just like Grace was.
Beautiful and evocative description of the horrid time where Katie leaves her, and then the miasma of grief that takes over after, this was an easy, and poignant read that flows along effortlessly- although of course there’s more than a few years as well.
Treasure your people.
It’s what Katie would have wanted. 🌸
Moulin Rouge style- even though you’re told that’s how it ends in the beginning, you’re just hopping along for the seamless ride until you’re suddenly whacked over the head with the loss- just like Grace was.
Beautiful and evocative description of the horrid time where Katie leaves her, and then the miasma of grief that takes over after, this was an easy, and poignant read that flows along effortlessly- although of course there’s more than a few years as well.
Treasure your people.
It’s what Katie would have wanted. 🌸
July 27, 2026
I absolutely adored this book. A true ode to the power and beauty of friendships. A story told so beautifully and full of emotion.
July 18, 2026
Cried so much
July 6, 2026
Wow I cried so many times
July 31, 2026
I listened to the audiobook for this one. A memoir to Grace and Katie’s friendship and life together.
Despite the sadness, I thought the book did a lovely job of balancing humour with grief, showing how people navigate life’s hardest moments while still finding reasons to laugh.
❤️🩹❤️🩹
Despite the sadness, I thought the book did a lovely job of balancing humour with grief, showing how people navigate life’s hardest moments while still finding reasons to laugh.
❤️🩹❤️🩹
July 29, 2026
“We talk about romance as life's greatest love stories, but sometimes the rarest thing we'll ever find is a soulmate in a friend.
All I know is, that's absolutely what I had.” ❤️🩹🥹🥲🫶🏾
All I know is, that's absolutely what I had.” ❤️🩹🥹🥲🫶🏾
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you to booksbymallie on Instagram and Pan Macmillan for the ARC!
Grace, what an amazing thing you’ve done writing this book about your best friend Katie. You perfectly described what it’s like to find a soulmate in a friend - the kind of friendship that becomes woven into every part of your life. The book highlights all the highs and lows of friendship, the inside jokes, the fierce love and loyalty, and the feeling of finding someone who understands you in a way nobody else can.
Being a similar age to Grace myself, I really resonated with a lot of this book and what it was like growing up in the 2000s before social media took over everything, and all the nostalgic things about that time. I love how she talked about the “nothing” calls and “nothing” visits where you don’t even have a specific plan with a friend but you just enjoy each others company so much. She also beautifully captured the childlike wonder that all us millennials carry well into adulthood.
The book serves as a great reminder to hold your friends close, and how important and special platonic relationships are.
I laughed, I cried (a lot), and felt all the emotions. I am so glad that I read this book and that Grace decided to share the details of the beautiful friendship she had with Katie. Highly recommend this for everyone, especially my fellow millennial girls.
Grace, what an amazing thing you’ve done writing this book about your best friend Katie. You perfectly described what it’s like to find a soulmate in a friend - the kind of friendship that becomes woven into every part of your life. The book highlights all the highs and lows of friendship, the inside jokes, the fierce love and loyalty, and the feeling of finding someone who understands you in a way nobody else can.
Being a similar age to Grace myself, I really resonated with a lot of this book and what it was like growing up in the 2000s before social media took over everything, and all the nostalgic things about that time. I love how she talked about the “nothing” calls and “nothing” visits where you don’t even have a specific plan with a friend but you just enjoy each others company so much. She also beautifully captured the childlike wonder that all us millennials carry well into adulthood.
The book serves as a great reminder to hold your friends close, and how important and special platonic relationships are.
I laughed, I cried (a lot), and felt all the emotions. I am so glad that I read this book and that Grace decided to share the details of the beautiful friendship she had with Katie. Highly recommend this for everyone, especially my fellow millennial girls.
May 29, 2026
I don't read a lot of memoir, so tend to dip my toes in tentatively, but this book grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me into open water before I even knew what was happening. It's about epic, big-time Love, the platonic female bestie wine-worshiping kind, with all the emotional triumph and tragedy that you'd get from a great romance. I devoured it. And now I'm left with a kind of ache, and want to read it all over again. Sure, it's about deep friendship/ soul mates and subsequent grief, so, so much grief (Rouvray paints the dull endless grief fog SO accurately), but it's also about growing up, growing apart, and coming back together again; a kind of balance sheet tracking the emotional energy it takes to have a life-changing relationship (or just be a human being with a working heart), and a joyful ode to finding someone with whom you have unmatchable chemistry.
Guess I'll be reading more memoir from now on!
Guess I'll be reading more memoir from now on!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
All the feels!!!! Such a love letter to friendship and early adulthood and inner west Sydney! I adore Katie and really appreciate being able to know such a firecracker on the page because she was gone way too soon. This is such a gift of a memoir, I kind of feel now I did an acting degree alongside grace and Katie, that I was there for their meet cute and wondering if it’s too early to bitch about that annoying girl over there…there is so much written about romantic love and finding your soulmate; this is such a soulmate finding story about platonic love. Loved it
August 25, 2026
It was an honor to have crossed paths with Katie and Grace and witnessed even an ounce of their friendship.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews