Acts of Service: A Novel

3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars | 456 ratings

Price: 15.75

Last update: 12-15-2024


About this item

A “bold and unflinchingly sexy” (Vogue) debut novel about a young woman who follows her desires into a world of pleasure, decadence, and privilege, unraveling everything she thought she knew about sex . . . and herself.

“One of the most entertaining books about sex I’ve ever read . . . The perfect read for fans of Raven Leilani and Ottessa Moshfegh, this is a book that will have people talking.”—BuzzFeed

“A sex masterpiece.”—The Guardian

A Kaia Gerber Book Club Pick Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The New Yorker and The Hollywood Reporter

“Anytime I want, I can forsake this dinner party and jump into real life.”—Eve Babitz

Eve has an adoring girlfriend, an impulsive streak, and a secret fear that she’s wasting her brief youth with just one person. So one evening she posts some nudes online. This is how Eve meets Olivia, and through Olivia the charismatic Nathan. Despite her better instincts, the three soon begin a relationship—one that disturbs Eve as much as it enthralls her.

As each act of their complicated, three-way affair unfolds across a cold and glittering New York, Eve is forced to confront the questions that most consume her: What do we bring to sex? What does it reveal of ourselves, and one another? And how do we reconcile what we want with what we think we should want?

In the way only great fiction can, Acts of Service takes between its teeth the contradictions written all over our ideas of sex and sexuality. At once juicy and intellectually challenging, sacred and profane, Lillian Fishman’s riveting debut is bold, unabashed, and required reading of the most pleasurable sort.


Top reviews from the United States

Sarah
4.0 out of 5 stars Sharply Reflexive & Endearing
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2023
Prose is vivacious. With the self reflection of the main character and socratic conversation between characters Fishman begs the questions of what are we allowed to desire? Simultaneously, stoic and effervescent this book makes for a fantastic quick read.
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Sarah
4.0 out of 5 stars Sharply Reflexive & Endearing
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2023
Prose is vivacious. With the self reflection of the main character and socratic conversation between characters Fishman begs the questions of what are we allowed to desire? Simultaneously, stoic and effervescent this book makes for a fantastic quick read.
Images in this review
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Way better than I expected
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2023
Went in expecting a quick 3/5, left in awe and leaving 5/5. Truly remarkable and way beyond just being "sexy".
Erika
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2022
”We love what disturbs us if it chooses us and tells us how we matter.” - Acts of Service.

If sex is a truth-teller, Eve--a young, queer woman in Brooklyn--is looking for answers. On an evening when she is feeling particularly impulsive, she posts some nude photos of herself online. This is how Eve meets Olivia, and through Olivia, the charismatic Nathan--and soon the three begin a relationship that disturbs Eve as much as it delights her. As each act of the affair unfolds, Eve is left to ask: to whom is she responsible? And to what extent do our desires determine who we are?

Other than the eye-catching cover, the synopsis for this book is attention grabbing too. This book examines a relationship between Eve and coupled Olivia and Nathan. The relationship is not a typically “conventional” one and within it, Eve finds herself exploring her sexuality and trying to define what hers is. This is a very character driven novel, and I enjoyed the exploration into this interesting relationship dynamic and Eve’s own questions about what she desires. I definitely think I need to read this a second time to let it really sink in, but I am looking forward to seeing it discussed in other reviews and videos too.
bitter purl
2.0 out of 5 stars Long winded and boring
Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2022
2.5

From the reviews, I was expecting a more transgressive read. Instead I got a pretty tame book about an upper-class twenty-something that isn't doing much but thinking about her body, vanity, sex, trustworthiness, and I'm not exactly sure what else. I don't think I'm the target audience for this and whatever point there was went over my head. Some interesting questions were brought (some too repetitively) but too many things were glossed over.

Long-winded and slightly boring. This could have been a novella.
Albi Qeli
3.0 out of 5 stars Meh.
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2022
The services to which the title of the book refers to… are free sexual services.
Elizabeth
1.0 out of 5 stars unfortunately boring
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2022
it tried hard to be sexy, but it wasn't
Ellen
5.0 out of 5 stars Complex and Thought-Provoking
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2022
"Was it impossible for us to land in this room and move beyond the bitter, enthralling drive for male desire?"

Brutal. And complex. Changing my review to 5 stars from 4 stars, after thinking about this book for a few days.

Acts of Service is a nuanced and layered novel about desire, morality and sexuality. Eve is a young queer woman who posts a nude photo of herself online, despite being in a committed relationship with her girlfriend.

That leads to a meeting with Olivia, which begins a relationship among Eve, Olivia and Olivia's boyfriend, Nathan. Olivia and Nathan have a very complicated relationship which is sometimes disturbing but always compelling to read about. The author has a hypnotic way of writing, that drew me in to this complex power dynamic among the three characters. Ms. Fishman's writing style reminds me of Sally Rooney and particularly Ordinary People which I loved so much.

That Eve could be so attracted (and even obsessed with) Nathan surprises her. But she still doesn't question her feelings for her girlfriend, a seemingly perfect and selfless doctor. All of the characters in this book are multifaceted, and to me, utterly fascinating.

"While I listened I pictured Nathan’s face in Olivia’s hair, his hands holding her head, her body turned completely toward him as toward the sun. Why did her devotion to him disturb me so much?

The author's prose flows beautifully and Eve's internal monologue is incredibly intricate as she struggles with her newfound desire for Nathan, and to a lesser extent, Olivia. I found the author's choice of words almost old-fashioned (nylons? I haven't used that word for pantyhose in decades, maybe not ever) and her view of Nathan sometimes seems one-dimensional, even though he is indeed a very complex character.

This is a very challenging book from a writer who has a brilliant career ahead of her. The questions raised by this book are not all wrapped up in a tidy bow at the end, and the reader must come to their own conclusions. While some of the middle parts dragged a little, after finishing this book, I can say that I loved it and hope that it receives the wide acclaim that it deserves.

Favorite Quotes:

"Watching him eat made me confused and tender toward him. I wondered whether, for him, what occurred between us was relaxed and celebratory or whether it simply didn’t matter to him enough to disrupt his appetite."

"Olivia’s love was something very nice, like an unexpectedly good meal or a strong day for Wall Street. It pleased him in passing but it didn’t penetrate his inner life, the place where he understood himself and contrived plans."

"I was not so different from Olivia. I would never be finished with Nathan of my own volition."

"When I thought of him I didn’t text him because it felt good to know that he thought of me too but that we had no need of each other, that we would ask nothing of each other, that what we offered each other was sheer and uncompromised pleasure."
Ben Keet
3.0 out of 5 stars Well told
Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2022
Well told, but single theme is drawn out at lenght

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