Written by 
Adult Fantasy – Briohny Doyle
Genre: Nonfiction – Society and Culture, Memoir
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Release Date: 29 May 2017
Format read: Physical (paperback)
Source of book: This book was acquired independently by the Reviewer.
My Thoughts
Adult Fantasy is a Millenial’s personal investigation as to why her generation has failed to “grow up”, according to traditional milestones.
It’s worth acknowledging that I, the reviewer, am a Zilennial/Gen Z cusper (pick your preferred term). This perspective shapes my Adult Fantasy book review. Whether I am “really” a millennial or Gen Z is debatable and depends on who you ask. Because I’m younger than Doyle, many of the problems she discusses are things I am only just now encountering. Or, I have not yet encountered but instead observed closely from the older adults and pop culture around me.
But, as I and my contemporaries walk in the shadow of our-decidedly millenial forebears, the fallen adulthood markers that Doyle points out are very clear to me still. The adults with so much education, yet unstable employment in their late 20s and 30s. The adults with no kids, and no future kids on the horizon. For example, the long-term “DINKs” that have now proliferated the media in 2024. The lack of permanent home ownership. The Zillennials and older Gen Zs, like myself, watched with horror as the Millenials struggled. They struggled with achieving the success they were promised and told war stories online.
We came into adulthood being forewarned more than they were. We are now entering adulthood with a much more cynical and faithless perspective because the millennials have had it so tough.
Content & Information
If you only partly read Adult Fantasy, or you jump around and read it out of sequence, you might interpret the book as a complete rejection and takedown of everything found in stereotypical adult life. This includes traditional relationship structures, homeownership, full-time work, nuclear families, and other “normal” life elements.
In fact, throughout most of the book, it seemed that the dream of adulthood was impossible to achieve. Maybe not worth pursuing at all. I have seen some Adult Fantasy book reviews make this point. In reality, Doyle’s primary argument is more nuanced than that and only apparent after reading the final chapter.
The argument is not that you shouldn’t aspire to traditional adult goals. In fact, the few characters who want those things and achieve them appear to have satisfying lives. One example is a woman who always wanted to be a mother. She tells Doyle she still values her family tremendously.
Instead, Doyle is critiquing the capitalist structures that have enforced a standard template for adulthood. Also, those that prevent people of all ages from living that same template. A running theme is nuclear families, which were normalised to sell more housing and encourage higher household consumption. This has become the ideal and norm for Western societies.
Doyle argues that capitalism is also preventing people from being able to live that ideal. This is due to rising house prices, rising cost of living, and lack of secure employment, amongst other factors. But instead of the system being critiqued, Doyle argues that the inability to achieve the ideal adult life is blamed on an individual or generational level. Therefore, millennials as individuals should not be individually blamed for not getting the white picket fence. Instead, it should be the system blamed for not supporting people adequately.
Writing
This book inspires a lot of personal contemplation. If you are not already navigating an adult life crisis you might enter one by reading Doyle’s analysis. The topics are anchored by her personal stories and some of the stories of others. So people who have similar life circumstances can relate to them. You might notice this in other Adult Fantasy book reviews that come from other millennials of a similar age.
However, to an extent, it is clear that Doyle herself is not “traditional” in personality. Even in better economic circumstances, the impression I get of Doyle’s character is that in some of the milestones she discusses she wouldn’t partake in anyway.
So for readers who are more traditionally minded, some parts may be less relatable. As someone who does desire a nuclear family for herself one day – I actually got a bit jaded about how Doyle approached the topic of children. I’m glad she featured the pro-children angle as well. If she hadn’t I may have checked out. In fact, I commend Doyle for the fact that she still put forward a very good series of questions and considerations and made a strong impression on me. Even though I don’t agree with her on quite a few things.
Doyle acknowledges multiple times that she enjoys apocalyptic stories and applies that to her vision of the future. Therefore she ends the book admitting that she is in the same position as she started and that she doesn’t know the answers. It is left to the reader to take the points and come to their own conclusions about what adulthood means. I was satisfied with this conclusion because it was clear this is a book intended to raise a bunch of questions and then make you think. But if you wanted a resolution or final answer to the topic, you won’t get it and you will be left disappointed.
In summary, my Adult Fantasy book review is this. It is an interesing discussion and consideration of many topics, but does not attempt to persuade you or offer solutions. It is a philosophical pondering without conclusion, best suited for those who are interested in that sort of thing.
TL;DR: This book is well suited to millennials or zillennials who are curious about why their generation seems “behind” on growing up. While I don’t personally agree or resonate with the author on most things, I liked the discussion and that she brought the topic to the table.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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