Petersen offers an insightful treatise on the 'burnout generation' that is a far cry from the essentialist portrayals of both generations that dominate the current discourse. Rather than dissect who is to blame for the plight (and it is a plight, histrionics aside) of millennials, Petersen offers a moving discourse on why the kids are not alright and, even more importantly, why they are not, despite how they’ve been characterized, the spoiled, lazy, feckless generation.

Burnout is a one-word descriptor that Petersen argues is capacious enough to encapsulate an entire generation’s crisis—even if it affects individuals and groups in wildly different ways.

It is my sincere hope that millennials will read Can’t Even.

... a brisk, impassioned addition to an emergent mini-genre of journalistic nonfiction: books that rigorously describe and critique a single manifestation of late capitalism.

…Ms. Petersen has, it seems, constructed an entire worldview around being irritated by small errands … Her diagnosis may be overbroad and unconvincing, but Can’t Even can serve as a guide to a class of American adults who are replacing life’s mediating institutions with careerism and political activism, to no great result … Ms. Petersen is a shrewd observer of other trends as well … Less credible is Ms. Petersen’s story about the economy … Ms. Petersen’s claim that millennials are worse off than past generations is also complicated by today’s wildly higher consumption levels, which makes comparisons difficult … Part of the author’s goal is to push back on stereotypes about millennials, but Can’t Even often confirms them … offers no policy solutions to the millennial life of overwork and overstimulation … Blaming, as this book does, capitalism, Donald J. Trump, management consultants, patriarchy, Instagram—all of that, and nearly everything else, is easier than facing up to the significance of one’s own choices..

... Petersen—to use a phrase popular with millennials—'brings the receipts'.

... meticulously researched study of burnout among millennials.

In some ways, the book itself feels like an artifact of resistance culture: yet another call to an undefined action, swathed in a pretty cover. There’s even matching swag.

The 'burnout' described by Petersen’s book is a matter not just of financial insecurity, but also of disappointed expectations. Middle-class millennials were helicopter-parented through countless exams and CV-boosting activities by anxious mums and dads. They spent their summer holidays not at the beach, but undertaking badly paid or unpaid internships. If they eventually won the prestigious jobs they sought, they found that the pay scarcely covered the rent in the big cities where those jobs were located. The archetypal millennial in popular culture is a panicking overachiever.

Regardless of the camp you’re in, you’re bound to find new insights.

Petersen’s book is a readable, well-researched guide to a generation.

Decentering the white middle-class millennial experience as the millennial experience is an ongoing and essential aspect of this project, Petersen writes. But she is a white middle-class millennial, and her frequent reliance on the plural “we” often hinders that decentering process.

An impassioned call for action that, like the viral BuzzFeed article it was based on, raises more questions than ­answers..

Attempting to decenter the white, middle-class experience of young adulthood, this book explores how millennials of all backgrounds and income brackets suffer because of the gig economy they inherited.

... articulate and persuasive prose.

Though older generations mischaracterize America’s largest demographic group as lazy and selfish, millennials are actually working multiple jobs to pay bills in the modern gig economy as they watch the American dream slip away, Petersen contends. She weaves together personal reflections, profiles of other millennials, and a plethora of demographic information to addresses issues such as parenting, social media, college debt, and health care.