Disappointing.

I haven’t read any of this author’s YA novels but I’m aware that this is the second one she has written for adults (the first being her 2004 “fairy tale for adults”, I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes) and, having read many positive reviews of it, I was looking forward to reading it. However, I have to admit that I struggled with it right from the start because I found it impossible to believe that the narrative voice was convincing as that of a thirty-six-year-old woman! Abi came across as very much younger and I found myself thinking that, for all its vaguely philosophical musings, this is probably a story which would possibly appeal more to a much younger readership. I recognise that it does include some important themes, such as unresolved loss, grief, fractured relationships, single-parenthood, the search for love and the need to make sense of events which appear to make no sense, but I never felt there was enough of a satisfying psychological depth to the author’s exploration of these themes. I found it equally difficult to ever feel entirely engaged with either the characters or the plot.
I think the story’s potential could perhaps have been achieved had it been at least two hundred pages shorter but, at the length it was, there were just too many moments when I found myself becoming both irritated and bored by what felt like some rather simplistic reflections on “the meaning of life” … although I did enjoy some of the author’s cutting observations about the self-help “industry”! There were also moments when I enjoyed Abi’s internal “musings”, some of which were hilarious.
With thanks to Readers First and the publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review – I’m just sorry it couldn’t have been a more positive one!