This is the story of Eve, Susie, Ed and Justin who have been close friends since their school days and are now thirty-somethings navigating their various ways through life in the 21st century. The story is narrated by Eve who is often hilariously funny and sometimes rather outrageous but always honest in her assessments of events unfolding around her.
Tragedy strikes early in the book and Eve and her friends have to learn how to cope with the new pattern into which their lives have fallen. A new character is introduced causing Eve to examine her prejudice and her preconceived ideas. There is a lot of wit and wisdom in Mhairi McFarlane’s writing and some wonderfully snappy one-liners, my favourite being, when Eve is feeling particularly defensive and wanting to hit back: “I feel like Bette Davis gene spliced with a cobra”.
In a way this book can be seen as a cautionary tale for parents. There are real-life memoirs written by people who have suffered because their parents treated them differently to the other children in their families; probably all children feel this way to a certain extent, and it is only natural that it should happen, but in some cases it can be taken to the extreme and cause often irreparable damage.
Mhairi McFarlan has written a funny, sad, thoughtful and very easily readable book. I will look for her others now.
I don’t necessarily love all the books I read but I only review books I have loved, hence my pretty constant 5 out of 5 score.
Published by Harper Collins
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