Love Objects by Emily Maguire

 Half-way through the first chapter of Love Objects by Emily Maguire I thought I don’t like this book and I don’t want to finish reading it; by the end of the first chapter I was hooked, good and proper. The characters were so real I couldn’t leave them. The problems they faced, although not being new to the twenty-first century, were going to have to be dealt with in a twenty-first century way and I had to see how this was going to be done.

Neither of the two problems, hoarding and character assassination,  can be fixed easily. I remember a parable from school days about the contents of a feather pillow being scattered to the wind and the impossibility of retrieving every single feather. The digital age has uncovered some truly horrible traits in people which, although they have always been there, have not always been so easily and quickly brought to the surface. Likewise, psychological problems that have always been around are being recognised as such and attempts made to analyse and, hopefully, treat them.

The three main characters, Lena, Nicole and Will are strongly and sympathetically drawn. Some confronting things are said and done which could not be watered down in the telling if they were to make their point. This is a serious, dramatic and at the same time entertaining book. Lena, Nic and Will are all loveable and worthy of and deserving of love. Because I haven’t yet stopped thinking of them as real people, and not characters in a book, I wish them a happy, beautiful future!

Congratulations, Emily Maguire. 5 stars!

Published by Allen & Unwin