This debut novel by Gail Honeyman is a rarity for me; A book read Because it was Popular in the Contemporary shopshelves.* It's a weird book and I loved it to bits. Dealing with the heavy topics of mental health, childhood trauma, abusive relationships and unrealistic expectations born of self-coddling, it's actually much more fun that I've just made it sound (although in the places where it deals with these more head on, boy is it stomachumping). Our eponymous narrator's life is outrageously sad, yet what's harder to bear is just how totally Normal & Fine she maintains to be: her perspective is unlike anything I've read in first-person fiction and made me feel so many strange mixes of sorrowful & amused; the closest description I can readily think of is imagine Mark Corrigan with a (darker**) Dickensian backstory. The cast of other characters are remarkably well-drawn from this odd vantage point and overall it makes for an incredibly easy page-turner full of enough to prompt a shockingly healthy blend of sadness & hilarity.
* I'm not a strict hipster honest I've just got a shitload of exigent reading to do that is typically older existent published material & whose recommendation comes not from 'No. Copies Sold' but from either-both my own esoteric curiosities and/or the book's historical influence.
** Cards on the table, I'm not too sure how dark your average Dickensian backstory is, I've never read any of his work past a few pages, cos they're too old & too popular #LOL
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