“You keep describing yourself as this uniquely damaged person, when a lot of it is completely normal. I think you want to feel special – which is fair, who doesn’t – but you won’t allow yourself to feel special in a good way, so you tell yourself you’re especially bad”
Hmm OK where do I start with this? This book was recently longlisted for the 2021 @womensprize and I have seen MIXED reviews across bookstagram, book twitter and goodreads. So I made myself go into this book not expecting much…
And for the most part it was good. The chapters were short and the story kept me enticed and interested. Without going too deep into the story, it’s basically about a young girl who is teaching in Hong Kong and moves in with a rich man who she ends up sleeping with. He goes back to London and she meets this girl and also starts sleeping with her and it all becomes a big, weird love triangle.
So as you can see the story is interesting and there are some real gems in this where the main character is discussing love/friendship/relationships etc and I feel like I really emphasised with those feelings.
YET…
I don’t really understand why the book was set in Hong Kong as there were no real cultural elements of the story that made it important for the book to be set here? Oh, and the main character was incredibly annoying. I also think that the book has been compared to Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ just because this author is also Irish. THIS IS NOTHING LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE.
On the face of it, yes, I enjoyed it more than I thought. Is it the best book I’ve ever read? No.
Apologies for the rant, but this book is definitely one that I’d say read, just so you can say you’ve read it and join in the discussion!
Exciting Times
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Published: 2020
No. of Pages: 279
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Trigger Warnings: psychologically abusive relationship
Links: Goodreads, Amazon, Blackwells
Stuck In The Book 
I despised Normal People… maybe I shouldn’t dismiss this book then, as I assumed it would be similar. However, it doesn’t sound like a book I would enjoy. Thanks for the review!
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