What My Best Friend Did: A Novel by Lucy Dawson
My rating: 2/5 cats
this book is fine. i feel bad giving it 2-stars cats instead of my default “well, i didn’t hate reading it” three stars cats, especially since the author is here on goodreads.com (hi, sorry!), and i’m not here to ruin anyone’s day. but there was a lot about it that just flat-out disappointed me.
first of all—the overuse of the word “random” is unforgivable.
—My coffee was accompanied by two teaspoons balanced on the saucer and a completely random blueberry muffin.
—I’d have been lying on the sofa crying at ASPCA adverts, eating a whole package of cookies and then randomly shouting at Tom for no apparent reason.
—She’d been very ill when she’d randomly turned up and put her foot in it, not in her right mind.
—So, instead of going home, where they’d all apparently gone mad, I spent most of the day on-off crying in bed, which wasn’t quite the start to the rest of my life i would have chosen, and then discovered a random bottle of peach schnapps under the kitchen sink at about 5 p.m.
there are more.
it’s pretty inexcusable, but more for the editor than the author. well, both, but this makes me shake my fist at the sky and say “let me fix things for you, please! there are so many more appropriate words!!”
the story is a pretty weary trope: straight-laced young woman befriended by a beautiful, successful woman, getting sucked into her orbit whilst she tries to keep up with her speed and lifestyle and spontaneity. it turns out this carefree woman suffers from a mental disorder which was featured, more darkly, in this book i just read (it is only a spoiler alert if you click the link.) so that provides an interesting twist on the story, but what follows is a bunch of twisted head games that never quite make sense.
pretty major spoiler here: View Spoiler »
and even apart from that sort of unconvincing psychology, there are any number of situations where people behave…oddly. i mean, it makes the story go where the author wants it to go, but your suspension of disbelief muscles had better be honed, brothers and sisters.
and what is with the sudden switch to the doctor’s POV for a couple of paragraphs at the end?? to prove that she can write in a male voice? that scene is only there to show View Spoiler »
so there are a lot of things like that. missed opportunities, slightly sloppy characters. but it’s a perfectly good diversion. it is a book like the tale of halcyon crane: it will pass the time, you don’t need to think too hard, but it won’t change your life or anything. but some people are perfectly content with their lives, and don’t want to be changed. this book is for them.
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