Genre:
Contemporary Fiction
Description:
“An
alcoholic father, her mother missing since she was a child, all Sammy
has are her friends. When their deceit starts to tear into their
group Sammy must decide whether doing the right thing is worth losing
everything.
Friendships
can be fleeting, family can’t be chosen and the choices she makes
will stay with her until the day she dies."
Author:
Here’s
the only author description I could find, and I like it:
“I'm
J. Cassidy and I used to be an oak tree growing in a park in England.
I still like to be decorated once a year.
I
like pink, sparkly fluffles and rainbows.”
Appraisal:
This
novel is chock-full of F-bombs and sex with a constant undercurrent
of violence, and I loved every word.
On
the pages without a sex act or a reference to one, you’ll find a
twenty-year-old girl--Sammy--who is thinking or talking or being
asked about sex. Yet this is in no way an erotic novel. Sammy uses
sex. Sometimes as a weapon, but more often as a shield to insulate
her from the internal damage of an abusive childhood, suffered at the
hands of her alcoholic father who raised her alone after her mother
walked out on a four-year-old Sammy.
Most
of the swearing from Sammy is colloquial, intended not to insult, but
to reinforce the tough shell she has built around herself. Only her
close friends are ever allowed to peek inside Sammy’s emotional
bubble, and even then, it is only a peek.
Sammy
is a broken person. She doesn’t smile, she turns up the edges of
her mouth. This story is a snapshot taken over a short period of her
life. It’s sad, poignant, and wholly believable.
The
writing is sharp, and fits the mood of the piece. There is a lot of
colloquial spelling in the dialogue, but it works well, without
getting tiring. The novel is set in England, in a blue-collar
environment, but I believe American readers can soon catch the
conversational rhythm.
If
you have no problem with sex and swearing and unvarnished real-life
drama and you are yearning for something “different” to read. You
should check out this unique story.
FYI:
Heavy
on F-bombs, graphic sex. English spelling and situations.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Our
review copy had some formatting issues.
Rating:
***** Five
Stars
Reviewed
by:
Pete Barber
Approximate
word count:
25-30,000 words
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