Dazzling . . . one of those novels where you think you’re exploring someone else’s pain, only to realise you’re exploring your own’ The idea of a curse was divisive, but the assertion that I had, for some time now, been ‘laden with something dark’ was disconcertingly unanimous. Don’t forget to let yourself be sad. You are allowed. Grief is a good thing. It means that you loved someone. It means that they mattered.” Fizzes with energy, rage and love, burrowing deep into those experiences that define us at our core'

I always love a book that focuses on the importance of female friendships, because aren’t they just the best? There really is something so beautiful about the sisterhood us women feel. Would 100% recommend this book (to the right person, maybe not your aunt), can’t wait to read Abigail’s next masterpiece! Intelligent, moving and darkly comic . . . taking us deftly from serious explorations of trauma and consent to riotously funny scenes of modern life' This book is one of the most honest depictions of grief i’ve ever read - it took me quite a while to get through as I had to keep stopping to absorb what i’d just read.

There’s plenty of plot to sink your teeth into with this book despite my going into it thinking it was going to be reminiscent of Sally Rooney’s novels where not a lot happens. I really enjoyed getting to live within the sisterhood Abi created within this book and felt like a fly on the wall of their bonds. The book stretched from self-pity to solitude and every messy thing that comes between. I’d definitely recommend this book albeit with a couple of trigger warnings (self-harm/abuse/loss), especially to friends with a dry sense of humour like myself. At the end of the book I was glad to finally been able to agree with her. For instance her fight against forced marriage and more importantly her fight against so called Honour killings. Great work. We don’t know anything about the writer or writers of the Book of Job more than 2,500 years ago. Arguably, it is the first great work of existentialism. What is the meaning of our being on this Earth? Why do we suffer? How do we bear the shame of being unloved? One doesn’t have to be religious to identify with and be humbled by Job’s story. It is the antithesis of “new age”. Acceptance is never enough. There cannot be faith without doubt. There cannot be merit without sacrifice. Concerned that she isn't moving on, Mathilda's friends push her towards a series of increasingly unorthodox remedies.

Dazzling . . . one of those novels where you think you're exploring someone else's pain, only to realise you're exploring your own' I read about depression, guilt, shame, anger, despair, sadness, rejection, determination and many more emotions.I really wanted to love this book but ultimately... It's okay? There are a lot of books like this - semi-functional sad girl protagonist with some deep seated trauma and a group of good quirky friends - which is a genre I generally vibe with. But this one...it just fell flat. I think possibly trying to do too many things at once, and the shifts in tone and voice and up pretty unsatisfying. But it's not bad! It's possible I might have got more out of it if I hadn't read other versions of This Book that I liked more or felt a greater emotional link to. So I don't want to be too critical, hence the 3 stars.