HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

I'm a believer by Jessica. Adams
Loading...

I'm a believer (edition 2002)

by Jessica. Adams

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1205225,979 (2.71)3
'I'm A Believer' is a funny, moving and sophisticated novel about Mark Buckle, a cynical primary teacher in south London who doesn't believe in anything, and absolutely, positively doesn't believe in life after death. Then, five days after his girlfriend, Catherine, dies in a car accident and he's trying to come to terms with his loss, she starts communicating with him and turns his world (and belief systems) upside-down. As the novel progresses, the truth about Mark's relationship with Catherine is revealed. And we encounter his friends and colleagues who provide support during this difficult time including Felix, a flamboyantly camp Australian, Caroline the Sloane who just longs to meet a nice man and Tess, drama teacher and practising Christian who starts to become increasingly attractive to Mark. Jessica Adams's characteristic humour is combined with an exploration of more serious issues that affect us all. 'I'm A Believer' is a wonderful novel about love, life and what lies beyond.… (more)
Member:churchland
Title:I'm a believer
Authors:Jessica. Adams
Info:Sydney: Macmillan, 2002. 307 p. ; 23 cm.
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:fiction, australian, chick-lit

Work Information

I'm a Believer by Jessica Adams

None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 3 mentions

Showing 5 of 5
For the first hundred or so pages, I was enjoying Jessica Adams' novel, a mash-up of lad lit and a ghost story. Then I don't know what happened, but the narrative changed genders - and genre - to become the worst kind of chick lit, with all the cliches (and racial/religious/sexual orientation stereotypes) thrown in for good measure. After that, I kept falling asleep after plodding through a couple of chapters.

Mark Buckle is your typical English bloke, or as he describes himself, 'thirtysomething teacher, bald, unlikely to be promoted any time soon, miserable bastard on winter mornings, pathetic desire to play and replay songs from his lost youth, cynic, smoker, inveterate bad-tv watcher, sexual deviant' (he's joking about that last part). And I liked him like that. Mark has recently lost his girlfriend, Catherine, in a car accident, and is going through all the phases of bereavement, until Catherine materialises in her pink dressing gown from Next, and starts pestering a clairvoyant to pass on messages. At this point, I was totally in my element - and I have to give bonus points to Jessica Adams for referencing Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), one of my favourite shows. Mark talks to the clairvoyant on the phone, who tells him that he has to let Catherine go, because his energy is keeping her spirit earthbound.

Then Catherine fades away, and Mark develops the Lynx effect - ex-girlfriends, Christian virgins, and even Catherine's sister are all distracting him from his supposed grief for his recently dead girlfriend. His flamboyantly gay colleague, and another, equally larger than life acquaintance at work, keep encouraging him to move on, preferably with stunning but pretentious supply teacher Tess. I could already detect the rosey scent of a happy ever after in the offing, but then when the author started signposting the path to true love with 9/11 and the emotional rescue of a juvenile delinquent via football, I was on the verge of a sickly-sweet sugar overdose. And all that blather about believing in something, from self-esteem to organised religion, was a little heavy-handed. Also, on a purely pedantic level, the phrase is 'I couldn't care less' - if you could care less, as Jessica Adams kept writing, then you do still care!

So - a good idea, padded out with chick lit cliches and cloying life philosophies, that was amusing in parts but mostly unbelievable. That, and I had the lyrics to 'Never Tear Us Apart' and 'I'm A Believer' stuck in my head the whole time I was reading the book! ( )
  AdonisGuilfoyle | Dec 7, 2012 |
In places, it was well-written but the characters were quite weak and the plotline went beyond the fantastic to the irritatingly implausible. I'm definitely not a believer. ( )
1 vote pokarekareana | Mar 30, 2010 |
Mark, a scientifically focused teacher, is shaken by the fact that his girlfriend contacts him from BEYOND THE GRAAAAAVE.... Whilst well-written in some parts, this book was just too unbelievable, and the fact that it dealt with September 11 was completely and utterly unnecessary. Quite the disappointment. ( )
2 vote Amzzz | Nov 15, 2007 |
It started off very well. I can almost feel the guy's grief in losing his girlfriend. But after he started falling for someone else that the dead girlfriend was trying to hook him up with, it got pretty boring and draggy and just plain weird after that.

Disappointing. I didn't even want to finish the book. ( )
2 vote coolcat | May 4, 2006 |
Readable but not great ( )
1 vote wyvernfriend | Oct 7, 2005 |
Showing 5 of 5
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

'I'm A Believer' is a funny, moving and sophisticated novel about Mark Buckle, a cynical primary teacher in south London who doesn't believe in anything, and absolutely, positively doesn't believe in life after death. Then, five days after his girlfriend, Catherine, dies in a car accident and he's trying to come to terms with his loss, she starts communicating with him and turns his world (and belief systems) upside-down. As the novel progresses, the truth about Mark's relationship with Catherine is revealed. And we encounter his friends and colleagues who provide support during this difficult time including Felix, a flamboyantly camp Australian, Caroline the Sloane who just longs to meet a nice man and Tess, drama teacher and practising Christian who starts to become increasingly attractive to Mark. Jessica Adams's characteristic humour is combined with an exploration of more serious issues that affect us all. 'I'm A Believer' is a wonderful novel about love, life and what lies beyond.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Mark Buckle általános iskolai fizikatanár hirtelen elveszíti barátnőjét kétévi együttélés után. A megrögzötten hitetlen Mark kinevet minden hókuszpókuszt, számára nem létezik semmi megmagyarázhatatlan. Nem akar hallani különös jelekről, bizonytalan érzésekről, nem e világi élményekről. Még a feng-shui, az asztrológia, netán a tarot is csak a legyintésre érdemes dolgok közé tartozik. Ám Mark élete, személyisége lassan megváltozik… Olyan dolgok történnek vele, amelyek alapjaiban rengetik meg eddigi határozott nézeteit. Ebben persze sokat segédkezik a szeretett és elvesztett leány, aki mindent megtesz azért, hogy Mark egyszer igazán boldog lehessen…
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (2.71)
0.5
1
1.5 5
2 9
2.5
3 8
3.5 1
4 2
4.5
5 3

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,240,303 books! | Top bar: Always visible