Emma Jane Unsworth

I went into this expecting something fairly chaotic and shallow—party girls, bad decisions, general messy-twenties energy—but it ended up being far more thoughtful and reflective than I anticipated. The friendship at the center of the novel feels very real: intense, co-dependent, funny, and occasionally a little sad in the way friendships can be when people begin to grow in different directions.

The lifestyle portrayed is very far removed from my own experience, but the emotional core show more still lands. Underneath the drinking, drugs, and questionable choices, the book is really about that uneasy transition between the reckless freedom of youth and the quieter, more deliberate life that eventually starts knocking at the door.

Messy, sharp, and surprisingly tender in places—much better than I expected it to be. show less

Emma Jane Unsworth's Animals is a tale of drink and drug fuelled hedonism in Manchester that takes in love, death, happiness and fucking up, and spits out a frank portrayal of female friendship.

It's a rare beast in its portrayal of female friendship as anything but cosy. The two main characters, Laura and Tyler, are extreme but truthful renditions of women in their thirties who hide from the pressure to grow up and take responsibility for their lives in endless days and nights of excess.

In show more Laura, Unsworth gives us a bright, working class woman, educated into the world of middle class privilege, and constantly at sea as a result.

It's an entertaining novel that deals with the serious things in life and explores how to be true to yourself when society, friends and family expect you to be something more conventional - a wife, a mother, sober, reliable - and your alleged best friend is using you as a prop. show less

Who else finds the cover of Adults absolutely irresistible? Definitely a case of cover love here. But what about what's in between?

Jenny McLaine is struggling with life. So much seems to be happening to her: she's split with her boyfriend, her mother is being her usual annoying self, her best friend doesn't seem to want to be her best friend anymore, there's trouble at work. In short, she's struggling with adulting. I have to say though that Jenny is rather immature a lot of the time so it's show more no wonder.

As I started this book I honestly didn't know if I was going to like it, or rather if I was going to like Jenny. I generally don't need to like a character to enjoy a book but I found Jenny really provoked a reaction in me. She's completely self-centred and at one point I actually hated her, I really did. If she had been my friend I'd have dumped her too. But then there was a bit of a sea change, both in my thinking and in the way that Jenny portrayed herself and I started to realise that she was actually very damaged, both by people and by society.

Adults is incredibly current. Jenny is obsessed with social media, in how she is portrayed on there. I think that so many of us in this digital age feel like that. As Jenny's mother comments to her

"'So let me get this straight' she says. 'You're upset because someone you don't know might not like a version of you that doesn't really exist.'"

Jenny over thinks everything. Even a simple like is far from simple. In Jenny's head there are deep likes and not so deep likes. To be honest, I think there's a little bit of Jenny in me but I hope to God I'm not as bad as her.

From my unsure start I ended up absolutely loving this book. It reminded me of Fleabag in style: very honest, very stark, sometimes cringe-worthy and a little bit crude, definitely funny, and yet despite all of those adjectives, it's ultimately quite tender when you delve down into Jenny's true feelings. I got to the end feeling quite hopeful for her. The author has done an amazing job with this book. It's so well-written, completely addictive and a fantastic read. show less

"I've noticed a direct correlation between you growing more distant from me and closer to your phone."

My rating has changed since completing this one and writing this review. As a whole, I wasn't a huge fan of this book but not because it's a bad book but because of me. I don't really go for the self-deprecating humor and I'm not elbow deep into social media and getting thumbs-up and post-liking addiction. And when she missed the birthday party when she was supposed to bring the cake, I show more almost DNF'd this one.

But that's not all this story is about. It does a great job of showing the competition and love/hate between women. How we size each other up, how we show off our battle scars of motherhood or beauty regime to one-up other women in the room. Instead of seeing allies and others we need to lift, we take them down in order to come out on top. That woman on the train was so enraging I had to take a minute before I kept reading. It's so seamlessly woven in to the story that it takes a minute to spot it between the trips and slips that the MC does.

And it reminded me to be kind. We aren't competing with each other, we're all on a tough road. Be kind. We have no idea what someone else is going through. show less