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 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. ( )

I’m really not sure where to start with this review. Animals for me was an incredibly brilliant read and I’m certain my musings on it will not do it justice. I’ve had this book on my radar since a number of my favourite UK bloggers read and recommended it on release last year and then I saw that the book has been longlisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize. I think this was a good cue to read it, even though I’m in Australia (I feel like I’m in the UK sometimes though because the time difference means I get to read all the morning tweets, plus I ‘attend’ university in the UK virtually). Anyway, I’m dithering. Just go and read the book. Yes, it is that good and I wanted to savour every moment of reading it. People might be fooled that because it’s relatively slim, it might be light-weight. It’s not – it’s thought provoking on a number of different fronts from friendship, love and working out what to do with your life.

The first thing is the cover. I love it. At first glance, it looks kind of hipster but you think that the girls on the front could just be your friends. I mean, they look relatively normal but fun – is that an old school camera? And then you read the awesome quote from Caitlin Moran that references Withnail and I and then you flick to the back where the first paragraph quote about being tied up has you in fits. There’s a reference to Girls and a mention of humour. Plus the book has book flaps. I’m in love.

Then I started reading. So many things to love about this book! The chapters have names and cool, funny names too like ‘The Cowpat and the Psychiatrist’. We immediately fall into (or should that be stumble into) the world of Laura and Tyler. Best friends, they live together and party together. Even though they’re beyond the ‘traditional’ age of hard-partying (29 and 32), these girls go HARD. Not just with alcohol but drugs too – wraps are casually swapped under the table and sometimes banknotes need to be washed after a long night. Drugs are mentioned casually as though they’re perfectly normal – which they are to Laura and Tyler. Laura’s fiancé, Jim isn’t keen on the heavy drinking (the kind where you’re unconscious for Sunday in its entirety) or the drugs. Laura’s parents don’t really seem to know and Tyler’s sister has given them up.

The rest of Laura’s life isn’t that interesting. Work in a call centre and living for nights out. She’s writing a novel about a priest who falls in love with a talking pig, but it’s more of a conversation piece. Her life is just waiting for the next text from Tyler – which bar and where. You might think that this sounds monotonous, but it’s not. Through the girls’ adventures and mishaps, we learn more about Laura and her previous friendships that fell away as she got to know Tyler. Her anxiety. Her working class girl done well school life and university success. Where did it all go wrong? The friendship which seemed light hearted at first starts to turn darker – is Tyler trying to break up Laura and Jim? Who is pulling the strings? Where will it stop? Will it stop?

Emma Jane Unsworth’s prose is a delight to read. It’s conversational, but loaded with deeper imagery and meanings. (It’s kind of like Mad Men depth in a book). Laura felt like a friend, who plonked herself down on the couch and started talking. I didn’t want her to leave; I couldn’t get enough of the writing and the story. (Plus, I liked that Laura did crazy stuff that I’ve never done – I got to live through her). Laura’s thoughts and feelings were all mixed up, kind of like we all feel from time to time. The finale was also well done, it stayed true to Laura’s nature, yet it was subtly uplifting.

Funny, crazy and an insta-love read, Animals is bluntly honest and realistic. Definitely worth reading – I’m hoping it makes the Fiction Uncovered short list!

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )