Reviews with content warning for Outing - The Authenticity Project

Reviews tagging 'Outing'

The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley

10 reviews

stormeno's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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amyvl93's review against another edition

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funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I was enjoying this as a cute and fluffy read, but that ending!? The Authenticity Project hinges around a notebook, originally written by Julian Jessop, a one-time famous artist and womaniser who has become incredibly lonely since the death of his wife. The notebook encourages people to capture their inner thoughts and feelings and to be truly honest - it is then picked up by Monica, a former lawyer turned cafe owner who harbours a deep desire to have children, and then Hazard, a City banker who is finally confronting his addictions. As the novel progresses, it also makes its way to an Australian surfer, a Mummy blogger and a charity volunteer.

Whilst this is a novel that explores some meaty issues; loneliness in all its guises at all ages, addiction, recovery, mental health, grief, failing marriages - all of this is done is a pretty bright and breezy way. However, for the most part it feels like quite a cosy drama that you can envision being a short Christmas film or similar. We see communities being created with nudging from the book through art classes and shared dinners - giving us almost found family vibes. Yes, there are mildly improbable relationships and characters managing to go from bigoted to campaigners in the space of 50 pages; and yes, all these characters inhabit a very specific type of London - the type where everyone can comfortably live in West London despite having either no or low income jobs. Pooley (an ex-advertising director who has also taken a sobriety journey) is clearly very committed to writing what she knows about.

This was looking to be a 3 star read, a sweet little palette cleanser after finally completing A Suitable Boy until the ending 'twists'. Whilst one was clearly bound to happen, the other had me close to throwing the book across the room. As other reviewers have said, it feels like Pooley couldn't quite trust the reader to draw conclusions and had to really hammer home what she thinks authenticity is. I honestly felt a bit cheated.

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toves_bokhylla's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Tyckte om den på det stora hela, men blev frustrerad över slutet!

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ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful lighthearted slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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ramreadsagain's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

On balance this is just over a three star read as there are a lot of things I liked but also quite a bit I didn’t like.

I thought the characters weren’t very well developed beyond their main “thing” and half the time I didn’t understand why they all because such good friends as they never seemed very compatible.

Julian was just straight up an unpleasant character.

However I did like the message of first impressions often being wrong and the need to be honest and communicate, the “found family” aspects as well as some of the character growth shown.

I didn’t like how Alice’s character was framed as it really just boiled down to “technology and influencers bad”. I understand the point about authenticity and a lot of celebrities and influencers being unauthentic and their online lives being shallow/fake however the book also just seemed to treat her career (because that’s what it was) in quite a derogatory fashion.

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stlkatiek's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

This was just-ok for me. I wanted a little more depth in the characters, at times they seemed like caricatures (which was a shame given the theme of authenticity throughout). There were some very cringe elements, including a pretty racist portrayal of a Chinese character (in the audiobook, at least) and the characters' response when one character was outed by another. Overall it was fine, but not especially memorable.

Reminded me of:
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