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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
4.25 stars! I read this for the Inklings Book Club this month!
I found this story to be heart-warming, multi-layered, and delightfully complex. McKenna shaped the characters to each be deeply flawed but not frustratingly so. The way he described the inner turmoil of each character made me empathize with them in a significant way.
I loved how the overlap of multiple POVs was written in a way that almost mirrored the feeling of being in a city, where everyone's life seems to fall over and on top of each other.
This story also explores the clash of internal desires and external realities. Each character experiences this friction in some way as they wrestle with how they wish their life could be versus how it has actually played out.
In the book club discussion, we were talking about the significance of what is left unsaid between the characters throughout the narrative. The words that are NOT spoken in pivotal moments speaks even louder than what is actually said. I feel like this could be frustrating, but McKenna interweaves everything in such a way that cements you to the story and leaves you aching for the final scenes of honesty. Once you reach those vulnerable moments, it makes the quiet frustration worth it.
Jack Edwards also pointed out how this story conveys the idea of the word "sonder" perfectly, and I would agree! The word "sonder" refers to "the realization that everyone is living as complex a life as you are, both internally and externally." You never know what great things are occurring in someone's life, and this is never felt more strongly than in a bustling city like London.
A few other random thoughts:
- This is very Sally Rooney-esque
- I'm realizing I LOVE a condensed storyline. This takes place over a weekend, and I just love how a whole story can occur within such a short timeframe.
- I absolutely adored Rosaleen and Steve's marriage. It was so wholesome and sweet.
A handful of my favorite quotes (there were so many more!):
- "She wanted to love enormously."
- "In the moment of Ali's embarrassment - her smile bashful - Maggie swells with love for her friend and wonders why she loves people best when they are at their most vulnerable."
- "I think I'll miss you forever, like the stars miss the sun in the morning sky."
- "She tried to gather her thoughts, plucking quotes from memory, putting one word after another, but class finished before her sentence had time to leave her mouth.... it's as if the words are stuck in her throat."
- "When she tries to explain it to herself, the best she can come up with is that just once , she wants to be at the *centre* of things. No longer an afterthought. No longer a peripheral figure in her own life."
- "Unannounced, Ed's guilt begins to clamber for attention. It feels ignored. It froths at the corners of its lips."
- "And it felt good to be seen as a mother. Mothers were important...She was used to the grief of encountering other people's children that when she actually got pregnant, she felt almost as if she could collapse in relief. It was happening now. She would make it work. The conditions weren't perfect, but they were workable, just about."
- "It's impossible for anyone to describe the detail of their life, the minute-to-minute transition from one thought to the next, and unless you speak to a person on a regular basis, how can you know what their life is like? You can't."
- "and everything good about this country was good because of migration. Everything. London wouldn't be half the city it was without the people who dragged themselves there from all over the world."
- "She knew she found something good when she knew she couldn't stand to lose it."
- "Surely, he thinks, there are arrangements to be made before falling gin love. Who will water the plants, for example, and who will feed the dog, and what will happen if it all goes wrong?"
- "Sometimes she has stood at the base of the pit and shouted for help. Sometimes he has stood at the base of the pit and whispered for help, too, and felt hurt and abandoned when no one responded because her whispers were too soft to be audible to anyone but herself."
I found this story to be heart-warming, multi-layered, and delightfully complex. McKenna shaped the characters to each be deeply flawed but not frustratingly so. The way he described the inner turmoil of each character made me empathize with them in a significant way.
I loved how the overlap of multiple POVs was written in a way that almost mirrored the feeling of being in a city, where everyone's life seems to fall over and on top of each other.
This story also explores the clash of internal desires and external realities. Each character experiences this friction in some way as they wrestle with how they wish their life could be versus how it has actually played out.
In the book club discussion, we were talking about the significance of what is left unsaid between the characters throughout the narrative. The words that are NOT spoken in pivotal moments speaks even louder than what is actually said. I feel like this could be frustrating, but McKenna interweaves everything in such a way that cements you to the story and leaves you aching for the final scenes of honesty. Once you reach those vulnerable moments, it makes the quiet frustration worth it.
Jack Edwards also pointed out how this story conveys the idea of the word "sonder" perfectly, and I would agree! The word "sonder" refers to "the realization that everyone is living as complex a life as you are, both internally and externally." You never know what great things are occurring in someone's life, and this is never felt more strongly than in a bustling city like London.
A few other random thoughts:
- This is very Sally Rooney-esque
- I'm realizing I LOVE a condensed storyline. This takes place over a weekend, and I just love how a whole story can occur within such a short timeframe.
- I absolutely adored Rosaleen and Steve's marriage. It was so wholesome and sweet.
A handful of my favorite quotes (there were so many more!):
- "She wanted to love enormously."
- "In the moment of Ali's embarrassment - her smile bashful - Maggie swells with love for her friend and wonders why she loves people best when they are at their most vulnerable."
- "I think I'll miss you forever, like the stars miss the sun in the morning sky."
- "She tried to gather her thoughts, plucking quotes from memory, putting one word after another, but class finished before her sentence had time to leave her mouth.... it's as if the words are stuck in her throat."
- "When she tries to explain it to herself, the best she can come up with is that just once , she wants to be at the *centre* of things. No longer an afterthought. No longer a peripheral figure in her own life."
- "Unannounced, Ed's guilt begins to clamber for attention. It feels ignored. It froths at the corners of its lips."
- "And it felt good to be seen as a mother. Mothers were important...She was used to the grief of encountering other people's children that when she actually got pregnant, she felt almost as if she could collapse in relief. It was happening now. She would make it work. The conditions weren't perfect, but they were workable, just about."
- "It's impossible for anyone to describe the detail of their life, the minute-to-minute transition from one thought to the next, and unless you speak to a person on a regular basis, how can you know what their life is like? You can't."
- "and everything good about this country was good because of migration. Everything. London wouldn't be half the city it was without the people who dragged themselves there from all over the world."
- "She knew she found something good when she knew she couldn't stand to lose it."
- "Surely, he thinks, there are arrangements to be made before falling gin love. Who will water the plants, for example, and who will feed the dog, and what will happen if it all goes wrong?"
- "Sometimes she has stood at the base of the pit and shouted for help. Sometimes he has stood at the base of the pit and whispered for help, too, and felt hurt and abandoned when no one responded because her whispers were too soft to be audible to anyone but herself."
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I haven’t laughed out loud at a book like this in a very long time. So beautifully written. I loved how London itself was basically a character in this book.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Drug use, Rape, Suicidal thoughts
everything about this book was perfect. 10/10 no notes. a literary love letter to London and all it's glorious, messy inhabitants. piggy-backing from character to character in an organic way, none of the pov's felt inferior to one another. raw emotions, a solid no bullshit attitude that doesn't shy away from taboo or awkwardness, depicting exactly how complicated the human condition of a contemporary urban creature is.