Reviews

Things We Knew Were True by Nicci Gerrard

upbeatmetaphor's review against another edition

5.0

A dresser complete with pink flowers, pink lipstick, pink make-up dust and a pink-lined compact mirror. They're all in front of pink wallpaper. The author's name and book title are in a soft font, while the reviews are in- that's right- pink.

Ah! So this is a woman's book, whatever one of those is! Well, no..

So yes, there are a lot of female characters, all dealing with growing pains or the dramas of their twilight years, which perhaps explains the rather hacky marketing of the jacket cover, but there is nothing specifically gendered about what they go through. In fact all the genders in the book could be inverted, scrubbed, or replaced with a commune of homosocial/homosexual individuals, and the story would still make just as much sense.

It's a book that's both depressingly uplifting and upliftingly depressing. A pointless but pointed story of how different generations of the same family make the same mistakes as they embark on the great journey of just living one day after the other.

It's [b:The Crow Road|12021|The Crow Road|Iain Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330063373l/12021._SY75_.jpg|950451] with fewer men and a much smaller ensemble. It's very human and I found it very nourishing.

Nick
xx

irish_bookfairy's review against another edition

3.0

A book about life. Could happen to all of us.

nocto's review against another edition

3.0

I've skipped on the last couple of Nicci French thrillers (for now at least) because I was finding them to be all a bit samey in some respects, the amount of twists at the end mostly I think. But I saw this book written by one half of Nicci French and thought that I'd like to see what it was like. I'm glad I did, it's a very readable bit of general fiction. A story in two parts about Edie and her family, the first half is set in 1980 when Edie is 17 and the rest is in the present day, it's populated with believable characters and I enjoyed it a lot. Light reading but definitely not fluffy.

nataliect13's review

hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Grief, Eating disorder, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use and Suicidal thoughts