Tag: contemporary fiction

#BlogTour #BookReview Every Shade of Happy by Phyllida Shrimpton

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Every Shade of Happy by Phyllida Shrimpton. My thanks to Amy at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Frankie at Chicks, Rogues and Scandals.

Every Shade of HappyAbout the Book

Algernon is at the end of his life.
His granddaughter is at the start of hers.
But they have more in common than they think…

Every day of Algernon’s 97 years has been broken up into an ordered routine. That’s how it’s been since the war, and he’s not about to change now.

Until his 15-year-old granddaughter arrives on his doorstep, turning Algernon’s black-and-white life upside down. Everything from Anna’s clothes to the way she sits glued to her phone is strange to Algernon, and he’s not sure he likes it.

But as the weeks pass, Algernon is surprised to discover they have something in common after all – Anna is lonely, just like him. Can Algernon change the habits of a lifetime to bring the colour back into Anna’s world?

Format: Hardback (400 pages)          Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 18th August 2022 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find Every Shade of Happy on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

Okay, I’m going to cut to the chase and say I was Team Algernon from the outset. Yes, he may be a little grumpy, rather lackadaisical about washing his smalls and definitely set in his ways but that’s just his way of coping with the world, particularly since the death of his wife, Evie. He feels she’s with him in spirit though, giving him a nudge when needed or the occasional gentle rebuke just as she did when she was alive. I loved everything about Algernon and, although he may be out of touch with modern technology – he favours a map over an app – perhaps he’s not wrong when he asserts a letter, a telephone call or a face-to-face meeting means more than an email, text or ‘like’ on an Instagram post.

It took me a little longer to warm to Anna’s mother, Helene. Initially, she comes across as someone who lurches from one crisis to another. Even Anna admits her mother is impulsive and clumsy, charging into things without due thought. It’s not Helene’s fault that she and Anna have ended up homeless but her precarious financial situation is the reason they’ve had to resort to living with Algernon. However, I came to admire the way Helene gradually gains control of her life, eventually finding something she’s really good at; as even Algernon is forced to admit.

Anna’s love of colour is about more than just wearing clothes of every hue or creating body art, it’s her form of self-expression. When forced to don a drab school uniform, she feels she’s no longer Anna, just a dull, grey version of herself. It’s one of the things, along with the upheaval of a new home, new school and having to leave her friends behind, that makes her retreat into herself, with only Gary her cactus for company. At this point I must mention one of my other favourite characters in the book – Jacob, the eldest son of Algernon’s neighbours – who literally catapults himself into the story variously performing the role of joker, protector, counsellor, delivery driver, cream tea devourer and much more besides. I also loved Jacob’s quirky sense of humour and his endless patience towards Algernon.

Dismiss any preconceived notion that Every Shade of Happy is the simple story of young Anna melting the heart of her grumpy old granddad because it’s much more nuanced than that. Although Anna and Algernon may appear to be running on parallel lines and that never the twain shall meet, in fact they have more in common than either of them thought. They just need a bit of guidance and encouragement to find out what it is. My first weepy moment was when an additional armchair was ordered – yes, really – and there were plenty of times after that I found myself reaching for the tissues.

There is a real warmth to the story perhaps partly because, as the author reveals in the Acknowledgments, the book is an ‘ode’ to her father whose wartime experiences were similar to Algernon’s, as was his reticence to talk about them.

Every Shade of Happy is a wonderfully affecting story told with warmth and wit.

In three words: Heartwarming, funny, touching

Try something similar: The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Phyllida_ShrimptonAbout the Author

Phyllida Shrimpton obtained a postgraduate degree in Human Resource Management, a career choice which was almost as disastrous as her cooking. Thankfully her love of books and writing led her to a new career as an author. Her young adult novel Sunflowers in February won the Red Book Award for YA Fiction in 2019. Having lived in London, The Netherlands and the Cotswolds with her husband, daughter, giant Saint Bernard and grumpy old terrier, she now lives on the Essex Coast in a place she likes to describe as being where the river meets the sea. Every Shade of Happy is her first adult novel.

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#BookReview Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

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Sorrow and BlissAbout the Book

Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick.

So why is everything broken?

Maybe Martha is just someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe – as she has long believed – there is something wrong with her.

Forced to return to childhood home to live with her dysfunctional, bohemian parents (but without the help of her devoted, foul-mouthed sister Ingrid), Martha has one last chance to find out whether a life is ever too broken to fix – or whether, maybe, by starting over, she will get to write a better ending for herself.

Format: Paperback (347 pages)     Publisher: Wieldenfeld & Nicolson
Publication date: 28th April 2022 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find Sorrow and Bliss on Goodreads

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My Review

This was the July pick for the book club run by Waterstones in Reading. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the meeting but I suspect I may have been in the minority in finding myself rather underwhelmed by Sorrow and Bliss despite the many plaudits it has received, including being shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022.

There were elements I did enjoy such as the witty turns of phrase and Martha’s deadpan humour. ‘On holiday one year, I read Money, thirty pages of it until I remembered that I do not understand Martin Amis.’   I also enjoyed the cast of quirky characters. For example, Martha’s lovely father, an aspiring poet described as ‘a male Sylvia Plath’, Martha’s eccentric mother, Celia, ‘a ‘minorly important sculptor’ who makes art out of found objects or Martha’s sister, Ingrid, whose anecdotes are ‘a three-way combination of hyperbole, lies and factual inaccuracy’ but which are often outrageously funny albeit peppered with swear words. I also loved Martha’s friend Peregrine who treats her to lavish lunches.

So if I enjoyed all these things, why didn’t the book work for me? Mainly it was Martha herself. I tried, I really tried to like her or at least empathise with her mental turmoil but I never fully succeeded. Although she’s often funny, she makes consistently bad choices and comes across as needy, peevish and even cruel at times, alienating those close to her. I felt sorry for her husband Patrick the whole way through and found it hard to forgive the way she treats him. He demonstrates the patience of a saint, putting up with her erratic behaviour for longer than seems humanly possible. And what does he get in return? Accusations of passivity, dishonesty and betrayal.

However probably my biggest frustration with the book is that Martha is diagnosed with a mental condition that is never identified, just indicated by a series of dashes. The first time I came across it, I was just confused; then I became frustrated. Are we supposed to guess what it is or conclude the specifics don’t matter? What’s more this unnamed condition seems to be ‘cured’ in short order by a single medication. In the afterword, the author writes ‘The medical symptoms described in the novel are not consistent with a genuine mental illness. The portrayal of treatment, medication and doctors’ advice is wholly fictional’. Cop out or attempt not to get bogged down in trying to portray a specific mental condition?

There were moments in Sorrow and Bliss where I laughed out loud and I have to admit that, in Martha, the author has created a distinctive and memorable character, but there was just something missing for me. Perhaps if I’d been able to go to that book club meeting I might have discovered what it was and been able to look at the book in a new light.

In three words: Witty, dark, poignant

Meg MasonAbout the Author

Meg Mason began her journalism career at the Financial Times and The Times. Her work has since appeared in Vogue, Grazia, the Sunday Times, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sunday Telegraph. She has written humour for the New Yorker, been a monthly columnist for GQ, a regular contributor to Vogue and Marie Claire, and a contributing editor at Elle. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters. (Photo: Goodreads author page)

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