Until recently, Julia hadn’t had sex in three years.
But now:
• a one-night stand is accusing her of breaking his penis;
• a sexually confident lesbian is making eyes at her over confrontational modern art;
• and she’s wondering whether trimming her pubes makes her a bad feminist.
Julia’s about to learn that she’s been looking for love – and satisfaction – in all the wrong places…
Frank, filthy and very, very funny, In at the Deep End is a brilliant debut from a major new talent.
There were things about this book that I really loved and things that really irritated me.
It’s well-written, and very funny at times, and I certainly learned a few things! Julia is complicated, misunderstood, confused, and sometimes I really felt sorry for her, and at other times I didn’t like her at all.
There are lots of side characters – a few of which were very interesting and I wanted to know more about them, but they didn’t feel fully realised.
Some of the situations seemed really far-fetched, and didn’t seem at all in character.
I think what annoyed me most though was that this did seem to be a white, middle-class, privileged woman dabbling in lesbianism. It felt a bit like she was trying it on for size, as if it was a bit of a ‘lark’ and she had none of the issues to deal with that others in the community might face – a lesbian version of Pulp’s ‘Common People’ almost! I appreciate it isn’t meant to be gritty, but it just felt a bit irritating.
Definitely worth a read, and perhaps I’m being a little harsh, because the writing is good, but a novel like this needs to have more depth.
Alison Williams Writing 