Having read Joanna Nadin's kids and teen books, I was looking forward to her novel for adults and I was not disappointed. Full of her trademark warmth and wit (and free to swear!), I found this trawl through Dido's unusual and difficult relationship with her mother intriguing, occasionally painful and often poignant. As a similar age to Dido, I also enjoyed a lot of the references and memories (the book ranges from her six-year-old memories to her thirties) and found their relationship easy to understand and relate to, despite its idiosyncracies, thanks to the clear emotional truth of the novel. I'd recommend this as a satisfying read on mother/daughter relationships and their position in our lives.

Normal is dull.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this one. I really struggled to get into it and struggled with the format.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

I've loved Nadin's young adult titles in the past and looked forward to reading her adult novel but despite starting it several times I never connected with the characters and just couldn't lose myself in it. I will try again later but for now I haven't managed to get past the first 4 chapters

I'm not writing a review, just a recommendation on Twitter. I'm not writing a review, just a recommendation on Twitter.

Powerful, absorbing and moving, I thought about this book long after I had finished reading. I look forward to seeing what the author writes next.

If you, like me, are a child of the 70’s then you’re going to love this coming-of age novel. Dido, the main character just wants to fit in – for her family to be just like everybody else’s. Unfortunately for her, her free spirit mother Edie has no interest in being like anyone else – least of all the ‘perfect’ Treveylans who live just next door. Dido falls in love with the Trevelyan family as soon as she moves in next door to them. Angela, the mother, is the perfect stay at home mum; Harry, or Harriet is a miniature version of Angela; Tom, Harriet’s older brother, is literally Dido’s boy-next-door first love, and David is the perfect storybook dad. Dido spends a great deal of her adolescence wishing that she was a Trevelyan and her first-person account of growing up in the 80’s and 90’s will definitely strike a chord with anyone who lived through the legwarmers and Live Aid era. Dido’s relationship with her mum is one of the best things about this novel, as we see her priorities change during the course of the novel. Dido grows up and realises that sometimes the things we want aren’t always what they seem and our relationship with our family is a bond that endures forever, despite all of its challenges. This novel has everything: drama, nostalgia and real warmth at the heart of it; It’s the kind of book that you wish you could read all over again as soon as you’ve finished and I’m jealous of anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of reading it yet.

What a bitter-sweet read this is... Dido’s life story from her childhood to adulthood is narrated with warmth and nostalgia. This is a book about love (of all sorts), friendship, life & death, loss and foremost about the relationship between a disfunctional mother and her daughter. The background changes, taking us from the 70’s to the 00’s and it does this convincingly and capturing different periods of time with much credibility.

I look forward to reading this author’s future works.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest and impartial review.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I loved everything about this book. The writing, the characters, the details through the decades and the story of a girl, Dido, who just wants to fit in. Highly recommend

I tried so hard to read this book. I've heard so many things about it.

But I just couldn't enjoy it. I tried but no, I'm sorry

I laughed a lot reading this book. I loved the titles of the chapters and the language and the humour. Dido had a really unconventional upbringing. Edie is definitely not the average mother. I am so glad I persevered with this book. I found it hard to get into at the start and hard to follow in places. I started to enjoy the style and want to read to the end and I am glad I did. Dido really wants to be happy and enjoy life and be treated well and this book is the story of how she tries to achieve that.

I haven’t loved a book so much as this one for a long time. I fell in love with Dido – and Edie – right from the beginning. Moving from the 1970s right up-to-date, every detail of those decades is remembered and articulated perfectly. This book made me laugh, made me cry, made me despair and made me hope. It is not a trite love story, but a “warts and all” version of a number of interconnected lives. It is well written with heart, soul, and a sense of humour. I thoroughly recommend it.

What a sweet, nostalgic nood to childhood. Loved this book.
We go through the life of Dido, the one she was born into and the one she tries to live.
Such believable characters, true honest writing. Funny, sweet, i could go on.
Hard to write about plot of the book without spoiling it if you haven’t read it yet. All I can say is read it!!

An interesting book, reminded me of “Moon Tiger” by Penelope Lively.

This is a wonderful coming of age story with a turbulent mother-daughter dynamic at the heart. Dido is a wonderful character, desperate to fit in and live what she perceives as a 'normal' life. Edie is her chaotic, free spirited mother, who refuses to be tied down by convention and loves being the centre of attention. When the pair move to the suburbs of Saffron Waldon Dido falls in love with the strait-laced Angela, her husband David and their children Harry and Tom and their far more conventional life.
Spanning the 70's, 80's and 90's, we follow Dido as she experiences her first crush, her friendship with Harry and Tom, first relationships and first job. It is wonderfully nostalgic, full of feeling and a wonderful ode to the imperfect family, that actually turns out to be everything you ever needed.

The book reminded me a little of one of my favourite films 'Me Without You', and I was really quite sad to read the last few pages. Dido and her friends and family have taken up a little place in my heart and I can't wait for the authors next book.

Thanks go to the publishers and net galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review

I loved everything about this book. The writing, the characters, the details through the decades and the story of a girl, Dido, who just wants to fit in.

This was a wonderful book that instantly transported me to Saffron Walden in that scorching hot summer of 1976. I loved meeting Dido, her mother Edie and the Trevelyans, the next door neighbours with their beautiful home and perfect family. Joanna Nadin's writing made it so easy to feel apart of Dido's story through the whole book, making me feel like I was an old friend watching from the wings.

Everyone felt so real as I saw them in my mind's eye, as the story continued through the 80s, 90s and 00s. There was lots of laughter, heartache, embarrassment, shock and anger, everything you'd expect from real family life.

I can't recommend this enough especially if you'd like a trip down memory lane that include mivi ice lollies, sixth form common rooms, Live Aid and more. I think it would make a fabulous book club read and will definitely be recommending this to family and friends .I'm so glad I got a chance to read this, a new favourite for me, and I can't wait to read the author's next book.

A great page-turning read, really well done. I have reviewed it on my blog, see link below.

It’s surprisingly difficult to review a book you have been completely enchanted by so I’ve been putting this off but The Queen of Bloody Everything absolutely deserves ALL the praise and I am very happy to give it five stars and to recommend it without hesitation. This book was a joy to read and I was completely invested in it from beginning to end - my only criticism being that it seemed slightly rushed at the end but I think that feeling had more to do with me being hungry for every detail and sad that this wonderful story was drawing to a close. Within a few pages it put me in mind of Sarah Winman’s When God Was a Rabbit - and that’s not to say it’s a copy in any way, it very much stands on its own but there was an incredible sense of capturing a coming of age in an English suburb in the 70s and 80s that appealed to me hugely and this was so well evoked it made me quite emotional at times! The main theme was the relationship between the main character, Dido, and her mother Edie and this was very well handled throughout, covering that fine line between love and hate, need and frustration that will feel familiar to many but there was also a real sense of various lives being fully lived and that’s what impressed me - it was about people rather than plot and felt completely authentic, another reminder of Winman’s writing. This was a poignant, funny (sometimes painfully so), gripping read. I loved it and look forward to more from Joanna Nadin.

This tender storm of a book combines the conflicts that families undergo with a raw, engaging and lyrical story told from the perspective of Dido as she addresses her mother, Edie, in recollections from childhood to present day.

I am often left feeling that my family must be a bit odd after reading some books, where everyone muddles along, easygoing and drama-free, hmm, not in this book; YES for a portrayal of families that are complicated, fucked-up, imperfect, fervid, beautiful disasters. Because most are, in their own ways.

I loved how this story centers upon a mother and daughter relationship; two autonomous, powerful women who are poles apart, even when Dido is a child, yet bonded so intensely. You are introduced to the dynamic at the start of the book when Dido is only 6 and just her and Edie move from a very dodgy sounding squat to a house inherited from an aunt with a Narnian garden gate that leads over to The Lodge, where the Trevelyans live. This discovery sets everyone on a course that changes their relationships irrevocably; whilst some bonds become stronger some fall apart and some venture down dark and twisted paths. The book guides us on what it is to love people, deeply, painfully, and unashamedly in spite of their vulnerability and inadequacy.

This is a coming-of-age drama, full of nostalgic references to the 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's; events of huge historic memory (such as 9/11) are intermingled with the characters' developments and little delights of the eras that you pass through such as Mivvi ice creams and 'making potions'. I couldn't help but look back on myself at such stages: where I was when I learned about certain events, what things I would do with friends to occupy those seemingly long days.

To me, this wasn't a fast-paced read, but rather a wisteria-like novel that wound itself slowly around my core, growing and strengthening, then blossoming to become something beautiful and permanent. So worth getting lost in.

I'll end the review with one of my favourite quotes from the book:

"It's been a fairy tale. An enchanted-wood, gingerbread-house, handsome-prince fairy tale. And you and me, Edie? We are the Queens of the story. We are the Queens of Bloody Everything."

'The Queen of Bloody Everything' is a riot to read. It's the story of Dido and her teenage years with her unpredictable, wild mother. Growing up the chaotic household with her mum, Dido is enamoured with her middle-class, blessed neighbours: a family of four whose impeccable life is enviable and calm in equal measure, a direct contrast to Dido's own. She quickly becomes best friends with their daughter and falls wildly in love with their son, and the novel follows Dido through childhood and her awkward teens and into the false starts and disasters of adulthood.

Dido is a likeable character and her escapades are thoroughly believable - it's like reading a teenage diary in some scenes.

The novel was a little slow to start, but ultimately charming and very relateable to anyone who's been a teenager.