Thank you for letting me review this work. I liked the book, it was captivating, I found the writing style interesting even though it is not the kind I enjoy the most.

I cannot read this either. I'm using the kindle app on an IPad and everything else works fine. A pity as I was keen to read this...

Couldn't read due to there being a formatting issue so the text wasn't in the right order. Disappointing!

Really enjoyed this book thank you. Vibrant, believable, characters and an absorbing plot. I will ensure I look out for this author in the future!

Well the title of this novel partly tells what to expect. Camila/Casey is 31 and has been writing her novel for six years. It looks like she has followed at least some of the advice – publicly announce that she is a writer writing, set herself up with a regular writing routine and is (vaguely) in contact with other writers to give herself moral support and encouragement. But the needs of real life are standing in her way. She has huge (and rising) debts from her university years and that means she needs to work full time. At the time of the story this means she works at a busy local restaurant, with long and erratic hours, tiring work where support from a few developing friends is melded with a bullying atmosphere that will end in her being sacked. But money is tight, her accommodation is poor and uncertain, she is isolated from her father, her brother is elsewhere and her mother is recently dead leaving Casey massively distressed with grief.
Casey will recount the tale of how she gets through her innocuous days among ordinary people and we see a gradually evolving picture of the details of her life, albeit through her own perceptions and uncertainties. This is a compulsive tale that pulls the reader along at pace although things are not easy for Casey. Then when a writer friend Muriel invites her to a local book signing she will meet not one but two writers. Published author, new widower with sons, older man, Oskar and younger writer and poet, the largely unpublished Silas. She will start to consider a relationship with both, but both are uncertain about what they want from Casey and she is uncertain as to her attractiveness or entitlement to be with them. But we are told that nevertheless the emotional turmoils and pressures will create the spur (or mental state) where she can finally finish her novel – and even get it sent away to agents.
This is a very clever novel depicting as it does the writing process both physical and mental. The latter with its need to have confidence to invest time in writing with no real certainty that your work will be either good or considered fit for publication. Casey’s thoughts show this dilemma in all it’s painful twitches and unfolding. At 31 she has no successful long term relationship behind her. She would like a partner and home – particularly with the loss of her mother she has a need to build a new secure family space. But she comes from a dysfunctional family and lacks confidence in her own skills to build or retain a meaningful relationship. She painfully second guesses herself, her behaviour, and her ability to attract people throughout the novel – although at the same time we can see she is liked and appreciated by people around her.
But the resonance of this tale that stays is the depiction of her mental state. On top of her other challenges, she is undoubtedly deeply in grief for her mother – and is at the stage where loss is still a visceral matter as well as a mental adjustment of loss to move through. Her underlying depression is clear too – and we see a young woman trying to get on with life through her difficulties mental and practical – but who is so hard on herself, who has an image of herself as a failure, albeit against the quieter other message coming through the tale itself..
King is an extraordinary skilled writer to give us the contradictions with such subtlety in this rolling account. But of particular interest was that she chose to see the issue – not just of the emerging writer – but to meld it with a woman’s wider uncertainties of life. She could have presented Casey as merely gawky, but instead we have a sympathetic portrait of a woman trying very hard to get on with life – and to be a creative achiever too. This is a very fine read – I will be looking for more of her books.

I was so impressed with the breadth and ambition of Lily King's previous novel Euphoria, that I was perhaps inevitably disappointed with the much narrower scope and canvas of this one. Nevertheless, it is a moving and probably very personal book about the author (or wannabe author) as a young woman, meandering through life and low-paid jobs, worrying about health insurance, mourning the death of her mother and the years of not talking to her, unsure about relationships with men and writerly egos. It was enjoyable enough, and had some sharp observations about writers' ambitions and disappointments, but it feels a little too inward-looking. I don't feel it will have a huge appeal beyond the literary community.

Unfortunate I was unable to read or review due to formatting issues in the kindle version of this book.

I'm a sucker for books about writers so I fell in love with this story from the start. I thought the interactions between the main characters to be really engaging, though at times I thought the pace of the novel was a little uneven. I think this book would make a good choice for a bookclub as I can imagine that people will have strong views of the book.

As a huge fan of Lily King’s work I was longing for this novel. It is quite different in style to her other works and for me, was not as successful.