Lioness By Emily Perkins – A Review

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Publication Date: 6th July 2023

Set in New Zealand, Lioness by Emily Perkins published by Bloomsbury tells the story of our protagonist Therese Thorne, a fifty-something woman who came from a normal background and married into a wealthy empire building family when she married property developer Trevor Thorne. Therese, with Trevor’s backing and investment built her own homeware brand that is now super successful and well known and now Therese wants to expand into Sydney. Trevor is having one final construction and development hurrah and is building a hotel, the plan being he will see it through and then move with Terese to Sydney to start to wind down, being now in his seventies.

However, a scandal involving the permissions for the building and how quickly they were passed is thrown into the public eye and work on the hotel abruptly stops whilst Trevor and his councillor contact are investigated.

Terese at first is a little shocked and unnerved but Trevor reassured her that it’s all a storm in a teacup and will blow over soon enough, adamant that he’s done nothing wrong. He then has to prove the same to his adult children.

Terese is a very held together, poised and professional woman. She panders to Trevor and his children and their families, making sure their holiday home is welcoming for them all and that they are all happy and cared for. She is impossibly polite and agreeable and is very good at putting on a united front at all their social gatherings and parties.

Therese starts to form a friendship with their downstairs neighbour Claire, a woman who says what she thinks and doesn’t care if it’s brutally honest. Claire tells Therese that her and her husband have effectively swapped roles, he deals with the cooking, cleaning and all the emotional support of their daughter whilst Claire deals with the maintenance around the house and the jobs which have traditionally been considered a male role. This fascinates Therese and she becomes increasingly obsessed with Claire and the way she lives her life. One night Therese finds herself in Claire’s apartment and they end up ‘in the zone’….

The story of Trevor’s past business dealings start to unfold and Therese starts to transform her behaviour and untether herself from her polite and agreeable moorings under Claire’s influence.

I read this book in one sunny weekend and was utterly hooked in. I was so invested in this family’s life and fascinated by Therese’s slow but sure transformation. It deals with themes of family ties and what you would do for your family. It also deals with the power of female friendships and their transformative nature.

I loved it!

Thank you to Beth Farrell and Bloomsbury for my review copy.

See you all soon.

Amanda – Bookishchat x

Ordinary Human Failings By Megan Nolan – A Review

Publisher: Jonathan Cape

Publication Date: 13th July 2023

Set on a 1990’s London housing estate Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan opens up at a point when the 3 year old daughter of a well loved family goes missing and is found dead with marks around her neck. The 10 year old daughter of an Irish immigrant family on the estate known as the Greens was the last to be seen with her.

The Greens are made up of John, his alcoholic son from his first marriage Richie, his aloof and closed off daughter Carmel and her 10 year old daughter Lucy. The family lost Rose, wife of John and mother of Carmel a couple of years prior. The family left Waterford in Ireland for London when young Carmel found herself pregnant and unable to have an abortion. Rose brought her family to London hoping for a fresh start but found that you can’t outrun your problems.

After the death of Mia the young child on the estate, journalist Tom Hargreaves spies a story that could give him some notoriety. He is aware that The Greens are reviled on the estate, seen as bad apples and judged. He wants to know what their dark secret is, because he is utterly convinced they must have one and makes it his mission to break them down to discover it. He inveigles himself into their lives whilst the police investigation is underway by getting the newspaper to pay for a hotel to put them up in, away from the growing ill-feeling on the estate. This then gives him unfettered access to the family and allows him to approach each person individually and play on their weaknesses (in this case mainly alcohol).

But as we spend time with each person we see that yes they each have their failings but as titled in the book they are ordinary human failings. They each have negative events that have shaped them and made them the people they are. They are a fractured family who have closed themselves off from each other very much to their detriment. But can Tom find the story he was hoping for?..

I absolutely flew through this in one day! I really enjoyed Megan Nolan’s debut, Acts Of Desperation but this book is completely different. I was not only heavily invested in the crime that had taken place and on which the novel hangs but also the individual flawed characters and their backstories.

On the surface you think you know who these people are. You can maybe see why they are judged so harshly by their neighbours on the estate but through Toms probing and the chipping away at their insecurities, barriers come down and you see the real people with real life problems underneath.

This is a book about a fractured family who by circumstance are forced to look at not only themselves but each other under a microscope and deal with what they find.

I loved the writing style, I loved the multiple POV third person perspectives and I thought the ending was beautiful.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be thinking about it for a long time to come.

Thank you to Sophie Painter and Jonathan Cape for my proof copy.

See you all soon.

Amanda x @bookishchat