A double shot of Holly Bourne chick lit

It's sometimes nice to have a break from the usual dark and disturbing psychological thrillers that I read. I do like a bit of good chick lit written by British authors. These types of books are usually wry and charming, with a cast of eccentric characters, and plenty of keen observations on weighty topics. I picked up two Holly Bourne novels at my local library, thinking I was in for a similar reading experience to Marion Keyes and Beth O'Leary, both of whom I adore. See what I thought of the two Bourne outings below.

Holly Bourne is a former journalist, editor, relationship advisor, and youth mental health charity worker. She's written four teen fiction books from her experiences with the charity, and a dozen adult novels. Her passion for women's rights and for reducing the stigma associated with mental health led Bourne to do a bunch of work with mental health and women's aid charities.

Pretending | Published April 2020 | Read October 2024

Pretending follows April's reaction to her heartbreaking relationship history, where she doesn't seem to manage to get past date five. April creates and morphs into Gretel, who is everything April thinks she is not: cool, unattainably perfect, and the kind of woman men want. Gretel is good at dating and soon April/Gretel has moved past date 5 with the unsuspecting Joshua. April finally feels in control of a relationship and is completely bulletproof. For how long can she keep pretending to be Gretel, though, when she is growing ever closer to Joshua?

I found Pretending to be pretty sad, actually. I know I am not in April's demographic, but it wasn't that I didn't relate to her, I just thought that she seemed fine the way she was, and all that pretending was depressing. I was hoping to see April happy and grow in self-confidence without needing a relationship.

The book starts with April claiming that she hates men, and the readers learns why. April has a string of failed relationships and she works at a sex and relationships charity where she deals with emails on the regular from girls who've been used, dumped, and assaulted. April has her own trauma to process on this front, too.

I found the book to be compelling and I ploughed through it hoping for a happy ending for April. I was knee-deep in April-ness, so I have to commend Bourne for the depth of characterisation. I loved the female-empowering boxing group that April joined and her supportive (but perhaps enabling) flatmate and co-workers. Bourne's experience with relationship and mental health charity shone through in the bits about April's job.

That said, I found a comment on Goodreads where the reviewer admitted to feeling suffocated inside April's skin, experiencing her pain, frustration, sadness and anger deeply. I completely agree with this observation. April needed help, not to embark on a potentially dangerous and immature quest to create a false identity and then use that identity to find men through a dating website.

I think Bourne was trying to say something meaningful and empowering, but it didn't come off that way. A book that feels like it's feminist (albeit white and thin-focussed) doesn't work if the main character is obsessed with finding a man. Also, almost all the men in the book were a bit s**it, and there's a lot of toxic masculinity thrown about, apart from April's gay workmate and the post-date-5 Joshua.

The women April met at the boxing club may have been a better angle to take with the story to explore April's recovery and journey to better self-perception and confidence. That may have made Bourne's poke at the patriarchy a much stronger story.

Rating: ⭐⭐

Girl friends | Published September 2022 | Read October 2024

Girl friends continues the theme explored in Pretending where Bourne again tackles the patriarchy but doesn't quite pull it off, largely because the female characters are written entirely around their desire to be accepted by men. The women's friendship is completely toxic and Bourne fails to attribute much of this to the patriarchy, thus watering down potential important messaging.

Fern and Jessica are the main characters, Fern painted as the frumpy friend in comparison to the glamorous Jessica who always gets the guy. They become inseparable best friends despite the simmering resentment between them until Jessica crosses a line that Fern can't forgive. More than ten years later, Jessica unexpectedly reappears in Fern's life. A lot has changed for both of them, but Fern is suspicious of Jessica's re-entry into her life.

I found Girl friends to be an uncomfortable read, with Bourne seemingly intent on writing female characters who are obsessed with 'being chosen' by a man. Is this what Bourne thinks is real or is she trying to send a message that critiques this way of thinking? If the latter, then she needs to make her characters NOT dependent on men for their self-worth and identity.

I did like the throwback chapters to the early 2000s and the way Bourne shines a light on society's gender expectations, the tearing down of women, and the difficulty of developing self-confidence and identity as a young adult. These are important themes for their impact on self-esteem. I completely related to all that even if my young adulthood was played out in the years before the novel was set.

The title of the book needs amending as it's a pretty depressing picture of female friendship. I get that Fern feels overshadowed by Jessica, but the underlying message of slut-shaming in Fern's feelings about her friend doesn't sit right. Neither girl seemed terribly supportive of the other. There is too much jealousy and judgement that peppers their relationship. I think Bourne is trying to send a message about perspective: When Jessica re-enters Fern's life, she tells her that being beautiful isn't all it's cracked to be and her childhood was rubbish compared with Fern's. That might have been a better path to take in the novel, rather than what felt like a toxic and unhelpful framework for female friendship and empowerment.

Rating: ⭐⭐