How Hard Can Love Be? (The Spinster Club Series #2)

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Unfourtantly, there were also comments and parts that I felt contradicted the whole message of the book. one of my favourite things was how the author gave us an insight into evie's mind. she gives things titles like "bad thought" and it'll describe the actual feelings shes going through The book follows Evie’s story as she tries to live a normal life, something that is fundamentally difficult with OCD rituals controlling her. I developed OCD in my teens and although it manifested itself in a different form to Evie’s I found myself nodding along as I recognized the anxiety and intrusive thoughts that Evie had as being similar to my own. Holly Bourne handles OCD compassionately and realistically as we see how the condition affects Evie’s life. Floored, novel by Eleanor Wood, Holly Bourne, Lisa Williamson, Melinda Salisbury, Non Pratt, Sara Barnard, and Tanya Byrne (2018) The Spinster Club is a feminist series, but it also focuses on other important aspects such as mental health awareness.

We see Evie's recovery diary. She describes good thoughts and bad thoughts as they burst into her day. We get to nosy at test messages and watch Evie compile lots of lists. All things I ADORE in books, so these were another huge highlight for me. I started this book for two reasons, one being that Holly Bourne will be attending YALC 2018 in London, where I am going in a few weeks, and the other being my friend Roxanne who told me to do so. And so I did.All in all, How Hard Can Love Be? was a wonderful companion/sequel to Am I Normal Yet? If you enjoyed that one, I think you'd like this, maybe even more than I did. Even so, Another thing I loved: it was funny. So funny. Dark, self-deprecating humor is my jam, it's my chosen method of dealing with difficult situations and this book did it so well. I was in love with the banter between characters and Evie's monologue. There were so many other direct quotes I could have inserted too, because I truly highlighted enough to fill an entire review, but you get the point. This book is all about feminism and 16 years old cisgender girls realizing that the society isn’t that perfect for them. Most of the time, they were talking about really important subjects and were making some very good points. I already knew most of it but it’s still is necessary to discuss about it all in literature, especially in YA. However, they made some comments that made me cringe a lot. It is important to note that all the characters are white and straight. As they kept talking about feminism, it has been said a lot that only women had their periods and that it’s what makes them women. By saying that, it excludes transgender and non-binary people. Because yes, some men have their periods and they should be recognized as well. Plus, they often make each other feel bad for talking about men, as if dating one was against feminism. I really disliked that. I’m a feminist but I’m also a romantic and I love to talk about men. I would love to date one and if all I see suddenly is him, so be it. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect myself or women in general. It was really hard to agree to everything when they kept excluding people from their feminism. The characters all felt very real! The family dynamics, the side characters were all well developed and I loved the main protagonist. She went through such amazing growth!

Holden, Lucy (19 June 2018). " 'Life isn't how it looks online.' Holly Bourne, the woman on a mission to end social-media envy". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 30 July 2018. Evie's relationships won't have you dreaming of happily-ever-afters or swooning dizzily about the guys in her life. But they are far more realistic than any others that I have read about in YA fiction. Huge bonus marks here not over romanticising teenage love affairs, but at the same time capturing the giddy moments.As you can guess from the title, How Hard Can Love Be? is about love. It's about family love - mostly the relationship Amber has with her mother - but it's also about romantic love. At camp Amber meets the gorgeously handsome All-American guy Kyle and sparks begin to fly. Personally, the plotline didn't interest me as much as Evie's story in Am I Normal Yet? and I was always expecting more from Amber's other family - her father and stepmother - and more appearances from Evie and Lottie. Bourne was one of the headlining authors of the 2019 London Book Fair, appearing as 'Children’s Author of the Day' on the final day. [15] Recognitions [ edit ]