No One is Talking About This

Written By Jess Pancholi

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

Reviewed by Jess
📘📘📘📘

So I know Mimi reviewed this a few weeks ago but it’s my turn to give you my two cents - you know we don’t always agree and that’s why we work! 🥰

Milkman-esque trigger warning - there’s no names or chapters in this book. It took me a lot of pages to sink into this too but ultimately it was worth it. I see this as an almost coming-of-age story for the lead character, someone who seems to be some kind of internet celebrity/influencer? You begin the book seeing her at her most selfish and naive, churning out her most desperate thoughts online on what I can only assume are thinly veiled Facebook/Twitter/Instagram accounts. This has somehow become lucrative for her and she travels the world, to talk about this Portal she exists in, only to be brought back to the real world by a huge family emergency.

Suddenly she moves away from the world she knows online, and even retreats from real life, in this hospital hazy bubble with her family making it through day to day for almost 7 months. She grows up, introspects, evaluates what she knows from the Portal in this new upside down life, and as she re-enters the Portal and the world finds it has changed her irreversibly. We have all been through that time where tragedy strikes and we withdraw from our lives, on and off screen, and as something that is particularly fresh for me I really felt it. It’s a true feeling to go from everyone talking about everything online to no-one talking about what you’re going through, seeing or feeling at all.

This book was the biggest U-Turn I’ve pulled in a long time. I do think the online life this woman leads is totally unrelatable for me and I don’t care for it. I also think that if I had reviewed this book in a different time, I would have felt differently. All I know is that through all the meme-speak and staccato phrasing, I felt something for the protagonist and found myself quite moved at the end. Give this book a shot, because something in it might speak to you like it did to me. 4/5 for novelty, uniqueness and being thought provoking.

Jess Pancholi

I’ve got to start this off by thanking Linda for putting together this amazing group of ladies who I love dearly! Linda was my uni/PhD wife for 8 solid years and books were one of the many things that bound us together - pun intended! I really think our book family is amazing, diverse and we really influence each other to push our reading boundaries (and crack each other up with our banter and jokes haha!) The family extends to you followers too - and we are just getting started!

According to everyone in my family and numerous home movies I was forever reading books.  Spot the Dog and anything Beatrix Potter were my jam. They say your love of reading never dies and I can absolutely say that is true! The books might be more grown up but I’m still there, book in hand (and snacks to boot!) ready to lose myself in a story.I can’t say for sure what my preferred genre of book is - I’ve read everything from biographies to epic modern novels and classic tales too - and of course as a scientist I dabble in a little popular sci lit on the side. I’m always willing to try something wacky and weird, even if I don’t like it in the end but I guess that’s why I’m part of The Candid Book Club, eh?

If you asked me to recommend some books to you, I would say that Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is my absolute favourite ever; its worth it, I promise!I also love: Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (shout out if you read this in high school - it’s YA that really sticks with you) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla (this is ESSENTIAL reading) Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami A Little Life by Hanyayan Agihara, Yes Please by Amy Poehler. And of course- The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck by Beatrix Potter

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