Another annoyance is that we'd be two pages into a new chapter with only "she" mentioned before we were told whose perspective we were in. In a standalone title they’d feel like a plot strand too many, and even in a follow-up they stretch the focus overly.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Melissa just wants to keep the peace between family members while she continues to put the pieces of her life back together following her marriage breakdown.Set against the shadows of Grenfell and a country in crisis, these ordinary people are faced with fundamental questions about who they are, what they want and where, and with whom, they want to be. The chapter describing the morning divorced parents take their son to the hospital for surgery was so beautiful, so real, the experience transforming for the parents. Throughout the novel, Alice’s family struggles with the world around them and what to do about the final wish of their. The Grenfell Tower fire serves as a central point around which the stories of loss and resilience revolve. The novel is a memorial to the dead of Grenfell who appear throughout the novel, and an invitation to be more conscious, to drag ourselves out of complacency, or complicity.

Their push-and-pull dynamic over the years reflects the struggles faced by many in a society that perpetuates inequality. As Alice's final decision draws closer, all that is hidden between Melissa and her sisters, Michael and Nicole, rises to the surface .Evans is a former dancer, and her journalism, criticism and essays appear in among others Time Magazine, Vogue, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s Bazaar. That shouldn't be at all off-putting to those who haven't read the earlier novel, the relevant backstory is all contained here so you won't miss anything essential. I think without that knowledge the book can be difficult to follow as characters are introduced with at best incomplete back stories otherwise – as can be seen from a number of other reviews. Characters from that earlier novel make appearances here, but there is no need to have read that previous title to enjoy this new one.