Book Review: Something Beginning With


Boring book cover.

Written in brief entries from ‘Ambition’ to ‘Zzzzz’ Salway's confident debut novel chronicles the existential ups and downs of British 20-something Verity Bell. The alphabetically arranged mini-chapters make for an inventive and episodic narrative, as Verity muses on her career.

For some reason I purchased this in 2013 and left it 7 years before reading. I wish I'd left it 70.

I don't usually read sappy romantic / emotionally manipulative novels. And this is why. It's a sad and pathetic story about a set of sad and pathetic characters. I felt nothing but contempt for them and their predicaments.

I suppose, if you want to feel smugly superior to someone making worse life-choices than you, this book would do the trick.

Verdict
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