And very few of them are spared, since this is also a paean to youthful stupidity and inexperience and inattentive parenting.

A great read - I really enjoyed the witty, sardonic voice and found the characters rounded and likeable too. There are two big surprises in the book that I didn’t see coming and the story was definitely better for them. Perfect holiday reading, but I don't mean by that to disparage the writing or brand it as merely lightweight. Abigail thought she had banished the ghost of her life with them and the catastrophe that ended it, but thirteen years later a chance encounter forces her to acknowledge that the spell is far from broken.The book is set in London and revolves around Abigail and her friendship with Frances who come from very different families. And then it seemed slightly unbelievable that Abigail would have had so little luck in love between the ages of 18 and 31. It's not all comedy though - Chambers very movingly depicts Abigail's progression to adulthood, and the eventual weakening of her friendship with Frances Radley. It takes a special person with a special talent to so vividly and expertly relay the story in a first person narrative by the main character from their pre teen years into their thirties . Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit.

Clare’s writing makes me feel like I am there as the character, and therefore invested in what happens. Always sad when I come to the end of one of Clare’s books but luckily this time I have another ready to read (In a Good Light). I was surprised when I found out this book had originally been published in 1998 as it felt like it could have been written this year - always the sign of a good read! I enjoyed it, although I found it rather long and it had what would now probably be described as a bit of a YA feel to it.There are moments of beauty as Abigail observes these colourful characters, never quite realising the significance of some of her interactions. As in life, the events in her books are at once comical ,endearing , brutally realistic and often tinged with some tragedy . A light read, well written, but a somewhat unoriginal story - teenager drawn into the life of her school friend's eccentric family, with added romance and some family secrets, playing out over a couple of decades. While we get to glimpse this family from the outside, we also see into the life of Abigail and her family. It’s a tribute to the butterfly effect - what major consequences and echoes can be produced by a series of minor events in the past.