Lydia Bird’s fiancée Freddie tragically dies on her 27th birthday, and as she learns to cope with her grief, she finds that she can still live her life with Freddie in parallel with her waking life. Finding a way forward without Freddie brings trauma and conflict with family and friends.
Kirkus notes that this is a “story that thoughtfully takes readers to the Hollywood ending they can see coming.” I agree that it was disappointingly predictable, and although I found this to be an easy entertaining read, I couldn’t agree with Publishers Weekly: “Through lush prose, expert plotting, and richly imagined characters, Silver offers an achingly real portrait of grief transposed with the character’s intoxicating parallel universe. This will stay with readers long after the final page is turned.”
“But things change. People change.”
Quotes:
“I feel as if everyone’s staring at me as I walk into the pub, like one of those saloon bars in the Wild West where everyone pauses when the doors swing open and glares at the stranger who’s dared to enter their midst.”
“It’s hard to accept that life always marches forwards, isn’t it?”
“Christmas is just so in your face, isn’t it?”
Author: Josie Silver
BOOK SNAPS - for readers 