By Megan Thomas
Do you crinkle your forehead in confusion when you hear people say they don’t like how annoying and non-communicative characters are, allowing their combination of self-doubt and self-obsession ruin everything good in their lives, because that was one of the reasons you love it? Well, do I have the book for you!
I reviewed this for nb magazine, and here’s an extract from my review, followed by a bonus rant:
“The complexity and wavering devotion of female friendship, love triangles, post-arts degree existentialism, romantic relationships with age-related power dynamics, a cast of dislikable and selfish characters, the intoxicating recklessness of being young, the intoxicating recklessness of being old… Between You and Me has the whole lot, and Joanna Horton ensured that I read it in two sittings, interrupted only by the need for sleep. I’d say “it all began when best friends Mari and Elisabeth met Jack”, a tenured university historian who is 20 years their senior, but of course that’s simplistic. Rather, it all changed when Mari and Elisabeth met Jack […]”
Growing up, I read a lot of coming-of-age novels, mostly about children losing their innocence and as a result, becoming adults. But recently, I’m realising that there’s a whole other genre of the good old bildungsroman, which captures that period between age-related adulthood and actual adulthood; that tender period between turning 18 and turning 30, which I’m currently heading towards at an alarming rate. By all accounts, I consider the last ten years to have been a part of my childhood. Some people are still studying or doing internships, while others are starting to peak in their careers. I felt very seen by Between You and Me, and books like Expectation by Anna Hope or all Sally Rooney novels, in which the characters live through this transitional period.
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