Everything You Ever Wanted: A Florence Welch Between Two Books Pick

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When Iris starts up an imaginary dialogue with Eleanor, it’s a sign not only of illness but of Sauma chafing against the narrative cul-de-sac she creates by giving Iris a one-way ticket to Nyx in the first place. It's been a bitter cocktail made with a measure of environmental disasters with a swig of political uproar, and a double-shot of Covid-19.

I cannot imagine a world that I had everything that I wanted and needed, but spent so much of my time being angry, or sad or alone. If everyone in the family would just TALK to each other, there wouldn't be a problem but the last thing these people can do is communicate. For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare--poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. The biggest set ups of the plot never materialize into anything (Silvie never meets “the boy’s” dad, we don’t see the confrontation with Charlie and his wife after his meeting with Bronwyn, etc.Sylvie must decide between maintaining her outwardly perfect life --the family estate outside Philadelphia inherited from her grandfather, the school, the reputation --and the son who she feels wants nothing to do with her. Within Iris' criticisms of modern society, she comments a lot on how relationships nowadays are so fake and lacking genuine empathy; purely existing for convenience, which I believe the author echoed within the dull exchanges Iris has with all the subcharacters in the novel. Iris, a Londoner nearing 30, is wondering how much longer she can spend Thursday nights trying not to throw up on the bus home after drinking with colleagues from the branding agency where she works as a “digital innovation architect”. So many valuable learnings for us to take away and ponder,” Iris’s line manager says after a presentation on hashtags.

Her first novel, Flesh and Bone and Water, received widespread critical acclaim and she was listed by the Telegraph as one of their 'ones to watch' for 2017. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. The whole time I was reading it I was irritated by all the characters, not because they were horrible people (but they were) but because they were all so flatly drawn. Sauma’s curveball comes when Iris, hungover, applies for a spot on a reality show on the recently colonised desert planet of Nyx, where there is no internet and the diet is all vegan. They’ll also have their daily lives broadcast on TV back home in a sort of Big Brother-esque reality TV show.The characters - I had a hard time connecting to them, and their respective storylines were never resolved. The reader learns that one tragic event dissolved the bond between Scott and Charles, Charles and his ex-girlfriend, Sylvie and her (now deceased) husband, as well as the boys and their (now deceased) father. Each of the family members in this story had secrets, and hidden upset that kept them from connecting to one another. The fact is, upon reading this I barely remember the names or defining traits of these sub-characters, and that just emphasises how little they contributed to the story, and overall Iris' life. The next day you stay in bed, scrolling through your social media feeds and wondering why everyone else seems to be achieving so much.