Pretending - Holly Bourne

Genre: New Adult

Date of publication: 2nd April 2020

Holly Bourne has already cemented herself firmly as YA royalty, and her recent entry to the adult fiction world has been just as impressive.

Pretending tells the story of April, who is a very reluctant heterosexual.
And she hates men.
No, not all men obviously, but enough of them for it to be a problem. She is sick of living in a world where the men she meets expect feminine perfection with nothing in return. They want someone with no damage, no flaws, no 'crazy' at all. They want a fantasy woman who doesn't exist - so she decides to create one, maybe for payback but maybe for herself. Gretel is everything April isn't. She is the perfect woman, by the standards she's been held to since she grew boobs, so that's exactly who she's going to be.

Bourne captures the voice of an angry woman who is fed up pretending everything is okay. Pretending to be happy. Pretending to satisfied. The characters are so deeply human, with an immersive story that captured my interest right away.

Dealing with hard subjects like sexual abuse, recovery, sexism, PTSD, victimisation and lies ... all common things that women deal with but are not supposed to talk about. All of these are handled in the true Holly Bourne matter - heartbreakingly real, but helpful and insightful.

This is definitely a peice of feminist literature, but this is a love story too. But not in the way you'd expect it to be. Yes, it's about the many different ways we can love a man but it's also about loving your fellow women, your friends and above all yourself.

This book was raw and true to life - heartbreaking but so hopeful at the same time. I found so much comfort and solidarity in Aprils story and her journey of recovery, and watching her grow as the story progressed was a pleasure.

I sat and read this whole book in one sitting and I cannot wait to see what Holly does next.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"Don't be too much, don't be too little.
Don't be too slutty, don't be too prudish.
Don't be too fat, don't be too thin."

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