Genre: Literary Fiction | Adult Fiction
Release Date: 5th August 2021
4th February 2004.
Beverly has survived a dangerous labour to bring a beautiful baby boy into the world, her husband George and their other children holding each other right outside. And at the exact same moment, something called The Facebook was also born into the world. Both of things would change their families lives forever.
Years later, the Cleverly family has maintained the image of a perfect marriage and a perfect family, regardless of how imperfect they really are. George Cleverly; the activist of everything and everyone still has his grown children living at home quite content to never see the real world. Socially awkward and unaware, each member of this family is in their own echo chamber and they can't hear the warnings all around them.
Satirically smart and dry, this is a story about the utter absurdity that is modern life; where charity only counts if you post it on social media and some people have given up with real socialising altogether. Each character so viscerally flawed and unlikeable in their own unique way, this story maintained a strange playfulness throughout while still maintaining the farcial commentary.
I felt kept an arms length away from the Cleverly family at all times, which may have been a stylistic choice but it did make it immensely hard to connect with the characters at times and made the chapters multiple times throughout the story, the characters falling very flat and becoming the stereotypes I'm sure they were intended to be. - but if you're looking for a witty parody of modern life, look no further!
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you to John Boyne and Random House UK for this ARC in return for an honest review.
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