Eartha is many things - a talented artist waiting for her moment, a loving friend, a resentful girlfriend and a closeted bisexual.
But after finally getting out of a soul-sucking relationship and a chaotic breakup, she finds herself out in the world as a single bisexual woman for the first time. Which is hard enough, but the drunken rant she posted online has gone viral and now she’s a sensation on Wonderland - the platform everyone is on, all the time.As Eartha starts to find herself, she’s also rewriting herself for the public and she knows she can’t keep living a double life, she needs to figure out who she really is. But which version does she like, if any of them?
"I think I'm bisexual. I still fancy men but … there's a whole other part of me that loves women just as much. it needs exploring. it needs to be watered, fed, tended to and nurtured, so that it can blossom into the beautiful garden I desperately need it to grow into."
Okay, I officially have developed an even deeper GirlCrush on Florence Given after reading this. I adored her non-fiction book, Women Don’t Owe You Pretty so I was so excited to see what she’d do with a story.
Somehow she’s managed to take a glorious bisexual romcom, a coming of age rags-to-riches story, and a whip smart commentary on the darker, obsessive side of modern society and social media — and still makes something so uniquely entertaining and utterly unputdownable.
Our main character, Eartha was spectacular— a compelling woman living a deeply confusing double life that was tearing her apart. She was so relatable despite her cinematic, dramatic life and I felt a kinship with her from the get-go. Some readers have called her messy and naïve, but watching her go into this journey and seeing how clueless she was is just a part of her life and gave her so much room to grow. Her storytelling was engaging and energetic, with a strange voice that switched between polished and practiced and deeply raw and personal that made it so easy to read. Our other characters were amazing, I adored Phaedra and I couldn’t wait to see how this chance meeting might change the course of their lives, the potential love interests and her best friend Rose was every bit of friend goals, the perfectly unapologetic loud feminist that would tell you what you need if you want it or not.
Her journey was painful to watch but I couldn’t stop reading — Florence perfectly invoked that desperate, suffocating anxiety of a soul-sucking relationship, and that glowing power of falling in love. Eartha changes with every chapter, growing, evolving, reverting then learning and it was amazing to see her fall in love with herself over time in between the high stakes games in Wonderland and growing romance. She was a poster girl for the binary, soulless figures we paint ourselves to be on the internet but with a real, messy, complicated person underneath.
This book has a funny, feel good and fresh streak but also taps into that shared feminine experience that fills us with rage — looking at the fear that comes with turning down sex, but the shame for wanting sex, for the double standards and pain that we universally feel and it does with grace and love.
Okay, I officially have developed an even deeper GirlCrush on Florence Given after reading this. I adored her non-fiction book, Women Don’t Owe You Pretty so I was so excited to see what she’d do with a story.
Somehow she’s managed to take a glorious bisexual romcom, a coming of age rags-to-riches story, and a whip smart commentary on the darker, obsessive side of modern society and social media — and still makes something so uniquely entertaining and utterly unputdownable.
Our main character, Eartha was spectacular— a compelling woman living a deeply confusing double life that was tearing her apart. She was so relatable despite her cinematic, dramatic life and I felt a kinship with her from the get-go. Some readers have called her messy and naïve, but watching her go into this journey and seeing how clueless she was is just a part of her life and gave her so much room to grow. Her storytelling was engaging and energetic, with a strange voice that switched between polished and practiced and deeply raw and personal that made it so easy to read. Our other characters were amazing, I adored Phaedra and I couldn’t wait to see how this chance meeting might change the course of their lives, the potential love interests and her best friend Rose was every bit of friend goals, the perfectly unapologetic loud feminist that would tell you what you need if you want it or not.
Her journey was painful to watch but I couldn’t stop reading — Florence perfectly invoked that desperate, suffocating anxiety of a soul-sucking relationship, and that glowing power of falling in love. Eartha changes with every chapter, growing, evolving, reverting then learning and it was amazing to see her fall in love with herself over time in between the high stakes games in Wonderland and growing romance. She was a poster girl for the binary, soulless figures we paint ourselves to be on the internet but with a real, messy, complicated person underneath.
This book has a funny, feel good and fresh streak but also taps into that shared feminine experience that fills us with rage — looking at the fear that comes with turning down sex, but the shame for wanting sex, for the double standards and pain that we universally feel and it does with grace and love.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Thank you to my friends at Tandem for inviting me to take part in this readalong, I was gifted a reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review. Please check content warnings before reading as this title contains subjects that may upset or trigger.
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