My Other Husband

I picked up My Other Husband by Dorothy Koomson in a recent charity shop haul, as I have enjoyed several of her other books in recent years.

This one, however, didn't really grab me. It has the usual split timeline - present-day narrative about a writer named Cleo who is getting a divorce and destroying her career for unknown reasons and a historical narrative about her time at university, which would presumably eventually reveal the motivations behind her actions in the present day.

But nothing whatsoever happened in either timeline for over 70 pages - and it was incredibly repetitive, with multiple references to her 'terrible secret', that people would be shocked if they 'knew the truth' and that she 'didn't deserve' friends or a nice life.

It got very annoying, very quickly and I wasn't interested enough in any of it to stick it out to find out what the 'terrible secret' might be. So I decided to stop reading.

The Book of Form and Emptiness

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki came highly recommended by a member of my writing group - but I only made it 16 pages in before I had to give up... The narrative had a stream-of-consciousness feel that I found very off-putting, along with the constant head-hopping. And it was so unpleasant on so many levels right from the start that I just didn't want to read any more.

Third DNF this week - oh dear...