Wayward Reviews

A raw insight on breaking up from a male perspective, with many relatable twists and turns this book will make some relive their post breakup decisions…

Book Synopsis

Book Details

Pages: 352

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Fig Tree

Format: Hardback

Andy’s story wasn’t meant to turn out this way. Living out of a suitcase in his best friends’ spare room, waiting for his career as a stand-up comedian to finally take off, he struggles to process the life-ruining end of his relationship with the only woman he’s ever truly loved.

As he tries to solve the seemingly unsolvable mystery of his broken relationship, he contends with career catastrophe, social media paranoia, a rapidly dwindling friendship group and the growing suspicion that, at 35, he really should have figured this all out by now.

Andy has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend’s side of the story.

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Review

* Non-Spoiler Review*

Happy 2024, and welcome to my first review of the year – with many more to come! My first book of the year and it was a read-along with my bestie, so what a great start in my book.

This book left me in a bit of a pickle, while I thought it was a well written book with a refreshing perspective – I found the story to drag a little. Alderton took the risk of writing from a male perspective in a break up, but, I thought she nailed it. I know she did a lot of research on how men deal with breakups and had great support from male peers in making sure the character didn’t lean towards a female outlook.

The themes throughout the book really challenged me in how I thought about breakups and also, gave me some confirmation about my feelings I had during a similar time. While saying that, it felt like the writing gave a little disservice for only focus one perspective for almost the entirety of the book – this is not a spoiler.

Overall, I am glad that I read this book – but I definitely won’t ever pick it back up again. This is a one read wonder for me, the story is a little too slow for me to want to reread again.

Spice Rating: 2/6 – See my rating system here

Book Rating: 3.5/5