276°
Posted 20 hours ago

How Hard Can Love Be? (The Spinster Club Series #2)

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

The book follows Evie’s story as she tries to live a normal life, something that is fundamentally difficult with OCD rituals controlling her. I developed OCD in my teens and although it manifested itself in a different form to Evie’s I found myself nodding along as I recognized the anxiety and intrusive thoughts that Evie had as being similar to my own. Holly Bourne handles OCD compassionately and realistically as we see how the condition affects Evie’s life. Am I Normal Yet? is a very good book and I loved it. I loved seeing myself represented and it will definitely help me when it comes to my anxiety and OCDs. However, I wish the feminism talked about in this book was intersectional and didn’t exclude anyone, nor made anyone feel bad for talking about men. Yes, women are more than just lovers, mothers or wives, but it doesn’t give anyone the right to shade someone else for liking another person or even dating. Judging is never the key, and your feminism should always include everyone in it. Mir gefiel besonders gut, dass es so spritzig geschrieben war. Es gab ganz viele lustige stellen in denen ich lachen oder schmunzeln musste. Den Feminismus Anteil fand ich leider etwas wenig, aber gut eingebaut und überhaupt nicht aufdringlich oder belehrend. Das gefällt mir so an dieser Reihe! Speaking of Lottie's book, I'm dying to get my hands on that. I feel like she is my favourite of the Spinsters, even though I haven't read her PoV yet. Out of them all, Amber has been my least favourite so far, but I still adored her. Bourne just can't help writing amazing characters!

My sympathies lie, for the most part, with Amber. After all, in addition to being the protagonist, she is also a teenager, while her mom is a parent. Nevertheless, despite the first-person narration, Bourne still manages to portray Amber and her mom’s fraught relationship with depth and complexity. We see her mom’s pain, the daily struggle of a recovering alcoholic—but we see it through the eyes of the child whom it has affected so dearly. And, yeah, Amber says some harsh things, does things that might not be advisable—but it all makes sense in the context of what she has gone through. How Hard Can Love Be? neither sugarcoats nor sensationalizes the life of a recovering alcoholic and her estranged teenage daughter: Bourne carefully distills the truth, for all its vinegar. Alongside her writing, Holly has a keen interest in women’s rights and is an advocate for reducing the stigma of mental Holly started her writing career as a news journalist, where she was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year. She then spent six years working as an editor, a relationship advisor, and general ‘agony aunt’ for a youth charity – helping young people with their relationships and mental health. And I was just about to judge her, when she said: "I'm so mad they got rid of Slytherin, I mean, Snape was, like, the best one," as she walked over, and I learned a lesson about not judging people until you've found out whether or not they've read Harry Potter."

Create a new list

The girls are amazing! Evie, Amber and Lottie form a gang called the The Spinster Club to help figure out how to be a feminist. They aim to stay true to themselves, and not lose their personality or their friends while trying to impress guys, and at the same time not being ball breakers! It was such a fun theme but also very powerful and inspiring. I loved the insight Holly Bourne gave into the mind of someone who has OCD, exploring all the ways it can affect someone's life. At times, it made it uncomfortable to read certain passages, because of how hard hitting and raw it was. But I loved that! It was educational, refreshing and honest. Maybe there in a set amount of crying your body needs to deal with any trauma. There’s a certain water-level of tears you need to shed until you can find acceptance or move on or whatever. And, if you don’t cry them out, they just catch up with you.” The message of inclusion and understanding was torn to shreds by the little "feminist group" that the main character Evie and two of her friends created. They created the 'Spinster Club', which consisted of them preaching about topics (where they came across as naive and bitchy), talking about boys and tearing other girls down. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for their next book to read. Holly’s an amazing writer, and she’s only gone and done it again with How Hard Can Love Be?

The characters all felt very real! The family dynamics, the side characters were all well developed and I loved the main protagonist. She went through such amazing growth!

Change Website Language

Because unfortunately, some still don't understand why people don't appreciate their illnesses being the butt of jokes. We get labeled "over-sensitive" and "touchy" for wanting our illnesses to be left alone, for them to be used right and with respect. Holly Bourne aimed, and she scored with this message.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment