Review | We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves | Brilliant Books

For my birthday, my friends were nice enough to get me (as well as other lovely gifts) a £15 voucher for Waterstones. So when I went to spend it and saw the 'buy one, get one half price' offer on so many books, I couldn't resist and naturally bought four. Oops.

The very last book I picked up was this one - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. It was actually a friend I was with who suggested I buy it. The synopsis was fairly generic, I've taken a picture of it here; girl hasn't seen her brother in ten years after her sister mysteriously disappears when she's young, blah blah blah. But this novel was far from generic!

Split into different parts, the book has a major plot twist around part two or three. Until then, it is mildly intriguing as the main character recalls vague memories from her childhood regarding her sisters abrupt disappearance. The twist, which I won't give away here, will change the way you've been thinking throughout the entire book so far. An incredibly clever tactic used by the author in order to vary the readers mindset to empathize with the main character and even relate to her before the extent of her strange upbringing is revealed.

If anything, I would maybe say the writer reveals the twist a tad too early on. The novel progresses quite slowly after that but without abandoning the readers attention. It is a subject unfamiliar to the vast majority of readers and so therefore becomes harder to relate to - hence why the late revelation is so paramount to the books success.

A real insight into a completely different era, this book is a treasure and a definite must read this summer ... or any time, really. And with the RRP at just £7.99 or on Waterstones special offer, it's a bit of a bargain!

Have you read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves? Or maybe you have a book
to recommend that you just couldn't put down this summer?
Let me know!