Almost Adults by Ali Pantony | Book Review

It has been a hot minute since I did a book review so I thought I would sit down and write one for you. My most recent read was Almost Adults, a debut novel by Ali Pantony.

Almost Adults Book Review

Story

Almost Adults follows four female friends in their tiny village of Hackton. All in their mid-to-late twenties, each of them is living a life very stereotypical for millennials.

Natasha – living with her boyfriend in a flat, working your typical job but struggling with mental health.

Edele – living with her mum and younger brother, struggling to find a job and drinking/sleeping around too much

Alex – flat-sharing with an oddball antique seller and her long-term boyfriend who she is worried is cheating on her

Emma ‘Mackie’ – a career girl who is looking for her next big move but keeps cocking up her interviews

Each of them has its own storyline but they all blend into one as they try to support and comfort each other through the hard times.

Book Review

Let me start with the simple fact, which is that I enjoyed this book. That may seem like an ominous opening to a review, but honestly, I’m melting in this Indian summer heat and my brain is barely working.

The story is simple yet effective, the characters are warm and you root for them.

However, they all seem to blend into one. I read this book over a few sittings during the month and I would struggle with which girl was which. When I read the last 40% in two sittings it became easier to tell them apart, but I don’t know whether this is because I binge-read it or because the characters started to come into their own. Honestly, I think it is the former.

Having some characters of the same gender, with similar issues and voices makes it very hard to delineate them from each other. However, because they’re all great I didn’t mind when the character lines blurred and I got their names mixed up. It was still enjoyable to read about.

This isn’t a laugh-out-loud kind of book – which book truly is these days – but it is funny.

There are some great one-liners and definitely funny mentions of living life as a twenty-year-old woman. There are also a lot of Sex and the City brunches, picnics and alcoholic evenings. Which friend truly drops everything to come over and crash for a weekend when a neighbour dies? But that’s fiction for you.

I would take the story with a pinch of salt. As I say a lot of the ending is tied up in a neat bow and presented to the reader, but there is always a seam of realism throughout.

I particularly like the character of Mackenzie, probably because I can relate to her the most out of all of them. The creative one, the ‘mother’ one, the career girl etc. I think every millennial woman could find themselves in one of the characters of these books, even if that character is Liam, Edele’s sexy younger brother with good-looking mates and a massive tendency to swear like a sailor facing the Kraken.

All in all, it’s a sweet, life-affirming read that twenty-something women will love.

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