Well, This Is Awkward: A story of Family Misunderstandings, Midlife Malaise, and Mildly Terrifying Teenagers by Esther WalkerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mairéad is living her best life, head of a influencer talent agency which she sold to a US group for a pile of money, single, her own immaculate flat, impeccable hair, make-up and clothes.
Then she receives a call, her estranged elder sister has been hospitalised and there is no-one to look after her eleven year old daughter Sunny. As her daughter's name suggests, Mairéad's sister is a bit of a hippy, living off-grid, eschewing modern medicines as poison, protesting pretty much everything, and home-schooling Sunny. Mairéad's mother Helen is more interested in her lodgers than either of her daughters or her granddaughter, plus to Mairéad's knowledge she hasn't left her house in years.
So reluctantly, Mairéad agrees to take charge of her niece. Sunny still sucks her thumb, hates being touched, rarely wears shoes, and frankly smells. Her arrival completely throws Mairéad through a loop (hoop?) and necessitates huge changes to her life.
I really enjoyed this, although I thought Mairéad was incredibly dense at some points, it was heart warming and life affirming without the misogynist undertones that successful single women are all really deeply unhappy and would feel happier if they became full-time mothers which I see/feel in many books/films where a career woman suddenly acquires a child. My only gripe(s) was that the end felt a little rushed - there was an issue, it got solved in a few pages, there were some seeds of new beginnings and BOOM the end. I could have read on and on and on.
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
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