no one is talking about this book review

The second half of No One is Talking About This is very much in contrast as the narrator is told by her mother to return home due to a family emergency. While it may not be desirable for all, she seems reasonably happy but even feelings take a back seat to the portal. She seems adrift, afloat and not quite part of the concrete, 9-to-5 world. But her life is centred around the portal always. Sometimes the narrator is overseas talking about life in the portal on stages with other influencers, sometimes she’s at home thinking about it. If you don’t remember, it can be difficult to understand the moment. This part of the story is told in short paragraphs with a dream like quality if you’re alert (and y’know, truly part of the portal) you will note some internet crazes and memes long gone. The online world is demanding and rather forgetful she knows that if she leaves it, she will soon be forgotten.

She spends hours crafting the perfect tweet and contorting herself into just the right position for a selfie. The unnamed narrator is someone big in the online world thanks to a viral tweet and her day is spent on the portal, with its in-jokes, language, memes and arguments. The premise for the first half of the novel about living in the online world seems eerily prescient given that’s where a lot of the world has been primarily communicating for the last year. It’s not always the easiest of reads as you need to keep your wits about you in the first half, and the second half is incredibly sad. No One is Talking About This is a novel with two very different parts that separate the online world from the real world. Why I chose it: On The Women’s Prize longlist, thanks Bloomsbury for the copy.

The not-so-good: Some concentration required to get through the first half, as life in the portal is anything but linear. The good: The second half is raw with emotion. In brief: An unnamed narrator is a leader in all things social media until tragedy brings her offline into real life.

No one is talking about this book review