So Thrilled For You is the perfect title for this novel that explores the many facets and expectations of motherhood. In So Thrilled For You, author Holly Bourne – recently a mother herself as she mentions in the acknowledgments – gives us a group of four friends and through them, the different layers and experiences of motherhood.
Opening sentence: The flames take the vulva piñata immediately.
Meet the Little Women
Charlotte, Nicki, Steffi and Lauren meet and university and become tight friends. So Thrilled For You is set years later, when they’re in their early 30s and all in different stages of motherhood. As the rather fantastic opening sentence alludes to, the action in the novel takes place at a baby shower (where else would you have a vulva piñata??) Nicki’s, in fact, as she is heavily pregnant.
I’ve always really enjoyed Holly Bourne’s writing style, she is effortlessly insightful and funny and always seems to write what I’m thinking, like:
Is there any collection of words worse than ‘ice breaker game’? Other than ‘rail replacement bus service’? Or ‘destination hen do’?
The baby shower in question is thrown for Nicki by Charlotte, who herself is working through infertility issues and attended by Lauren, who brings her baby Woody and Steffi, who very much wants to remain child-free. Each woman represents a different viewpoint of motherhood, the feelings of each are wonderfully detailed and you get a true sense of each perspective.
The truth about motherhood
It was new mum Lauren’s story that hit home the hardest for me. I have two boys and the shift into motherhood was definitely brutal at times. The sense of losing who you are and not understanding the person you are becoming, along with the ups, downs and expectations was a lot to deal with and the experience is captured so accurately here.
That’s the biggest headfuck about motherhood – there’s no going back.
There are also interspersed chapters of the women being interviewed by the police about the possible arson at the baby shower, which gives So Thrilled For You a secondary crime plot too and really helps drive the pace. Ultimately, this is a fantastic look at how friendships have to adapt as women get older and their priorities change. A great read to kick off the year with!
Other reads I’ve loved by Holly Bourne are How Do You Like Me Now? and Pretending.
