Have you ever wished for a different mother? Dido has… Dido Sylvia Jones is six years and twenty-seven days old when she moves from London squat to suburban Essex and promptly falls in love with Tom Trevelyan, the boy next door. It’s not just Tom that Dido falls for, though: it’s also his precocious sister, Harry, and their fastidious, controlling mother, Angela. Because Angela is everything that Edie—Dido’s own mother—is not. And the Trevelyans are exactly the kind of family Dido dreams of: Normal.
Dido wants to be normal more than anything else in the world. But it’s the very thing that Edie can never be, as Dido—and the Trevelyans, including Dido’s beloved Tom—will eventually learn the hard way.
Like the very best families, Joanna Nadin’s The Queen of Bloody Everything is funny, warm, tender and heartbreaking in equal measure. Part love story, it’s ultimately about mothers and daughters: about realizing, however long it takes, that family might be what you make it, but you can’t change where you come from.
My Review
I loved everything about this book. The writing, the characters, the details through the decades and the story of a girl, Dido, who just wants to fit in.
This was a wonderful book that instantly transported me to Saffron Walden in that scorching hot summer of 1976. I loved meeting Dido, her mother Edie and the Trevelyans, the next door neighbours with their beautiful home and perfect family. Joanna Nadin’s writing made it so easy to feel apart of Dido’s story through the whole book, making me feel like I was an old friend watching from the wings.
Everyone felt so real as I saw them in my mind’s eye, as the story continued through the 80s, 90s and 00s. There was lots of laughter, heartache, embarrassment, shock and anger, everything you’d expect from real family life.
I can’t recommend this enough especially if you’d like a trip down memory lane that include mivi ice lollies, sixth form common rooms, Live Aid and more. I think it would make a fabulous book club read and will definitely be recommending this to family and friends. I’m so glad I got a chance to read this, a new favourite for me, and I can’t wait to read the author’s next book.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Mantle books for my digital copy.
The Queen of Bloody Everything by Joanna Nadin is available now.
great review! you’ve made me add it to my list! 😉
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Thanks and sorry for the new addition to your mountain 🤣
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Wonderful review! Sometimes, on rare occasions, everything is just right, it’s so great when that happens and you find an amazing new author!
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Thanks so much! You’re so right and isn’t it wonderful when you know from the first page that it’s going to be a great book?
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Definitely!
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Great review! This sounds really interesting, and I love that cover! 😍
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Thanks it was fantastic! One of those books that feels great from the first page 🙂
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Great review! I don’t think I’ve heard of this one, but I’ll definitely be adding it to my TBR!
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Thanks so much and great to ‘see’ you again 🙂
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This sounds wonderful and it even goes through so many time periods! Great review! 😀
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Thanks so much, it was great to relive those decades again 🙂
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This book sounds absolutely fantastic! Definitely adding it to my wishlist straight away… Fab review.
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Wow thanks hope you enjoy it as much as I did 😊
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It wasn’t on NG anymore otherwise I would have read it sooner. 😉
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It was archived a couple of days ago as it was published.
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Ah ok that explains it, although they got the date wrong then on NG because it said March something 2018… Oh well. 😉
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This sounds like a great book… and reading the blurb my heart ached for Dido. The atmosphere and setting sound perfect though! Great review 🙂
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Thanks it was a fab read! ☺
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Sounds like my kind of thing.
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Fab! 😊
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I think you’d really like it 🙂
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I LOVE the sound of this one. So, I will need to add it to my TBR.
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Fab! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did 😊
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