Book Reviews
“Somewhere between personal memoir and commercial chick–lit lies a market inhabited by the thinking–woman's fiction. Lucy Beresford's Something I'm Not fits neatly into this category. Modern–day woman Amber has a successful career, an adoring husband and an abundant store of reliable friends. But it's not enough. As time goes on, all around her enter motherhood while she remains a spectator on the sidelines. The reader would be forgiven for assuming the novel follows a deliberately child–free woman's gradual maternal awakening. Indeed this is the direction the author seems to be heading when her protagonists's stoicism falters as all around her embrace parenthood.”
“Refreshingly, Beresford steers Amber down a different path. Hints embedded in the early stages of her novel point to the more complex problem at the root of Amber's unhappiness. The resulting story is not so much about one woman's struggle with her lack of maternal instinct but rather the unearthing of complexities that have created it. By avoiding the predictable, change–of–heart plotline the author has raised the bar. As Amber struggles to denounce the emotional limitations imposed by her family history, Beresford addresses one of the most universally–recognisable subjects – the mother–daughter relationship – with a heartbreaking tenderness and clarity the belies her relative inexperience as a debuting author.”
From IMAGE Magazine | Book of the Month | March 2008