Expectation: The most razor-sharp and heartbreaking novel of the year

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Candice has an incredible writing style, very personal and mimetic of an individual’s thought process. Instead, she finds a lot of group therapy, which leads her, against her will, to some important self-knowledge.

Expectation - Penguin Books UK

It is a compelling and thought-provoking study of three women: Cate, a new mum struggling with the responsibilities of motherhood, an overbearing mother-in-law and a partner who is becoming more distant by the day; Hannah, apparently successful and living a comfortable life with her university lecturer husband but in fact focussing wholly on her IVF treatment and wracked with grief because she cannot conceive; and Lissa, short for Melissa, a failing actress who sees herself as ‘the sum total…of her failures’. It’s an ambitious structure, and one that demands the reader’s attention, but is all the more satisfying for it. In a nutshell: I’m not saying it’s profound or even very memorable, but it’s relatable and enjoyable, and it made me sad that I don’t have any really close girlfriends. In London, Hannah and her academic husband Nathan have been trying to have a baby via IVF for years and are considering giving up, though Hannah is still desperate to become a mother. When they recommend which books women should read or people in their twenties, they consistently mention non-fiction titles, without a novel in sight.New mum Cate, struggling to hold it together in those difficult early months, admits that she sometimes wonders whether having a child was the wrong choice for her; this infuriates Hannah, who responds by curtly advising Cate to "see the doctor" and "take some pills".

Book Review: Expectation // Anna Hope : The Indiependent

Hope's novel is being compared to Sally Rooney's award–winning 'Normal People', but I personally found this author’s lower-key writing style more accessible and her characters rather more believable. Mostly, I enjoyed reading it – the focus on female friendships was great, the story lines were all interesting and felt realistic. The plot never really felt like it was going anywhere, I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, and hated quite a few of them, and I feel like the novel missed so many opportunities to explore really interesting topics. The point is that Hannah struck me as a selfish and excessively single-minded character, and I was looking forward to seeing her grow. I am a big Marian Keyes fan, and earlier this year, I devoured four of her books within a month, and they’re pretty big!Expectation follows three friends: Hannah, Cate and Lissa, who, through flashbacks, are shown to be close friends but ten years on, when the story starts, none of the girls are where they hoped to be in life. The action speeds up once you get to the last third of the book, but in its way it’s a supremely contemplative novel – the brisk progression of events seems to give you a faith in the natural processes of time and age and youth and death. It was shortlisted for France’s Prix Femina award and won the Grand Prix des Lectrices ELLE award in 2018. There is almost a musical cadence at times which, despite the thought-provoking content, makes it a very comfortable read. And without giving anything away, I was disheartened by how little the novel seemed to value both creative practice and childlessness.

Expectation Quotes by Anna Hope - Goodreads Expectation Quotes by Anna Hope - Goodreads

The specific plot twists are slightly predictable, a few threads aren’t investigated as fully as they might be (Cate’s history with Lucy, chiefly) and I didn’t always feel as close to the main characters as I wanted to – first-person narration might have been better for creating that intimacy. Mostly, this book left me disappointed that this may be some people’s experience of female friendship and thankful for my own friends. It promises to explore female friendship, but is yet another story of women who don't really have each others' backs; all of them screw the rest over at one time or another.Once Nathan's infidelity had come to her attention, I was ready to see her learn that there's more to life than reproduction - that a life can be worth living even without children. All three women are now trying to come to terms with the reality of life as it is, compared with their youthful dreams and expectations, and the reader comes to understand how each is the sum of her experience; how the choices they have made against the backdrop of the society in which they exist, have all led to the present. What annoyed me the most was the fact that after Nathan cheats on Hannah and comes back to collect his things, she sleeps with him and that’s how she finally gets pregnant.

Expectation: The most razor-sharp and heartbreaking novel of

It is about three women, who are long-time friends, and the narrative jumps not only from one to another but also backwards and forwards across the thirty years of their friendship, meaning the reader must piece together all the fragments. There's even a bit where Lissa brings up her abortion and dutifully bursts into tears, because heaven forbid that a woman terminate her pregnancy and not regret it later. Both authors deal with frustrating characters and their inane and complicated relationships with each other.I have certainly had journalists bemoan to me ‘the lack of rock stars behaving like rock stars’, but hedonism never gave me the freedom I desired. The woman so desperate for a child she ‘drives her husband away’ and the restless suburban mum who regrets settling so soon, felt clichéd.