Book Review: "Best Woman" by Rose Dommu

If you're looking around a bookshop and can't find anything you like then go to the 'trending' shelf and just pick a random thing without thinking about it, take it to a chair and start reading. If you read more than ten pages in one sitting, get the book. That's a rule that I think is quite good to follow. This is how I managed to find Best Woman by Rose Dommu. I wasn't looking for anything, I couldn't find anything I was meant to be looking for and so, I went to the 'trending' shelf and picked up the first thing I saw. I regret nothing.

Julia is a transgender woman and starting her life journey in a world where her family is pretty supportive and her life seems to be stable. The problem is that her past is about to come and punch her in the face. She's getting ready to go to a wedding and needless to say, even though she isn't getting married, she's got quite an important role to play. One thing I liked about the way this book opened is that it gets underway with the emotions, the messiness and the friendships almost immediately. It is a correct analysis of this book to say that it feels like a 90s rom-com, if 90s rom-coms were actually any good. This book starts happy and fun and so, once you start reading it, it becomes pretty damn addictive.

Popular culture mentions litter the book as almost time-stamp-like entities. I tend to prefer this to something like 'it was [insert year here]' every now and again. This is because it allows the reader to disappear into the era as opposed to trying to imagine it for themselves. Yes, I'm talking about references to Lana Del Rey (that I was very happy to see). I also think that the writer is definitely trying to be subtle about the timing. It's clearly something more millennial related and yet, there is no real confirmation. Be that as it may, there's time-stamps within the story in which we have a present timeline and then a 'four years' ago' subheading among others. Everything that happens exist within the timeline. It's much easier to read than having a time-stamp and then having the characters exist within it and only after this, trying to move the timeline around.

In the various timelines, we get questions about sexuality and the way in which it could be considered fluid. However, a person from the past turning up again after a few years who once, kind of came out as bisexual and then again, kind of didn't. I love the way this scene is written because the person in question (Kim Cameron) says that she is bisexual but it almost feels like a question rather than a statement. This act of learning for us puts us on edge about Kim's personality and makes us hanker on to Julia's judgement more even though we have been shown time again by this point that her judgement isn't perfect either.

One thing this book does well is that it structures itself well. We get memories and flashbacks but also we get the present day in which we can see that Julia must tell lies in order to get her way. We love her but we don't necessarily agree with her lying as it quickly begins to snowball. With her parents going through their own thing and her brother getting married, there's a lot going on. But as Kim walks back into Julia's life and they begin to see each other slightly differently under slightly different circumstances. Whilst the attraction between them is somewhat fleeting, it becomes more serious and that's when the lies begin.

I have to say that if this book does anything is it teaches the reader that there is still a market for something of comedic, culturally relevant novels which are quirky, funny and sometimes sad. The writing is easy to read and makes for great immersive experience for a Sunday afternoon. The characters are wholly likeable (most of the time) and in the end, we actually want things to be resolved. We feel like these characters are almost like our friends and so, we want them to be alright. To know there's still a market for this literature (me), must be pretty cool for all involved.