Review: Confessions of a Forty-something F##k Up

Confessions of a Forty-something F##k Up by Alexandra Potter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Re-Print/Re-Issue

I'm not sure how I feel about this novel. I don't know if I should be offended or jump up and down with glee. I suppose I could say I'm a 65 (soon to be 66) year-old f**k up since I never had kids. But I know I'm not. I have to question why age 40 seemed to be the catalyst since I found my 40's to be the best years of my life---but that is just me.

What I didn't like was the angst. I understand why it was needed; I grasp the fact that it is used to get the point across that Nell felt like a failure because she didn't have what she thought was 'the' perfect life. And for this, I blame the internet! For the first 3/4 of the book, I just felt so totally depressed both for Nell and for myself! If it wasn't for 80-something Cricket and Nell's landlord Edward, I might have given up on this book before I finished.

What I did like was Cricket-I adored her. She proves that with age comes wisdom and belief in yourself. You still may f**k up, but it is on your terms now! The ending was a little pat, one that could be seen a mile away, but I applaud the author's trip down this road.

The happy ending wasn't as perfect as some would have liked, but I think it strengthened the book. It would have been too much had Nell's life turned into that false interpretation of what a happy life should be.

This book is a little deep to be a typical beach read, but it is still worth it.

*ARC supplied by the publisher Harper, the author, and NetGalley and Edelweiss.


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SYNOPSIS: "Nell Stevens’ life is a mess.

When her business goes bust and her fiancé with it, Nell’s happy ever after in California falls apart and she moves back to London to start over. But a lot has changed since she’s been gone. All her single friends are now married with children, sky-high rents force her to rent a room in a stranger’s house and in a world of perfect instagram lives, she feels like a f*ck up. Even worse, a forty-something f*ck-up.

But when she lands a job writing obituaries, Nell meets the fabulous Cricket, an eighty-something widow with challenges of her own, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys.

Because Nell is determined. Next year things are going to be very different. It's time to turn her life around.

A book for anyone who’s ever worried life isn’t going to plan, Confessions of a Forty-Something F##k Up by Alexandra Potter will make you laugh and it might even make you cry. But most importantly, it will remind you that you're not alone, because we’re all in this together.

Time to fall in love with your life.