Book Review: "Exciting Times" by Naoise Dolan

I have been buying some uplifting books such as Sally Rooney comedies and of course, the brilliant Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey. As you probably know, I've also been baking, making candles and just doing things to pep myself up a bit - yeah, I'm not doing too well even though it's close to Christmas. My mind is always against me. I thought that this was going to be one of those books - I got it for free on a 'buy three get one free' deal on a used bookshop website and so, I wasn't too concerned if it turned out not so great. But I really didn't expect it to be this bad.

I have a rule that I don't tend to review books I didn't like that much, but I feel like I've got some points to make about this one because it could have been a really interesting book, but then it just falls completely flat.

The book's narrator is a woman named Ava, she is young and vibrant and living in Hong Kong, working as a teacher who teaches English as a foreign language. First of all, Ava is 22 years' old which means that this gig that she's got would not really be open to people like her, especially as she says she works in a rich-kids' school. She's a bit too young for what she's doing and yet, the author runs with it anyway even though it feels unrealistic. I'm going to move that point to one side because you can quite easily ignore it. However, there are some things we cannot ignore and that's the bad writing.

The writing is very flat and becomes flatter as the book goes on for some reason. For example: when Ava first meets Julian and they hit things off, she starts to live in his apartment and they have a full on relationship, the language is actually pretty vibrant and the dialogue is believable. Be that as it may, as it goes on, Julian's speech becomes flatter and less involved, but then we get these mile-a-minute thoughts of the main character which really take you out of any moment you were meant to be in. I think the author believes she is making the main character look insightful whereas, it is actually really irritating and the reader ends up hating Ava.

Another thing I didn't understand is that she complains about the job that she is working and that it doesn't pay very well - apparently she is struggling a bit. My question is: if she's really 'struggling' then how is she going out for drinks literally all the time? How is she meeting people in bars every section or so? This is not the image of a struggling 20-something, this is the image of someone who doesn't know what struggling looks like. It is clear that Ava comes from a place of extreme privilege even though it goes unchecked throughout the book. Sorry, just because you had to work a waiting job doesn't mean you were once struggling. Everyone in their early 20s has some kind of demeaning job they hate.

As we get Edith intertwined in the story, we see a slight light. Edith's personality is at least something we can tolerate because sure as hell we cannot tolerate Julian's or Ava's. Julian is a banker, I get it, but that doesn't mean he has to be written as the most dull and faceless character in modern literature. But there was something about Ava which I'm not going to lie, it made me want to slap her out of anger - I know I can't slap a fictional character but here we are. She's just so unlikeable and I think the issue is that she is written like a five-year-old and feels like an infant literally all the time. If I was paying for my child to learn English at a prestigious school, I would not want a woman with the brain of a toddler teaching them.

The tone of the book is droning. It goes on and on about how 'different' Ava is but in reality, she is the most stock-character pick-me girl there is. The reviews often describe this book as 'funny' but I would definitely call it 'annoying'. The whole tone of the book was annoying and I felt annoyed after I read it. I was kind of glad I got it for free.