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

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This book does get compared to Sally Rooney’s books (Conversations with Friends and Normal People). I’m a big Sally Rooney fan and there is merit to that comparison. The writing style, tone, and pacing are similar in a way. It's a thoughtful, compelling story of friendship and finding happiness. In many ways Expectation is a story of ordinary life and the triumphs we can find in each day. I found it realistic and thought-provoking. I read this slowly and chewed on it, and I sincerely appreciate the author’s messages. The best thing about Expectation, the debut contemporary novel from actress/writer Anna Hope, is its honesty. All too often, fiction about female friendships goes to either side of the spectrum: either the women love each other so much that they’d never dream of falling out, or they are bitchy and catty and constantly at each other’s throats. Expectation is a lot more realistic. There’s an essential love between Lissa, Cate and Hannah that underpins everything. They enjoy spending time together; they care about what happens to one another.

Expectation - Penguin Books UK

Cate is ravaged by new motherhood: both by sleep deprivation and the weight of maternal expectation. Subjected to the interference of an overbearing mother-in-law and the relentless demands of a young baby, her relationship with her partner, Sam, is increasingly distant: “This is the pattern of their evenings. A little passive-aggressive banter and then separate computers on separate chairs.” Mulle meeldis eriti raamatu lõpp. Just see, et hoolimata kõigest suutsid nad lõpuks siiski oma ootustega ja purunenud lootustega rahu teha. Vähemalt suuremas osas. Kuidas see ütlus ongi, et inimene teeb plaane ja Jumal naerab. See ongi lugu täpselt sellest. Ma ütleks, et see on väga eluline raamat. An intimate, bracingly intelligent debut novel about a millennial Irish expat who becomes entangled in a love triangle with a male banker and a female lawyer Eks meil kõigil ole oma ootused, kuidas elu peaks kulgema ja mis ajaks me peaks olema midagi saavutanud jne jne. Aga kui tihti need ootused ja lootused tegelikult täituvad? Siin raamatus on kolme naise lugu just nendest ootustest ja sellest, mis siis tegelikult kõigest välja tuli. But life is complicated, and so are relationships, especially when they span decades. Time takes a toll. Little annoyances can become big over the years; resentments can fester. Few obstacles are more difficult for a friendship than when someone gets easily what someone else is struggling so hard to achieve, like Cate’s new baby and Hannah’s torturous battle to become pregnant. Both women are aware of the awkwardness of the situation, and they try to ride it out, but some things are hard to overlook. That they can’t be honest with each other about how they really feel makes proper communication impossible. It’s perhaps the most relatable aspect of this book – not everyone will have been in that exact situation, and yet everyone knows what it’s like to not be able to say what you want to a friend for fear of hurting their feelings. It isn’t fun.

4. After I Do - Taylor Jenkins Reid

This story chronicles around a year in their lives, and the changing dynamics between each of them. Hannah and Cate were best friends before college, and Lissa joined their group in college. Each woman has something the other wants—Lissa has freedom, Hannah has success, and Cate has a family. As time goes on, the balance of friendships continue to shift, as jealousies and arguments push them away and, sometimes, bring them closer together. I found it fascinating to read about their ever-evolving friendship and the conflicts simmering under the surface, both interpersonal and individual. The struggles that each woman is facing are so relatable and understandable. It was kind of cathartic to read—to see the passage of time and how a friendship might stretch, change, deepen, or fade. Instead.... sexual energy was passed between them. Seems Nathan was the one who did the influencing— Hannah, Cate and Lissa are young, vibrant and inseparable. Living on the edge of a common in East London, their shared world is ablaze with art and activism, romance and revelry - and the promise of everything to come. They are electric. They are the best of friends.

Expectation by Anna Hope - Culturefly Book Review: Expectation by Anna Hope - Culturefly

Welcome to Symptoms of Living! A place where I like to relieve myself of the barrage of thoughts and ideas filling my mind. Here I'll take a look at various topics, from books to BPD, series to self-harm, there's nothing that we can't, and shouldn't, talk about. Cate, the only one of the three who is a mother is drowning in her new role-expected by everyone to be doing better at it than she is, she is absolutely struggling with her son. Her husband and mother in law expect more of her than she can give to motherhood, she feels she has lost herself in this-no one has told her that this is a natural way to feel so she sleepwalks through the days.

1. Expectation - Anna Hope

I strongly resent the narrative absence of it being okay to not want to be a mom. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that the only character who doesn’t have a kid is the one who is villainized and made to suffer repeatedly. And, that is just not freaking okay. Lissa thinks) “there’s bugger all between thirty and fifty, not just in Chekhov, but in everything else. Perhaps in life. Perhaps this is it – Womanhood. The Wasteland Years.” Expectation was the satisfying, complex yet somehow airy, read that I want right now. We follow three friends from college, Hannah, Lissa and Cate, who are now in their late thirties. Chapters alternate perspectives between the three women. There are also a few chapters interspersed throughout the book that tell how they all met, and memories from when they were younger. Cate struggles with new motherhood, because... you know, raising a tiny human is hard, but whatev, she loves her kid. It turns out okay once she admits that she needs to self-care as well as childcare. Hers is by far my fave of the three major story lines. But, there is an aspect of the narrative that I am incredibly angry about. And, sorry to say that is pretty much all that is going to follow in this review. It seems to me that the author left no room in the narrative for a woman to be okay with being childless.

Expectation | Anna Hope | Review | Swirl and Thread Expectation | Anna Hope | Review | Swirl and Thread

The linoleum is peeling and the carpets are stained, but these things don’t matter when a house is so loved.

2. Beautiful World, Where Are You? - Sally Rooney

A generation-defining book on motherhood, ambition and sex. Like NORMAL PEOPLE with female friendship under the microscope.' ERIN KELLY This, to Lissa, seems to be the main thing that university teaches you – how to bullshit convincingly. The better the university, the better the bullshit.” As each woman longs for what the others seemingly possess, will their bonds of friendship sustain them in this liminal phase of their lives—or will their envy and desire tear them apart?” - Expectation 2. Beautiful World, Where Are You? - Sally Rooney I’m conflicted about this book. Mostly, I enjoyed reading it – the focus on female friendships was great, the story lines were all interesting and felt realistic. I enjoyed the setting, the dialogue, and the prose is occasionally really lovely... The characters in Anna Hope’s Expectationmight identify. While none of Hope’s three woman protagonists have the eventful past of Florence Welch, they face a similar dilemma. The book opens on an urban pastoral of the three close friends living out the tail end of their youth in London Fields. When we then fast forward to 2010, there’s a definite contracting of freedom and possibility. Life has become smaller, and dominated by young dreams that have turned into obsessions. Lissa aspires to Hollywood but makes do with commercials and community theatre, Hannah wants a child but can’t conceive, Cate has been priced out of London and is living a dull suburban life in the Home Counties.

The White Rock: From the bestselling author of The Ballroom

Successful Hannah, married to Nathan would kill to be in Cate's shoes as she undertakes another round of IVF. Her expectation of being able to get pregnant has been cruelly dashed and her marriage is reduced to her ability to conceive, this need has become all consuming. They always say that you learn from your mistakes, but can I just learn from the mistakes of fictional characters instead? Can I watch where this road leads and then decide whether I’ll take a different direction? That’s the magic of reading; it’s like one big game of “what if…”; it’s like a daydream that’s been scripted for you. So it turns out that the line I quoted earlier, a line I read as sarcastic - nothing beats Hannah's pain - was in fact meant sincerely. According to this book, there really is nothing worse than being childless, and it's Lissa who deserves our pity in the end. It's Lissa who missed out, Lissa who made the wrong choice, Lissa who gets left behind while the other two holiday together in France. In much the same way that memory and self-analysis do not follow linear trajectories, the reader must piece together the fragments of these women’s lives, to understand how their choices, their personalities, their gender and the society they inhabit have contributed to the lives they have led. Devastatingly perceptive and emotionally wise, Expectation deserves to feature on many a book prize shortlist this year. The wildly funny, occasionally heartbreaking internationally bestselling memoir about growing up, growing older, and learning to navigate friendships, jobs, loss, and love along the ride

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It is a beautifully resonant novel that grips your heart,I think it will take many re-readings to entirely grasp the enormity of what Anna Hope is saying whilst feeling that the women , with their individual paths, will echo with the female reader more acutely at different stages of their lives. The carelessness of Hannah’s statement...a luxury gift that came so easily to Cate, made Hannah furious, but she’d said nothing. Hannah is the Godmother to Cate and Sam’s baby They work hard. They go to the theater. They go to galleries. They go to the gigs a friends’ bands. They eat in Vietnamese restaurants. They drink free beer and wine The bike everywhere all the time and rarely wear helmets. They go to the flower market everything morning on Sundays.