I’m limping to the reading finish line this year, and in order to get there, I’m choosing books that demand very little from me. Ghosts by Dolly Alderton fitted the bill nicely.

‘Chick-lit’… ‘Women’s fiction’… I’m not even sure what these labels mean now. When I was in my twenties, it meant you could walk into a book store, pick up a novel with a hot pink cover and a picture of a stiletto shoe on the front, and be sure that you would have a fun bit of reading ahead. This genre has not been my choice in the last 15 odd years, but 2020 seems to have changed all sorts of things.

Ghosts is a millennial version of Bridget Jones. Thirty-something single Nina is looking for love, and the story focuses around her friendships, relationship history, and what happens when people are at life different stages. The title plays into a couple of elements of the plot – ‘ghosting’, a phenomenon that I have been too old to experience but is apparently common on the dating scene; and the ‘ghosts’ of ourselves, which is explored in the context of relationships and also gently through the character of Nina’s father, who has been diagnosed with dementia. This theme speaks to the idea that we are ‘who we are’ in the context of our relationships, and interactions with others.

So much is how we perceive someone and the memories we have of them, rather than the facts of who they are. Maybe instead of saying ‘I love you’ we should say ‘I imagine you’.

The story follows all of the standard rom-com rules (what we’re looking for is often right in front of us; the more you look, the less you find; things that seem too good to be true, usually are) but we don’t read these books for complex plots. Instead, they’re the reading equivalent of comfort food – they offer familiarity, a sense of shared experience, reassurance that love will triumph.

Alderton’s writing is humorous without being overdone, with a lot of the fun coming via wry observations through Nina’s increasingly tarnished millennial lens. The descriptions of hen’s weekends, weddings, and friends telling birth stories were all particularly good.

This is what happens when people with children get too worked up for a night out – they tire themselves out with anticipation, set themselves up for a fall with their bravado, get stage fright then ultimately go home after two pints.

‘LADIEEEEES!’ we heard Franny wail from downstairs. ‘Time for some fizz!’
‘Fizz,’ I said. ‘That word is only ever used in a room of women who all secretly hate each other.’

Is Nina a bit too nice, a bit too accommodating? Perhaps. Either way, it was comforting to read a book that made me smile in places, and highlighted how brilliant female friendships can be.

3/5 A relaxing read.

I received my copy of Ghosts from the publisher, Penguin UK, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Nina works as a food writer, and begins work on a cookbook about the food we associate with childhood. I mentioned making flummery last week, so I’m pairing Ghosts with a flummery (which my Nan called ‘special jelly’ and her flourish was adding the pulp of a passionfruit).