Are we riding a tsunami of twenty-something-angst-filled-relationship-stories-a-la-Sally-Rooney? I reckon we are. It’s the new version of Irish misery porn, and I’m okay with it. It’s ‘comfort reading’ – not overly challenging and largely predictable. None of This is Serious by Catherine Prasifka fits the mould.

The story follows Sophie and her friends. Their time as students in Dublin is coming to an end, and while many of them have figured out their next move, Sophie is at a loss.

I don’t want them to leave me behind for their shiny new adult lives. Nearly everyone is emigrating somewhere: London, New York, Sydney. Part of me wants to go with them; it would be nice to abandon my past life for a state of constant present.

Key to Sophie’s world is Grace, her charismatic and confident best friend; Finn, the boy she’s loved for the longest time; and Rory, who she’s only just met but begins flirting with via text messages.

I read and reread my message to make sure it reads okay and has the appropriate emojis and punctuation, and then send it. I think I’ve achieved a nice balance between it having no concrete meaning, and also controlling every possible meaning.

There’s an exquisite scene near the beginning of the story where Finn asks Sophie for relationship advice. Did you ever have someone you had a mad crush on talk to you about their relationships with someone else, and all the while you’re thinking, “What about me?! I’m right here, in front of you!” Anyway. Prasifka gets the dialogue and the pace just right, and it sets Sophie and her friends up as relatable and familiar.

The point-of-difference for None of This is Serious is a crack in the sky, which appears while Sophie is at a party. People’s responses to the crack are varied – curiosity, fear, awe and anxiety. Some become obsessed with it, others quickly ignore or forget about it. There are theories about the crack online, memes, and people pleading for the government to ‘do something’. Is the crack a metaphor for COVID? Or climate change? Maybe. It certainly provides an existential focus for Sophie’s anxiety, when perhaps the real concern is her finding work.

I scroll through the internet for a while, but it only makes me anxious. Everything’s about the crack; people are posting images on Instagram and sharing graphs on Twitter. Most of them haven’t labelled their axes, but they’re all red lines sharply rising and carefully crafted to ensure panic… I’m not sure when the internet ceased to be a place I could escape to, to get lost down rabbit holes and take care of virtual pets, but it does not offer me the same things any more. I have a feeling it’s to do with cyber and personal spaces melding, warping each other.

The crack also allows Prasifka a broader commentary on the role of social media. It occurred to me as I was reading that Sophie and her friends have essentially always had mobile phones and social media as part of their lives, and it forms an integral part of their friendships. In opting out of a relationship, Sophie feels she also must opt out of her online world, which therefore cuts her off from others. She observes –

I have messages that are unopened, but I don’t feel like chatting to anyone. I’m not convinced that people chat any more; they just watch the clock tick down until they can go to sleep again.

There are other elements to this story concerning Sophie’s relationships, particularly with her twin sister. Ultimately I couldn’t decide whether the magic realism added interest or was a distraction, but either way, this book delivered in exactly the way I expected.

I received my copy of None of This is Serious from the publisher, Canongate, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3/5 I’d read more from this author.

There’s very few specific food references in this book, although Sophie and Finn have French toast for breakfast.