Book review: The Flat Share

 The Flat Share, Beth O’Leary

My rating: 5/5 stars

Read: 8-9/12/2020

I know I’m late to the party with this one. It’s been out for a year but I only just picked it up. While Christmas shopping I found it in a 3 for £5 deal. So, I had to get it. Then, while in a reading slump with Girl, Woman, Other I decided to pick it up to get me back into reading. And, wow, I am glad I did. This may well be one of my favourite books of all time now.

            I picked it up, having heard it brandished as a fun read, and wholesome, from Booktube and Bookstagram. So, I thought it would be the perfect thing to get me out of my reading slump. It was, and more. The Flat Share really exceeded every expectation I had for it. We are first introduced to Tiffy hunting for a flat, and the idea that there is this night/day split flat share available. Then we hear from Leon, the one who is renting his flat out during the night and weekends.

The thing that really hooked me, was the depth of the characters. Leon and Tiffy have such different perspective voices. Tiffy is overthinking, overexplaining, crazy, and comical. Leon is precise, regimented, almost thinks in shorthand. What I’m trying to say is that O’Leary truly makes you feel like you are inside these characters’ heads even from the first time you meet them. The distinct voices add a touch of freshness to the reader’s experience, because we get to take a break from each character and visit another side of the city. In the later half of the novel, when our characters’ stories become more intertwined, hearing both sides of the same situations doesn’t feel repetitive, it only seeks to complete the whole picture. It invests the reader in the story: we are thrust right in between the story, willing it onwards.

            Once I was 50 pages in to this book, I genuinely could not stop reading. I kept reading until it was finished, which resulted in a very late night which only sought to make the next day’s “book hangover” even worse. My brain feels like I’ve watched Tiffy and Leon in their flat, in Brighton (by the way I totally saw Johnny White the sixth coming!), in the hospice, and I keep wanting to ‘continue watching’ before I realise that I can’t. This will definitely be a re-read.

            Unlike many popular books with a romantic relationship premise, and a wholesome feel, this book really does touch on some serious topics. We have heartbreak, terminally ill patients, family problems, relationship breakdown, incarceration, trauma, PTSD, emotional abuse and manipulation. It really shouldn’t be a ‘light’ read. However, the way O’Leary deals with these topics, through having our characters realise them, have help around them, and communicate their problems, means it somehow doesn’t feel too heavy. At least, it didn’t for me. Tiffy deals with her problems with support from friends, co-workers, therapy, and Leon says the right things when these problems surface at different occasions, in different ways. The line from this book that I found most ground-breaking was Leon’s response to one of these reactions: ‘You want space, or a hug?’. This simple line was a great insight into how to help someone going through a trauma or difficult situation. Ask them what they need right in that second from you. Do they need to rant, or be quiet, a hug, or space? It was true to Leon’s character, as well as an important response to the issues raised in the book.

            The whole book feels well thought out, properly executed, with easy reading, but important plot points. I am so glad it was written. I can’t wait to read more of O’Leary’s work.

 

Ellen Victoria