Book Review: Isn’t it Nice We Both Hate the Same Things by Jessica Seaborn

Look, I love a story centred on a romance as much as the next girls, but something I’d really like to see (a lot) more of is books that look at the platonic loves of our lives. I don’t think friendship is given enough attention in literature – making friends, keeping friends, breaking up with friends, the whole. So you had better believe I jumped at the chance for an early copy of Jessica Seaborn’s new novel Isn’t It Nice We Both Hate the Same Things. Check out my thoughts below.

What is Jessica Seaborn’s Isn’t It Nice We Both Hate the Same Things about?

Charlie, a prime-time radio producer in her early thirties, has always had a big group of friends – until she left her husband, and they all sided with him. Now she finds herself floundering in a sea of awkward run-ins and silent group chats. When her best friend Genevieve starts moving on with her life, too, Charlie realises how few significant people she has around her, and what a lonely place that can be.

Dreading the prospect of returning to her childhood home for the anniversary of her father’s death, she busies herself by seeking new friendships – book clubs, pub crawls, team sports, the works. But Charlie’s determination to surround herself with unfamiliar people forces her to confront her insecurities. What kind of life does she want? And who does she really want to spend it with?

My review of Isn’t It Nice We Both Hate the Same Things

I said it up top – I genuinely believe that friendships deserve more attention in the media we consume. Making friends as an adult is HARD. Keeping friends as your worlds inch apart in your late 20s and early 30s is hard. This idea of losing your place in a friendship group if you break up from a partner is something I’ve seen happen to friends and family so often that I just can’t believe more people aren’t centring these experiences in books. In Isn’t It Nice We Both Hate the Same Things, Jessica Seaborn does exactly that and does it so well. I read Jessica’s first novel, Perfect-ish, and I have to say she has SUCH A KNACK for writing female protagonists who are pretty much equal parts endearing and infuriating. You want to shake them, but also you want to protect them because they feel like (maybe the most dysfunctional) bits of 3 different people you adore. So many times I thought “no you wouldn’t” at the very same moment as I was thinking of friends who absolutely would. To me, at least, her characters are somehow both absurd and so so relatable, unlikeable but undeniably charming all at the same time.

There were one or two things in this book that I thought were a little farfetched, but seeing Charlie’s relationship – the friends and the family and also the ex – all dealt with so nicely, AND seeing her learn something from each of these and coming out at the end having grown, made the book an engaging and satisfying read. I’d recommend this one for anyone looking for an honest and fun (and sometimes a bit sad and or cringeworthy) look at relationship dynamics beyond your 20s. Let me know if you check it out what you thought too.

xo Bron

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Isn’t It Nice We Both Hate the Same Things by Jessica Seaborn
Out now from Penguin Random House Australia
Source: I received a free ecopy (via NetGalley) from Penguin Random House Australia
Category: Contemporary fiction

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