Tag: tell me everything

Tell Me Everything is a novel about a therapist who needs to work out what she wants in life and what she's avoiding dealing with. Natasha has been living with her ex-girlfriend for ages, going on dates, drinking too much, and feeling like a mess. Her twin sister Natalie seems to have much more in order. Not that her clients know this: as a therapist, she has boundaries. When she moves in with an old friend and meets Margot at an event she's running, it seems like Natasha is pushed even further, unsure whether to deal with the past or look towards the future.

I was expecting this book to be more of a romcom, but actually, it's more of a feel good read about a protagonist who needs to repair relationships and take some of the advice she might tell her clients. There's a lot of characters with their own little dramas—like Natasha's friend Poppy whose perfect work and boyfriend might not be perfect—but the centre of the book is Natasha's own ability to control her life, rather than let things—especially her love life—spiral. Though the title centres around Natasha's job as a therapist, the book isn't really about that, especially later on, but really focuses on her relationships with other people, including her twin sister, mum, and estranged dad, as well as friends, ex-girlfriend, and new people she meets.

Her relationship with her sister is particularly good, with the book not falling into the trap of making them antagonistic twins because they're different, but instead making them close, and Natasha clearly cares a lot about her sister but also her sister's children. The plotline around Natasha and Natalie reconnecting with their dad, who came out as gay and left when they were children, is very sweet, and unsurprisingly ties in with Natasha's own issues. I also really liked Charlie, one of Natasha's best friends and a fellow therapist, especially the way that they call Natasha out for being a bad friend, but are also there for her when she needs it.

The ending doesn't resolve everything, but does bring together a happy ending that is comfortingly predictable (though one element is purposefully a little bit of a twist). Like Laura Kay's previous book The Split, this is the sort of easy read that brings LGBTQ stories to the feel good light fiction genre.