TITLE & AUTHOR: Nina Is Not OK by Shappi Khorsandi
I was given this ARC by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. WHAT'S IT'S ABOUT PUBLISHER: Ebury Press
EDITION: HardcoverOPENING
WHAT I THOUGHT PUBLISHED: Expected 28 July 2016
PAGES: 320 pages
Nina does not have a drinking problem. She likes a drink, sure. But what 17-year-old doesn't?
Nina's mum isn't so sure. But she's busy with her new husband and five year old Katie. And Nina's almost an adult after all.
And if Nina sometimes wakes up with little memory of what happened the night before, then her friends are all too happy to fill in the blanks. Nina's drunken exploits are the stuff of college legend.
But then one dark Sunday morning, even her friends can't help piece together Saturday night. All Nina feels is a deep sense of shame that something very bad has happened to her...
The burly bouncer was holding me by the scruff of the neck. I always thought that was a figure of speech, but he had a scruff in his hand and was marching me towards the exit.
Nina Is Not OK is an astounding novel. I'm sobbing as I write this, the kind when you can't see and snot runs down your face, the kind of sobbing you get when a book reaches into your body and rips out your guts and your heart. This is definitely one of my reads of 2016. Nina is a complicated and painfully real character and I instantly sympathised with her. It's clear from the start that she has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. I drank a lot, many years ago though nowhere near as much as Nina. I could see shades of who I used to be in her though which gave me a very emotional connection to the book. The book turns out a lot darker than I expected in the final chapters and I really didn't see what was coming. Well done to the author to knocking the wind out of me. Nina Is Not OK is fantastic. Highly recommended.
