Product Description

To her friends, Amber leads the perfect life with her successful marriage, powerful job in London and her immaculate style. But as more of her friends fall pregnant, and her best friend Dylan announces his decision to adopt a baby with his gay lover, Amber's carefully structured world begins to fall apart. Intricately crafted and sensually evocative, 'Something I m Not' is a sharp, contemporary novel that discusses the way the psychological scars of the past pass through the generations of a family. With a charming and complex heroine, a group of friends heading towards midlife, some of whom are only just finding out who they really are, 'Something I m Not' is a subtle novel that poses the questions most women are too afraid to ask.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #278831 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
A complex odyssey that is ambitious in scope, carefully structured and highly accessible. It trumpets the courage needed to make - and stand by - difficult, life-defining decisions, as well as the hereditary effects of unresolved trauma and the importance of friends to our mental well-being … Negotiate[s] all this without resorting to psychobabble or sentimentality, and still boast[s] authenticity and poignancy. --The Sunday Telegraph

Sparkling … Amber is a strong and sympathetic heroine and her friends are well-rounded individuals and recognisable contemporary types … Beresford's deft plotting and warm and witty writing makes this an assured debut. --The Daily Mail

If you've had enough of reading about yummy mummy, this tale of one woman's missing maternal urges provides a welcome antidote to the glut of babbling baby books … there are no dribbling anti-child clichés in this heartfelt take on how friends can be the new family. A refreshing and thought provoking peak at people who'd rather have a cat flap than a kid. --Handbag.com

The Daily Mail
'Sparkling ... Bereford's deft plotting and warm and witty writing makes this an assured debut'

The Literary Review
'Shrewdly characterised and written with verve'

Customer Reviews

A Brilliant Read
I thoroughly enjoyed Lucy's book as it is such a refreshing change for an author to write about couples who don't want children, rather than those that do and to examine the psychology behind that choice in a detailed and rivetting way. There is definitely NOT a Mother in every woman and that should be something that is taught to us from an early age, in order for human beings to have the psychological freedom to express themselves in which ever way they choose. Lucy is a very progressive author and I look forward to more novels and factual works which tackle controversial and taboo subjects. 5 STAR!

Disappointing on so many levels
I bought this book based on the other rave reviews. However, I was left feeling very disappointed and dissatisfied. If you're childfree and looking for a fiction book that champions your own decision, this is unlikely to be the book you're looking for.

*** Potential spoilers***

There were too many unresolved issues at the end of the book:

A huge breach of trust between Amber and her husband was never brought-up/resolved. After a while, Amber never even thought about it.

Her decision to help her friends in the way she did was never properly explored, it just appeared out of the blue and so seemed tagged on at the end.

I couldn't understand why she was willing to help said friends after what had happened between her and the husband - he didn't seem the kind of man she'd want to help in this way.

Nothing more is said about her career!

The main character, Amber, is difficult to like. Also, I was unconvinced that her psych husband would be willing to put up with someone who had such low self-esteem.

Something we all face at some time?
This book is about feelings, it's a commentary, it's about how we face crises and it's a mystery that has you turning the pages. It's all of these things and it's entertaining too, with a sharp sense of humour. And there is a satisfying twist or two along the way.

The main character, Amber, has it all and congratulates herself on the choices she made early in life. Then her composure is chipped away at with increasing speed as her circle of close friends brood, become pregnant or otherwise become overtaken by thoughts of parenthood. She experiences loss - current and past - and is forced to face her feelings towards her mother. She finds herself at the centre of a series of increasingly outrageous and climatic incidents as she begins to lose control.

I'd tell you more but that would give so much away ........