If she's demented then so are half the population (Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife - Niamh Greene)

Member Name: abbadabbado

Product:	Secret Diary of a Demented Housewife - Niamh Greene
Date:	08/06/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a light read

Disadvantages: slow to start

I was passed a copy of secret Diary of a demented housewife by a friend as they thought I might enjoy it after mentioning I like reading chick lit.
The book is based around Susie Hunt, a thirty something wife or Joe, mother of Katie and Jack living in Dublin. Written in diary format, the book spans across almost a whole year in which obviously a lot can happen.
I hadn't realised the format was a diary when I first accepted the book. I'm not usually a fan of reading someone's diary but I decided to give it a go. I'll point out now that I have started this book twice and put it down again at the bottom of my pile before finally going back to it and persevering to the end.

Susie's life is typical of a stay at home mum. She gave up her career to being up her children whilst suffering husband Joe is working hard to climb the career ladder and make a good life for them. Susie seems to have a lot of issues with her life. She's not happy with her weight, her children being inferior to other children, her lack of sex life with hubby, as well as the token interfering mother in law.
As the reader you learn a lot about Susie when you start to persevere through the book. In the beginning not a lot is explained well enough to really grip you as a reader.
I spent a lot of the book feeling quite sorry for Susie. She seems to spend her days either shopping or clearing up after hr children. She also appears to do a lot of it on her own with Joe working long hours. The lack of friends in Susie's life is quite sad as her best friend and it appears her only friend is a single career woman who doesn't have a lot of time for Susie's home life tales.

There are a lot of different aspects happening in Susie's life as you would expect by reading a busy mother's diary. Some things that happened I thought were quite far fetched and would never happen, but it all contributed to the reading and the build up to the end which I am pleased to say ends happily for Susie. By that time I was decided she deserved something good to happen to her.
If you think of all the mundane things that bringing up small children can bring, as well as a few exciting aspects that only fantasies may bring, you'll find a few of them in this book.

Overall I thought the author wrote the book well, and despite the slow start which really is worth persevering through, you really get to know Susie as a person and most people will find something to relate to her with. I know I did on a couple of aspects.
I liked the way the diary entries for each day were quite short and didn't fluff on about nothing. The main points of the day were relayed and told in a good but basic manner.
Before I knew it once I had gotten past the beginning the book seemed to flow well with the months turning into each other. The book itself is just over 300 pages long which isn't exactly a long novel by any means. I do think perhaps it could have been condensed down slightly. The last couple of months of the book seemed to drag out with the same story line happening in Susie's life.

If you like reading diary formats then give this a go, but doo keep on wit it if you find the beginning slow.

ISBN: 978-1844881369
Published: Oct 2007
Price: Amazon £5.49

Summary: an average chick lit book that gets better