There are always three sides to every story! (The Other Side Of The Story - Marian Keyes)

Member Name: Brown_eyes1984

Product:	The Other Side Of The Story - Marian Keyes
Date:	09/04/05 (1156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Really enjoyable, well developed characters, captures emotions

Disadvantages: none

With eight other bestsellers under her belt, Marian Keyes has unsurprisingly done it again with her newest novel 'The Other Side Of The Story'. Having read only 'Angels' by Marian, I was unsure of what to expect as, although Angels was good, it wasn't outstanding and when I bought this I was looking forward to seeing if there was more to Marian than what I'd seen so far.


*** Plot ***

Gemma, JoJo and Lily are all successful women who are linked to each other in different ways.

Jojo the high flying literary agent is constantly watching out for promotion and trying to keep her complicated love life with her married boss a secret. Always on the lookout for fresh new talent, she was thrilled when she managed to get new author 'Lily Wright' to bestseller status.

Lily Wright, new bestselling author of 'Mimi's Remedies' lives with the love of her life Anton. Together they have a child named Ema, and they live in a not so glamorous flat while Lily struggles to write another bestseller. Knowing that her and her families happiness depends on how well her next book does, and the guilt of her shattered relationship with her ex best friend 'Gemma Hogan', Lily struggles to keep everything together.

Gemma Hogan is still bitter after Lily stole the love of her life and now with her dad leaving her mum for a younger model, her only place to turn to is the internet. Through various e-mails to her friend abroad, Gemma's funny stories get noticed by literary agent Jojo Harvey who decides to take Gemma on as a client.

With three sides to every story, these three women are soon to find out that what goes around comes around, and revenge is something that sometimes has it's own way of doing things.

*** My Opinion On... ***

Here you will find my thoughts on everything from the style of the book to how much I enjoyed it and how the characters developed throughout. Hopefully this will give you the best possible chance of knowing whether or not this book is for you.

1) The Story

When you first read the blurb on the back the story doesn't sound too much different from any other women's fiction ,and in a lot of ways it isn't. The story tells of three women, Jojo, Gemma and Lily. Each have been scorned in their own way though each with a completely different personality. This was refreshing to me as I've read some books that make characters only a little different from each other and that to me isn't really a good thing. I like seeing different characters developing over time, it gets a little boring if they are all the same.

Luckily though, although it isn't a very original story, it isn't predictable. There are a few shocks thrown in along the way just when you think you know what it going to happen. A lot of female fiction (just like chick flicks), can be a little bit too predictable and instead of leaving you with a happy feeling, you end up wanting a sick bucket because you've seen the same ending so many times before.

Another thing to know is that it isn't soppy. There are a few soppy moments but nothing like it could be. It's more grown up but still keeping a kind of young at heart feeling going. The romances that are in there are more complicated and messy just like in real life and not even the ending changes that.

The way it is written I think many women will be able to identify with it. The story isn't unbelievable and in fact a lot of things that happen to the three women, actually happen quite a lot in real life so I can see how a lot of women will be able to relate to it.

So if you're not wanting to read a soppy book but still want a bit of easy reading then this is definitely for you.

2) The Layout and Wording

This book is split into three parts and is quite a big book with 648 pages. For me this isn't a problem as I love big books, they are better value for money I think.

The chapters are never too long so it's easy to just finish a chapter if you need to quickly, before carrying on with something else.

I like the way the book tells the story of the three women. Some people may be guessing that because there are three parts to the book, there must be one different part for each woman. However, you would be wrong! Each different part has all three girls in but it separates them by leaving a page with just their name on in bold, and then telling their story on the next pages, for example:

page 1- * Gemma *
Pages 2 -38 - A bit of Gemma's story
Page 39 - * Lily *
Pages 40-73 - Lily's story

Not too complicated but I can see how it might confuse people. I personally liked the layout and thought it was split really well into all it's little sections.

The wording is also easy to understand. There are no long and complicated words and the paragraphs are set out well. I spotted no mistakes in the wording which was nice because for the last couple of books I've read before this one, I've noticed quite a few spelling mistakes or places where spaces were supposed to be but were missing.

All in all, I like the layout of the book and think splitting it into parts was a good idea and it worked really well.

3) It's Enjoyability

Lately it seems to be taking me around a couple of chapters to get into books but this one was an exception. It only took me a couple of pages until I was really interested in the story. It was easy to read and quite lighthearted which was exactly what I was in the mood for.

As I said, I really liked the layout and I feel that it made the book easier to read and therefore more enjoyable.

By part two I was absolutely hooked and the thing I liked about the book was it had me laughing, feeling sad, shocked and also feeling angry at some of the characters. A book that can make me have all those emotions is definitely a great one if you ask me!

So although I wouldn't say this is the best book I've ever read, it was definitely enjoyable and had me hooked by part two!

4) The Characters

I've already mentioned that the characters are easy to relate to but lets find out a bit more about what I thought about them.

First of all I fell in love with Lily (in a platonic sense of course!). She was kind, caring and a naturally good person who hated hurting others and although she did something I'm completely against (stealing somebody elses man), I could not help but like her and forget about that. She was a very down to earth character and extremely easy to relate to.

Gemma was to me, the most mixed up woman in the three stories though she was still easy to relate to in a lot of ways. She hates Lily for stealing her man, she seems the youngest at heart to me and she can be quite confusing at times.

Jojo is in a complicated situation and sadly one that a lot of women find themselves in. She has a lot of guilt about splitting up her married bosse's family but at the same time she wants to be with the man she loves. She is very ambitious and really wants to be promoted. For me she was the least I could identify with.

I don't want to go in to too much detail as to how the characters are because I feel part of the fun of reading a book is seeing how a character develops over time. You don't want to know what they are like before you've even started as it is a little boring if you do.

I really enjoyed seeing the characters develop and like I said, they made me go through all kinds of emotions which made it feel like I was going through their lives with them.

5) Comparison Between This And Marian's Other Books

Now I have only read 'Angels' by Marian and as I said earlier, I really wasn't blown away by that. However, I feel she has really made up with it in this book. Her characters developed and grew on me more than they did in 'Angels' and it was also better written. I think this book really shows off Marian's talent and her humour.

The similarities between the two are that they are both women's fiction and that is where it ends for me. I really do think this book is better and shows what she is capable of more than 'Angels did'. I think she is one of those authors that progress even more over time. She is already a bestselling author and this book is no exception. I will definitely be watching out for future books by her and I will be surprised if she can improve her writing even further than what she has now.

6) Any Downsides?

I can honestly say that for me there wasn't one bad thing about this book. It's easy to read, fun and light hearted, gets emotions going and it's unputdownable.

*** My Overall Opinion ***

As if you haven't guessed already. I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice, light, enjoyable read.

Aimee xxx

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