Reviews with content warning for Drug use - The Authenticity Project

Title: The Authenticity Project
Author: Clare Pooley
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 2.50
Pub Date: February 4, 2020

T H R E E • W O R D S

Crass • Simple • Cliché

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Julian Jessop, an eccentric, lonely artist and septuagenarian believes that most people aren't really honest with each other. But what if they were? And so he writes--in a plain, green journal--the truth about his own life and leaves it in his local café. It's run by the incredibly tidy and efficient Monica, who furtively adds her own entry and leaves the book in the wine bar across the street. Before long, the others who find the green notebook add the truths about their own deepest selves--and soon find each other In Real Life at Monica's Café.

💭 T H O U G H T S

The Authenticity Project was chosen as my in-person book club pick for the month of May. And I was actually really excited by the synopsis and another story with an elderly main characters and about unlikely friendships - elements I typically love. Due to time constraints, I listened to the majority audio, and it 100% impacted my experience negatively.

The concept was so clever! There were so many aspects I should have loved, but it was honestly a struggle to get through it. None of the characters were all that likeable and it felt like the author simply chose some of her favourite stereotypes and tossed them together to produce this novel. Then through in one flawless character to tie everyone together. Some of the scenarios were just so unbelievable.

I expected the notebook to play a larger role. It is what gets the ball rolling, yet eventually its more about the relationships between the characters than people revealing their painful truths. For me, it would have worked better with smaller glimpses into the lives of a larger number of characters. The character development wasn't all that great with the smaller cast, so I don't see how a larger cast would have changed anything. There's a lot of book here and so much room for emotional depth, but it never went there.

One of my biggest issues was the romance. It felt so grossly contrived and the lack of communication and unhappy relationships drove me to speed things up to simply get through it. I honestly didn't care about the romance, at all.

And that brings me to the audiobook which was cringey. With so many characters, it was a lot to ask of one narrator. I had a hard time differentiating between whose POV I was listening to and the characterizations were that good at all. I honestly wish I hadn't listened to it because it ruined a lot for me.

The Authenticity Project was such a clever idea, yet the execution was poor. I am definitely in the minority, so if it's something that sounds interesting to you, I highly suggest finding out for yourself. I should have switched to eyeball reading, and maybe, I would have liked it better. Although I didn't love this one, I'd definitely give Clare Pooley another chance.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• slice-of-life stories
• endings tied up with a bow

⚠️ CW: mental illness, addiction, drug use, drug abuse, alcohol, alcoholism, death, death of parent, grief, cancer, outing, homophobia, infidelity, cursing, sexual content, suicidal thoughts

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"The truth often isn't pretty. It's not aspirational. It doesn't fit neatly into a little square on Instagram."

"Surely it would be better to live a messy, flawed, sometimes not very pretty life that was real and honest, than to constantly try to live up to a life of perfection that was actually a sham?"

Content Warnings