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katypotaty0908's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Alcoholism
Moderate: Death and Outing
Minor: Infertility and Miscarriage
avosage18's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, and Outing
kelly_e's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
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?"
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
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, and Outing
Minor: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts
stormeno's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Outing, and Abandonment
Minor: Death, Homophobia, and Sexual content
amyvl93's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I was enjoying this as a cute and fluffy read, but that ending!? The Authenticity Project hinges around a notebook, originally written by Julian Jessop, a one-time famous artist and womaniser who has become incredibly lonely since the death of his wife. The notebook encourages people to capture their inner thoughts and feelings and to be truly honest - it is then picked up by Monica, a former lawyer turned cafe owner who harbours a deep desire to have children, and then Hazard, a City banker who is finally confronting his addictions. As the novel progresses, it also makes its way to an Australian surfer, a Mummy blogger and a charity volunteer.
Whilst this is a novel that explores some meaty issues; loneliness in all its guises at all ages, addiction, recovery, mental health, grief, failing marriages - all of this is done is a pretty bright and breezy way. However, for the most part it feels like quite a cosy drama that you can envision being a short Christmas film or similar. We see communities being created with nudging from the book through art classes and shared dinners - giving us almost found family vibes. Yes, there are mildly improbable relationships and characters managing to go from bigoted to campaigners in the space of 50 pages; and yes, all these characters inhabit a very specific type of London - the type where everyone can comfortably live in West London despite having either no or low income jobs. Pooley (an ex-advertising director who has also taken a sobriety journey) is clearly very committed to writing what she knows about.
This was looking to be a 3 star read, a sweet little palette cleanser after finally completing A Suitable Boy until the ending 'twists'. Whilst one was clearly bound to happen, the other had me close to throwing the book across the room. As other reviewers have said, it feels like Pooley couldn't quite trust the reader to draw conclusions and had to really hammer home what she thinks authenticity is. I honestly felt a bit cheated.
Whilst this is a novel that explores some meaty issues; loneliness in all its guises at all ages, addiction, recovery, mental health, grief, failing marriages - all of this is done is a pretty bright and breezy way. However, for the most part it feels like quite a cosy drama that you can envision being a short Christmas film or similar. We see communities being created with nudging from the book through art classes and shared dinners - giving us almost found family vibes. Yes, there are mildly improbable relationships and characters managing to go from bigoted to campaigners in the space of 50 pages; and yes, all these characters inhabit a very specific type of London - the type where everyone can comfortably live in West London despite having either no or low income jobs. Pooley (an ex-advertising director who has also taken a sobriety journey) is clearly very committed to writing what she knows about.
This was looking to be a 3 star read, a sweet little palette cleanser after finally completing A Suitable Boy until the ending 'twists'. Whilst one was clearly bound to happen, the other had me close to throwing the book across the room. As other reviewers have said, it feels like Pooley couldn't quite trust the reader to draw conclusions and had to really hammer home what she thinks authenticity is. I honestly felt a bit cheated.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Outing
toves_bokhylla's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Tyckte om den på det stora hela, men blev frustrerad över slutet!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, and Gaslighting
ems_rxlibrary's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Mental illness
Moderate: Infidelity and Outing
Minor: Vomit
ramreadsagain's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
On balance this is just over a three star read as there are a lot of things I liked but also quite a bit I didn’t like.
I thought the characters weren’t very well developed beyond their main “thing” and half the time I didn’t understand why they all because such good friends as they never seemed very compatible.
Julian was just straight up an unpleasant character.
However I did like the message of first impressions often being wrong and the need to be honest and communicate, the “found family” aspects as well as some of the character growth shown.
I didn’t like how Alice’s character was framed as it really just boiled down to “technology and influencers bad”. I understand the point about authenticity and a lot of celebrities and influencers being unauthentic and their online lives being shallow/fake however the book also just seemed to treat her career (because that’s what it was) in quite a derogatory fashion.
I thought the characters weren’t very well developed beyond their main “thing” and half the time I didn’t understand why they all because such good friends as they never seemed very compatible.
Julian was just straight up an unpleasant character.
However I did like the message of first impressions often being wrong and the need to be honest and communicate, the “found family” aspects as well as some of the character growth shown.
I didn’t like how Alice’s character was framed as it really just boiled down to “technology and influencers bad”. I understand the point about authenticity and a lot of celebrities and influencers being unauthentic and their online lives being shallow/fake however the book also just seemed to treat her career (because that’s what it was) in quite a derogatory fashion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Alcoholism
Moderate: Death and Pregnancy
Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, Outing, and Classism
stlkatiek's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
This was just-ok for me. I wanted a little more depth in the characters, at times they seemed like caricatures (which was a shame given the theme of authenticity throughout). There were some very cringe elements, including a pretty racist portrayal of a Chinese character (in the audiobook, at least) and the characters' response when one character was outed by another. Overall it was fine, but not especially memorable.
Reminded me of:
The Reading List
Reminded me of:
The Reading List
Content Warnings
Moderate: Outing
melancholymegs's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, and Alcohol
Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Cursing, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Outing