This was an exceptionally disappointing read.
I had heard some good things about it but it just wasn’t for me.

Love Orange is a scathing look at the state of society in the modern age. Technology rules all. Jenny and Hanks Smart House is in charge of everyone in the house, and listens in to everything. Jenny’s children are obsessed with video games, and internet porn makes an appearance as well.

I can see why Jenny becomes increasingly frustrated with Hank - from his constant references to his Viking heritage, to his Mindfulness - he has little time for her.
Jenny hates her job, and decides to do something meaningful by writing to a prison inmate. She looks forward to receiving his letters that smell of oranges and taste rather too nice when she licks them. To be fair, it seems reasonable to lick an envelope (yes, I know how this sounds!) if it helps her though the daily drudgery and having to put up with in-laws who clearly dislike her.

Jenny’s life may look perfect on the outside, but it’s anything but that.

There’s a rather sizeable reference to the opioid crisis in the US that I found interesting, but what I found MOST interesting was how Jenny appeared to be completely hollowed out by her boring life, the lack of attention and care she gets from her husband and children, and what’s expected of her from society. I’d want to escape her life too.

There’s some seriously dark humour in this, and it does come across as bleak. But I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This narrative examines an American family's daily activities while living under the watchful eye of their smart house. It took me a little while to get into this because it starts slowly, but as it breaks down the parts that each family member is supposed to play, I was sucked into the daily drama.

What begins as an inconspicuous novel slowly descends into chaos and desperation. Love Orange is very readable, with witty everyday observations and something darker at its core. I really enjoyed this book, despite its frustrating ending!

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

This was an enjoyable little story full of family drama and secrets, which I enjoyed watching unfold and didn’t see coming. The characters were likeable and the family dynamic was interesting. This was white unique and not like anything I have read before.

It's not what I expected. It has such potential and the description sucked me in but I feel the writing quality and plot isn't what I hoped. I didn't finish this.

More than just another domestic story, Love Orange felt like a commentary of a normal American family. Remarks made me chuckle, elements made me think harder, details made me read twice.

Guns, violence, marriage, drug, jail, you get quite an explosive cocktail with this book. The clever writing gives the family’s mundane life a quirky spark and makes you read one more page. And one more. The author portrays the characters with few words, chosen carefully so that you understand them without having to interpret anything. A wife is struggling to find her place, a husband is obsessed with what it means to be a man, a son is collecting things… They act as a miniature of society itself, and under Natasha’s pen (or keyboard) they depict what can go wrong in our modern families.

This was an odd book. None of the characters were particularly likeable though the book was well written. I couldn't care less what happened to them so took a while to read it, more from duty than pleasure.

I learnt something about drugs in prisons though... an extra star for that.

Love Orange is an insightful and original family drama but sadly it didn't work for me. I found the characters and the writing style hard to connect with and so for me this was a slow, laborious read.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC

It's like American Beauty but for the 21st century; Love Orange is a piercing drama (with a dash of sarcasm) focusing on the undercurrent of a 'normal' American nuclear family.

There are memorable moments offering intelligent and profound commentary regarding gender role, tech, gun violence, drug use, religion, beauty standard, and criminal law. But the novel's wide-reaching ambition does hinder the depth and uniqueness of its remarks—some of them feeling a little 'been there, done that' without contributing anything new (such as the son's obsession with violent video games, for example). Personally, I feel Love Orange really hits its stride in its third act, when the plot involves more non-family characters, and doesn't hold back on the absurdity of the situation.

Overall I really enjoyed this read; yes, there are elements that feel more like rehash rather than reinterpretation, but Natasha Randall managed to put the pieces together differently enough that ultimately led Love Orange beyond simply another domestic story about an unhappy modern family. A solid debut!

Love Orange is a quirky, unusual book that surprised me with how well it drew me into the seemingly mundane lives of the characters. Set in an ordinary American family, this was slow to start and took me a little while to get into, but as it takes apart the expected roles of each member of the family I found myself drawn into the day-to-day drama.

I admit, none of the characters are particularly likable, with perhaps the exception of the priest and the youngest son, Luke. Randall's writing is fairly minimalist, yet still manages to portray the thoughts and emotions of the characters well. From Hank with his obsession about masculinity, Luke's collections and his need to find answers and Jenny's struggle to find an identity over than wife and mother, the dysfunctional family is almost of a miniature for society as a whole.

There are a lot of themes here and mostly it works, but sometimes Randall loses sight of the narrative and it becomes a bit jumbled, particularly when she tries to flit between the present and the past. Some narrative threads feel like loose ends, particularly Shona, the wife of the prisoner Jenny is exchanging letters with. There were moments where I was jarred out of the narrative as I tried to place exactly when and where Randall had shifted to, but these were thankfully few and far between.

All in all, this is a well written depiction of the standard nuclear family gone wrong. It's a slow burn novel and I'd have liked the ending to have felt more complete, but it's wry with a dark humour that appealed to me and shines a light on some topical issues. An enjoyable read and I'll look forward to seeing what the author does next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.

Love Orange

Jenny Tinkley lives with her husband Hank and their two sons, Jessie and Luke, in a quiet suburban town. They’re a picture-perfect family living in the picture-perfect smart home. But behind the glossy, perfect sheen there are cracks: Jenny feels bored and stuck in her life, Hank is frustrated by his lack of professional success and their children are each facing their own worries and challenges.

To try and escape the monotony, Jenny begins a correspondence with a prison inmate named John. She finds excitement in their letters, but things start to unravel when Jenny agrees to become a go-between for John and his wife and develops a strange obsession with the orange glue that seals his letters.

The characters are the driving force of this story. They are compelling, relatable, and instantly familiar as someone who could be your neighbour. Jenny is a typical suburban mum. I found her relatable but did struggle to warm to her, particularly as the story went on and her actions became increasingly selfish as she spiralled into addiction. I hated Hank. He was misogynistic, toxic, controlling, and just generally awful. I thought the author did a great job of writing him and managing to evoke such strong feelings of dislike in not only me, but every other reader I’ve spoken to. For me, it was the kids that drew me to them most of all. My heart broke for them and the things they went through. I think one complaint I have about the book was that I would have liked the children to have featured more.

I also liked how the smart house was like another character. Jenny sees the house as spying on her and controlling their lives. She gets a kick from outwitting it and managing to do things unnoticed. She even tells Hank to ask the house if he has any questions at one point. I would hate to live in a house like theirs and can understand why she felt the way she did. Sometimes you can have too much technology.

I did have two issues with the book that I would like to address. The first one was how the therapist told the family that Luke wasn’t autistic because he showed a high level of empathy. This perpetuates the false narrative that autistic people aren’t empathetic which is completely wrong. While they can struggle with processing and expressing emotion, people with autism are often highly empathetic, my own son included. Second of all was how it portrayed everyone who takes pain pills as addicts. While I liked that the book raised the issue of opiate addiction, I did feel like the portrayal spiraled into harmful stereotypes. My biggest issue was with the following quote:

“The thing about pain pills is that they take away pain. Any kind of pain. It gets so that people can’t even get out of bed for the pain that life becomes… compared to the high.”

As someone who uses opiates for chronic pain, the idea that we all become addicted and care only about the high is harmful, offensive and factually incorrect. I don’t get high. Pain medication is the ONLY reason I can get out of bed and live a life that has a sliver of normality. Dependency to help ease pain is not addiction, and while some people do unfortunately spiral into an addiction, I personally know many more who are languishing in agony with no life because they’ve been tarred with the same brush as an addict and denied any relief from their chronic and debilitating pain. For me the quote above is like saying all people who drink alcohol do so to get drunk and become alcoholics. But these are personal feelings and I don't think everyone reading will feel the same way. So I encourage you to read for yourself.

But I don't want this to come across as sounding like I didn't like the book, because I did. Love Orange is an absorbing and addictive debut novel that explores family, secrets and addiction in modern society. It is beautifully written, immediately draws you into the the Tinkley’s world. I also really liked the quirky humour that runs through the story. There are so many laugh-out-loud moments that made this a joy to read.

I read the book as part of a readalong organised by the publisher and really enjoyed the chats where I got to see the different things others noticed and the varied ways we can interpret the same book.

A beautifully written look at a fractured family and life in suburban America, I would recommend this novel and can't wait to read more from the author in the future.

This book had a great premise and I enjoyed the secrets hidden below the surface as well as the twisted family dynamics. However, I thought this story was only ok and that the writing needed a bit of work.

Not quite what I was expecting. I found the ticklist of issues a bit wearing and didn't exactly warm to the characters - though I acknowledge this might be a deliberate device. The book is well written, however, and this is personal taste. Others obviously love it.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A twisty story of an American family and the secrets that lurk beneath the surface, but a rambling narration style that needed to show rather than tell.

This novel burned slowly in my subconscious, and I've been left with a cavernous space in my life after I finished reading. I've never left a novel feeling so strongly that I need to know more! What happens next for the characters who crept under my skin? Particularly Jenny. The author masterfully creates this powerful need to protect her. She's so incredibly fragile, that it's particularly worrying when you leave her at the end of the novel.
Written by an accomplished translator, I found the themes of perception, and 'translating' everyday circumstances present throughout.

The author shows you a family living in the 21st Century. Technology led smart house. Children navigating adolescence with online challenges. A sterile minimalist modern house which later stands in stark contrast with an old fashioned home full of cooking scents and a sense of peace.

And it left me with many questions about the progress we've made.
By simplifying our lives, have we stripped away pleasure?
The pleasure to be found in accidentally bumping into a friend at the supermarket, leading to a unexpectedly spontaneous cup of coffee and catch up. When all you went out for was milk and bread.
Something this modern house can order for you directly...
Although getting your house to understand you is another thing...👀

Recommend 🧡

Thanks so much for access to this title.

I was pleased to join in over on Twitter with a book club read and shared our thoughts on it together over the few days.

Love Orange is all about the Tinkley family, mainly centred on the mother Jenny. She spends a lot of her time caring for her two sons Jesse and Luke - both complicated in their own ways. One spends too much time on the dark web and the other is very smart and obsessed with what materials things are made of which lands him at the child psychiatrists. Jenny's husband Hank is obsessed with his Viking ancestry (he did one of those DNA tests online) and exercises his power through the house which he has converted to a 'smart house' - filled with cameras and alarms that only he knows how to control.

The family attend church every weekend where everyone texts their sins to "the God phone" WhatsApp number. One day whilst at church, Jenny finds out about an outreach opportunity writing letters to inmates in prison and begins writing to John. She feels an affinity with him, because he is as trapped as she is. One day John's letter is laced with a sweet orange glue, meant to be passed on to his girlfriend who is out of prison. Instead it ends up in Jenny's hands with potentially disastrous consequences.

Love Orange is an intensive exploration of an American family covering many things from technology and toxic masculinity, to motherhood, religion and the US opioid epidemic. I really enjoyed reading this darkly satirical debut novel.