I simply love novels set in contemporary Australia, which are seemingly hard to come by these days! I learned about this forthcoming novel via the literary podcast "SMDB", in which the guest author Jenny Offill recommended it (in fact, she blurbed the published copy). Any book blurbed by Jenny Offill immediately piques my interest and I was rightly rewarded with this wonderfully crafted novel.

Friends & Dark Shapes follows a group of flatmates living in Redfern, each of them on the cusp of true adulthood, responsibilities and the precarity of striking it on their own in an ever-changing urban landscape. The novel was richly detailed and touched on interesting plot points like grief, under employment and second generation identity. I would happily read anything forthcoming from Kavita Bedford, what a stylish and memorable debut.
Thanks to Text Publishing and NetGalley for the advance copy of Friends & Dark Shapes in exchange for an honest review.

FRIENDS AND DARK SHAPES by Kavita Bedford is about four friends living in a share house in Australia. The beginning seemed very interesting and I was curious to see what would happen in the characters' lives ahead, but it felt flat after that. The writing was good and that kept me engaged. It could have been better bonded with a stronger rhythm and plot. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

A heart-wrenching story of loss, grief and early adulthood that will leave you thinking about it for days to come. The blurb didn't fully reflect what the reader was in for, but it was compelling all the same. As someone unfamiliar with Australian culture, this was really interesting social commentary for me.

Thank you Netgalley for this audiobook edition of Friends and Dark Shapes by Kavita Bedford.

First commentary on the narrator. She was great! Her soft Australian accent was of course delightful. She had a great cadence and audio presence.

The book itself? Meh. I want to fully acknowledge that I might not be the right audience for this book. Maybe I'm not cool enough? Bottom line, I just could never get myself to care. It was all over the place, and I felt like the author was very invested in spewing every hot social issue happening right now, whether it fit into the story or not.

I never knew where we were on the timeline, I rarely knew, or cared who the author was referring to. It was kind of like being trapped by someone who won't stop telling you disjointed stories of their life and people you've never met.

I don't know if I'm the problem with this one; I liked it a lot, but never quite fell in love with it. From the first page, it all seemed a little distant and aloof in a way that didn't quite vibe with me. The writing is gorgeous, and the characters are all real and flawed (often frustratingly so, which is a good thing - a book which invokes an emotional response like that, even negative, is doing something right!) but there was a disconnect there which just made it feel like I was two steps removed from the narrative, never entirely engrossed. It's still a beautiful book, though.

This book was sent to me as an ARC on NetGalley. However, all opinions are of my own.
The story follows a nameless narrator who has lost her father and feels like she is falling into oblivion.
I was able to follow the story well. However, I was unable to enjoy the story fully because it was all in dialogue and there was no conversations between any of the characters. He sent the 2 stars. Although I did think the storyline was good!

Oh how I loved this book! I've been aching for Australia to be back in my life and this hits the spot.
The novel itself doesn't have a plot as such , it's more about the protagonist coming to terms with grief and finding one's place in life and the focus of the book is more the city. I didn't really connect with the characters like I wanted to but the setting of Sydney just won me over. I've never lived in Sydney but I've spent a lot of time there and I loved reading about the different areas of the city (I also learned some facts too!), it was like following a tour guide around the surroundings .
I really wish more Australian literature was available in the UK as thee are some great writers out there.
Thank you so much to text publishing for this gem of a book!

This was a solid debut novel and I did enjoy it, but I didn't see anything special about it. The writing style was enjoyable and easy to read, but I felt like I've seen this style before. I'm up for innovative approaches, which I didn't see in Kavita Bedford's first book.

The topic was not all rainbows and unicorns, so it might be that it wasn't the best time for me to read this book. But serious topics need to be covered as well.
Also, as someone who had moved 14 times in 4 years and had countless roommates, I can connect with that part of the book. Everyone who had ever had to share a place will understand!

I liked that this book makes you stop and think and rethink the things you might now and concepts like grief, and finding oneself, and issues like class as well.

There is a lot to admire in Kavita Bedford’s FRIENDS & DARK SHAPES. The story flows freely and the sense of place is strong (it helps that her Sydney locations are familiar to me). However, maybe it’s me, but it too often it falls into the trap of many books I have read recently like Marlowe Granados’ HAPPY HOUR by being incredibly languid and at times trite. I recently read THE INWARD SEA by Madeleine Watts which has a similar setting and protagonist but seems to propel forward. Often I found Bedford’s writing style to be common and easy to imitate, which is not great for a debut. Will be interested to see what she writes next.

Through a series of beautifully written vignettes, Kavita Bedford provides insight into the life of our protagonist, living in an inner city Sydney share house and dealing with the recent loss of her father.

Filled with sharp observations and relatable anecdotes, Friends & Dark Shapes evolves into a subtle, yet moving exploration of connection, grief and the search for a sense of self, while broadening its thematic scope to investigate issues of class, race and gentrification in contemporary Australia.

Bedford’s writing possesses an effortless depth, spinning the everyday occurrences of someone in their late-twenties into stunningly realised passages with finesse. It’s a pleasure to read, like diving into 62 short entries of an eloquently written journal.

I can’t wait to read Kavita Bedford’s next work.

Holy cow, I usually have some sort of PTSD harkening back to my years as an early-twenty-something forced to share a house with roommates because its all you can afford. The tension and anxieties surrounding household chores and privacy while also dealing with your path of self-discovery. Just ugly.

I think this book hits a lot of the angst that comes with living with other people. and asks the reader to reflect on their own experiences with how they define home. There is grief and loss surrounding parent abandonment and parent death, while the nameless-main character tries to navigate her life.

Vignettes of different perspectives, observations, and perspectives that make the reader think and reminisce about their own early experiences.

My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

I found this book utterly engrossing, it has really stayed with me. The short vignettes of live in a shared flat of young people just starting out in independent life, finding their own way and navigating the cruelties life can throw at you were poignantly written and keenly observed.

I adored the care and attention paid to the environment in which the characters are living, creating a visually rich landscape as a community backdrop for the novel.

Some readers may not enjoy this as it isn't strictly plot driven, it's a much more mesmerising wander through life rich with emotions, perfectly capturing the confusion, occasional cruelty and uncertainty of youth.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

While I just didn't quite click with this story on a personal level as much as I might have hoped, and will admit that I initially found aspects of the writing style to be a bit jarring (i.e. no quotation marks), I 100% think that there will be people who will love this book and I found it to overall be an enjoyable read!

The prose flows very smoothly and is very atmospheric, with no shortage of beautiful sentences sprinkled throughout, and I loved getting to learn about Australia, having never been there but always having thought it would be such a cool place to visit! I haven't read a ton of books with this whole very vignette-based style, but I thought it worked really well for this one along with the writing style in order to explore and reflect upon the potent themes of grief, multifaceted aspects of identity, friendship, etc.

Ultimately, I would recommend if you like slower-paced, more introspective novels. I think you might have to be in a certain type of mood to really appreciate it, but the sliced-up vignette style allows for the reader to have a lot of flexibility in digesting the story which I found very nice after I got used to it!

‘The year after my father died, I move into a share house.’

Three friends (Sami, Niki, and our unnamed narrator) move into a share house in Redfern in inner Sydney and select a fourth person to join them. A man is selected: gender balance is important. He is nicknamed Bowerbird.

What follows is a series of vignettes of life in this group house over the following year. The vignettes are both observations (of life in a share house, of life in Redfern) and reflections (on life approaching thirty, on connecting with others).

While my own experiences of living in a share house are confined to my teenage years, I recognised some of the tensions (house cleaning, anyone?), and the general angst of trying to find one’s own place in a world which seems to have a different focus. And what constitutes home?

‘The phrase ‘remember when…’ did not yet have a place in our conversations.’

This is a novel which invites an older reader to reflect on their own experiences and a younger reader to wonder about their own future. Time elapses, life experiences accrue, what once seems important might change. The novel ends, and I wonder what might happen next both in the lives of the people we meet and in the suburb of Redfern.

‘Is that true: is a feeling about a city also a feeling about oneself?’

I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Friends and Dark Shapes is an ode to community, relationships, and sense of self. Told through a series of memories and present events the writing is so captivating. It takes real skill to write in short vignettes and Bedford nails it.
This book won't be for everyone but the melancholy nostalgia it provoked in me made me love it whilst also simultaneously made me miss living in a share house.

CW: drug use, death of a parent, cancer

I think this book has me mesmerized. It's one of those rare reads, those I find only once or twice a year, the ones I know will stay with me for a long, long time. Most importantly, these are the ones that make me want to write. And in that respect, the book is absolutely phenomenal.

I recognize, however, that this book is probably not for everyone. I wouldn't even call it slow - I'd just say that nothing really happens. But then again, isn't that life? There's rarely something , and it's usually nothing and everything happening all at once. We find our narrator after a terrible loss, after something , trying to come to terms with it, and renegotiate her place in this world and within her very city. It is a very inward-looking novel, not exactly linear in its narrative, but very poignant and unique in its depiction of emotion. With the risk of sounding dramatic, Friends & Dark Shapes was a very therapeutic read for me, almost cathartic.

I was, as expected, very intrigued by the author, so - and maybe for the first time ever - I actually visited the author's website! Apparently, Bedford is also an anthropology lecturer, and, honestly, it shows (in the best possible way). While remaining authentic and honest, there's a certain care, attention to detail, and meticulousness with which cities, urban landscape, and urban living are approached that you can definitely tell the author herself has a deep understanding of the circumstances she is describing, an acute awareness of the loneliness, and freedom, and grief, and possibility that comes with living in a city. It is honestly such a realistic, vivid description that the book felt almost alive .

That's pretty much all I have to say about this book; it is honest, nearly raw in its honesty, and truly mesmerizing. Definitely a read I will remember for a long long time.

** An ARC was provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. **

2.5

I was thrown off by this book from the very beginning. It was present tense, which I have nothing against, but feel requires a very active story. This story is anything but. Meandering, episodic, contemplative... And it had no quotation marks for dialogue, which is a choice, but not one I liked. That’s to say these elements made the book hard to get into.

I had initial high hopes for it, being in my 20s like the main characters, somewhat floundering for a purpose, and having lost my father like the protagonist. Neither of these elements paid out for me. The 4 roommate’s struggles with employment, dating, living in a share house, etc. all felt so “woah is me.” Instead of being something a whole generation could connect to, it felt very “first world problems.” I didn’t care. This could have been partly due to the protagonist’s apathy. She felt monotone about everything. She never truly connected with anyone, and so I didn’t connect with her.

In terms of her grief, it just wasn’t anything I haven’t read before. It didn’t strike me in any meaningful way. The author’s intentions were also too obvious for me. Every section ended feeling like it was trying to be profound, existential. But it just wasn’t.

The whole bool was forgettable, no staying power. Every time I put it down, it would just disappear. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years I forget I even read it.

#netgallery I feel like I learned about Australia along with the rest of the book. Good story about grief, friendship and finding one's way in life. I recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley @netgalley and Text Publishing @text_publishing for letting me read Friends & Dark Shapes by Kavita Bedford.
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This novel is divided into four seasons and then further divided into short pensive vignettes that follow the narrator - an unnamed young woman mourning the recent loss of her father - and her three housemates in Sydney, Australia. The housemates are all in a period of transition and growth, knowing that this situation is going to be temporary - just a brief period of their lives and not a permanent home.
The novel is fragmented and doesn't have much of a plot, and I found the housemates as characters to be fairly forgettable.
However, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it serves the broader point that I took away from the book: that some people and places are only in brief chapters of our lives - that the housemates will pack up the possessions they have accumulated throughout their time living in this space, and they will all move out and move on and maybe stay in touch, but maybe not. They will all grow and change, and so will the places they lived in, eventually becoming unrecognizable.
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#friendsanddarkshapes #friendsdarkshapes #netgalley #australianfiction #textpublishing #advancedreaderscopy #bookpost #bookreview #booksofinstagram #alwaysreading

Kavita Bedford’s debut novel, Friends & Dark Shapes is an insightful exploration of contemporary life. The book features a nameless narrator, her friends, her housemates and their lucid lives.

Broken up into sections by seasons and told in vignettes for chapters, Friends & Dark Shapes is a lush examination of the truly transient and fleeting aspects of the lives of twenty-somethings. Each vignette is as introspective as the next and is written with precise and purposeful language. Bedford writes about themes of loss and friendship but she digs deeper with her characters’ surroundings and considers race, class, gender, nature, gentrification, immigration and the ultimate question of where one belongs. The narrator’s South Asian – Australian identity is also examined with memories of her two homes, her family and her parents.

The setting of Sydney, Australia is beautiful in its description and a true ode to the place these characters call home. I personally loved reading about a place entirely foreign to me.

I wish we got to know our narrator more. We know her friends and their behaviours but we don’t know how she feels about them. We know about her dark shapes but we don’t know her emotions. We know her present situation but not what she desires for herself. I wanted more exploration of the eureka moments and to dive further below the surface of my understanding.

Reminiscent of life, the book ebbs and flows and reassures the reader that we are all trying to find where and if we belong. Overall this is an enjoyable and thoughtful read!

Friends & Dark Shapes is out on March 2nd, 2021. Thank you to NetGalley, Text Publishing and Kavita Bedford for this advance review copy.