I loved this book at the beginning, but then couldn't really get into it.
It is the story of four friends sharing a house. The beginning seemed very good and I was really interested in finding out what would happen in the house, but there isn't really a plot.
The starting point is the loss and grieve of one of the characters, but the story doesn't evolve a lot from that
The writing was really very good, but I couldn't relate to the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

FRIENDS AND DARK SHAPES is a bittersweet novel about a young woman recovering from the death of her father and the friends who surround her. The true beauty of the book is in how Bedford shows these young people supporting one another as they try to figure out who they are as adults. she captures that in-between time most of us experience in early adulthood. Lovely read.

My thanks to NetGalley, the Author and the Publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Bedford's writing brings you into the day to day life of a woman who is mourning the loss of her father and all of the grief that comes with it. The writing is raw, and compelling, and so relatable. After the year we have just had, everyone is living with grief of some kind. I felt myself in the main character's place. Granted, the main character is several years older than I am, but there is a shared humanity there.

This is a collection of short stories over the course of a year or so, and I can feel the passage of time with each new story that I read. Anyone who feels lost in life, or is grieving the loss of someone they love, or an experience they were hoping for, will identify with at least some part of this piece. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

FRIENDS AND DARK SHAPES by Kavita Bedford started off strong for me but then fell flat. This book is about four friends living in a share house in Australia. The beginning seemed very evocative and it was intriguing to see what would happen in the house or just in these people’s lives but nothing happens. There were allusions to loss and although that was discussed it just wasn’t very in depth. I felt no connection to any of the characters. The writing was good and that kept me engaged to read but it was just little snippets of life with no plot. I don’t think this will be a book I will remember.
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Thank you to Text Publishing via NetGalley for my advance review copy!

A <b>BIG THANK YOU</b> to Text Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of Friends & Dark Shapes
by Kavita Bedford. Friends & Dark Shapes is a timely and tumultuous ride perfectly capturing the cusp of thirty and the challenges and triumphs of that age. As someone pushing thirty, with fond memories of Sydney, and a deceased father, these vignettes pack a wallop. Every bit of praise they receive is well-deserved for this moving meditation on love, loss, and life. ★★★★★

From the publisher: The city I grew up in was elastic and belonged to me and my friends as we stretched it through the nights. We knew its contours, and when something new arrived we were among the first to be a part of it. Everything was powder pink and bendy and shiny for us. We hadn’t had time to build a lasting memory around some fixture and then watch that time fall away from under us.

A group of friends moves into a share house in Redfern. They are all on the cusp of thirty and big life changes, navigating insecure employment and housing, second-generation identity, online dating and social alienation—and one of them, our narrator, has just lost her father. How do you inhabit a space where the landscape is shifting around you, when your sense of self is unravelling? What meaning does time have in the midst of grief? Through emotionally rich vignettes, tinged with humour, Friends & Dark Shapes sketches the contours of contemporary life. It is a novel of love and loss, of constancy and change. Most of all, it is about looking for connection in an estranged world.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 2 Mar 2021
#Friends&DarkShapes #NetGalley

Friends & Dark Shapes is a poetic and introspective collection of vignettes about a young woman navigating grief and thirty-something life against the vivid background of Sydney, Australia. This book is a love letter to fathers and daughters, It's a love letter to Australia. It's a love letter to the uncertainties and messy feelings and fragile, yet stubborn hope of something "better" that characterizes so many conversations between young adults.

While Bedford's stylistic choices (such as, forgoing all quotation marks and using few line breaks) made this book challenging to start - once I was familiar with the structure, it was easy to become invested. With over 60 vignettes spanning the course of a year, I must admit to savoring some and breezing by others. However, this was due to the particular focus of each snapshot and my investment in the subject matter (teenage friendships, Aboriginal rights, the gig economy, the uncomfortable question of privilege, etc) , as opposed to any inconsistencies in the strength of the writing.

In addition, as someone who has never been to Australia, it was clear that Bedford was either from there or had lived there. While most of her descriptions of the cities, suburbs, transit stations, and wilderness were interesting - there were moments where I felt hindered by my unfamiliarity with the landscape as she made connections between the narrator's emotional/mental state and her environment. Also, there were times where the country, it's history, and it's ever-changing face seemed to take precedent over the main characters. In those moments, I felt distanced from the story and picked up my pace to get to the next section.

Overall, this is a strong debut novel that left me feeling, simultaneously, melancholy and hopeful. While the writing style was initially a challenge and the setting occasionally overwhelmed the narrative - I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys the use of introspective characters, nonlinear storytelling, and occasional humor to explore both the mundane and striking elements of life.

CW: parental death, grief, sexual assault, sexual harassment, mental illness

The lack of quotation marks, the 'we' perspective which then shifts to an 'I' perspective that the shifts to a different point of view (still 'I'). It is all rather confusing. The book tries to be relevant but then it has the characters referring to their Asian neighbour 'Chairman Mao' (ah-ah...not). And the dialogue tries to be mublecoresque and 'real' but it sounded painfully contrived. Not an author for me...