Jess Walker has chosen an obscure regional university over Oxford to study English Literature because of a particular professor.
A classic middle child, Jess quickly finds her tribe: instant best friend Georgie, boyfriend Nick and charismatic journalist Alec, as well as Dr Lorna Clay.
They help her break out of her conventional middle-class mores, let loose and have some fun.
But this is not enough for Jess, who wants what she can’t have – except maybe she can.
Fuzzy plot points and timelines detract from the story. Just what is a South African journalist doing hanging around an obscure English university? And just how long is an Easter vacation that it can accommodate conception, abortion, autopsy and funeral, plus a trip to Italy.
The story begins with a prologue that indicates an idyll gone very wrong (dear reader). The first half unfolds as a coming-of-age narrative and suddenly becomes an almost gothic mystery that is literally an incredible mess.
Jess makes some seriously bad choices, which makes it difficult to sympathise with her when they bring her undone.
In the end there are more questions than answers about Lorna and her motivations in a strangely unsatisfying tale.
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