No One Is Talking About This – Patricia Lockwood

From the pen of poet and memoirist Patricia Lockwood comes No One Is Talking About This, her first novel and one of the buzziest books of the year.

Her poetic prowess is on full display in this story, told in fragments, of a life lived online.

A woman, who shot to international fame when one of her only-barely-considered social media posts – “can a dog be twins?” – went viral, travels the world talking about “the portal”, the infinite scroll, the digital zeitgeist. She’s forced to confront the fragility of her virtual life when a tragedy in her “real” life threatens its margins. The wonderful team at Bloomsbury were kind enough to send me a copy for review.

Look, I’m not going to lie: No One Is Talking About This is a bloody weird book. It’s full of nods to inside jokes and flash-in-the-pan memes that will be instantly recognisable to those of us who are Very Online, and completely meaningless to those who are not.

Lockwood also excels at combining the surreal and the tangible, with hauntingly beautiful similes – like “he felt as breakable as a link in her arms” – that reflect how our digital and lived realities merge.

I will offer here a big-time trigger warning for pregnancy and infant loss (I’m a tough nut to crack, and even I found myself blinking away tears in Part Two).

Ultimately, No One Is Talking About This not going to be to everyone’s taste, but I dig it.