Author: Heather Burnside
ISBN: 9781800246072
Aria Fiction (2021)
This is an earnest and well meant novel that, unfortunately, feels more like a lecture than a novel. Burnside never really engages the reader with the characters’ thoughts and feelings. It’s a readable novel, but not one that drew me in.
Amber is a young prostitute working the streets of Manchester. The story is told through dual timeframes: one thread follows Amber as a child, to illustrate how she wound up on the streets. Another follows Amber in the present day.
Amber is particularly vulnerable – she has a drug habit, she lacks education or skills, and she has no-one on her side. No family, no friends. She does have a pimp who’s also her sometime boyfriend. However, she slowly realises that he may be more dangerous than protective.
Burnside does a lot of telling, not showing. As a result, I never felt I was in characters’ heads. I was distanced from them, and found it hard to care about them. The lack of engagement meant there was no real tension in the story, no particular need to see what comes next.
The plot is fairly predictable, and fairly obvious. It feels rather like Burnside is walking through a series of steps, dutifully covering the ground laid out in her outline; it was all somewhat dry and didn’t flow very naturally.
There is no doubt that Burnside cares about the subject matter (child abuse and the lives of sex workers on the street). She’s made an evident effort to be careful in her language and sensitive in her approach. While this is commendable, it again means that we’re distanced from Amber, rather than viscerally involved in her problems.
This is also oddly paced, with a number of plot lines wrapped up in a few neat pages. Again this worked to remove a source of tension. I thought it sold the story short, too, making the resolution far too easy and unrealistic.
This is an adequate novel, but I didn’t overly enjoy it and find it hard to recommend it. It was fairly boring to read and offered nothing particularly memorable to last once the book is closed. There’s nothing new here, and many writers have done much better with similar material.
Other Dreams, Other Lives 