Look At Me By Sarah Duguid

[amazon_link id=”1472229843″ target=”_blank” ]Look At Me[/amazon_link]‘Look At Me’ is Sarah Duguid’s first novel.

Lizzy lives with her father, Julian, and her brother, Ig, in North London. Two years ago her mother died, leaving a family bereft by her absence and a house still filled with her things: for Margaret was lively, beautiful, fun, loving; she kept the family together. So Lizzy thinks. Then, one day, Lizzy finds a letter from a stranger to her father, and discovers he has another child. Lizzy invites her into their world in an act of outraged defiance. Almost immediately, she realises her mistake.

‘Look At Me’ is Sarah’s debut novel and I found this short tale to be a witty and unique story. The story is seen solely through the eyes of Lizzy, a young woman who aspires to be a famous actress, she lives in a rambling house with her Reiki instructor brother Ig and her eccentric, wine salesman father, Julian. The three of them live together, all of sharing a mutual pain for the sudden death of Margaret, their mother and Julian’s wife.

Suddenly out of the blue, Eunice appears on the scene proclaiming to be Julian’s long lost daughter and Lizzy and Ig’s half-sister. She moves into their chaotic household and tries to take over with her overbearing and generous personality.

Lizzy, is a complex woman, she is quiet and used to having her brother and her father to herself, but when Eunice appears and takes the attention onto herself and Lizzy is left feeling alone and jealous of the pretty, young woman who longs to please her new family and to be finally accepted into a family, as she spent most of her life, trying to belong. Eunice, is quite an interesting character, she has a naivety about her, that is hard to decipher whether it is an act or not and I found this particularly as I tried to gauge an opinion of the woman.

I loved this book, I genuinely found it entertaining from the very start and thought the mixture of colourful characters made for delightful reading. The story concentrates on many issues, family, love and focuses on the delicate issue of death and suicide, that is especially tender. A story about trying to move forward but the past is holding you back, ‘Look At You’ is a deliciously, written debut about the complexities of family and life and with an injection of humour and a gentle tone that flows along at a lovely pace, makes for an excellent debut.

You can pre-order [amazon_link id=”1472229843″ target=”_blank” ]Look at Me from Amazon [/amazon_link] and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 25th February 2015.

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