Not exactly what i had in mind

by Kate Brook

352 pages, Paperback

Published April 28, 2023

About the author

Kate Brook is an author based in London. Her first novel, Not Exactly What I Had in Mind, was published in 2022, and her short-form writing has been published in LitHub, The Fiction Pool and The Real Story. She holds a PhD in French Literature and Visual Art from King’s College London, a Masters in European Literature from the University of Cambridge, and has worked as a bookseller and in publishing. She lives with her partner and their many houseplant children.

katebrook.substack.com

Reviews

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay...I've read this book about a month ago and I've thought a lot about it and honestly it's my favorite book of year, followed by open water.
It's incredible, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. I think I liked this one for the characters and their personalities, and yet a lot of the story touched me, such as one character being a teacher and the relationship he has with his job, and even vegan characters who seemed to be talking about things I think and feel and have actually never told anyone.
Above all, it's a realistic and beautiful story of friendship.
To explain a little, this book is about four people and how they connect. Two of them are housemates and the other two (married) - one of them is the main character's sister.
It's about everything and nothing. A portrait of normal people's lives.

[Catarina Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an impulsive buy for me when I was buying books as presents for other persons, so I didn’t know anything about it. It kinda felt like reading Sally Rooney (my favorite of all time), but it didn’t kept me really invested in the characters. Everything happened in the last chapters. But, like in the Sally book's, there were a lot of nice topics debated during the history and the end is never really the end!

[Emma Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book! Loved the different prospectives and the real life aspects. Very relatable.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carino, devo dire che effettivamente non è ciò che ti aspetti ma alla fine romanzo carino forse un po’ lento da leggere

[Rachael Dewhurst · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in a day so clearly something kept me going. However, I have a strong suspicion that that ‘something’ was my refusal to have two DNF’s in a row.

It did pick up for the last 50ish pages (minus the epilogue) but I still felt the need to make good on my declaration to ‘finish this book and then lob it across the room’.

I’m in generally a bad mood for a number of reasons so forgive my bluntness when I say that this is a book that tries to tackle too many topics without a skilled enough author to pull it off. ‘Not exactly what I had in mind’ is 50% social commentary with a hyper focus on climate change (a worthwhile topic but utterly shoehorned in) and 40% cliche.

The main couple live in the miscommunication trope whilst being not that believable as a couple. Are you really interested in each other, or would you be better as good friends? They’re sweet to each other but there is zero sexual chemistry.

Speaking of sex. I am not opposed to it in the my books, in fact I’m known to quite like a bit of smut, but this felt like the author included sex scenes purely for brownie points - she’s not getting any from me. They’re are not well written and were ultimately all quite sad. We’re introduced to the two main characters as they’re hooking up, literally on page one. This felt like a ‘ha, got you! Now you’re invested!’ It was a cheap trick.

Emily, Hazel’s sister, and her wife, Daria, are trying for a baby. However, the way they go about this is being absolutely on the hunt for a sperm donor all the time. I can’t comment on the realism of this process, and I understand that it was intended to highlight the difficulties, frustration, setbacks and, I’m sure, feelings of desperation involved but instead it made them feel (and act) almost predatory, no-one is safe.

There is also commentary on toxic relationships and revenge porn. Important topics but lacking the impact because a) they were introduced quite late and b) you’ve already been bombarded with everything else. And, if you’re me, C) the overriding feeling while reading is frustration and rage.

The ending was rushed with everything and everyone being perfectly reasonable and settled in their decisions. More time should have been taken throughout to develop and wrap up their threads.

I also want to speak to the epilogue and I am going to sound very catty while doing it (sorry!): suddenly there are all the names in a new setting, an unspecified time after the main event. And … it’s set during lockdown. What, why, when??? But in many ways it made perfect sense that this was highly likely a pandemic project … I’ll leave it there.

[Lauren Tuvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I did enjoy this book and would love to actually read a sequel to see how their lives unravelled. It was compelling to finish to see where the characters lives unravelled. However, I felt like the end was a little bit rushed. It touched on some really big topics right near the end which I think needed some more time to really make impactful. I feel the writer may have been trying to give off the feeling of a complicated life, where so many things are going on at once, which was conveyed well if that was the aim, but this may also come across as just skimming over big topics at the same time.

[Mira · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5*
i was hoping this book would get better or have some plan but it didn’t really. and the synopsis was VERY miss leading. it almost felt like the author just kept writing and she didn’t have a plan or a main plot. the beginning had potential BUT THEN THE REST WAS LIKE BLAH. like the author didn’t know what to write for the rest or something. the title sums it up, i liked it because it was different, but it didn’t satisfy me.

[Nicola Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this in my ‘A Box of Stories’ subscription. I went for this as seemed fairly lighthearted from the synopsis so I thought I’d read this as my first “official” read of the new year and I was surprised at the topics that were discussed, as not as light hearted as first thought. However, was very well written and got hooked from the first chapter and I just wanted to finish it. Glad I now have this added onto my bookshelf and I look forward to recommending this to all my friends.

[Euroswiftie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved it, nice summer book, I loved the characters and the environnement. Sometimes a little bit too much topics involved (environnent, inclusion, pandemic...etc). You can feel the author is not skilled to handle all of that, it's a bit too much. I was disappointed by the end tbh, It feels rushed. But overall I would recommend it to read next to the pool and chill.

[Haylee · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I started this book I was not feeling it but I got back into the book and have really enjoyed it. It is a slow read but enjoyable and worth it. It has its ups and downs but I think it has been written really well even though at the beginning I found it boring and hard to carry on... I recommend it as a general read and book club... Enjoy...

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely read, light but also thought-provoking and interesting plot. Especially the stories and personalities of characters were very well curated, overall I really enjoyed this book! The one star missing is because it was a bit slow in the middle ☺️

[Kara Rowley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting

[Sarah Safdari]

DNF bc im not loving it 23% in

[Ciara Hogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew I would love this book the moment I read the first page, it reminded me a lot of the story of myself and my partner. A really special book.

[Danielle Hamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Impulsive airport buy - was on but didn’t love it!

[Sian Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I randomly picked this up and I’m glad I did. Was an easy encouraging read which I read in a day. I felt like the characters and different storylines had such realistic depth that nothing was predictable. Nothing felt rushed but I equally didn’t need to skim read.
Would be a nice holiday read and a Sunday read

[Hannah Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of twists and turns and some proper punch in the gut moments reading this.
The author does a brilliant job at capturing what everyday emotions are like

[Katie Sharman · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️

[Cara Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of character-driven books and I felt quite drawn in at the start of this one - the characters and their dynamics were interesting. A touch slow, and I was surprised that the book engaged its biggest and heaviest plot points so close to the end, not leaving a lot room to explore them in much depth which meant they came across quite surface-level and rushed.