Going Out

by Scarlett Thomas

Luke is allergic to everything. He spends his days in a sterile safe-haven designed to keep out all light and dirt, while everything he knows about the world comes from books, movies, the internet and whatever his best-friend Julie tells him. He would do anything to go outside.

Julie, brilliant and kind, could be out changing the world. Unfortunately, she’s too afraid of airplane crashes, highway accidents, and potentially life-threatening bacteria to leave her hometown, her pointless waitress job, or Luke.

Charlotte’s boyfriend dropped dead from a brain hemorrhage. She disappeared for awhile, but now she’s decided that she misses her friends.

David has just been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Consequently, he’s no longer wants to spend his days making pizza to pay for school. His priorities in life are changing; he just doesn’t know how, yet.

Leanne has just discovered that she may or may not have magic powers.

When this motley bunch befriends a lottery winner with a generous heart, they all embark on a hysterical and heartwarming journey in search of the healer who just might be able to cure Luke, and perhaps give them the answers they didn’t know they were looking for.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Young Adult, Literary Fiction, Novels, British Literature, Adult Fiction

369 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Scarlett Thomas was born in London in 1972. Her widely-acclaimed novels include PopCo, The End of Mr Y and The Seed Collectors. As well as writing literary fiction for adults, she has also written a literary fantasy series for children and a book about writing called Monkeys with Typewriters. Her work has been translated into more than 25 languages.

She has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, shortlisted for the South African Boeke Prize and was once the proud recipient of an Elle Style Award. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing & Contemporary Fiction at the University of Kent in the UK. She lives in a Victorian house near the sea and spends a lot of time reading Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield.

She is currently working on a new novel and various projects for TV.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Resolution
Luke is allergic to the sun and his best friend Julie has phobias about flying, car crashes, bacterial infections and is frightened of leaving her hometown. Together they are a pair that has consoled each other in their worries and fears, and over the years developed a bond where their vulnerabilities provided the glue. This relationship became so inter-dependent that they hid or ruined any opportunities in life that threatened to tear them apart, including going to University.

One day, Luke decides he wants to accept an opportunity of a cure, but it involves a road trip to Wales to visit a healer. Luke, Julie and 4 friends set off on a road trip to Wales in a blacked-out VW Campervan, using only B-roads. Each friend is searching for meaning or resolution in their own lives, providing a wonderful array of issues that are well observed and carefully handled.

The character development and interaction amongst the friends provides the main theme for the book. The dialogue is very well written, demonstrating a humorous and engrossing interplay as they discuss and challenge their separate problems. Luke and Julie are really interesting characters, who have a very selfless love for each other (currently platonic) and it's endearing to watch this develop throughout the story. We discover ways in which they exercise that love for each other, and wonder how their relationship be defined when it's all over.

Going Out is a very entertaining story with a strong moral message and I would certainly recommend reading it.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you might already know, I love Scarlett Thomas and have been trying to get my hands on a copy of this - one of her rarer books - for quite a while; it was the one book of hers, excepting a couple of the very early Lily Pascale mysteries, I hadn't read. First published in 2002, it's something of a bridge between the author's slightly amateurish earlier novels and her superior later work (which in my opinion begins with 2004's PopCo). Like Bright Young Things, it has an ensemble cast of characters and a third-person omniscient narrator; but like PopCo and Thomas's subsequent books, it's packed with clever ideas, pop-culture references and sparkling dialogue.

The plot revolves around a couple of friends with significant problems. Luke has a rare set of serious allergies which mean he can't go outdoors and has lived his whole life in one room, but he's desperate to find a cure and is obsessed with the idea of 'going out'. Julie, his next-door-neighbour and best friend since childhood, has an increasingly severe range of phobias which are rendering her unable to do much more than stay at home and work in a 'safe' job that's beneath her, but is in denial that there's anything wrong with her. In a series of events loosely based on The Wizard of Oz - which is neatly woven into the story in several ways - the two friends embark on a mission to escort Luke to a mysterious healer who promises to cure him, accompanied by a colourful group of new acquaintances; an ex-school bully who thinks she's a witch, a young man with testicular cancer, a girl who's just won the lottery, and an old friend with a colourful past. Much of the narrative is taken up by the characters getting to know one another and discussing various topics, both monumental and insignificant, but their conversations are never less than engrossing, and the attention to detail is perfect. There's even a little blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to the events of Bright Young Things, which I appreciated. (I love it when I spot little details like this and feel like I'm being 'rewarded' for being a fan of the author!) The ending manages to wrap everything up happily for everybody without being completely implausible - well, not really, and by this point I liked all of them so much that I didn't really mind if one or two things were a bit far-fetched. Plus, the quote right at the end had me fighting back tears...

I had a few misgivings about some of the character development: Julie, who's supposed to be 'weird' and virtually friendless, actually seems to have very little difficulty making friends; I wasn't sure I could believe that Luke would really have notched up four sexual relationships while confined to one room of his intensely overprotective mother's house; and I could never really get a clear idea of who David was supposed to be (at times he's portrayed like a monosyllabic, vulgar teenager, at others he seems the most mature of the whole group, and I couldn't reconcile the two sides of the character - they read like different people). The circumstances of Luke's supposed condition don't stand up to much scrutiny, either. But, while it's not as good as the books that came after it, and is probably more of a 3.5 than a 4 (I'm being generous because it was a really likeable book and better than Bright Young Things), it's a warm, funny and thoroughly enjoyable adventure. As I have with most of Thomas's novels, I read the bulk of it in one sitting and found it difficult to set aside. If you haven't read anything by the author before, I wouldn't recommend starting with this, but if you're a fan of her other books then I think it's worth the effort to seek out a copy.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was a rather sad commentary on where 20-somethings find themselves today. Nor was the writing attractive. Indeed, Going Out read like the work of a young reporter--not a journalist, a reporter--because nothing was placed in a cultural or psychological setting of any value. The Independent on Sunday said Going Out was "surreal and inventive." I think that's giving it too much credit. It was unreal and derivative, actually. Gregor Samsa was better.

The Daily Mail said it was "A modern take on The Wizard of Oz. No. Oz was a quest through powerful psychological territory; this was a ramble through modern and post-modern minor neurosis.

Indeed, the book ended as it began, in a whimper. No one did much of anything. The changes in the characters were so minor as to require a microscope to find. And those changes were, in fact, changes that simply made the characters approach fully human. While this sort of caricature is fine in chick lit, detective stories and so on, nothing purporting to be serious mainstream fiction can get away with it.

Aside from the reportage aspect of the book, such literary exposition as exists in it is clumsy. Any author who must literally tell readers that one or more of the characters was "in a box" must certainly have missed the literature classes on showing rather than telling...or else, the educational systems have been so dumbed down that a casual reader is unable to get it without being bashed over the head with it. Indeed, if Going Out is the future of literature, I'd say literature has no future. Fortunately, there are lots of other modern books around of real value.

[Verlkungen · Rating 4 out of 5]

PSA: I bloody LOVE Scarlett Thomas. She has a way of writing dialogue that’s so believable without being dull, even when the conversations go nowhere and barely anything happens. It was the same with her novel Bright Young Things - a group of friends chilling, chatting shit, and that’s basically it.

Going Out follows Luke, a 25 year old who is allergic to the sun and has thus been stuck in his room for years. His best friend is Julie, who is afraid of pretty much everything. They and some more young friends decide to go on a road trip when they come into contact with someone who believes he can cure Luke.

Spoiler but not really a spoiler: the journey doesn’t get going until about two thirds in. For me, this was not a problem. I could read the conversations and the daily lives of Luke, Julie and co until the cows come home. That’s pretty amazing, since they don’t go anywhere or do anything for such a long time.

However, just as in BYT, your mileage may vary. If you’re from the UK and are anywhere between 20-35 I’d say you’d enjoy this a lot more, due to all the cultural references, and the familiar chats about being a young person in England.

Overall, this made me smile a lot, it was a very quick read, and as with Thomas’ other works, gave me some food for thought. Now I just need to get my hands on another of her books...

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Heidi_pie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scarlett Thomas will always be one of my most favourite authors, it's taken me too long to read this book but I'm so glad I got around to it finally.

I don't even know how to describe this book really but it's written in 2002 and if nothing else is just a healthy dose of nostalgia. I definitely need to read more books by English authors written around the 90s/early 2000s because this is the second book this year that I've read and they don't make them like this anymore and I'm not ashamed to be the old millennial saying this 🤣 I also highly appreciated the correct English in this book and I think my mum will be proud that I notice every time someone says things like cleverer or stupider instead of more stupid or more clever.

‘Will I have to become more stupid?’‘
No. You have to become more clever.’

Perfection

This book is about fear and trying to overcome it, friendship, mental health, maths, pop culture and not conforming to expectations put on you by your parents and society. Scarlett Thomas almost always uses complex maths and theoretical physics, philosophy and existentialism in a way that is relatable and thought provoking and I just love when it crops up in her books because it always feels like an unexpected surprise in a contemporary book.

[Verity · Rating 1 out of 5]

After many years of trying to get hold of this book the publisher finally decided to print a new edition of it this year and I was thrilled to see it when I visited my nearest bookshop.

I wish I could say it was worth the wait but sadly I found myself wishing it was over from about halfway through.

The blurb doesn't really accurately depict what the story is about, in the sense that it doesn't particularly focus on Luke's allergy to the sun and his road to desperately finding a cure. I found Thomas spent far too much time focusing on the other (superfluous) characters and didn't realise that the only parts of her work that were interesting and moving were those which tried to explain the world from Luke's point of view. Imagine only living in one room for your entire life, and not being able to recognise that what you see on the TV is actually a depiction of a real world. The other characters issues were the normal kinds of worries and problems that your average individual in their twenties experiences and it doesn't make for a thrilling read!

Going Out is a modern-day Wizard of Oz style adventure where 5 messed up people in their twenties go off on an adventure to "find themselves". Unfortunately, they only decide to embark on this adventure about 100 pages from the end of the book so it's a rushed, half described adventure with an ending that is wholly predictable and unsatisfying.

Very disappointing!

[Serisop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dopo aver letto due libri bellissimi di Scarlett Thomas mi ero quasi convinta che avrebbe sempre scritto cose stupende. Mi sbagliavo.
Purtroppo con "Il giro più pazzo del mondo" tutto si è perso in un mare di noia e sappiate che dire queste cose mi fa davvero male al cuore.
La Thomas è una di quelle autrici che ho stimato - sia in un romanzo per ragazzi (L'Isola dei segreti) che in uno per i più piccolini (Il drago verde) - soprattutto per lo stile di scrittura scorrevole ed intrigante. Il libro di cui sto scrivendo la recensione in questo momento, invece, sembra quasi scritto da un'altra persona.
Davvero, noioso oltre ogni dire.
I personaggi avevano lati particolari e affini al mio carattere, quindi non mi sono totalmente dispiaciuti. La storia era anche carina, strana al punto giusto nel perfetto stile dell'autrice. Ma quando non ti piace il modo in cui è scritto un libro credo che sia la fine.
Spero di rifarmi presto con altri titoli, per adesso non mi sento di consigliare questo come uno dei migliori titoli di Scarlett Thomas. Se dovete cominciare a leggere le sue opere, partite da altro.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another unique book from Scarlett Thomas that incorporates plenty of interesting ideas about how we live our lives. A bunch of friends, all with their own issues go off in a campervan to consult a healer for Luke; he has never been outside his house apart from one attempt which led to him collapsing, it is believed Luke is allergic to the sun amongst other things.

Scarlett Thomas writes quirky characters who I always wish actually existed so I could be-friend them. There are sprinklings of mathematical theories and theology in the book which only add the experience. These are developed more and used as a basis for her book The End of Mr. Y - which happens to be my favourite of her works.

A marvellous book which is enjoyable to read as well as being thought provoking, what is better than that?

[Trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of Thomas’ hard-to-find early novels. This one is about twentysomething Luke, who has a rare disease that makes it impossible for him to go outside, and Julie, who goes out in the world but is afraid of everything she finds there. The two of them, along with an assortment of their friends—a girl who just won the lottery, a guy with testicular cancer, a girl who thinks she’s a witch, a girl whose boyfriend died tragically—all set out to find a cure for Luke.

I knew how this book was going to end pretty much from the very beginning, but it was still a lot of fun getting there. I love Thomas’ writing style, and I love her intelligent, neurotic characters. It’s always a pleasure hanging out with them for a couple hundred pages.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am on a Thomas kick, she is such fun to read. Sprinkling of math, science, philosophy- I am really glad I stumbled accidentally upon this author.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually enjoy Scarlett Thomas' writing, but after years of this being on my bookshelf and finally getting around to reading it, I was sorely disappointed.

The basic premise of Luke, a young man with an allergy to sunlight and sundry other medical issues and intolerances who has lived his entire life in his mother's house with the curtains drawn and surrounded by artificial fabrics and with no concept of the real world outside of TV, the internet and house guests, is an interesting one. Julie, his neurotic, risk-averse neighbour who will only eat processed foods for fear of "real food" contaminants and improbable fantasies of doctoring and drug spiking, hates driving on motorways or taking public transport, and failed her exams on purpose despite being very intelligent so she could have a quite life, look after her friend Luke, and spite her mother in some small way, should also be a jumping-off point for a good story.

Unfortunately, it isn't.

The whole book leads up to a journey of Luke, Julie and sundry friends and hangers-on in a camper van to Wales to visit a healer who claims he may be able to cure Luke. The problem is that Thomas takes around 200 meandering pages to get there, by which time we've had endless pages about dead-end jobs, hicks winning the lottery, David, Julie's colleague from a soulless chain restaurant in a shopping precinct, who has cancer who seems to Jekyll and Hyde between a thoughtful student with a strong sense of injustice and a cross between Shaggy from Scooby Doo and Snoop Dogg who hangs out in a sleazy bar with drug dealers, the general piffling neuroses of 20-somethings at the turn of the millennium, and multiple inconsistencies in the plotting (if Luke has spent all of his life inside because he has such terrible allergies, why do his friends smoke around him all the time and presumably bring outside contamination into him on their clothes? Also, how has he been a shut-in but managed to have four sexual relationships?)

Probably the most annoying aspect of the book are the hamfisted references to the Wizard of Oz. The fact that the road-trip to Wales is their journey to the Emerald City is even foreshadowed by Leanne, Julie's sort-of-friend and Luke's sort-of-girlfriend, being dressed as Dorothy for a promotion at her branch of Blockbuster is groan-inducing. We then get Julie's paranoia about risk leading them to drive from Essex to Wales not via motorways and A roads, but by following the yellow B-roads (get it???). They also have a good witch join them as a last-minute van guest, and the Travelodge they finally arrive at to meet this mysterious healer Wei has a green sparkly carpet in the foyer (yes, really). The full-page quote directly from The Wizard of Oz to drive home the point of how "clever" Thomas is being with these references is, like the Wicked Witch having a house dropped on her, toe-curling.

The last 100 pages or so about their journey, which should be the key part of the book, seems horribly rushed. David and Chantel, the hick who won the lottery, fall in love rather abruptly and conveniently and leave for America so she can pay for his cancer treatment. There's much waffling between Julie and Wei the healer about Schrodinger's cat and infinite probability, and the ending where Luke has spoken to Wei, initially dismissed him as a humbug, but then runs out of their van on their way back home uncovered into the sunlight and is completely unharmed is supposed to be a joyous moment, but this means that Luke's mum has Munchausen syndrome by proxy and has effectively subjected him to a campaign of child abuse through her control and fear of abandonment, which is an extremely dark ending under the surface. It also leaves a sour taste as it was a situation which had crossed my mind from the start and seemed quite a predictable conclusion to Luke's story.

Overall, a perfectly readable but ultimately boring and unsatisfying novel which, for all its pitch-perfect period pop-culture references, post-modern flourishes and use of intellectual thought experiments and mathematical theories, is neither as interesting or clever as its author thinks it is.

[uk · Rating 3 out of 5]

On an entertaining quest of five friends in a ramshackle VW camper we get involved in rare ailments, multiple anxiety disorders, drugs, torrents of English rain, beer, assorted mathematical finger exercises, shaky interfamilial relationships, underpaid twenty-somethings, still drugs [as well as beer], Far Eastern philosophical musings, women on the verge of emotional breakdowns, people like Pierre de Fermat, the pros and cons of hand-crafted space suits, elusive Chinese guru healers, rain again, a cat owned by one Erwin Schrödinger, and the outright rejection of nihilism – all presented with Scarlett Thomas’s signature intellectual playfulness and postmodern humour in a quirky parable.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found out about this book when it first came out in 2002 while I was browsing the awesome books coming out of HarperCollins and Random House and their assorted satellite divisions — it seems you could spit and hit one at any given time. Shoot, just the idea that it’s a story about a dude allergic to EVERYTHING, and is stuck in his mother’s house for 25 years is crazy. The television, the internet, and his friends are his only points of reference to the outside world — it’s quite pitiful when you think about formulating oneself based on the characters from Friends. He is dying to go outside, but might die if he sets foot outside is a dichotomy that smells of dysfunction, internal (body, mind, soul) and external (family dynamics, society, environment). I found it highly hilarious that his friends want to help him go out by making a spacesuit for him — the absurdity of the idea is outrageous; the trip to Wales to see a Taoist healer is a journey to Oz. Well, after reading a sample of the first chapter, it was definitely my kind of book and Scarlett herself, my kind of author. So I put it on the mental want to read list, but lost track of the all-important Post-It along the way (I hate when that happens.) Thankfully, I kept remembering that Scarlett was out there and I did the typical thing that always drives me nuts when other people do it (being a former book-slinger, I can’t even begin to tell you how annoying it is to play “guess what book I’m looking for” based on the color of the book cover.) Forgetting the author’s last name (who can forget a first name like Scarlett? I didn’t.) The name of the book eluded me too. Whatever, I’m only human. The overall idea of the book and her writing style stuck with me. Then finally — while recently browsing around for something new to read (even tho’ my stack of TO READ is like a mile high, I just have to be in the right frame of mind to read what’s there, dig?) So anyway, drawing on my Google Kung-fu skills, I was able to find Going Out, and started reading it practically out of the box. What a fun little book! Books about journeys and misfits can be hysterically funny and heartwarming, there is always the potential to tip into frustration and wallowing in the dark side of things, especially when the characters are crippled by their fears, but this one didn’t go to that grim place, it didn’t need to — Scarlett kept it light-hearted with the right amount of tension at the right points of time to allow the reader to enjoy the ride and absorb what’s going on without becoming punch drunk from chronic stunning events. I loved the overall dry humor, subtle and endearing, accessible — perfect pitch, reflecting on ourselves as humans and where we are at a point of time — and over ten years later the story still resonates. Beware, there are a few things that will make me drop an F-bomb before 8 AM and this is one of them. Society as a whole just can’t get it together, not everyone pours into the mold of perfection. Seriously, we human’s fuck ourselves up so much, we should laugh at ourselves for being so dang stupid. It’s whatever that’s inside us that does the crippling — our parents, siblings, a spouse, a friend, a teacher, or someone else who has power over us, or the strict parameters of ideology often give a hand to enable our weaknesses and fears, and the expectations of society is a pressure that manipulates us into believing we’re not right or no damn good unless we conform, and we (the individual) willingly tether ourselves to the convoluted notions that we can’t do something, rather than trying to do something we want to do, and wasting much of our time failing miserably at the stuff expected of us — what the fuck, right? It makes my head hurt. I know that I’ve done my fair share of crippling myself and that’s my own damn fault no one else's — sometimes it takes years for a person to realize this (if they ever do), but once you do, it’s very liberating. You have to be brave to do the things you gotta do for yourself, say ‘fuck you’ to the standardized cookie cutter life — go out there and be happy, damn it.

Going out. Getting out.
Run out screaming into the sunshine…

Going Out is an appealing, approachable book, I’m so happy to have found it (I understand it’s been hard to find.) It could’ve been a much darker story, but it was treated with a compassionate hand, which makes it right — with that said, readers should mind their expectations, trust the author to guide them through the tale, Scarlett Thomas is a very capable guide through the reading journey. I’m glad to have another prolific writer to collect.

[Hugo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Scarlett Thomas's best book before Mr Y. Felt a touch rushed toward the end, almost as though the author didn't want to end telling the story, but felt she had to end it in 30 pages. Otherwise really enjoyable.

[Veronica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ho comprato questo libro a scatola chiusa: non avevo mai letto nulla di quest'autrice nè tantomeno avevo sentito parlare di lei e non ho letto la trama in anticipo. Ho passato le prime sessanta pagine a chiedermi perché non avevo scelto un altro libro al suo posto; poi è migliorato un pochino (Julie mi è diventata piuttosto simpatica) e sono stata un tantino più propensa a continuarlo. Peccato che per arrivare a questo benedetto viaggio anticipato nel titolo abbia dovuto aspettare di leggere tre quarti di libro e che alla fine le vicende si siano evolute in fretta e anche piuttosto superficialmente oltre che con grande irrealtà (il finale non l'ho retto proprio e il modo in cui la malattia di cui soffre Luke è stata trattata ... l'ho trovato un po' troppo sopra le righe) e mio disappunto. Mi sono piaciuti i riferimenti alla matematica (e io odio la matematica come nessuno mai) e non li ho trovati neanche pesanti come al solito. Julie è il personaggio meglio rappresentato, ci sono dei dialoghi coerenti e la trama scorre leggera. Carino ma non eccelso, ci si passa il tempo.

[Katelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

the book Going Out by Scarlett Thomas is about this guy named luke and his friends julie,dave,leanne,and charolett who live in london.each and everyone has a problem of their own.julie is afriad of life and losing control,dave has cancer, leanne thinks she a wicth, and charoltte became a hippie.they all left on a journey to help their friend luke, but on their journey everyone found their own answers to their problem. dave left to america to cure his cancer, leanne left to join a witch covenent, and julie and charolett are going to travle on the road. but luke foud the answer within him and finally got to ssuch the grass see the sun , and fell the rain on hes face. so recommed this book to people who loves a story like this one.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weird. Not as delightfully insane as Thomas's more recent books, but I can definitely see the seeds of books to come in this. I really don't know how I feel about this; absent of expectation I may have liked it more or I may have quit partway through. It's not as full of random ideas and information that the author (and me, usually) finds interesting and the ideas that are there are old hat to me (imaginary numbers, Schroedinger's cat). On the other hand, it name-dropped Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

On the whole, I think I'd only recommend it to fans of Scarlett Thomas who've already read her three latest books and need something to pass the time as they wait. If you haven't read anything by her, I'd skip this and go to PopCo.

Also, man is that cover horrendous.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scarlett Thomas è una delle mie scrittrici preferite, e mi spaventa un po' sapere che questo è praticamente l'ultimo romanzo che mi mancava (rimangono tre gialli, ma sono opere giovanili e parte di una serie, e un saggio) anche se mi esalta l'idea di poter rileggere a breve The End of Mr Y e dargli un giudizio migliore. Per chi non la conoscesse, questa autrice scrive romanzi deliziosamente surreali, popolati da giovani protagonisti e costellati di riferimenti alla cultura pop e di idee affascinanti (quali, ad esempio, la crittografia, la matematica, il marketing,..).

http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.it/2...

[Sascha Altschuler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved S. Thomas's "The End of Mr. Y" but "Going out", "The Seed Collectors" and "Our tragic Universe" all seems anti-climatic. The premise is great, the writing is exciting and keeps you reading but the endings are weak and unfulfilling. I liked reading Going Out but in the end it felt a little bit like a waste of time. I'm still waiting for the writer to come up with a new Mr Y :)

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it twice!

[Margot Dunne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of Thomas' books are great. Interesting, innovative, page turners. Others just seem pointless and endless. Going Out falls into the latter category.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Going Out” is, as many of Scarlett’s books are, an eclectic mix of the human experience mixed with topics and subjects you never knew could be connected – my inner zeal for knowledge and finding connections with anything (even if you think there’s none there) truly feels fangirly after reading any of her books, and “Going Out” is no exception to the feeling.

I’ve seen her combine treasure maps, miso soup, and math codes before. Now in “Going Out” she writes of health – mental and physical, magic and healing, and the trials of being stuck in a life you don’t want. Something we probably all feel more than once in our lives.

With Coronavirus and a lockdown, I felt this particular book was just the right theme for this time period.

So you could read the synopsis and get a gist of the whole story perhaps, but “Going Out” is so much more than that, and I really can’t get over enough how – with the state of the world at the moment and the anxiety surrounding escaping from the safety of your self-made cage – it’s such an important and brilliant read. As someone who deals with anxiety on a daily basis at varying degrees, I felt for Julie’s character immediately, who definitely seems to suffer from anxiety as well.

How can you face the world when you’re so full of fear? Sometimes we all have to push through, and this is exactly what the characters in the book do. Julie with her anxiety, Luke with his allergy to the sun… in hope they attempt the seemingly impossible and brave the world outside.

It’s not just them either. Other characters fall into the ‘braving the unknown’ mix. Leanne, Luke’s girlfriend who harbours a secret she’s terrified to admit. David, Julie’s coworker who discovers he’s got cancer. Chantel who has just won the lottery but is subject to prejudice over her wealth. And Charlotte, who disappeared a few years before, only to return and bring back into the light the crush Julie had with her when they were teenagers.

In a way, all the characters need healing. Julie, with her fears of the world, Luke with his allergy to the sun, David with his cancer, Leanne with her fears of what she thinks she’s capable of, Chantel with her money worries and fears she’s out of place, and Charlotte with the situation she ran from with her ex-boyfriend.

Fear is such a big subject to this book – but more so how to overcome it, and that more likely than not, it’s all in your head. Well. We knew that already. But Scarlett shows that while it can control us, we can overcome it. The book evolves to show this – how fear controls unless we’re willing to step out of the shadows of all the stories we tell ourselves and believe in.

I suppose I could go on all day about this subject, and the book itself, because it has been a big subject I myself have been working on for many years – and more so with this pandemic. Ultimately, the book – as ever, is written in such a way that hits at the heart of the human experience. Scarlett makes it feel like you’re there with them in their experiences. Even in the VW Campervan*.

In the end, the characters all face the roots of their fears and heal from them. Or at least, understand where those fears stem from and move forward. It’s a lesson on life, how we experience the world, and a story of how we have to walk out of the shadows and face the sun – and realise – hey, it’s not so bad out here after all.

Also, as a side note, I really loved the little nod in the book to one of Scarlett’s other novels… head to page 99 to find out which one!

How Many Stars?

Overall, it’s a 5-star rating from me. Scarlett Thomas never fails to amaze and inspire me. And the nod to Ayurveda was a great inclusion topic too!

*After picking this book up and chatting with my friends about it, one of my friends and I are so up for doing a road trip of our own around the UK at some point. I’ve already created a vision board! It may be a while before it’s fully realised, but here’s to making the dream a reality!

[LaNi95_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un romanzo scorrevole, divertente e toccante tanto che si legge in poco tempo e può essere adatto già dall'adolescenza fino all'età adulta, tante sono le cose descritte. Ogni pagina insegna a non ragionare con preconcetti ed etichette, un vero e proprio libro sulla diversità, dove vengono rappresentati i problemi dei protagonisti, ognun* con le proprie ansie e le proprie preoccupazioni. Possiamo definirlo un “on the road” emozionante perché chi legge vivrà insieme a Luke la bellezza di scoprire per la prima volta tante cose nuove, viaggiando verso la speranza di guarigione. Secondo me ha delle summer vibes che lo fanno diventare un perfetto romanzo da leggere in estate! Consigliato!

[Anna Garssen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik ben hier ongeveer een jaar geleden in begonnen en had het niet uitgelezen, omdat er andere boeken tussendoor kwamen en het geen doorleesboek is. Het is niet een boek dat je meetrekt, maar evengoed de moeite waard! Scarlett Thomas heeft een herkenbare stijl, grappig, intelligent, en je stapt in het verhaal, niet flits flits van het een naar het ander, maar meer hoe het in het echte leven ook is.

[Ludovica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mh.
Scarlett Thomas è la mia autrice preferita da sempre e sono un po’ rammaricata da questo libro messo in confronto a pietre miliari come “Che fine ha fatto Mr Y” e “popco”.
Sicuramente è un libro che letto in età adulta non ti tocca più, in adolescenza, immerso nei problemi/paure/paranoie di quell’età avrebbe un peso maggiore sulla coscienza.
Bello ma se dovessi consigliare un suo testo sicuramente quelli sopracitati.

[Alessia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Il fatto che abbia impiegato un mese a leggere questo libro spiega le misere due stelline. Pensavo di leggere un bel romanzo on the road, ma il viaggio inizia a un terzo di libro e dura davvero poco. L'unica nota positiva é l'ottima caratterizzazione dei personaggi.

[Oksana73 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Чудесная, позитивная и вдохновляющая история. После ее прочтения хочется жить. вдохнуть свежий воздух, как первый раз в жизни, прогуляться босиком по траве и в каждом живом существе увидеть чудо творения.

[Kate Mccarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered this author on holiday in Devon and always enjoy her books.

[Riotkittin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im going to go with "meh" for this book. It's really well written and characters are great. But as a whole I'm feeling "meh" after finishing.