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Never Look Desperate
Never Look Desperate is Sedaris meets Fleabag, a tragi-comedy romance set in Melbourne 2023. It features cremation bling, pineapple underwear, grief and vaccinated cruise ships. The central characters Bernard, Goldie and Minh are everything TED Talks tell you not to be.
The story tackles the absurdity of despair in a recovering world, the liberation from isolation and the wild frontier of middle-aged Tinder.
The story tackles the absurdity of despair in a recovering world, the liberation from isolation and the wild frontier of middle-aged Tinder.
- GenresFictionContemporary
304 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2023
6 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
Rachel Matthews
38 books27 followersRachel Matthews is a Melbourne author and educator. She recently completed her second novel, Siren, as a PhD in creative writing at Victoria University. Her first novel, Vinyl Inside, was commended in the 2003 Australian Vogel Award and received strong reviews in the press.
Matthews has over 15 years experience as a tutor and lecturer in professional writing within a diverse range of learning environments. These include RMIT's Professional Writing and Editing programs and short courses, the VCE English department at the Distance Education Centre Victoria and writing programs at the Centre for Adult Education (CAE) in Melbourne.
She is also an experienced presenter with the Victorian Association for Teachers of English.
Matthews has over 15 years experience as a tutor and lecturer in professional writing within a diverse range of learning environments. These include RMIT's Professional Writing and Editing programs and short courses, the VCE English department at the Distance Education Centre Victoria and writing programs at the Centre for Adult Education (CAE) in Melbourne.
She is also an experienced presenter with the Victorian Association for Teachers of English.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
September 5, 2023
I still find myself, at random moments in my life, laughing at things I read in this book.
Its humour acts like a tractor beam, drawing the reader in close as the quirky cast of characters struggle to find, maintain and define the meaningful connections in their lives.
Building and keeping relationships is one of the most difficult things we humans try to do, and Matthews explores this sometimes sad and giddy quest with equal measures of hope and surrender.
Its humour acts like a tractor beam, drawing the reader in close as the quirky cast of characters struggle to find, maintain and define the meaningful connections in their lives.
Building and keeping relationships is one of the most difficult things we humans try to do, and Matthews explores this sometimes sad and giddy quest with equal measures of hope and surrender.
September 9, 2023
A witty, playful, relatable, poignant and touching read. I couldn’t put it down once I started. It felt like those pages turned themselves at times. Bold characters, clever storyline’s and a feel good read. Thank you Rachael for being a voice not only for us single women of a certain age but delivering a sensitive, current and very Melbourne book. Well done!
September 2, 2023
I loved this book! Matthews is a very skilled writer. Aside from the wit and lol humour, her characters are beautifully developed and completely relatable. Thoroughly recommended.
September 12, 2023
Rachel Matthews is the author of Siren (2017, see my review) and I featured her in Meet an Aussie Author back in 2017 because I was so impressed by the way her novel confronted the bleak truth about football culture and sexual assault. Her new novel Never Look Desperate is equally devastating in its portrayal of vulnerable people, but it has a lighter touch: it's poignant, tender and hopeful, and its characters will steal your heart.
Bernard and Minh are middle-aged singles trying to negotiate new relationships when they're carrying baggage from previous relationships. Goldie is older: she's Bernard's mother.
Bernard is kind-of literally carrying a torch for his wife Silvia: he wears a piece of cremation jewellery, like a locket but with her ashes inside.
#Digression: You didn't know there was such a thing? Nor did I. But in the 19th century mourning brooches were common, and often they included portraits or a lock of hair. See some antique mourning brooches at Cartiers here.
Goldie, Bernard's mother, is lonely too, and they don't get on. Browsing a Facebook ad promoting antiseptic masks for immunocompromised travellers wanting safe hook-ups, Bernard remembers the moment when he heard the news about his father Marvin's death.
Bernard is forty-nine. He longs to be touched. He couldn't remember the feel of skin.
And he remembers his father telling him that Goldie had hidden his blood pressure tablets after announcing that she could cure him with linseed and omega-3. Her new boyfriend Franz is susceptible to quackery too. He doesn't mind the tarot cards and he's behind with his vaccine boosters after seeing a doctor on TikTok explaining the science behind the shots causing constipation. Goldie tests his patience because she is brittle and hasty, and although she recognises the cues that suggest Franz's interest, she deflects them because she is afraid.
Minh is afraid of being hurt too.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/12/n...
Bernard and Minh are middle-aged singles trying to negotiate new relationships when they're carrying baggage from previous relationships. Goldie is older: she's Bernard's mother.
Bernard is kind-of literally carrying a torch for his wife Silvia: he wears a piece of cremation jewellery, like a locket but with her ashes inside.
He liked the smooth surface of the pendant. Silvia was ash inside metal, tucked underneath his clothing. Cremation jewellery, the brochure said. Bernard and Silvia had separated before the accident — and now when he felt sad, she was still around.
Except in intimate moments, when she was gently placed in a sock drawer.
'Take it off in the shower or bath,' the woman from Forever Designs had whispered. 'Keep your loved one dry.' (p.1)
#Digression: You didn't know there was such a thing? Nor did I. But in the 19th century mourning brooches were common, and often they included portraits or a lock of hair. See some antique mourning brooches at Cartiers here.
Goldie, Bernard's mother, is lonely too, and they don't get on. Browsing a Facebook ad promoting antiseptic masks for immunocompromised travellers wanting safe hook-ups, Bernard remembers the moment when he heard the news about his father Marvin's death.
Bernard closed his eyes. It was just under twelve months since the phone call from his quick-tongued mother Goldie. He'd been watching The Farmer Wants a Wife on catch-up in self-isolation, after a neighbour got the virus form their local Coles — a deli worker handing over sliced mortadella. As Goldie had said, 'Your father died', a wheat grower called Donald had been deliberating between a hairdresser and an bisexual wedding celebrant. (p.2)
Bernard is forty-nine. He longs to be touched. He couldn't remember the feel of skin.
And he remembers his father telling him that Goldie had hidden his blood pressure tablets after announcing that she could cure him with linseed and omega-3. Her new boyfriend Franz is susceptible to quackery too. He doesn't mind the tarot cards and he's behind with his vaccine boosters after seeing a doctor on TikTok explaining the science behind the shots causing constipation. Goldie tests his patience because she is brittle and hasty, and although she recognises the cues that suggest Franz's interest, she deflects them because she is afraid.
Minh is afraid of being hurt too.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/09/12/n...
December 2, 2024
I really enjoyed this - a quick read from the library. It was described in the blurb as Sedaris meets Fleabag and I agree with that. Matthew’s voice is refreshingly Aussie and it captures the online dating scene for people in their 50s which was refreshing. Highly recommend.
August 7, 2024
Rachel Matthews knows how to write believable and memorable characters.
In her latest book ‘Never Look Desperate: a novel’ she brings to life three ordinary, every-day people resuming their social life after the lockdowns and repercussions of Covid.
What an introduction to the first character, Bernard, who is in his forties and misses his wife who had divorced him and then died. On p1 Matthews writes: "With his wife gone and now his father departed, the world, it seemed, would keep taking pieces of him." Then on p9 readers learn more of his late wife: "Silvia had seven miscarriages before she left him…. He was sad she had died without holding her child."
As a seven-year-old, the second character Minh had fled Vietnam with her parents and [racial] 'taunting at school had become part of her day'(p12). She was looking for a meaningful relationship with a man.
The third character, Bernard’s mother Goldie had recently lost her husband Marvin and was grieving for him and questioning her life with him, especially as Bernard held her responsible for his death. On p26. Matthews writes: p 26 "Goldie tasted everything as though for the first time. Her resounding memory of childhood was the ache of hunger and an old laundry under the house. Her mother had called it the Thinking Room. The cold smell lived deep inside. Goldie could still feel the damp against her body." Immediately readers become aware of depth and complexity to this character.
Readers who usually like to read books written in the third person with access to the point of view of only one character might find it disconcerting to see what is going on in the minds of three people. However, this device, along with a lot of telling as well as showing what is going on, helps round out the characters and helps readers understand the characters’ psyches. Once readers adapt to Matthew’s style of writing, they should enjoy the interaction between the characters and their interactions with others, including Marvin.
Apart from grief, family relationships and sexual relationships, other issues raised in the novel include inter-generational trauma going back several generations, challenges in trying to come to terms with wanting but not having a partner, passing the usual age for parenting children, and losing the ability to have children. Matthews understands the conflicts within the characters she creates and she empathises with them.
Matthews also seamlessly integrates current ethical issues into the story. For instance, after a meditation, Goldie turns on the radio. "The ABC was broadcasting a debate called Viral Planet via the Melbourne Town Hall. A doctor from the World Health Organization spoke. ‘What have we spent globally managing the virus? Each year, 525,000 children under the age of five die from dirty drinking water.’"
This book would appeal to anyone who likes to read about ordinary people and who wants to work out what makes them tick. Matthews knows the people she writes about and loves them despite their foibles, nerdiness or neediness. Readers are likely to feel the same, and they will think about the characters and the issues they raise long after they finish reading. Those turned off by the F word will need to tolerate it about half a dozen times or give the book a miss.
I highly recommend ‘Never Look Desperate: a Novel’ and give it a rating of 5 out of 5.
In her latest book ‘Never Look Desperate: a novel’ she brings to life three ordinary, every-day people resuming their social life after the lockdowns and repercussions of Covid.
What an introduction to the first character, Bernard, who is in his forties and misses his wife who had divorced him and then died. On p1 Matthews writes: "With his wife gone and now his father departed, the world, it seemed, would keep taking pieces of him." Then on p9 readers learn more of his late wife: "Silvia had seven miscarriages before she left him…. He was sad she had died without holding her child."
As a seven-year-old, the second character Minh had fled Vietnam with her parents and [racial] 'taunting at school had become part of her day'(p12). She was looking for a meaningful relationship with a man.
The third character, Bernard’s mother Goldie had recently lost her husband Marvin and was grieving for him and questioning her life with him, especially as Bernard held her responsible for his death. On p26. Matthews writes: p 26 "Goldie tasted everything as though for the first time. Her resounding memory of childhood was the ache of hunger and an old laundry under the house. Her mother had called it the Thinking Room. The cold smell lived deep inside. Goldie could still feel the damp against her body." Immediately readers become aware of depth and complexity to this character.
Readers who usually like to read books written in the third person with access to the point of view of only one character might find it disconcerting to see what is going on in the minds of three people. However, this device, along with a lot of telling as well as showing what is going on, helps round out the characters and helps readers understand the characters’ psyches. Once readers adapt to Matthew’s style of writing, they should enjoy the interaction between the characters and their interactions with others, including Marvin.
Apart from grief, family relationships and sexual relationships, other issues raised in the novel include inter-generational trauma going back several generations, challenges in trying to come to terms with wanting but not having a partner, passing the usual age for parenting children, and losing the ability to have children. Matthews understands the conflicts within the characters she creates and she empathises with them.
Matthews also seamlessly integrates current ethical issues into the story. For instance, after a meditation, Goldie turns on the radio. "The ABC was broadcasting a debate called Viral Planet via the Melbourne Town Hall. A doctor from the World Health Organization spoke. ‘What have we spent globally managing the virus? Each year, 525,000 children under the age of five die from dirty drinking water.’"
This book would appeal to anyone who likes to read about ordinary people and who wants to work out what makes them tick. Matthews knows the people she writes about and loves them despite their foibles, nerdiness or neediness. Readers are likely to feel the same, and they will think about the characters and the issues they raise long after they finish reading. Those turned off by the F word will need to tolerate it about half a dozen times or give the book a miss.
I highly recommend ‘Never Look Desperate: a Novel’ and give it a rating of 5 out of 5.
July 26, 2024
Rachel Matthews’ third novel Never Look Desperate (Transit Lounge 2023) is a light-hearted, funny, satirical and sardonic story that nevertheless transverses some heavy emotional ground such as family dynamics, aging, parent/adult child relationships, despair and Covid isolation and the after-effects. The three central characters Goldie, her son Bernard and his love interest Minh each give their point of view in a contemporary narrative about loveless and hopeless people who are trying hard to change those aspects of their lives.
Never Look Desperate features great and authentic dialogue with distinct characters. All three characters initially felt younger to me than I eventually realised they were, but perhaps this is a reflection of the fact that despite aging, you often continue to feel young and face the same challenges, especially in terms of relationships. The book is a slow burn but this deliberate leisureliness is compensated by the author’s acute and sharp observations of the details and minutiae of daily life, with many perceptive depictions of what people say and think, what they do and how they do it, and the motivations and past trauma or important life events that influence how they now live.
Although Goldie, Minh and Bernard are connected, the book could almost be three novellas on each of their lives, as each chapter from that person’s point of view is wholly and intensely their own. In this way, we are pulled from one to another, each perspective immersing us in that character’s emotional and physical plights to the extent that we almost forget about the others until we change chapters and then do another deep dive into the next character.
The novel is easy to read, funny, wise and thought-provoking, and Matthews has navigated well the post-Covid writers’ dilemma of how to include the pandemic without it completely absorbing the story.
Never Look Desperate features great and authentic dialogue with distinct characters. All three characters initially felt younger to me than I eventually realised they were, but perhaps this is a reflection of the fact that despite aging, you often continue to feel young and face the same challenges, especially in terms of relationships. The book is a slow burn but this deliberate leisureliness is compensated by the author’s acute and sharp observations of the details and minutiae of daily life, with many perceptive depictions of what people say and think, what they do and how they do it, and the motivations and past trauma or important life events that influence how they now live.
Although Goldie, Minh and Bernard are connected, the book could almost be three novellas on each of their lives, as each chapter from that person’s point of view is wholly and intensely their own. In this way, we are pulled from one to another, each perspective immersing us in that character’s emotional and physical plights to the extent that we almost forget about the others until we change chapters and then do another deep dive into the next character.
The novel is easy to read, funny, wise and thought-provoking, and Matthews has navigated well the post-Covid writers’ dilemma of how to include the pandemic without it completely absorbing the story.
December 9, 2023
Never Look Desperate by Australian author Rachel Matthews is a charming work of drama that combines romance and an emotive slice-of-life style of fiction.
Set in Melbourne Victoria, central characters Bernard forty-nine, Minh fifty-four, and Bernard’s mother Goldie are all lonely in a world where social media rules and they feel they are being left behind. Trying to work out relationships while carrying emotional baggage is not an easy task. Can there possibly be a future for them filled with love and happiness?
The story is easy to follow, with vivid descriptions and crisp, clear dialog that engages you from the start. There is certainly tragedy to the tale dealing with real-life issues but there’s bittersweet beauty to be found so you can understand and empathize with each character. Readers can relate to the descriptive passages of sorrow, angst, joy, guilt, and peace of mind.
The characters are marvellous, I enjoyed the complexities of individual and how they tried to navigate their lives. Matthews develops her characters by seamlessly weaving their highs and lows into the story and you cannot help but feel you are part of their adventures,
Never Look Desperate is a well-written book that I found to be a refreshing breath of fresh air in the genre of relationship books, it is a highly entertaining story that had me laughing my socks off half the time and crying the next.
I would love to see this book turn into a series following the characters. A worthwhile read with a feel-good effect and a fun diversion when a light-hearted rom com is needed.
I highly recommend.
Thank you, Beauty & Lace and Transit Lounge, for the opportunity to read and review.
Set in Melbourne Victoria, central characters Bernard forty-nine, Minh fifty-four, and Bernard’s mother Goldie are all lonely in a world where social media rules and they feel they are being left behind. Trying to work out relationships while carrying emotional baggage is not an easy task. Can there possibly be a future for them filled with love and happiness?
The story is easy to follow, with vivid descriptions and crisp, clear dialog that engages you from the start. There is certainly tragedy to the tale dealing with real-life issues but there’s bittersweet beauty to be found so you can understand and empathize with each character. Readers can relate to the descriptive passages of sorrow, angst, joy, guilt, and peace of mind.
The characters are marvellous, I enjoyed the complexities of individual and how they tried to navigate their lives. Matthews develops her characters by seamlessly weaving their highs and lows into the story and you cannot help but feel you are part of their adventures,
Never Look Desperate is a well-written book that I found to be a refreshing breath of fresh air in the genre of relationship books, it is a highly entertaining story that had me laughing my socks off half the time and crying the next.
I would love to see this book turn into a series following the characters. A worthwhile read with a feel-good effect and a fun diversion when a light-hearted rom com is needed.
I highly recommend.
Thank you, Beauty & Lace and Transit Lounge, for the opportunity to read and review.
February 9, 2025
I was a little overcome when I got to the end of 'Never Look Desperate'. I blurted the feelings and thoughts into my phone - rheumatoid arthritis prevents the usual blurting into a journal these days. There was so much, the thoughts couldn't fit in an Instagram post, so I wrote a blog post for the first time in a while. Here is a snippet of that and this is the link to my full 'blurt' - https://ploddinghistorian.wordpress.c....
"I have just finished this, so I’m struggling to formulate my thoughts. Not in a bad way. This book will be heading to my bookshelves, not to the secondhand bookshop. It’s set in Melbourne post all their COVID-19 lockdowns. Three characters, Bernard, Goldie and Minh, are struggling with grief and attempting to regain some semblance of life after what was effectively two years of lockdown for Melbourne. ...This is one of those books that you don’t even realise is well written because it’s so well done and the story and the characters have got into your being that you are oblivious to all that technical business and become lost in the narrative, only being pulled back into the real world when you have to turn over, (reading in bed), or move the book to your other hand, or get up to go to the loo. But it is only a momentary disruption; two or three sentences and you’re right back in."
It's back on my bedside table after a week of "hanging out" with Dr Rachel as it has inspired a conceived, but not yet started, writing project of my own. Readers are writers!
"I have just finished this, so I’m struggling to formulate my thoughts. Not in a bad way. This book will be heading to my bookshelves, not to the secondhand bookshop. It’s set in Melbourne post all their COVID-19 lockdowns. Three characters, Bernard, Goldie and Minh, are struggling with grief and attempting to regain some semblance of life after what was effectively two years of lockdown for Melbourne. ...This is one of those books that you don’t even realise is well written because it’s so well done and the story and the characters have got into your being that you are oblivious to all that technical business and become lost in the narrative, only being pulled back into the real world when you have to turn over, (reading in bed), or move the book to your other hand, or get up to go to the loo. But it is only a momentary disruption; two or three sentences and you’re right back in."
It's back on my bedside table after a week of "hanging out" with Dr Rachel as it has inspired a conceived, but not yet started, writing project of my own. Readers are writers!
August 23, 2024
I don't think this book is particularly well written. The opening sentence is a shocker but I give all books I start a minimum of 5 pages before giving up. And yet when I got to the 5th page I ploughed on because I don't know why. The writing felt shallow and slick but despite this the characters moved me. I liked them, or found them interesting but good interesting, not 'interesting' because I was avoiding 'boring'. Or I didn't like them at all which is never reason enough to stop because they have evoked a response. They were real. There were also occasional wonderful phrases, one likening one character's standing in an old pair of battered boots to standing on excited puppies, another about a golden ribbon of night sky, and another something about shutters filtering streetlights lights across a bedroom ceiling - enough of these plus the characters kept me engaged to the point of finishing it in one day. I think any book that makes us finish it in one day cannot be given less than 5 stars. If I wrote a book that someone finished in one day, gave up one day of their life for, I would expect no less from that reader on Goodreads, whether I found the writing style a bit flimsy or not.
December 14, 2023
Never Look Desperate is a fun, easy to read rom-com.
After coming out of Covid lockdown’s
Bernard and Minh are two older people negotiating their way through apps to find love.
Whilst Goldie ( Bernard’s mum) is finding her way in the world after the death of his father.
Although there was the topic of grief and death there was many funny bits throughout which I enjoyed. It also covered the different dynamics of families.
I liked the characters and how they were portrayed. It was a really enjoyable read and I would recommend it.
Many thanks to Beauty and Lace and Transit Lounge Publishing for my copy to read and review.
After coming out of Covid lockdown’s
Bernard and Minh are two older people negotiating their way through apps to find love.
Whilst Goldie ( Bernard’s mum) is finding her way in the world after the death of his father.
Although there was the topic of grief and death there was many funny bits throughout which I enjoyed. It also covered the different dynamics of families.
I liked the characters and how they were portrayed. It was a really enjoyable read and I would recommend it.
Many thanks to Beauty and Lace and Transit Lounge Publishing for my copy to read and review.
February 26, 2024
Once again, the blurb is wrong. This is not "Sedaris meets Fleabag."
Disclaimer- I didn't seek out this book but won it as part of a book prize.
There are some insightful character depictions and evocative place descriptions (like the cruise, which has affirmed that I never wish to try this type of holiday).
Alternating chapters focused on different characters is often used by authors but in this case, I found it annoying. One of the main characters was, possibly, so well drawn that I absolutely loathed her (Goldie). Hard to find a more unlikable, unsympathetic character- so I only wanted to follow the story arc of the other two characters.
Disclaimer- I didn't seek out this book but won it as part of a book prize.
There are some insightful character depictions and evocative place descriptions (like the cruise, which has affirmed that I never wish to try this type of holiday).
Alternating chapters focused on different characters is often used by authors but in this case, I found it annoying. One of the main characters was, possibly, so well drawn that I absolutely loathed her (Goldie). Hard to find a more unlikable, unsympathetic character- so I only wanted to follow the story arc of the other two characters.
June 28, 2024
A story of three ordinary people leading unremarkable lives made remarkable through author Rachel Matthews’ mix of laugh-out-loud comedy and poignant insights. A real strength of the novel is the rendering of the characters – quotidian they may be, but they’re also vivid, authentic and often hilariously relatable. The mating dance between Minh and Bernard is beautifully underplayed and is resolved in a way that’s both touching and realistic. And the matriarch, Goldie, whose petty snobbery provides much of the humour, is sometimes difficult to like but always impossible to hate. A terrific read.
October 13, 2024
A laugh-out-loud funny and deeply poignant story about the exceptional beauty and heartache found in the ordinary.
Rachael Matthews is one of those rare people whose minds you wish you could inhabit for a day. She sees the human experience—all the splendour, humour and pain—in full glorious technicolour.
Told from the POVs of Bernard, Goldie—his mother—and Minh—his new love—the reader has not only a front row seat to the relatable dysfunction of each, but the ecosystem which created it. The takeaway from NEVER LOOK DESPERATE? We are all flawed but that doesn't preclude us from happiness.
This book is a warm hug and a good belly laugh for the soul. Read it when you need that.
Rachael Matthews is one of those rare people whose minds you wish you could inhabit for a day. She sees the human experience—all the splendour, humour and pain—in full glorious technicolour.
Told from the POVs of Bernard, Goldie—his mother—and Minh—his new love—the reader has not only a front row seat to the relatable dysfunction of each, but the ecosystem which created it. The takeaway from NEVER LOOK DESPERATE? We are all flawed but that doesn't preclude us from happiness.
This book is a warm hug and a good belly laugh for the soul. Read it when you need that.
May 27, 2025
Thank you Rachel Matthews for providing this wonderful book. Currently I am finding happy escapism hard to find in the shrinking world of literature. The reader who seeks this out, often has to choose between well written and deeply emotionally cutting, or happy-go-lucky but poorly written.
I am so happy to announce that this is one of the few exceptions. Such a joyous, funny read! And yet so wonderfully human, incredibly relatable, with characters that were constructed to be real. The comic relief I was needing in my life; Rachel Matthews, if I met you in the street, I would shake your hand! Thank you!
I am so happy to announce that this is one of the few exceptions. Such a joyous, funny read! And yet so wonderfully human, incredibly relatable, with characters that were constructed to be real. The comic relief I was needing in my life; Rachel Matthews, if I met you in the street, I would shake your hand! Thank you!
October 25, 2023
Loved reading this novel. The characters all
Different and engaging and loved the way it was set in Melbourne with so many contemporary references to life and living. Rachel manages to catch an essence of each character that draws one into their individual situations and it was funny! Loved the cruise ship activités and journeys of each protagonist.
A delightful read and one that reminds us what a fab State and city we live in and if you have a partner, to treasure them. Thanks Rachel love your work xx
Different and engaging and loved the way it was set in Melbourne with so many contemporary references to life and living. Rachel manages to catch an essence of each character that draws one into their individual situations and it was funny! Loved the cruise ship activités and journeys of each protagonist.
A delightful read and one that reminds us what a fab State and city we live in and if you have a partner, to treasure them. Thanks Rachel love your work xx
November 20, 2023
This is the book that I will be recommending to everyone I know for their essential summer beach read. On several occasions, I was caught out in public guffawing uncontrollably. Matthews is a very funny writer! Her observations are frank and lucid and they land with a thud of recognition that is frequently both melancholy and bloody amusing.
The characters all feel so authentic; I particularly loved Bernard and Minh and so wanted them to fall in love with each other! No spoilers here.
This is a delightful read! Loved!
The characters all feel so authentic; I particularly loved Bernard and Minh and so wanted them to fall in love with each other! No spoilers here.
This is a delightful read! Loved!
December 26, 2024
The blurb describes this book as, “Sedaris meets Fleabag” so I was hoping for clever, funny, dysfunctional people and an interesting story. While there is lots of dysfunction, there’s nothing particularly clever or funny about these characters. There’s something really trite about them, they’re shallow stereotypes who aren’t particularly likeable and I couldn’t get invested in their lives. I appreciate what the author was trying to do here, but it was slow moving and it kind of fell flat for me.
October 2, 2023
OMG I love this book so much. It's fkn hilarious, for a start -- but also moving and poignant and makes you feel less alone. There are one-liners of such observational genius they take my breath away. Bernard and Minh and Goldie are the kind of characters that stay with you long after you've closed the final pages of the book. Buy it, read it, give it to your friends. It's gorgeous, truly funny and worth your money.
October 4, 2023
I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters are believable, the descriptions of their foibles highly amusing. But there is an underlying kindness to the piece so that the gales of laughter the work provoked in me never felt mean-spirited. Just people with whom you can identify, negotiating the tricky emotional terrain of post-lockdown, hyper-connected modernity as best they can. Some helpful tips on using SMS effectively too !:^)
October 23, 2023
This is a great story that takes the reader from sad empathy to out-loud laughs. The characters navigate personal connection in a post-lockdown world, managing grief, loneliness, challenging family dynamics, and the comical world of online dating. You can't help but like these characters, despite their sometimes poor behaviour. I often wanted to pull them out of the book, yell at them, hug them, and then shove them back in with some sage advice.
November 29, 2023
Weird. I hated the first third of this book. Like really didn’t like it. I was marking pages where the writing was so bad I wanted to keep note of it for a review. But somewhere around halfway through something changed. Whether the writing miraculously improved or I the story kicked in and I didn’t mind so much, I couldn’t tell you. But by the end I was caring a lot about the characters and it was actually kinda sweet. Truly baffling. I feel like I’ve read two different books.
September 20, 2023
Never Look Desperate is a blend of deliciously funny humor, sometimes acerbic, with darker, poignant themes. The novel is a beautiful rendering of 3 peoples' hopes for love and their aspirations to move beyond feeling trapped in an unhappy, lonely present. The central characters, Bernie, Goldie and Minh are alone, experiencing different iterations of loss and grief and battling to find connections in a world designed to shut them out.
Matthews strikes a rich balance between the lived effort of her characters to express themselves in their interactions with others and their interior thoughts. The novel's ultimate strength is that you as the reader become invested in their search and aspiration for meaning. A must read.
Matthews strikes a rich balance between the lived effort of her characters to express themselves in their interactions with others and their interior thoughts. The novel's ultimate strength is that you as the reader become invested in their search and aspiration for meaning. A must read.
September 18, 2023
Never Look Desperate is a gorgeous exploration of love in its many forms. Laugh out loud funny at times yet lightly poignant at others. The characters are multidimensional and engaging. They come to life under the hand of a writer who clearly observes, respects and loves people's stories. A must read.
February 25, 2024
It's been almost 20 years since I've been in the dating scene but I found Bernard and Minh with their faults and insecurities so relateable. Equally Goldie, and I particularly loved the way her character unfolded and grew in the course of the book. She's a prickly character but I was definitely cheering for her in the end! Proud of you, Goldie.
March 7, 2025
Easy enjoyable read, engaging but flawed characters. Bernard at Officeworks on dating apps (falling for Minh), his hypercritical mother Goldie also looking for love, and Minh a Vietnamese single woman disowned by her father. All muddle along, getting through the painful situations and trying to get on with life.
October 21, 2023
Loved this cast of kooky, flawed romantics and its real Melbourne setting, from the iconic Kino cinema to south-eastern suburbia. Rachel Matthews uses her intelligent, wry humor to create relatable characters navigating hilarious and moving dating dilemas. I loved seeing how their stories unfolded.
October 30, 2023
Hmm, nice. Nothing particularly memorable about this book, maybe the characters were a little over exaggerated for me, but I did look forward to reading it every night so that's definitely something! 3.5 Stars
July 4, 2024
Bernard and Minh should be registered as Australian National Treasures. Matthew's very witty novel about the trials and tribulations of dating in mature age is heart warming and heart ache rolled into one.Brilliant.
August 29, 2024
Ebook. The name and cover would never have attracted me but it was a recommendation and I am very glad to have read it. Flawed characters that feel real and are just likeable enough to make you care. Some very funny portrayals of the food and practices of “the health-seeking”.
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