What About ME

by Kate Figes

Dear Diary Its my 14th birthday tomorrow and Im going shopping with Mum. Id rather go with Ruby, Fran, Nat, Hayley, Saskia, and Serena but I need her credit card. Mum has put on SOOOOO much weight. If I ever got THAT FAT Id have to kill myself. And she told me my MY bum looked big! SUE Sat 16th June 22:59 ANGELA JAMES Ange DarlingTop Shop is living hell! I spent a fortune on Frankie and she hasnt even said Thank You! Next time Ill give her 100 and be done with it. And now the whole gang are downstairs, screaming and hugging each other in front of a vampire movie. They resemble very noisy bees, swarming into the house, depositing trainers and heading straight for the fridge. Mother-daughter relations come under strain during one particularly dramatic year in the life of the Wilcox family. But two very different versions of the same story emerge through Sues emails to her sister, and the inimitable voice of 14-year-old Frankie in her diary. The angst of middle age and adolescence may be at opposite ends of the spectrum, but perhaps they have more in common than meets the eye?Highly promotable author. Guaranteed review attention.

Genres: Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published June 18, 2004

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what a book! Well written and well, amazing. Frankie is so like us (teenagers) and I completely understand her and can relate. Well about the family bit but not the school bit. I love how her Aunty did all the naughty stuff Frankie does. Did anybody else realise that on the blurb it says that Sue is 46 and in the book 43 or it just me?

[isabelle x · Rating 4 out of 5]

It started off ok but the two main characters would not stop complaining all the time !! I didn’t actually finished the book as it was getting tedious and nothing seemed to be happening other than them moaning about each other. Sadly won’t be recommending to anybody .

[Bijaya Limbu · Rating 2 out of 5]

i mean it’s alright …….

[Diana Hockley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters in this novel could have been my children and myself what seems like just a few years ago! My children are now 45, 43 and 40 - and the wonder of it is how they actually managed to get past their teens without me strangling them. The other wonder which has me scratching my head, is how they grew up to be such delightful and productive adults in spite of my - at many times - inadequate mothering.

What About Me? tackles one year in the live of an English family - two daughters, a mother who finds herself pregnant at 43 - and a father who cannot accept the new baby and who thunders off to "find himself" leaving the family to pretty much fend for themselves during the pregnancy.

Ms Figes has chosen to show the story as a series of emails from Mum, Sue, to her younger sister, Angela in Australia, and entries in the diary of the eldest daughter, Frankie who is 14. Beset by increasing weight - not entirely made up of baby, but helped with chocolate - teenage angst, her husband Matt's insistence that the child is not his - Sue stumbles through, doing her best to cope.

Frankie - by turns vicious, put-upon and genuinely upset - cannot understand why her mother is so hopeless. Even after the baby comes, Frankie doesn't get why the house is a mess and wonders what her mother does all day - after all she's home and Frankie has to go to school

The situation deteriorates in a way that every mother and daughter (if she stops bleating long enough to read the book) will recognize.

I was utterly charmed by this book, being able to emphasise with both Sue and her daughters, Frankie and Lola who is 9 and a bit of a stirrer. Ms Figes manages to balance the good and bad/sad moments in this story of family life.

Plenty of lol moments in this one. Highly recommended!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book about the things going on in the lives of a 43 year old and her 14 year old daughter. A lot of similar events are happening to both of them and the book explores the differences and similarities between them and how they react to events. It is mainly about female family relationships. A lot of the issues rang true with me from the perspective of the teenager and the mother.
The only thing I didn't like was the ending was quite quick and seemed a bit trite that the family had put all these major events behind them so easily. I wouldn't expect it to be that easy to move on in real life, and as this book was written in the whole in a very true-to-life way, that jarred with me a little bit.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good read which put both view points across very well. I could empathise with Frankie and how she was feeling - falling out with her friends and not being able to talk to her mum about it. But it was also interesting to read it from Sue's perspective too. It was an easy read that I would recommend.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the exploration of the relationship between the mother and daughter - especially as my own daughter is nearly 14. Its a reminder of how that relationship works and I think Figgs captured the two voices authenticly. Amusing and poignant.

[Miffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me think more carefully about my own life, as a teenage girl, and how the things I do are from my mum's point of view. It was interesting that both characters had a different perspective and showed that parents also make mistakes.

[Cheyenne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Frankie's parts and skipped most of Sue's, only because at the time I couldn't be bothered reading it. So this would be shelved under half-read but probably amusing enough for the time spend reading it.

[Alison Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took a little getting used to as its all written as diary entries from the daughter and emails form the mother.

Worth a read if you are a woman f a certain age LOL

[Petula Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars - I'm rounding up to help out the surprisingly low rating average this book has.

[Tania Angel · Rating 3 out of 5]

very worth a read.
very well written.
deffiently experience alot what written in this book.
very funny