No Such Thing As Monday

by Siân Hughes

‘Imagine someone suddenly starts saying Tuesday comes straight after Sunday. You learn not to mention Monday. Monday is not a thing in your house. At school you might write Monday on your page, but you’d never make that mistake at home.’

Steffie spends her days working in a dry-cleaner’s, trying to scrub the world clean one garment at a time. But no matter how spotless the clothes, she can’t rid herself of the guilt and grime she feels inside. Haunted by what happened to her sister when they were children, large fragments of which she can’t fully remember, Steffie is stuck in a loop of self destruction, defiance, and shame.

When her violent, bullying father dies suddenly, it sparks a reckoning that cracks open her past. What follows is an unexpectedly redemptive journey of a woman trying to piece herself together in a world that failed to make space for her.

Raw, exhilarating, funny and full of heart, No Such Thing As Monday confirms Sian Hughes as a masterful chronicler of life lived on the edge, and people at their most vulnerable.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Adult, Audiobook, Book Club, Family

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication November 10, 2026

Reviews

[Lydia Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great book from start to finish. I felt like I was right there with Steffie as she went through her childhood to adulthood. She has an older sister whom her father treats really badly, and Steffie is treated so much better. Her sister leaves home to go to college, but they are forbidden to speak about her. After Steffie's father dies, she wants to find her sister. Steffie is what we might call a trooper or survivor, but she’s stuck in a self-destructive loop from which she can’t seem to escape. She’s had a hard life, living in the margins, but somehow just keeps on keeping on despite it all. A must-read story. It is sad but also funny at times. I really enjoyed this book and was sad when it ended. Highly recommend.

[Georgina Reads_Eats_Explores]

Some novels tell you what happened. Others circle the thing that happened, the thing nobody can bear to name, and let you feel the shape of the silence around it. No Such Thing as Monday does that brilliantly.

At the heart of this novel is Steffie, who works in a dry cleaner’s and seems to move through life trying to scrub everything spotless, as if enough bleach and elbow grease might somehow get at what’s lodged much deeper. Her sister Caroline disappeared when they were children, and that loss, that mystery, that terrible unspoken question, sits underneath absolutely everything. Every memory. Every shame. Every act of self-sabotage. Every attempt to keep going.

And God, Steffie is some character. Scrappy, funny, raw, self-destructive, observant, infuriating, heartbreaking. The kind of narrator who feels so alive on the page you want to shake her, hug her and sit her down with a strong cup of tea, often all at once. She has that rare voice that doesn’t just tell the story, it drags you bodily into it.

The title is perfect. In Steffie’s world, certain truths are treated as if they simply do not exist. Monday is not a thing. You do not mention it. You do not ask. You learn very quickly what can be said and what absolutely cannot. That idea of family silence, of a whole life being built around denial, is done so painfully well here. It’s not loud or melodramatic. It’s worse than that. It feels ordinary. Learned. Inherited.

There is real darkness in this book: violence, neglect, class shame, gendered power, guilt, grief, the long afterlife of childhood damage. But what impressed me most was how Hughes writes all of that without ever making the novel feel flat or joyless. Steffie’s voice is full of wry humour and hard-earned wit, and that gives the book such force. It is grim in places, absolutely, but never dead on the page. Quite the opposite. It crackles.

I also loved that the novel refuses easy answers or tidy moral packaging. Steffie’s father is brutal and bullying, her mother is painfully passive, and yet Hughes is far too intelligent a writer to turn anybody into a cardboard cut-out. This is a book interested in the mess of people, in what damage does, in how lives are shaped by what is spoken and what is buried.

And despite the heaviness of the material, I absolutely flew through it in a little over a day. Hughes has that alchemical thing some writers have, where even the bleakest material becomes compulsively readable. Sentence by sentence, voice by voice, this just worked.

Raw, dark, tender, angry and unexpectedly redemptive, this is a brilliant novel. One of those books where the voice gets into your head and stays there.

Huge thanks to the publisher for the advance copy. All opinions are my own. No Such Thing as Monday is out now and very much worth your time.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Such Thing as Monday feels less like a story being told and more like someone slowly uncovering parts of themselves they spent years trying to bury. Sian Hughes writes with remarkable control, especially considering the heaviness of the themes she explores.

The novel follows Steffie, a middle-aged woman whose father’s death forces old memories back into her life. Memories tied to neglect, shame, and the complicated bond she shared with her sister. What I loved is that the book never rushes to explain her or make her instantly likable. Steffie can be bitter, abrasive, even difficult at times, but she feels painfully real. I think the human aspect of her is what makes the readers root for her survival.

Hughes also understands that trauma doesn’t always arrive in dramatic or big moments. Sometimes it sits inside a person for years and shapes the way they speak, love, work, and survive. The writing captures that beautifully.

It’s a short novel, but emotionally it feels much larger. The kind of book that settles somewhere deep and stays there for a while. Thank you for the copy @panmacmillanindia ❤️

[Jules · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Steffie finds her father dead in his chair, she decides to look for her sister, Caroline, who she has not seen or spoken to for 30 years. Steffie begins to narrate to us the story of her life and though she has gone through more than most of us, she still has a great sense of humour.

No Such Thing As Monday, though dark at times, tells a story of human resilience and strength. Steffie does not have many people in her life who are rooting for her and she seems to have got through most of her life by sheer grit and determination. And sometimes I found myself asking how someone is able to hold on to life in that way when everything is against you, including wet shoes!

This is a story that will have you rooting for Steffie every step of the way, despite her (at times) foul mouth and bad attitude, but you'll easily forgive her. It's probably a good book to read when you're having a bad day because it will certainly give you some perspective.

No Such Thing As Monday may be small but it is certainly mighty! Highly recommended.

[Gayathiri Rajendran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having loved Pearl, I was very excited to read this one as soon as it released and I am happy to say I was not disappointed. No Such Thing as Monday is a moving and emotional novel about Steffi, who works at a laundry shop. One day, she finds her dad Stan dead in his chair and things start to unravel. She decides to search for her sister, Caroline who went missing long ago.

This was such a compelling read for me and also felt uncomfortable at times due to the themes explored in the book. The author has done a wonderful job in crafting the character of Steffi and she writes with such honesty and vivid descriptions that you can picture everything in your head as you read.

Raw and blunt at times, it is a story of loneliness, repressed trauma and how being resilient can lift people up during hard times. Would definitely recommend this if you love character driven novels with emotional depths!

[Scott Baird (Gunpowder Fiction and Plot)]

Really enjoyed this one. Recommend the audiobook with the great Midlands accent that really brings Steffie to life, even more than Sian Hughes' great story telling.

[Tatyana Naumova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Очень грустно и очень здорово

[Annie Tate Cockrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great! We follow a woman, Steffie, as she looks back on her childhood and puts together the pieces of a life that was more horrible than it appeared in the moment. The pacing is really nice - we go between the past and present seemlessly to eventually meet in the present day. The writing is great - very matter of fact and not overly sentimental / emotional. I liked this book a lot and found myself really rooting for Steffie, our not always likable narrator. Thanks to Holt for sending this galley to me, keep your eyes out for this book on its publication date 11/10/26.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

In NO SUCH THING AS MONDAY, Sian Hughes shows us the generational impact of poverty through the voice of an unlikely but truly unforgettable heroine. We meet Steffie, a woman in her fifties who lives in council housing as she finds her elderly father dead. This leads her to reflect on her relationship with him, her difficult childhood and life, and the ways she was treated differently from her sister, Caroline, who she has not seen in years.
It is because of Steffie, her unique voice and dry humour that runs through her account of everything she goes through that this book truly deserves a five star rating. Steffie is the kind of character who will infuriate you one minute and make you laugh the next.. Even as you learn of bad decisions she's made or question her actions, you are captivated by the complexity and heart of her character. The writing here is spare and unadorned, and there is no wasted space in this novel. Steffie is the kind of character that steals your heart. This is a memorable book with a unique character voice that I would love to put in anyone's hands.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 🌟

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I did finish the book. But I really never got into it. I felt most of it was as they say in the book, “boo hoo blah blah.” Really nothing positive, just a hard , miserable life. I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

[Georgina Candy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a readalong, but it was so good I read ahead and finished a couple of days early!! I really liked Steffi to begin with, then hated her in the middle, then loved her at the end. Her life was luck of all kinds, good bad and awful. She never seemed to catch a break and if she did, it soon turned back into something crap again!

This was such a raw emotional book, full of things you’d never want to go through in life but they all seemed to find Steffi. Her relationship, or lack of, with her sister was a big point throughout and you could tell it left a huge hole and a lot of unanswered questions. The major turning point of her life was her dad passing away, miserable old thing that he was but she still loved and cared for him when others would have told him to get lost!!

i really enjoyed the writing of this one, the way you felt as if Steffi was telling you her life over a cuppa and a biscuit. Someone in the chat group mentioned they’d like to read about the sister, Caroline’s point of view and I agree with that. It would make a great addition to this already brilliant read.

[Rita Egan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every bit as raw, intimate and funny as "Pearl", which was one of my favourite reads of 2023. Steffie is a character I won't soon forget. Hughes writes with such empathy and kindness. This story is like Shuggie Bain without the drear. It highlights all the ways that a person can be left behind when they don't have that one good person for support, how one bad decision can lead to a lifetime of missed chances.

This is on Kindle Unlimited. It is short and will grab you from the first page.

[Lori L (She Treads Softly) · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Such Thing as Monday by Siân Hughes is a highly recommended literary domestic drama in which a woman looks back at her past

Stephanie (Steffie) Cartwright's father Stan has died which is the impetus for Steffie to find her long missing sister Caroline. The two grew up in the 1970s in working class Birmingham, UK, where Steffie was the favorite and Caroline experienced their father's cruel emotional and physical abuse, as did their submissive mother who died young. Caroline left home, disappeared, at 16. Stan was a bully, ran dog fights, and used others for his benefit. As Steffie looks back on her past, she clearly noted Stan's preferential treatment toward her in stark contrast with how he treated his wife and other daughter. As the story of Steffie's life is slowly revealed, it is clear she is her own worst enemy and feels guilty about her favored status by Stan.

This is a hard novel to read. Steffie is not a sympathetic character, but you will hope she gets to a good place. She is an irascible, complicated working class character who has had a hard life, made mistakes, and misjudged situations. She continually pays the price for her misdeeds while struggling to press on through the novel. In the narrative she looks back at her childhood memories and past while also struggling in the present. She also, always, wonders where is Caroline. All of her background and history has made Steffie the woman she is today, with all of her flaws, guilt, trauma, and determination.

It is a beautifully written novel even with the subject matter. It is also a short novel, so it is a quick read. At the author's note at the end Hughes explains that the theme of laundry/cleaning which runs through the plot was inspired by a 14th-century poem known as Purity or Cleanness which is concerned with keeping up the laundry and the old, dirty, tattered clothes are a spiritual metaphor for washing your soul clean. The final denouement does bring some closure.

No Such Thing as Monday is a excellent choice for those who enjoy literary novels focused on domestic drama. Thanks to Henry Holt & Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

https://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2026/...

[Barbara Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The opening chapters of No Such Thing as Monday have a droll humour and a deadpan delivery that captivated me. Hughes is English but the writing feels Irish.

Gradually though its tone changes. This is the story of a fractured family, of things concealed, things unsaid.

“What am I trying to tell you? That’s the problem. I don’t know enough to tell you. Only that it was there, all the time, an undercurrent, like a river of dirty water running through our house, changing everything. It coloured the air we breathed.”

Two young sisters in the same family receive inexplicably different treatment; one daughter is celebrated, well fed, cared for. The other is cruelly ignored. This preferential treatment has no rational basis; nor is the marginalisation of the clever older sister ever satisfactorily explained. It creates a puzzle the book seeks to solve.

The book focusses on the favoured daughter as she approaches middle age and attempts to reconcile the past. How to make sense of the ill treatment of her sister? How could she have been such an acute observer yet not intervened? Was she complicit?

Her own life has been hardscrabble; poorly educated, working menial jobs, abusing drugs and alcohol; an unwanted pregnancy … and yet, despite all this, the writing still leans into humour, even if at times it’s somewhat black.

I loved being in this book’s company. It had a raw grittiness that appealed. It was tough, and funny, and real.

[ruthie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steffie is the kind of character that stays with you long after the book is finished. Much like István in Flesh!

[Kerry Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

This broke me. Was sobbing like a baby by the time I got to the end.

[mrsbookburnee Niamh Burnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Steffie has stolen my heart, I loved her and was routing for her all the way through.

Despite her childhood, she had such determination and ultimately just tried her best to get through life, I doubt many people would be able to cope in the situations she found herself in.

This is a short book, but it gives so much, serious issues but with some of the best dark humour which makes Steffie more endearing.

I really enjoyed the authors writing style and will be reading her debut.

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love that it's very British. Accents. The Chippy. Gangs under canal bridges. Tea. Terraced houses.

Gritty.

P s It's been out in the UK for a little while.

[Philip Araoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephanie Cartwright is a middle-aged woman who’s been taking care of her elderly father for years. The book opens with Stephanie finding her father dead in his chair.

The story follows two tracks. In one track, Stephanie narrates what she’s doing in the present. She plans her father’s funeral. Loses her job. Thinks about connecting with her sister, Caroline, who she hasn’t seen in over thirty years.

The second track is Stephanie recalling her childhood, mostly in chronological order. There we learn that Stephanie’s father made his money by raising chickens to fight or by fighting himself in bars. That he was an alcoholic. How he was abusive, especially by controlling food. And we learn how her father often viewed himself and Stephanie as a team against Stephanie’s mother and sister.

No Such Thing as Monday reminds me of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Both books feature adult women recalling their childhoods with abusive fathers. In both books, the narrators recount childhood memories that at the time had some warmth, but yet felt off, and became more clearly off with the recollection of adulthood. The difference is No Such Thing as Monday is fiction whereas The Glass Castle is a memoir, and that the father in No Such Thing as Monday is much darker.

No Such Thing as Monday involves Stephanie coming to grips with just how abusive her father was. Maybe piecing together how abusive he was is a better way to put it, because Stephanie and her mother did a lot to ignore the abuse. To repress the thought of it.

In one scene, Stephanie’s father collects four eggs from his chickens and deliberately throws two away. Then when he comes home, he has Stephanie’s mother prepare an egg for him and for Stephanie while the mother sits by and watches and the sister (Caroline) is absent, as remembered by Stephanie.

This is when Stephanie starts to grasp that her sister didn’t get enough to eat, and she recalls her grandmother saying things like “I had to sneak Caroline food” and Stephanie not understanding, or refusing to understand, what that meant.

The title of the book No Such Thing as Monday refers to the way Stephanie and her family would ignore what was happening, especially regarding Caroline. Stephanie says that in her home it was as if the word “Monday” didn’t exist and the day that came after Sunday was Tuesday and everyone accepted that. That’s how the dad and much of the family treated the sister, Caroline.

So a lot of what Stephanie thinks and feels is guilt. Guilt for having been treated well. Guilt for not having done anything about the abuse, guilt for feeling close to her father and being proud of being his favorite. She thinks about this as she wants to look up her sister now, after thirty years, but is also afraid to. Feels ashamed to.

The two-track approach of the book works because both tracks, the present-day and the memories, revolve mostly around the sister.

The format reminds me of The Remains of the Day where the narrator’s present-day actions are guided by what happened in the flashback story, keeping both stories tied together. The two build on each other instead of distracting from each other. And, as in The Remains of the Day, the flashback story is the more important of the two stories.

However, there are times in No Such Thing as Monday when both the present-day events and the flashback events veer away from the sister. In those sections, I often felt lost and found myself wondering where the story was going.

The prose is very good. Siân Hughes keeps Stephanie Cartwright’s voice consistent and believable. Some of Stephanie’s memories get a little literary, which is always a problem when a first-person narrator is a practical person, but I thought Siân Hughes handled those things well and I didn’t feel taken out of the story too often.

A lot of Stephanie’s life, especially her late teenage years and adult life is very gritty. Very difficult. It will appeal to readers who want an unvarnished view of poverty, especially British urban poverty. (It’s not cozy).

And for as difficult as Stephanie Cartwright’s life was, Siân Hughes avoids having Stephanie explicitly complain about it. One of Stephanie’s father’s main things was to say “Boo hoo, blah blah” when anyone complained or was sad, and Stephanie does that too.

The strongest parts of the book are the detailed memories from Stephanie’s childhood. Siân Hughes captures the innocent, magical thinking of small children very well, like when Caroline and Stephanie make mouse dolls whose names both start with the letter “M” and who talk to each other. Or the way Stephanie would talk to her “Sleeping Beauty” doll when the doll was frightened. Most adults seem to forget how small children look at the world, but Siân Hughes remembered.

I found the ending abrupt, but I think I understand what Hughes was going for.

This book is perfect for fans of unreliable narrators or readers who like psychological character studies with rough protagonists. Readers who like complex relationships between fathers and daughters or between sisters will be swept up. The pace is slow and the tone is melancholy and a lot of the subject matter is intense, so if you don’t like that, then you should avoid this book. But overall, I thought this book was very thoughtful and very well executed.

[Wendi Flint Rank (WendiReviews) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short book ~ my paper copy is just 209,
purchased in the UK while on holiday. Since I
realized this, I am thinking I need to read the
download, which I wasn't planning on... I am
not certain there will be a difference, but the
download is 224 pages...

I am afraid that this book, while very well
written, with a lot of humorous tragedy,
is just not a book I would read again,or
gift to a friend. This is my failing, hence
the 4~🌟🌟🌟🌟.

Steffie tries her best, no question, but
when I am screaming at the pages of
a book, it's just a bit much for me...

My thanks to the Publisher for the
Copy of the book for review purposes.

[Майя Ставитская · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5
A Book of Guilt
Steffi is nearly 50, plump, and unattractive. She works in a dry cleaner's. She has no family or home of her own, living in a rented room above a hair salon. She cares for her father, enduring the aggressive attacks of his mindless dog every time she brings him dinner and clean laundry. When she returns, she finds him dead in his chair. While in a normal relationship, the grief of losing an elderly parent is partly offset by the new opportunities afforded by an inheritance, Steffi will now be saddled with the funeral expenses and the payment of her father's debts.

Even though she herself is as poor as a church mouse, and on top of that, she lost her job – lacking decent clothes for the funeral, she used a client's outfit. Who knew that the client would turn out to be a funeral home employee, who had dropped off her spare clothes for cleaning, would recognize the item, and file a complaint? And the boss, who had no affection for the employee who served time, will gladly fire her.

She was in prison? For what? Oh, but here we have to go back in time. To a past that is much further removed from today than the arrest. To childhood, to the local hell of a council flat (in England, the poor can get a flat for free with a nominal rent), where an abusive family despot wields absolute power over his wife and two daughters, both close in age, to divide and conquer. The wife bears his reproaches, discontent, and untidiness; the younger daughter is designated as the favorite, and the eldest is relegated to the role of stepdaughter in her own family.

All her childhood, clever Caroline endured her father's bullying and attacks. At 16, she received a scholarship and left, and since then, her very name has become taboo in the family. The title of the novel "No Such Thing as Monday"—underneath the obvious implication of "don't say you'll start a new life on Monday, live now"—is more deeply painful: her sister has disappeared from Stephie's life because even mentioning her has become impossible for some time now. It's as if someone with unlimited power abolished Mondays, and you obediently began listing the days of the week by putting Tuesday after Sunday. Does this remind you of anything from our time today with the word "best not to say"?

Sian Hughes is brilliant with her elegiac melodiousness, with the bitterness of an offended little girl inside a grown woman. The narrator's captivating frankness, blaming no one for what happened, simply happened, but that doesn't lessen the pain and heartbreaking bewilderment. Why is everything arranged in such a way that such things can happen? Although that's already metaphysics, and it's best not to delve into it.

A powerful, bitter book about domestic violence and, more broadly, about despotism, whose victims are not only those declared enemies but, no less, its favorites. The latter are crippled more severely.


Книга вины
Стефи под 50, полная, непривлекательная, работает в химчистке. Семьи и своего жилья не имеет, живет в съемной комнате над парикмахерской. Ухаживает за отцом, терпя агрессивные наскоки его безмозглой псины всякий раз, как приносит старику обед и чистое белье. Придя в очередной раз, находит его мертвым в кресле, и если в нормальных отношениях горечь утраты престарелого родителя отчасти уравновешивается новыми возможностями, которые открывает полученное наследство, то на Стефи теперь лягут похоронные расходы и оплата отцовских долгов.

При том, что сама она бедна как церковная мышь, да вдобавок потеряла работу - не имея приличной одежды для похорон, воспользовалась комплектом клиентки. Кто же знал, что та окажется сотрудницей ритуального агентства, сдавшей в чистку сменный костюм, опознает вещь и накатает жалобу? А начальник, который к отсидевшей сотруднице нежности не питал, с удовольствием уволит ее.

Она сидела? За что? Ох, а вот здесь придется вернуться в прошлое. В то прошлое, что много дальше по времени от дня сегодняшнего, чем арест. В детство, в локальный ад одной муниципальной квартиры (в Англии малоимущие могут бесплатно получить квартиру с символической арендной платой), где семейный деспот абьюзер использует неограниченную власть над женой и двумя дочерьми погодками, чтобы разделять и властвовать. Жене достаются его попреки, недовольство и бытовая неопрятность, младшая дочь назначена любимицей, старшей отведена роль падчерицы в родной семье.

Все детство умненькая Каролина терпела отцовские издевательства и нападки, в 16 получила стипендию и уехала, с тех пор само имя ее в семье сделалось табу. В названии романа "Никаких понедельников" под очевидным смыслом: "не говори, что начнешь новую жизнь с понедельника, живи сейчас", глубже больной - сестра исчезла из жизни Стефи, потому что само упоминание ее с некоторого времени стало невозможным. Как если бы некто, обладающий безграничной властью, отменил понедельники, и вы послушно начали, перечисляя дни недели, ставить вторник после воскресенья. Ничего не напоминает из нашего сегодня со словом, которое лучше не произносить?

Шан Хьюз хороша с этой своей элегичной певучестью, с горечью обиженной маленькой девочки внутри взрослой женщины. Подкупающей откровенностью рассказчицы, которая никого не винит в произошедшем, просто так случилось, но от этого боль и горестное недоумение не меньше.Почему все так устроено, что подобное может случаться? Хотя это уже метафизика, а в нее лучше не углубляться.

Сильная горькая книга о домашнем насилии и шире - о деспотии, чьими жертвами становятся не только те, кого объявляет врагами, но, в не меньшей степени, фавориты. Вторых калечит сильнее.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember the shame spreading over me, the heat in my hand as I closed the door as quietly as I could and turned away.  And almost immediately I wiped it out of my head. I remember the pressure inside my head, the slippery doorknob in my hand, the urgency of closing the door. And then nothing. I don't know when I let myself remember it again. Not for years. But there it was, like a piece of broken crockery at the bottom of a stream bed, and as you lift it out you recognise the pattern from your childhood tea table in the small fragment. A tiny sliver, but you know for sure it is the same pattern. You can picture the whole plate from this one small triangle. And you think, how come 1 walked past this stream bed all these years, and it was lying there in plain sight among the pebbles and litter and weeds, and all I had to do was look down and see it there? But you didn't.

 
Siân Hughes debut novel “Pearl” was a nominatively determined unexpected treasure on the 2023 Booker Prize longlist (where it would have made my shortlist) and was later shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award.
 
Like this novel it was published by the UK small press Indigo Press who “publish books to make readers see the world afresh, question their behaviour and beliefs, and imagine a better future” and whose other books I have enjoyed include “Lessons In Love and Other Crimes” by Elizabeth Chakrabarty and “Riambel” and “Tamarin” by the Mauritian Priya Hein.
 
Dealing with post-partum psychosis it drew its title from the medieval poem: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_(...) which survives in the modern day in the same Coton Nero manuscript  (written in the Middle English of Cheshire) as the better known “Gaiwan and the Green Knight” (which was also very important to the novel and even to its cover) – and was an interesting mix of the fey (partly due to the character of the narrator’s mother) and folkloric (largely due to the inclusion of a childhood rhyme or folk song at the start of each chapter) with a very harder edge (with coverage of not just PPD but also cutting and suicidal impulses – an edge matched in the choice of many of the rhymes/songs). 
 
This her second novel – not due to be published until April 2026, draws on a third of the four poems in the manuscript – Purity (or Cleanness) of which (in an afterword) the author says it is “a collection of biblical illustrations organised like a sermon, where each different story drives home the central message, in this case the Beatitude: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The entertaining detail of Purity, however, is much more concerned with the issue of keeping up with the laundry. It has a remarkable number of words for clothes that are old, tattered, patched, out-at-the-knees, or in need of a good pre-wash …………….. I began to wonder whether my narrator spent her lite making the laundry spotless, but never felt she could wash her soul clean.”.
 
As a novel while equally heavy hitting as its predecessor (in this case particularly around childhood abuse/neglect) its protagonist – Steffie – has a much harder poverty-affected backstory.  The blurb compares the book with some insight to Lucy Barton, but unlike Lucy, Steffie does not have the benefit of a move to a relatively comfortable new life to look back on her past.  And overall, this makes the book much rawer and gritty.
 
At the book’s opening mid-50s Steffie is working at a dry cleaners, living in a small flat, and coming to terms with the death of her father is starting to look back at her childhood, realising that there are large parts of that childhood she has deliberately blanked out – mainly relating to her one year older sister Caroline whose explicitly neglectful (to and beyond the point of abusive) treatment by their prize-fighting, domineering/bullying father was something unspoken and unacknowledged in their household even if clear to those outside it (as if – in an analogy which gives the book its title – Monday’s were simply not considered real there).
 
From there the story moves between her present (which involve her already hand-to-mouth, rather frightened existence taking a turn for the even worse as she loses her job and ends up both homeless and in a catering job), her recollections of her childhood and her recollections of the years between (which include a period being dragged into being a drug courier, a child given up for adoption, and incarceration) – and her attempts to force herself to complete the blanks in her past and to consider reaching out to a sister who fled home some 40 years ago and with who she has no contact.
 
Steffie is a superb character – not obviously or immediately sympathetic given much of her past, and hard to directly identify with for most literary fiction readers I expect given her present – but one who the reader finds themselves hugely drawn to and rooting for.
 
I would not dismiss this as a contender for a second Booker longlisting as it is every bit as good as its predecessor, and perhaps even more so as a Women’s Prize contender (albeit given dates not I think until 2027).
 
My thanks to Indigo Press for a paper ARC.
 

[Bhavna · Rating 3 out of 5]

While to write prose as poetry is a knack, skills to write novels as well as Poetry is another level

Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Victor Hugo are some of the classic authors who did that while Ocean Vuong, Vikram Seth are the contemporary ones

But then how should we label the skills of Sian Hughes, who can develop a story from lines of Poems
Yet again like her last novel Pearl, Huges has developed a heart warming story from 14th century poem called Purity

"𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘙𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘴𝘬 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴.

𝘗𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 1-4

𝘐'𝘮 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘸, 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 -'𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥.'

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘵, 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺, 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘩𝘪𝘮, 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘴 𝘕𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯'𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘵, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘯𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘥.

𝘛𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘴, 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴

𝘛𝘰 𝘢 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦-𝘵𝘪𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘯, 𝘚𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘢𝘳, 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦, 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴"


On superimposing the narrative on the poem, this is what I could infer


𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴..𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴..

Steffie worked as a dry cleaner, so while she is cleaning up mess of other people what about her own mess. Does the "purity" she tries to project to the world is it really true or its actually the "mess" of her own violent childhood that she is trying to hide

𝘐'𝘮 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘸..𝘊𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺

Is Steffie ashamed of all the abuse that she has suffered at the hands of her father. Does she feel "tainted", "impure". Does even God feel the same about her.

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘴..

The "unwashed hands" make her fear that the violence her elder sister faced by her father & secrets of her whereabouts will leave an indelible stain on her

𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦s..

Steffie does feel social alienation & class displacement. She feels like an impostor in the "clean" normal world. Whether she is interacting with customers or trying to build a life in London, she feels like the person in "patched work clothes" sitting at a table where she doesn't belong

The below written quote from the book talks about the book title & it's context

"It's hard to explain. Imagine someone suddenly starts saying Tuesday comes straight after Sunday. There's no such thing as Monday. You learn not to mention Monday. Monday is not a thing in your house. At school you might write Monday on your page, but you'd never make that mistake at home. You think when you write it out, what a stupid thing they do at school, making you write out a word that doesn't exist. You have to have Tuesday twice in your head every week to catch up, but that's not hard. You skip it over. We skipped over a lot of things in our house"

When Sian Hughes used this technique for Pearl, it felt that no other story could have been created from those lines of Poem but I wasn't sure about this book. While I love the plotline & the sensational dark humor (which was not very much there in Pearl), I felt lack of emotional connect this time

Yet read it for its creativity

[Shubhangi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years ago, decades really, Steffie too had a sister. She might still be alive, but she doesn't really know. She hasn't talked about her, or even thought of her, in forever now. It's like she never existed, but she did, in all of her memories of childhood, Steffie's sister existed. But she cannot talk about her, especially not with her father, her only family left alive. Until he dies, and Steffie has no choice but to come to terms with what happened with her sister, how come her father had just one daughter when she remembers there being two, what role did she play in what went down, and how her father shaped her life.

To think what a little tragedy it would have been had I not decided last week that I do want to read this book. Steffie is a complex character. She has done things she is not proud of, ignored incidents that she should have spoken against, lived lives she hated, screamed, thrown things, broken stuff, and she did everything for the validation of her father, who is a piece of shit. I am sure there would be readers who might not like her, but I was rooting for her, not from the start, but somewhere in there, she won me over for simply not giving up. This is the story of what she witnessed, things she ignored or forgot, how it shaped her life, and how despite everything there was still a light at the end of the very dark tunnel.

This book has such layered and complicated familial bonds. It is, at its core, a book about parental trauma, what it means to have a father who is selfish and cruel, and yet all Steffie does is for him. For her father, she 'forgets' her sister, and lives a life that he basically ruined. But the way it explores her relationship with her sister and her mother is beautiful, also heartbreaking, but beautiful nevertheless. It's emotional, and tragic, and it made me want to hug these little girls and their mother, who suffered under the shadow of an arrogant and horrible man.

The book is very dark at times, it is difficult to read, but it is also a testament to what holding on means. Steffie has every chance to just stop, to give up, but she doesn't, and even though it takes decades, she makes it right, and she is wonderful. This book is almost two hundred pages of her living a miserable life, but it somehow turns out to be worth something in the end. I did cry at the end, how could I not? It made me so full of joy, it made Steffie so hopeful. And I am just glad to have read this book, and I will be thinking about this, and about Steffie, and Cammy, and their mother for the foreseeable future!

thank you @panmacmillanindia for sending this my way💘

[totesintobooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Such Thing as Monday is essentially about grief, silence, abandonment and the kind of childhood damage that quietly follows someone into adulthood. The story follows Steffie after her father’s death forces old memories back to the surface— memories tied to her missing sister Caroline, the neglect she grew up with and the unbearable things nobody in the family was willing to acknowledge out loud. It explores themes of class shame, violence, guilt, survival and how trauma can completely shape the way a person moves through the world long after the actual events have passed.

What I loved most is that Sian Hughes never tries to soften Steffie or make her instantly likeable. She’s bitter, abrasive, self-destructive and difficult at times but that’s exactly what makes her feel real. Her voice carries so much hurt underneath it while still being sharp and darkly funny and I think that humanity is what makes you root for her so deeply.

The writing also captures trauma in a way that felt very honest to me. It’s not written as one singular dramatic thing. Instead, it shows how damage settles into someone quietly over years until it shapes the way they speak, love, work and survive. The silence in this family honestly felt more devastating than anything else. The title itself says so much because in Steffie’s world certain truths simply “do not exist”. You do not ask questions. You do not name the thing that happened. You just learn how to live around it.

One of the parts that stayed with me most was Steffie’s guilt surrounding her father’s abusive nature towards Caroline and how she stayed quiet because she wanted to remain the daughter who was loved more. I thought that was written so honestly because when we are young, the need for love and approval can become all-consuming. Children will carry impossible guilt just to feel chosen.

I also really felt for Steffie because her dreams were never supported by her parents. She was constantly made to feel like she had to earn her place within the family rather than simply being loved. Even after her mother died, she was abandoned by her father too. Yet despite every low point in her life, she keeps going somehow and that resilience made me want to root for her the entire time.

This book reminded me a little of Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy and also the female protagonist in We Are All Trying Here Kdrama— these stories about abandoned children who grow up carrying so much pain yet still fight for survival, connection and love.

[Amie Derricott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steffie works in a dry cleaners and she cares for her elderly dad – takes him his lunch, washes him and whatnot. One day when she goes to see him, he is DEAD in his chair. As she slowly comes to terms with his death, she starts to relive her childhood, and we learn about her sister, Caroline, who left home when she was a teenager and hasn’t been seen since (or so Steffie believes). We also learn what sort of person her Dad was, how he treated them, and her mom.
We then see Steffie go through a crisis of confidence of sorts. She starts to question her childhood memories, the memories of her Dad and sort of goes on a journey of self discovery as it were.
Along this journey, she loses her job, and ends up working for a restaurant. She finds out she is going to lose her flat as they are looking at selling the building she resides in, so she looks into asking for a transfer through the restaurant as alternative placements come with accommodation – which works out perfectly for her situation. Of course, as you can imagine by this point, ends as disastrously as everything else going on with her at the moment. This results in her decision to search for her long lost sister. She then starts to question everything surrounding Caroline, due to the revelations from her childhood, as I think would be the case for anyone, begs the question will Caroline even want to see her again.

In all honesty, it is a really hard one to review. It was quite a short read, a slice of someone's life. Saying you enjoy someone else's misery, may not make much sense, but I did! I enjoyed reading this. It almost reads as a biographical novel – you can imagine and see how this will have happened to somebody. She is quite an admirable character despite everything she is going through and done – almost defiant in the face of it all. It was quite interesting to see how when reliving memories from the past, how they may have been somewhat, not necessarily, distorted at the time, but more the living innocence of youth, and looking back as an adult you can see through adult eyes what you couldn’t see as a child. She picks up on the negatives of the past – the reasons why Caroline left when she did. What was very strange for me when reading this was how she mentions places like Bilston, Cannock Chase. These are local to me, so it really brought a sense of realism to the story as not only could I imagine what was being described, but vividly picture the scene, as these are places on my doorstep.

[NM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Henry Holt & Company for providing a free advance copy through NetGalley for review.

This book explored the damage a parent can do to a child’s sense of what they deserve. Steffi’s hopes were so modest: a place to belong, someone to care for, and the chance to feel cared for herself. Yet she had been made to feel that even those things were too much to ask.

Steffi felt remarkably real to me. She was clever, observant, and resourceful, and while she wasn’t exactly optimistic (she had too much experience with disappointment for that) but she never entirely stopped imagining what might come next. There was a determination in her that I really respected, a refusal to let her father have the final say about who she could become.

Steffi is a tough lady, maybe even scary, but her compassion is so visible through small, practical acts of care. She looks after vulnerable animals and elderly people. She washes a neighbor’s dishes because, even though the woman hadn’t been kind to her, she had been kind to her sister. Even her father receives care he hasn’t earned. Looks can be deceiving, no matter what kind of front you put up, everyone needs connection. And she was no different.

I also loved the connection between Steffi and the abused greyhound, happy simply to run in a race without needing to win. It captured something essential about her: she wanted a chance to take part in life, to have a purpose and somewhere to belong. The book’s second chances felt meaningful because they involved things that could look so ordinary from the outside--being useful, offering kindness, allowing someone to offer it back.

My main reservation was that I wanted a fuller exploration of why her father treated Steffi and Caroline so differently. That difference was so central to their relationship and to Steffi’s understanding of herself that I finished still wanting to understand it better.

Despite all the sadness in her life, I never found being inside Steffi’s head exhausting. Her voice kept me engaged, and her intelligence and compassion gave me reasons to believe in a future she could barely imagine for herself. By the end, I felt such relief for her. She had come close to the life she wanted and lost it so many times. I wanted to cheer for her when she finally got the life she deserved. There is so much hope in this story, between that feeling and the vividness of the characters and locations, I couldn't stop reading until I saw Steffi through to a decent ending.

[Nick Artrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I requested and received an eARC of No Such Thing as Monday by Siân Hughes via NetGalley. Foul-mouthed, scrappy, and always in trouble, Steffie is her own worst enemy. Sustained by her sense of humor, she spends her days scraping by at the dry cleaner's and caring for her ailing, abusive father. She was always his favorite, a fact that leaves her feeling guilty; her sister Caroline, who bore the brunt of his rage, escaped when they were teenagers and never looked back. When her father dies, Steffie sets out to find her sister, seeking love and forgiveness in a world that has too often denied her both. On her journey, she must confront her memories and the choices that have informed her current life.

No Such Thing as Monday is a darkly humorous, but deeply incisive character study that instantly drew me in as a reader. The opening chapter really set the tone for the work and served as a perfection introduction to Steffie. I think we all probably know someone a bit like Steffie in our own lives, and I think that's what I find so particularly beautiful about Hughes' novel. Her protagonist is rather pitiable, but we don't often look beneath the surface to understand the unspoken trauma that has shaped their life and experiences. Her humor, however, really shines through all of the muck. And it also mirrors real life in the way that we often use sarcasm and laughter as a deflection from the problems that we would much rather not confront.

This is a novel about abuse, but with an interesting perspective. Caroline, Steffie’s older sister, bears the brunt of her father’s abuse. Like Steffie, we as readers don’t see this directly enacted, but the picture we’re able to puzzle together from her childhood memories and the accounts of other adults is very disturbing. She spends her entire life as a foil for her sister, beloved by her father, but scorned or pitied by others. And it’s very interesting how differently the sisters’ lives turn out. This was a raw, but tender look at a self-destructive woman who Hughes refuses to soften for the reader. The story is bleak, but also redemptive. I found it quietly moving and a very compelling read. I look forward to investigating more of Hughes’ work.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

No Such Thing as Monday follows Steffie in the wake of finding out that her ailing, abusive father who she played caregiver to has died. Subsequently, she sets out to find her sister, Caroline, whom she has been alienated from since childhood due to the disparate treatment they each received from their father. Steffie was the obvious favorite, garnering all praise, attention, and gifts of affection whereas Caroline suffered physical abuse and neglect. In the undertaking of reconciliation, Steffie must confront her own memories of the past, really taking an accounting of the choices that have led up to her current position in life.

Steffie's narration is told to us through first person as she is relaying her life experiences, but it almost feels more intimate. At one point I felt that it almost came across as someone going to confession and trying to explain themselves and cleanse their soul of the wrongness and bad decisions that have occurred. There was almost a pleading for us, the reader, to really understand her. Unlikeable and hard to root for would be apt descriptions for Steffie's character, but she doesn't try to make excuses for the way she or other people behave. It is more that she is attempting to process and understand each individual person's circumstances, how that led them to interact with others, the effects of abuse and trauma that reverberated from person to person, and truly how she has ended up in her current situation. The title is perfectly reflected in the progression of the story as Steffie is slowly uncovering parts of herself that were previously buried, not talked about, ignored to the point that it simply didn't exist despite the obvious evidence to the contrary like saying there's no such thing as Monday.

This short novel packs quite an emotional punch. If you are drawn to complicated and messy family dynamics told through a nonlinear narrative that explores class struggle and poverty, loneliness, abuse, repressed trauma, and the resilience that people can find within themselves to change their circumstances, I highly recommend No Such Thing as Monday by Sian Hughes.