Exes Anonymous - Meeting Tonight at 8pm. Please Bring Your Own * Bottle * Crushed and broken heart * Snacks Rebecca broke up with Patrick five months ago. She's doing fine. Okay, so she has turned her bedroom into a sort of Patrick shrine with pictures and candles. But she's fine, honestly. She's getting over it. For some strange reason her best friend Davey doesn't agree. He thinks Rebecca needs help with her Patrick obsession. And so they set up Exes Anonymous - a self-help group for the unceremoniously chucked. The seven broken-hearted members soon become friends, meeting at each other's flats to swap stories and offer support. Rebecca begins to hope that she can beat her addiction after all. But love hasn't quite finished with Rebecca. After all, it is a hard habit to break...
Born in London in 1966, Lauren Henderson read English at university and then worked as a journalist for - among other publications - the New Statesman, Marxism Today, the Observer and Lime Lizard, a much-mourned indie music magazine. Lauren now divides her time between Italy and London and, when not wine-tasting, writes full-time.
Tags: Sessions inspired by AA; breakups; getting closure; London scene.
Even though I don't really like to admit this, I am a fan of chick-lit, I like to read some from time to time. But I didn't like this one, as it was rather poorly written. A bunch of stories about break-ups, there isn't really a plot, a lot of dialogue and boom! You get to the happy ending. For me it lacked the story completely. It was like watching an episode from the middle of the second season of a sitcom. And I also didn't like how the main character portrays women - I accept the fact that women in chick-lit are usually girly, posh, etc, but to be at the mercy of each boy being able to break-up your heart... meh, not my cup of tea.
Rebbecca, o tipa blocata in trecut, este obsedata de fostul ei iubit. Nu doar ca nu il poate uita, dar are in dormitor un adevarat altar inchinat lui. Davey, amicul ei, descopera acest lucru si o incurajeaza sa scape de "dependenta" ei, insotindu-l la intalnirile Alcolicilor Anonimi. Astfel cunoaste si alti oameni dependenti de fostele relatii si ia fiinta grupul Ex-ii anonimi. Impreuna vor reusi sa depaseasca momente dificile, si vor intra in tot felul de incurcaturi, unele comice, altele nu tocmai haioase. Bineinteles ca totul se termina cu bine, iar Rebbecca isi va gasit dragostea. (Nu, nu este Davey 😋 ) Asa cum ne-a obisnuit colectia, este o carte amuzanta dar si romantica, subiectul invartindu-se in jurul iubirii
I read this book when me and my ex split up. It felt like lauren henderson had climbed inside my head and articulated everything i thinking myself! I loved it and it helped make me feel sane in my fragile state.
I read this back in 2008 & remember looking forward to it as I'd very much enjoyed Henderson's Sam Jones series previously - I seem to remember Sam being very streetwise with a penchant for fetish clubs...but nothing like that here!
While I would describe it as chick lit, I think it would be enjoyed by people who don't normally like this genre, & it's pretty much "a wise & witty romantic comedy" as the blurb said. Basically it's the tale of Rebecca who's trying to get over her ex....but whatever did she see in him! I liked the way she talked of Patrick, showing us his faults while slowly working them out for herself.
So did it all end happily ever after for Rebecca & the other Exes- Anonymous members? Well, I'm not saying :o)
was looking forward to this as I've enjoyed Henderson's Sam Jones series in the past & I seem to remember Sam being very streetwise with a penchant for fetish clubs...but nothing like that here!
While I would describe it as chick lit, I think it would be enjoyed by people who don't normally like this genre, as the blurb says it's "a wise & witty romantic comedy". Basically the tale of Rebecca who's trying to get over her ex....but what did she see in him! I liked the way she talked of Patrick, showing us his faults while slowly working them out for herself.
So does all end happily ever after for Rebecca & the other Exes- Anonymous members? Well, to tell that would spoil it for the next reader, so I'm not saying :o)
It will be posted on early in the week to lucy-lemon & is now part of the 2008 KEEP THEM MOVING CHALLENGE (#24)
I picked this up because I was exhausted and wanted something that was a bit fun and easy to read - nothing too taxing for my brain - and it certainly fit the bill. There were some more serious moments amongst the fluff (poor Jim) but even those were somehow easy to read about. I liked that Rebeccca didn't have a cliché chick-lit job (most of them seem to work in TV or write for magazines or something). She works in a male-dominated field and her colleagues/bosses are all men but she definitely holds her own. I did get annoyed when she started talking about how women can't eat what they like because they have to stay skinny for men though. Grrr. I liked that everyone took the "exes anonymous" group seriously and did their best to work through things and gain their lives back - it could have ended up just being a bunch of people bitching about their exes but the author took it in a different direction that I actually enjoyed. It's quite cliché in parts but it was exactly right for what I wanted at the time. 3.5 stars rounded up.
Chick lit. Readable, but the main character Rebecca is self-indulgent and the characters are quite stereotypical. It has some interesting themes - alcoholism, loss and mental health - but these are not fully developed and the story and ending are predictable.
Exes Anonymous no es el chick-lit habitual. Su protagonista podrá vivir en Londres, trabajar en la City y poder ir a fiestas glamurosas gracias a su amiga periodista, pero te lleva a lo más hondo del dolor a través de su prosa. El comienzo es lento y cuesta engancharse, pues es doloroso, ya que explica con detalles la obsesión de la protagonista con su ex, lo cual es normal con ese título. Y alrededor de ella se formará una familia postiza formada por amigos, compañeros de trabajo, y luego un grupo de terapia, que sufren mal de corazones. Aunque la historia engancha, es más profunda que en otras obras de este tipo, y no es amable en absoluto. Es un ejercicio de exploración del daño que se sufre con las rupturas, y cómo intentar sobrellevarlas. Desde luego, es uno de los chick-lits más realistas que he leído, al menos, emocionalmente. Recomendada, al fin y al cabo es un librohecho con inteligencia, pero no es un camino de rosas. Desde luego, lo compré tras haber leído la "Jane Austen Guide of Dating" de la misma autora, y puedo decir, que sigue conociendo con mucha inteligencia la naturaleza humana.
cover: A wise and witty romantic comedy about the nature of love and obsession, and how to recognise the difference between the two...
Rebecca broke up with Patrick five months ago. She's doing fine. Okay, so she has turned her bedroom into a sort of Patrick shrine with pictures and candles. But she's fine, honestly. She's getting over it.
For some strange reason her best friend Davey doesn't agree. He thinks Rebecca needs help with her Patrick obsession. And so they set up Exes Anonymous - a self-help group for the unceremoniously chucked.
The seven broken-hearted members soon become friends, meeting at each others flats to swap stories, offer support and, in some cases, contemplate revenge. Rebecca begins to wonder whether she might be able to beat her addiction. But love hasn't quite finished with Rebecca. After all, it is a hard habit to break... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A much better read than expected. The Exes Anonymous group isn't just an excuse to bitch, they actually take it quite seriously & support each other well, trying to find ways to deal with & overcome the pain they're experiencing. I think Rebecca deserved what happened with Jake, however, as she started out using him for her own little scheme. She hadn't yet managed to get Patrick out of her mind before jumping into a new relationship with Jake - she was just tasting a little cosmic karma. The intervention with Jim really brings them together as a group, & from then on things start to resolve themselves well for everybody. Aaah! I enjoyed the book despite the criticisms.
I gave up on this book quite quickly on starting it -- not because it's bad, but because it made me homesick for the days when my postcode had a '1' in it and there was actually an Underground station within a ten-minute walk.
It's now found a new home with some who does have a '1' in her postcode. She's a recent transplant here (erm, there), so I may have a bit of translating to do.
For those of you who couldn't care less about my exile into the suburbs -- and I don't blame you -- the book seemed quite good... 'transcending its genre', as the book reviewers like to say. Not just about shopping, or sleeping around with any old punter round the pub -- the core characters are two people who were damaged by their exes and still haven't properly let go.
It sounded like it was going to be a good read. But when I got to the line 'you can take the boy out of SW1 but you can't take the SW1 out of the boy', I got dreadfully homesick, rang up a girlfriend, and got the book off my bookshelf and out of my queue.
Buku ini lumayan bagus, apalagii buat orang yang abis putus cinta. Bahkan Rebecca sampe masuk klub patah hati segala. haha.. tapi nih buku cukup okelah, soalnya di sini dia menceritakan gimana perasaan rebecca setelah putus, bagaimana perjuangan dia sampai akhirnya bisa memulihkan diri dari keputusasaannya itu.. dan melanjutkan hidup serta menemukan seseorang yang baru. :)
I love Lauren Henderson's books. Absolutely adore them.
I think this book was quite ingenious, portraying the very fine line between having a healthy relationship with someone, and slipping into the I-am-completely-obsessed-with-the-partner-who-dumped-me idea.
I think the ending was a little bit rushed, but the book per whole? LOVE.
The book began as a very slow read, i.e. I almost had to force myself to keep reading. Once I was a third of the way through the book, I found myself enjoying it. The main character is witty and the friends are her are equally fun to read about. Getting through the beginning was the most difficult part of the book for me, but I'm glad to have finished it.
Hilarious book about a woman who decides to create an exes anonymous self-help group in order to get over her obsession with her former boyfriend. The story is so funny I couldn't stop laughing. Lovely characters and an acute sense of humour. A breath of fresh air.
Siapapun pernah patah hati. Seharusnya buku ini bisa related sama pembacanya. Beberapa puluh halaman bikin aku nggak pengin berhenti baca. Eh, beberapa halaman bikin males baca. Sulit banget bersimpati sama tokoh-tokohnya. Endingnya bikin makin nggak suka.
Henderson writes a little darker, more cynical and more x-rated than most "chick lit" authors. I really identified with part of the main character's personality in this one.
well, bit boring, took me a long time to read it through. not enough action but far too much character's thinking (usually about ex). But at least some quite funny moments.