This Has Nothing to Do with You

by Lauren Carter

When Melony Barnett’s mother commits a violent murder, Mel is left struggling with the loss of her parents and her future. For more than two years, she drifts around the continent, trying to carve out a life that has nothing to do with her past, before returning to her Northern Ontario home and adopting a rescue dog—a mastiff with a tragic history.

As she struggles to help the dog heal and repair her relationship with her brother, Matt, she begins to uncover layers of secrets about her family —secrets that were the fuel for her mother’s actions.

This Has Nothing to Do With You is a compulsively readable novel that follows a dynamic cast of characters, revealing the complexity of the bonds that are formed through trauma and grief—with siblings, lovers, friends, and dogs.

Advance Praise:

“Unflinching and mesmerizing, Lauren Carter's novel explores the daily impact of generational trauma, the need to love unreservedly, and a woman inching toward healing by dredging up the past.”—Emily Pohl Weary

“Grommet the Dog is my new favourite character! All his poor, messed-up people held me riveted to the page. Lauren Carter has created a novel for our times: how do we learn to live in a world filled with tragedy? With compassion as big as her talent, Lauren Carter infuses this epic story of the broken-hearted with love, life, and hope. This Has Nothing to Do with You is an antidote to apathy and despair. I'm an instant fan.” - Angie Abdou

"I found it tender and devastating. A deep dive into the trauma created by family secrets — and secret-keeping. Also, an ode to Northern Ontario!” - Sarah Selecky

384 pages, Paperback

First published September 7, 2019

About the author

Lauren Carter is the author of five books: the forthcoming short story collection Places Like These, the novel This Has Nothing to Do with You, winner of the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, and her debut novel Swarm, which was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads, as well as the poetry collections Following Sea and Lichen Bright, longlisted for the ReLit Award. Her work has also appeared in anthologies, including 15: Best Canadian Stories (edited by John Metcalf) and Voicing Suicide (Ekstasis Editions). She has been published in a wide variety of periodicals including The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, National Geographic Traveler, and the literary journals Fiddlehead, Prairie Fire and Grain. Longlisted multiple times for the CBC literary awards in both fiction and poetry, she's also been nominated for the Journey and Giller Prizes. A transplanted Ontarian, she currently lives near Winnipeg, Manitoba with her husband, Jason, and rescue animals Merlin and Mo.

Reviews

[Angeline Schellenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read This Has Nothing to Do with You in one weekend.
The characters felt like old friends and the pacing was perfect. The kind of book where you want to keep reading because you need to know, but you also want to take it slow and listen deeply.
Carter dips into some pretty dark realities, but she does it so gently. This is just the kind of truthful, compassionate storytelling the world needs now.

[Red H.]

Good well-paced teen fiction. I would look back to her earlier novel 'Swarm' for indications of a stylistic shift that might put any literary concerns of the book more in the forefront.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soon after we encounter Melony Barnett in Lauren Carter’s emotionally searing novel, This has Nothing to do With You, she is volunteering at an animal shelter and has grown attached to a dog named Sunday. In her early twenties and living by herself in small-town northern Ontario, Melony is barely functioning. She works at the local library and has her own apartment, but otherwise she seems to be twisting in the wind. When she ill-advisedly decides to adopt Sunday, renaming him Grommit, despite the fact that her building doesn’t allow pets, her life begins to spiral. This can be traced back to her tragic family history. It turns out that three years earlier, immediately after Melony’s high school graduation—when she was bursting with excitement about university and a career as a veterinarian—her mother murdered her husband and his lover. In the messy aftermath, Melony and her brother Matt were left with only each other for support. But Melony, at eighteen, was unable to deal with the trauma. With her father dead and her mother pleading guilty and facing life in prison, Melony skipped town, heading south to the US with her friend Lara and a flower child named Daisy, finally landing in Arizona where, numbed by an endless supply of pot, she lived in a cave with a man 20 years her senior. Now she’s home, having been rescued by her brother. But since she’s never dealt with the emotional residue from her mother’s actions, she’s living in a haphazard fashion, unable to commit to anything. Carter’s novel follows 21-year-old Melony as she attempts to set her life on a coherent path, using flashbacks to take us through her earlier flight from home and responsibility following the murders, her search for refuge in the Arizona wilderness, and subsequent return to northern Ontario. This has Nothing to do With You does not hold back. This is a novel graphic with dysfunction. Melony’s father was a controlling and narcissistic bully, and over the years Melony and Matt watched helplessly as their mother withered under his relentless criticisms. In retrospect, their mother’s violent outburst did not come as much of a surprise, but this only adds to their feelings of guilt, because they’re left wondering if there was anything they could have done to prevent it. Along the way Melony learns more about the circumstances surrounding the fatal events, in the end discovering that vital details were withheld from her. And then there’s her mother, with whom she must seek a kind of peace before moving forward. This has Nothing to do With You tells an emotionally raw story of a young woman trying to rebuild her shattered life. By the end Melony has learned that running away solves nothing and that family is the cause and the cure for what ails her. Her struggle to fit the pieces back together makes for a fascinating, heartrending read.

[Prairie Fire Review of Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally reviewed by Hollay Ghadery for Prairie Fire's Book Reviews Program. prairiefire.ca

Author Lauren Carter doesn’t waste any time drawing you into the complicated, compelling and uncomfortably familiar lives of her characters. From the first page, you’re immersed in the moving landscape of their existence, but you’re not immersed in a way that suggests urgency. The pace of Carter’s narrative begs reflection, rather than a frantic rush to the finish. To this end, the space between questions and answers that’s so pivotal to keeping a reader’s interest is artfully maintained.

The title of the book says it all: This has nothing to do with you. This phrase or a paraphrase is used sporadically throughout the book by different characters to distance themselves from the pain they’ve caused the people they love. The “it’s my life” claim that we’ve likely all made at some point in our lives is only partly accurate: our lives are our own, by the things we do affect the people who love us.

In the case of the protagonist Melony’s mother, it was murdering her husband and his lover. In the case of Melony, it was running away from her home and her brother, Matthew, after the murder and escaping into a nomadic, often drugged-out life. In the case of Matthew, it was denying Melody key information to understanding her mother’s motivation to commit murder as well as his level of involvement in events leading up to the murder. Through Matthew’s mental disintegration and his ensuing, dangerous life choices, Carter also provides fodder for us to examine how you can be narcissistic and still dislike yourself. You can be a piece of garbage that the world revolves around.

Carter’s skill as an empath and poet is evident in the stunning, subtle painting of landscapes, scenes and nuanced character psychology in this heart-expanding novel. A must-read for anyone brave enough to face the real darkness, light and complexity of familial relationships.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Pink light wakes me, soft as sugar candy snagged in the pine trees, and a loon cries out across the lake's mottled surface of silver and blue. Reluctantly, I open my eyes, then shut them, stabbed through with the pain from the memory of that other waterfront morning at dawn, I wonder if I'll always be there living thoes few hours over and over. The hours before I learned that I'd lost my whole family."
•
I loved this book! It looked so deeply at the destructiveness of family secrets, grief and trauma.

Mel Barrett's mother violently murdered her father. Mel is then left struggling with the grief and uncertainty of it all. She ends up drifting from place to place for a few years, desperately trying to leave her past in the past, and create a new future for herself, only to eventually come home where she adopts a rescue dog with a traumatic history and attempts to heal the dog and her relationship with her brother Matt who has his own difficulties. Through all of this she ends up unearthing her families secrets and learning what pushed her mother to do what she did.

These characters!! They were all so vivid and real to me. Add all the family dynamics going on and thos was so very engrossing! Original and excellently written as well. I was so interested in this book, its why I love these kinds of family stories, they are so emotionally absorbing! Highly reccomend checking this one out!
•
Thank You to the tagged publisher for sending me this book opinions are my own.

[Zilla Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the damage done by secrets and recovery from the trauma they bring. The main character, Melony, who is around 18-21 during these events, has to reckon with the legacy of her abusive father and her estrangement from her mother, incarcerated for his murder, as well as her fraying relationship with her brother Matt, now a husband and father, and with her two childhood friends, Josie, pregnant and married, and Lara, an artist going through her own grieving process.

The joy of this book is that, despite the multiple characters (besides the ones above, there is also Owain, Matt’s friend with whom Mel cultivates a romance, Matt’s partner Angie, and Sophie, who is unexpectedly connected to the traumatic events of the past) I never felt confused about who was who, and the transitions from past to present felt seamless. But my favourite character by far is Grommett, the traumatized dog who heals along with Mel. It is genius on the part of the author to connect human and animal trauma and healing.

Mel is an unforgettable character - she is imperfect, flawed, irresponsible, makes terrible decisions and yet she is so young and vulnerable she remains likeable. Besides the parts with Grommett, my favourite part of the book is the flashback sections to her road trip with her friend Lara.

This is the perfect pandemic book. I laughed, I cried, I reminisced about simpler times, and at the end, I felt hope. I highly recommend this book.

[Ladie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me awhile to enjoy this book, so much so that I almost gave up at the 20% mark. That was when the dog was at the height of its destructive behavior, the protagonist was at her most indecisive and her brother dropped his baby while throwing it in the air. Who needs this fictional hot mess while beginning the all too real Covid third wave? As a book club selection for April 2021, I was able to speak with a fellow member who assured me that the baby was fine, the dog wasn't put down and that things generally improved from that point onward. I'm glad I resumed reading it, since it was well-written and the cloud of gloom and hopeless ineptitude of the main characters gradually and believably lifts. That's not to say this is a lighthearted story, far from it, but it does serve as a cautionary tale about family secrets and miscommunication. It was a good choice for book club as there will be lots to discuss, and the author will be joining us as well.

[Shirley Hay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a poignant exploration of what it means to be the child when the generation before you crumbles beneath your feet. Both the protagonist (Melody), and her brother (Matt), face near-impossible journeys of healing after their mother commits a violent murder. As readers, we walk their paths through Mel's eyes, each step complex and muddied with the past and the things that brought them to where they are. Each character, including Grommet the rescue dog, weave together beautifully to tell Mel's story.

[Wendie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read This Has Nothing To Do With You. Lauren drew me into the lives of those tragic characters so much that I dreaded coming to the end and not finding a happy resolution. After all they had been through, could any of them ever find happiness. It must have been a challenge staying in their heads throughout the writing. Thank you for the satisfying and healing conclusion. I loved the book and recommend it to anyone who loves a book with real flesh and blood characters!

[Kristin Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

A story about a young woman who is starting adulthood/finding her place in the world while coping with the tragedy of her mother killing her father a few years earlier. She finds out more secrets along the way about her family. The characters felt real to me, I felt I could visualize everything like a movie. Good read.

[Hollay Ghadery · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars, so I obviously really enjoyed this book. I wrote a review of it for Prarie Fire, which you can read here: https://www.prairiefire.ca/this-has-n...

Definitely, a recommended read for some compelling, provoking fiction.

[Erna Buffie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A murder, a crazy rescue dog and a young woman struggling to find identity and purpose. Lauren Carter has penned a dark, funny and compelling book about a family in crisis. Beautifully written and highly recommended.

[Louella Lester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Flawed characters that you are real and you care about them. An intense quick read with a hopeful ending.

[Judy Archer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the interplay, the family dynamics, the intrigue, the interconnections of how dysfunctional dynamics play our over the years within a family The characters felt very alive to me.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of a young woman trying to make sense of her life after a terrible family tragedy. A captivating read that felt very “Canadian” to me.

[Jo]

Winnipeg Free Press Book Club October 2020

[Ellen]

The storyline about struggling with a big rescue dog with behavioural problems hit too close to home. But otherwise it was a decent read.

[Karvin Haight]

Quite a good teen novel, Not quite Kafka-esque but can get there. No discernible style, eg, Hemingway, Camus, etc.

[Karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️

[Arlette · Rating 4 out of 5]

She made me so made
but she got better

[Anne Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've posted my review of this book on my youtube channel! Please go there to see my full review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyTH_...