Lush

by Gabrielle Fernie

'Made me cackle out loud on every single page' Daisy Buchanan, author of How to be a Grown-Up

Lush
adj. Very rich and providing great sensory pleasure (Oxford English Dictionary)
n. A habitual drunkard (Oxford English Dictionary)

'Arms linked, just as we did when we were seventeen, we teeter our way to the club, pausing to tug Emma's stiletto out of a drain cover and sling our empty wine bottle into the bin. For the first time in a long while I feel truly happy. I want to be standing arm-in-arm with my best friend, both completely pole-axed, for the rest of my days. And then it comes to me, with a stab: this is possibly our last night out together as free women...'

Gabby and Emma have been best friends since primary school in Wales. Emma has a stable job, a nice home and has just got engaged. Gabby has had a succession of disastrous one-night-stands and five awful jobs since drama school . . . and she has just been diagnosed with scurvy. She has one year until the wedding to pull herself together and prove to her friends and family that she can be a proper grown-up.

Described by Caitlin Moran as 'filthy, immoral and incredibly funny', Gabrielle Fernie's blog, loveisa4letterturd.com, catalogued her life as a struggling actress with a taste for gin. Here, in her first book, she shares more of her most raucous stories with eye-watering honesty. It is a refreshing, frank and laugh-out-loud account of a young woman trying to find her place in the world; ultimately realising that it's fine to play at being an adult until she properly figures it out.

Genres: Contemporary, Comedy

304 pages, Paperback

Published August 16, 2018

Reviews

[Rosie Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lush: A True Story, Soaked in Gin is a wonderful witty book. It opens with Gabby hearing news that her best friend is getting married. But she’s been side-stepped for the role of Maid of Honour due to her capricious nature. The reader is then taken on a roller-coaster year-long ride as Gabby prepares for the wedding finale; here she hopes to show everyone that she can actually be a well behaved grown-up. See here for full review https://wp.me/p2Eu3u-bNX

[Ian Mapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are very few laugh out loud books that keep the giggles going page after page but Gabrielle manages it superbly.

Alcohol plays a (big) part but this book is not the diary of an alcoholic - which it first appears from the title. Its more the life of a Country Girl, moved to London, failing to become an actor and taking dead end jobs. The drinking is no more outrageous than the majority of people in the this position.

The book is framed around her friends wedding - so we have the trauma that she should be growing up, through the hen do's, the female rivalries, families in small towns - with a smattering of show business as she gets work in Hollyoaks and appears on one of those real life dating/cooking programs.

There's so many one liners to be enjoyed here - and the scrapes she gets into never seem forced in any way.

I ploughed through it in a couple of days, always with a smile on my face. Especially when she developed Scurvy :-)

[Agi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gabby and Emma are best friends. While Emma has just got engaged and has a stable life, Gabby is working in a job that she hates, she dreams of being an actress (she has finished a drama school!) and goes on one disastrous date after disastrous date. However, she promises herself to grow up in time for Emma's wedding.

I've requested "Lush" after reading the synopsis - I loved it. I'm already not in the author's age range but well, I still remember some of the antics and troubles I've got myself into and you really don't want to know where I threw up once. Those were the times...
However this book didn't work for me, sadly. Gabrielle, our main character in this novel, wanted to change. So far, so good but a) I didn't fully get why she wants to change - only because her best mate is getting married?, b) why write a book about it. There are many, many people out there living the same life as Gabrielle so, theoretically, they all could also write a book about their (miss)adventures? Blame it on my age, please, but some of the antics and Gabrielle's approach didn't make me laugh, they made me cringe - sometimes if felt much too overdone and as if the author has really tried too hard. Partly, it wasn't funny anymore for me. However, I absolutely appreciate the fact how honest it was, and, in some ways, relatable.

But. I of course can so well understand that this book is going to speak tons with the younger audience. It so brutally honestly shows how it is to try and fail, to try again and to fail again but still not give up. The writing style was hilarious, engaging, sharp and hooking and the story itself was partly funny and partly touching and some of Gabrielle's adventures were hilarious, I especially liked the TV episode or the bootcamp part. So even if I'm in two minds about this book, I'm sure that if you're in your 20's, you're going to enjoy this memoirs about being single. Yes, hands up, it rang a bit to my own experiences, and I'm really glad to have read this book, even if it turned out that it's not the perfect read for me, but you'd better try it for yourself.

Copy provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some laugh out loud moments and an enjoyable quick very easy read. Favourite bit - 'how far would you go on a first date?' still makes me snigger.I am now going to watch all the back episodes of Dinner Date. I would imagine a night out with Ms Fernie would be a messy hoot.

[Elspeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabs always was the best storyteller in school. Such a treat to have >200 pages of your mate's voice even when not back in the Welsh countryside. It's ridiculous but also hilarious, lot of hard work paid off. Such a treat to pop into Waterstones and ask for you friend's masterpiece!

[Rebecca Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is absolutely no doubt that Fernie is a talented author. Anybody who can write truly laugh out loud sentences one after another is, I am immediately jealous of!

And this book was hilariously descriptive. However (and I HATE to sound like a snob(!)), I found myself cringing throughout the book at some of the stories and the absurd reference to alcohol every second page. At some points, I just wanted to shake Gabrielle as a character and say ‘please !!! do something more interesting for once than just get drunk and chase after men !!!”

I also don’t really see any character development, which I know is somewhat the point in the story…but I feel there should have been a more reflective last chapter.

Anyways, massive kudos as this made me chuckle multiple times in public. A very comfy three stars 🙂‍↕️

[Helen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really didn't like this book. I didn't enjoy the capital letters as a mean of emphasis, as it came across as quite childish. Even though I knew the book was strongly based on drinking, the authors dependance on alcohol didn't come across as endearing, just annoying. I think I laughed once? Wouldn't recommend unless you want a holiday read you can completely switch your brain off to and immediately forget.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not often that I am helpless with laughter reading a book. I was with Gabrielle Fermie's Lush.
She has all of Karl Ove Knausgaard's naked honesty but with a gift for raucous comedy all her own.
I defy anyone not to laugh. A lot.
My wife also read this on our holiday and laughed like a drain. She is buying it for all her friends.

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, easy read. It's light, fluffy and gentle on the brain. This would be a great book for a lazy read on the beach. It doesn't have too many "really deep thoughts" in it. Not all books need to have those, I guess. I wasn't gobsmacked, but I enjoyed reading this.

[Janine Cousins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such an easy, lazy read which at points is pretty funny but also predictable after a while.

There's a lot of talk about weight and how much she's a bigger girl but any photos I have seen she doesn't look past a size 10.

I'd love to see the Dinner Date episode she talks about!

[iisabellllle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did like this, it was an easy and funny read, however reading straight after Dolly Alderton's 'Everything I know about Love', it fell a bit short and was very similar in style & execution.

[Charlotte Fullbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had me laughing out loud every few pages! So many quips and phrases that I read and was like "oh my god, that is me."

[Kelly Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book caused me to laugh out loud on numerous occasions. It was hilariously BRILLIANT!

[Kathryn Hyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed out loud

A good read. Gabs has a catchy turn of phrase and some cracking tales. A lot of people will identify with many of these scenarios.

[Morag Ranford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some laugh out loud moments but get excesses were too unrealistic, even for me!!!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve met the author and she’s a legend! Raw and heartfelt with a resonating of some of her antics. Hilarious and an easy, fun read. I can’t wait to read her next book...

[Siobhan Lehane · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.
Unlikeable main character, tangents that give nothing, the humour is annoying and I’m tired of waiting to see if a story will actually happen in this book.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book, I’ve been preaching it to people who need a book recommendation.

[Sophie Eminson · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://romanticsrebelsandreviews.wor...

Lush by Gabrielle Fernie is a hilarious, feel-good memoir with incredibly relateable anecdotes which will take you back to various moments of your life, or even make you consider how similar it is to your current situation. Telling her own story, Fernie does a brilliant job of making her own life the most humorous, yet endearing thing you’ve heard about all year and she truly makes you root for her.

The story…
Lush by Gabrielle Fernie follows Gabby at 23 years old, receiving the phone call that her best friend is getting married. As she sits, thinking about her one-night-stand in her messy London flat smoking a cigarette, she decides that she needs to drown her sorrows, which she does many times during the novel. Everything that could happen to a single, aspiring actress in London leading up to their best friend’s wedding does, and you will barely believe most of it.

Why I loved this book…
This is the PERFECT girlie book to sit down and enjoy over a long weekend (as I have done), on the beach, or just in the evenings to wind down. It is actually funny, with Fernie’s incredibly British humour reaching out to my own northern upbringing, many parts shocking and amusing me at the same time. Now, usually, I wouldn’t find myself reading this kind of book, but I am so glad I did because it was the perfect book to read personally after getting blackout drunk at a friend’s house party last weekend, then decidedly taking a week off drinking. Gabby is an extreme version of many young British females I know, and I found it charming how I saw a bit of her in me and many of my friends.

Read the full review: https://romanticsrebelsandreviews.wor...

[Annabelle Corton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cheered me up and distracted me from a stressful week. I laughed out loud all the way through, particularly the bit where her Nan knits her own swimwear. Perfect beach read, and great for anxiety distraction.

[Siv-Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Første bok på lenge som jeg ikke orker å fullføre. Det var så mange digresjoner at jeg ikke klarte følge med på historia. Måten den var skrevet på var heller ikke for meg: som et standup-show, men ingen vitser jeg egentlig syntes var morsomme.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating for this book reflects the fact that I found the lack of plot offputting and the anecdotes not interesting or funny enough to warrant not having an actual story. However I did find it easy to read, and a couple of sections did make me laugh, if not out loud! Perhaps just not my thing, I'm sure it will be someone else's.

[Lucy Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mum read it first and lent it to me. Really funny - I cackled so much. The honesty, wit and relatability of the author make this a fantastic book to read.

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me laughing out loud at times, Loved the interactions with her parents which just goes to show you are never too old to disappoint them! The stories about her best friends other "best friend" reminded me a bit of Bridesmaids! Loved it!