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The Truth & Addy Loest

Kim Kelly (Goodreads Author)

4.75 · Rating details · 4 ratings · 4 reviews

Truth is not a destination – it’s a magical ride.

Addy Loest is harbouring a secret – several, in fact. Dedicated overthinker, frockaholic and hard-partyer, she’s been doing all she can to avoid the truth for quite some time.

A working-class girl raised between the Port Kembla Steelworks and the surf of the Illawarra coast, Addy is a fish out of water at the prestigious Univ ...more

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Paperback, 284 pages

Expected publication: February 1st 2021 by Jazz Monkey Publications

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Jan 19, 2021 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021-release, aussie-authors, contemporary-fiction, arc, reviewing-by-request, gift-from-author, 5000-2021, own-read, read-on-kindle

Addy Loest was almost running late for a lecture when she helped the lady with her parcels and encountered the magical shop she must have walked past a thousand times. And then she really was running late – as she gazed, fascinated, at what was inside. Addy was easily distracted, from uni (the University of Sydney) to beautiful dresses, to alcohol and an excess of it.

Daughter of German immigrants, she and her brother Nick (who was a boxer, for goodness sake!) had been brought up by their widowe ...more

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Dec 02, 2020 Theresa Smith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aww2020, earcs

This is Kim Kelly’s second contemporary release – I refuse to consider the mid 1980s as historical fiction, no, definitely not yet! – and I have to say, she’s hit a homerun yet again. Not all authors can easily walk from genre to genre, era to era, but it seems for Kim that nothing is out of reach. I think this comes down to the story, the essence of Kim’s work. She’s not writing about an event, with the character’s lives playing out in front of an epic backdrop. Rather, she’s telling a yarn, a This is Kim Kelly’s second contemporary release – I refuse to consider the mid 1980s as historical fiction, no, definitely not yet! – and I have to say, she’s hit a homerun yet again. Not all authors can easily walk from genre to genre, era to era, but it seems for Kim that nothing is out of reach. I think this comes down to the story, the essence of Kim’s work. She’s not writing about an event, with the character’s lives playing out in front of an epic backdrop. Rather, she’s telling a yarn, a story that’s playing out in familiar neighbourhoods with familiar people; a slice of Australia, served up with both the bitter and the sweet accompaniments. Nevermore has this been true than with The Truth & Addy Loest. Before we get deep and meaningful, I just want to point out that Kim’s natural wit is in top form throughout this novel.

‘The Jay Club was Sydney Uni’s marijuana club, where the coolest of the cool hung out collectively growing their hair in lieu of doing anything socially useful.’

The beating heart of this story is Addy Loest herself, young and on the cusp of the rest of her life, yet hopelessly lost and searching desperately for those elusive answers to the questions asked by all intergenerational migrant children at some point in their lives: ‘Who am I and where did I come from? Where is my home? Where do I belong?’ Addy will be familiar to many Australians who are now in their 40s and above, whose parents and grandparents migrated post WWII, leaving the pain and scars behind for a new life in a new sunshiny land. Many began again so completely that it’s as though their former selves ceased to exist once they stepped off that boat, but their reinvention in some cases reverberated down through the generations, so that their children and even grandchildren found themselves caught in an identity crisis, similar to that of Addy, where you’re neither here nor there, you’re a little bit other, but not entirely sure what that even means.

‘She was nothing – really. She was not a real Australian; she was not a real German. She was not a real Illawarra surfie chick; she was not a real Sydney University student. She fell between the cracks of everything, and it was desperately lonely there – everywhere.’

I’m not one for romance novels, but I do like a good love story – there is a difference, believe me! – and here in The Truth & Addy Loest is a tale of a beautiful love, of the grandest kind, just waiting to unfurl. It’s a little unconventional, with Addy fighting her inner critic all the way to the point where she comes to the realisation that not only does someone else love her, but that she’s also completely worthy of it. The close-knit family unit of Addy, her brother, and her father, was lovely; I enjoyed their interactions, from their father worrying about them to Addy and her brother bonding over their father worrying about them! There are plenty of social and political issues tightly woven into this novel, but with the precision of a master storyteller, Kim packages it all up and delivers it with aplomb.

‘She saw him swipe off a tear with the heel of his hand, smiling again – and it was there, right there, she finally let herself fall completely and irretrievably. She fell right to the garden floor, she landed softly on the tender grass, inside that loving, laughing tear.’

The Truth & Addy Loest is released in February 2021 and I highly recommend you add it to your reading lists for the New Year, or better yet, pre-order a copy today.

Thanks is extended to the author, Kim Kelly, for providing me with a copy of The Truth & Addy Loest for review. ...more

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Dec 06, 2020 Jodie Maree rated it it was amazing

Wow. Kim Kelly has done it again. This story will pull you in from beginning to end. She has obviously poured her heart and soul into this and so much of it rings true for many of us. I’m so very glad I have found this wonderful author and the books she writes. Can’t wait for the next one.

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Sep 30, 2020 Claire rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, aussie-authors, australian-fiction, australian-women-authors, review-book, aww2020

Wow!

This was a story I didn't want to end.

As I got pulled deeper and deeper into Addy's story, drawing several parallels to some of my own struggles, I wanted to stay there with her as she dealt with those struggles, the stories her brain told her, the encounter with the woman who owned the curiosity shop, beautiful and tender-hearted Dan, her brother Nick and her ever grieving father.

Addy is so like many broken parts of me, so many broken parts of many others, but she shines brightly even as sh Wow!

This was a story I didn't want to end.

As I got pulled deeper and deeper into Addy's story, drawing several parallels to some of my own struggles, I wanted to stay there with her as she dealt with those struggles, the stories her brain told her, the encounter with the woman who owned the curiosity shop, beautiful and tender-hearted Dan, her brother Nick and her ever grieving father.

Addy is so like many broken parts of me, so many broken parts of many others, but she shines brightly even as she doesn't see it, even as she doubts everything about herself and thinks she is dying.

As always Kim Kelly brings to the fore important issues, not just of then, but of now. The fight women have to be treated with respect and not as an object for a man to drool over or take advantage of, the fight to not be afraid. She deals with past injustices of the war, both WWI and WWII, the effects felt generations on by those who come after and carry those memories in their cells. She touches on the need to hide who we are from those we love, to protect ourselves and them. How hard it was to be gay in the 80s, not that it is easier now for many, but as a society it is much more accepted.

I loved Addy's love of beautiful dresses and her style, I wish I could own half the dresses she had in her closet. It makes me want to go hunting for beautiful dresses to wear, dresses with stories to tell.

This story is full of emotion, of damaged people, some trying to make sense of their lives, to discover who they are and some, like Addy's father who get on with things because they must.

When quantum physics was wound into the story it made me laugh, because my mind works a bit like the way Dan described how quantum physics works, and though this is most certainly one concept I will never understand, I understand the feeling behind the concepts and I thought the author did a wonderful job of conveying this.

I loved this novel and I will read it again and possibly again after that. The writing and language is exquisite and perfect and such a pleasure to read.

Thanks to Kim Kelly for providing me with a digital copy in return for an honest review ...more

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About Kim Kelly

Kim Kelly

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‘colourful, evocative and energetic’ – Sydney Morning Herald
‘impressive research’ – Daily Telegraph
‘Why can’t more people write like this?’ – The Age

Kim Kelly is the author of ten novels, including the acclaimed Wild Chicory and bestselling The Blue Mile. Her historical fictions are compelling and whimsical, and driven by strong characters of all kinds.

With warmth and lyrical charm, she leads her ...more