Leah
Written on Nov 23, 2014
whatiloved
Up & In is your typical mummy-mafia novel - with our titular character Maria on the outs with the "beas" as she calls them, lead by a mum called Bea (hence the name). I don't quite know what set this one apart, but I was actually quickly entranced by the novel, particularly Maria's inner monologue about whether or not kisses are applicable on all reply-all emails between the beas. It was amusing. (For the record, I generally put kisses on all my texts, because otherwise it just looks rude and naked without.)
I loved the netball aspect (I was a netballer, in my day; I won two trophies even), pretty much the entire novel revolves around the kids' netball team the Red Rockets, and it was quite sad to me to see poor Kate being left out, all because Maria had declined to buy some hair ties (and this is all I can say it is, because we're never told any different). It frustrates the life out of me when I read novels about parents who ignore other parents' kids because of their own squabbles and for that I felt Maria's frustrating and wanted to batter the beas for being so ignorant, and not realising they were hurting a kid in the process. So I liked that Maria was willing to go to bat for her kid, and help her not feel so left out.
I also plain and simply loved Maria, Joe, Kate and Sarah. They're the loveliest little family, and even Joe's midlife crisis was done with heart, which is a rarity; in other novels he'd be trading Maria for a new model, but you could tell they loved each other.
thenotsogood
I didn't find there was much wrong at all with Up & In. It was a quick, enjoyable read, and probably the only thing missing was one last all-out battle of words between Maria and Bea, before the happenings at the end. I felt like Maria deserved to know why she had been blanked, and I was disappointed she didn't confront Bea head on.
verdict
Up & In was a wonderful novel. It was funny, it was warm, it was witty, and I adored Maria and the rest of her family. The mummy wars were surprisingly refreshing, and made me laugh on occassion, and I raced through the novel in a matter of hours. The new Impulse Australia imprint gets my two thumbs up and I'm very excited to see what Deborah writes next as this was super enjoyable.