Unbecoming

by Jenny Downham

Three women - three secrets - one heart-stopping story.

Katie, seventeen, in love with someone whose identity she can't reveal. Her mother Caroline, uptight, worn out and about to find the past catching up with her. Katie's grandmother, Mary, back with the family after years of mysterious absence and 'capable of anything', despite suffering from Alzheimers. As Katie cares for an elderly woman who brings daily chaos to her life, she finds herself drawn to her. Rules get broken as allegiances shift. Is Mary contagious? Is 'badness' genetic? In confronting the past, Katie is forced to seize the present. As Mary slowly unravels and family secrets are revealed, Katie learns to live and finally dares to love.

Funny, sad, honest and wise, Unbecoming is a celebration of life, and learning to honour your own stories.

• ISBN10: 1910200646
• ISBN13: 9781910200643
• Publish Date: 3 September 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 April 2023
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: David Fickling Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[Bianca]

A story is like a bolt of material or a woollen scarf, and you might pull out a thread and look at it boldly because there it is sitting in your palm. But there are countless threads tangled together and some belong to you and some belong to other people, and incoherence and inconsistency become part of the narrative. All the threads bind and twist together. And every time you look it’s different, because stories change in the retelling.

— A good read about how stories have many faces and how people twist their stories to make themselves seem like the 'good one.' I could've liked it more if it wasn't so slowwwwwwwwwwwww and kinda predictable at that.