The Truth About Melody Browne

by Lisa Jewell

When she was nine years old, Melody Browne's house burned down, taking every toy, every photograph, every item of clothing and old Christmas card with it. But not only did the fire destroy all her possessions, it took with it all her memories - Melody Browne can remember nothing before her ninth birthday.

Now in her early thirties, Melody lives in a council flat in the middle of London with her seventeen-year-old son. She hasn't seen her parents since she left home at fifteen, but Melody doesn't mind, she's better off on her own. She's made a good life for herself and her son and she likes it that way.

Until one night something extraordinary happens. Whilst attending a hypnotist show with her first date in years she faints - and when she comes round she starts to remember. At first her memories mean nothing to her but then slowly, day by day, she begins to piece together the real story of her childhood. Her journey takes her to the seaside town of Broadstairs, to oddly familiar houses in London backstreets and to meetings with strangers who love her like their own. But with every mystery she solves another one materialises, with every question she answers another appears. And Melody begins to wonder if she'll ever know the truth about her past...

• ISBN10: 0753184176
• ISBN13: 9780753184172
• Publish Date: 1 June 2010 (first published 9 April 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 16 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: ISIS Publishing
• Imprint: ISIS Large Print Books
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

The Truth About Melody Browne is Lisa Jewell’s seventh novel and is a complete departure from her usual works. Aged 9, Melody lost everything in a house fire – all of her material possessions.

But she also lost something more – her memory of the previous 9 years. Now in her thirties, with a teenage son, she goes out on a date one night to see a hypnotist.

After bringing her up on stage and hypnotising her, Melody collapses and it causes her memories to start coming back slowly and she begins to piece together exactly what happened in the first 9 years of her life…

The Truth About Melody Browne, as I’ve said, was completely different to all of Lisa’s previous novels (that I’ve read, anyway). Lisa’s writing style also seems to have changed. Yet there was still the warmth there in her novels like her previous ones.

The Truth About Melody Browne was an enjoyable enough read, I loved the plot – Melody losing all her memories from being a baby up until she was 9 years old. It’s not one I’ve seen before! I found it a bit hard going at the beginning and it took a while to get into the book as well as the jumping from decade to decade but eventually I was hooked and really enjoying Melody’s back story.

All of the chapters jump from the present day, to the 70’s of Melody’s childhood to the 80’s of Melody’s pregnancy and it takes a while to get used to as I said. I also found the whole book was focused on Melody in the 70’s than in the present day so we didn’t really get to know Melody or her son, Ed. We knew enough about them to care, but not as much as you usually learn, but that was fine by me. At first it irritated because I wanted to know more about Melody now but as we learnt more of her childhood I found I wanted to know more about her childhood than her adulthood!

I thought Melody was a fabulous character and everything she dealt with, past and present, she dealt with very well. Child Melody was incredibly brave and went through a lot of happenings – not all of it bad, but enough of it. It was great to read about Adult Melody’s search for the truth – taking her to Broadstairs and to different parts of London, reading about how certain places held something for her but she just couldn’t figure out what.

There were plenty of minor characters throughout the novel – Melody’s mother & father, Ken and his family (Melody & her mum lived with them for a while), Melody’s aunt’s Maggie & Susie, her father’s second wife, Jacqui and his children Emily and Charlotte as well as Melody’s son Ed. My favourite of all of those were Ken and I hoped the rumours about him were false because he was a really nice character.

I liked the fact that all of Lisa’s characters were real – they all had faults and problems. I really felt for Melody’s mum who also had a heck of a time.

The Truth About Melody Browne was really well written and, although it dealt with some nasty topics, was an enjoyable read. The way Melody coped with losing her memory and then piecing it back together was fabulous and she was a real fighter. She raised her boy single-handedly and made him into a man. Melody really is a heroine you will love.

Rating: 5/5