The One Plus One

by Jojo Moyes

[Leah]

JoJo Moyes has rather risen up the Chick Lit/Women’s Fiction ranks in the past few years. Her hit novel Me Before You was read by literally everybody and sold millions of copies and was just stratospheric, let’s be honest. It really launched JoJo as a major writer, and I can actually see why because it was amazing. I’ve only just read it a couple of months ago, but I totally see why all the hype was there for the novel, because it was simply amazing. So I’ve jumped onto JoJo Moyes’ amazing bandwagon and when I heard about her new novel I thought it sounded great, and I couldn’t wait to dive in, and was rather pleased to receive a copy to review (I almost squealed when I got it).

The One Plus One is such a clever, enjoyable novel. I think there’s a real lack of novels set in the real world, with characters who aren’t well-off, who DO struggle day-to-day, and for who life isn’t all happiness and roses, and I really enjoyed getting to know Jess, Tanzie and Nicky. They’re such real, honest characters, and I loved their funny little family. How they weren’t the regulation 2.4 family and I very much admired Jess for taking on Nicky, despite the fact he wasn’t even her child, it takes a special person to do that and I loved how she treated Nicky as if he was her own. I was reading the book and I felt so bad for them – Nicky, being bullied, which is awful, no person should ever have to go through that; Tanzie, this brilliant maths whizz, the smartest kid you will ever come across, and since maths was my thing at school, I totally felt an affinity with her (although she is WAY smarter than me, I could barely understand any of the maths stuff Tanzie was dealing with, with ease, may I add?) and then there’s Jess, working two jobs and just trying to put food on the table for the kids. Her spirit and determination to do the best for herself and her kids was amazing, and I loved her never-give-up attitude.

I love road trip novels, they’re actually my favourite kind of novel, and I like road trip novels with strangers even more! And Ed, who comes into the novel, like a knight on a white horse (or, rather, a man with a functioning car) and helps Jess, Nicky and Tanzie get up to Scotland for Tanzie’s competition that will hopefully see them get a bit of financial help. I loved their road trip, how it was awkward in the beginning and how it just sort of started to make sense the more they were all stuck in the car together, going a sensible 40mph so Tanzie didn’t get car-sick. I was even more excited that Norman, Tanzie’s dog went on the road trip! I love when dogs are included in road trips, and in EVERYTHING basically because my dogs mean the world to me and I’d take them everywhere if I could. I just flew through the novel – I just wanted to know what would happen next, and I couldn’t believe that just when everything was looking up it all went rather pear-shaped, which made me so sad. But there were so many good bits, and it’s probably the most feelgood novel of the year, despite the troubles everyone is in.

The One Plus One is such an amazing novel. It made me so happy to read, and I could barely put it down, I just simply had to keep reading, JoJo is a stunning writer, so good at making you care for her characters, and she always writes such interesting, clever characters. Although it also made me cry. There was rather a moment that I thought I wasn’t going to stop crying, and I have to admit, I was quite relieved when it wasn’t what I thought it was. Let’s call it a hiccup. But, I do rather hate JoJo Moyes for putting me through that! (Although the relief after it was rather nice…) I can’t say enough about this book, it’s warm and witty, and it was just so real. I love novels about down-on-their-luck characters, characters who are proper down-on-their-luck, not just mourning the loss of a husband, or a job. What Jess goes through is something LOADS of people are going through at the moment, and this just highlights the fantastic attitude people like Jess have toward surviving. It’s not a want, it’s a need and I loved The One Plus One so much. Such an incredible cast of characters, so unique and amazing, people you can really root for.