Why Can't I Be You

[Leah]

Allie Larkin’s debut novel, Stay, was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. Although, if any author writes a novel with a dog I am generally guaranteed to love it because I love dogs. Show me a book I’ve hated with a dog, if you can! So I was quite hoping that Larkin’s second novel Why Can’t I Be You would be just as good as Stay, and would, perhaps, feature a dog. Because dogs just make books a better place. Heck, they make ANYTHING a better place just by being there. Sadly, dogs are at a minimum in Why Can’t I Be You, but it’s still an excellent novel (that would have been stratospheric if there were more dogs… I am joking, of course).

I will admit, I spent quite a lot of Why Can’t I Be You wondering if Jenny was a secret nutter. What Jenny does is unequivocally wrong. It’s indefensible and it made me a bit confused as to how I felt about the book because of the questions it raised. Why would a person impersonate someone else? How would Jenny get herself out of the pickle she had found herself in? I think, however, that most of my unease is down to the unease that Jenny found herself feeling because, Jesus, you impersonate someone for so long and keep taking risks it’s going to be uneasy and stomach-churning and that’s how I felt for a lot of the novel. The relief I felt was immense when it all came out, it was like I could breath again and I was only reading about it!

But, on thinking about it, I actually really enjoyed the novel. Larkin has given us such a wonderful group of people in Myra, Heather, Robbie and Fish, that you can absolutely, totally understand why Jenny gets caught up being Jessie. You just would, for the chance to have friends like those guys. And for a lonely kid like Jenny, who grew up like she did, feeling lost, abandoned, alone it’s surely like some sort of familial nirvana to have people care about you just for a little bit. So, in that respect, I totally got it. It’s the sort of book that you try really hard not to like the main character because what she’s doing is actually really wrong, but, actually you can’t because you just want to be her friend and show her love and give her a cuddle. I think it takes a really skilled writer to pull that off, and Larkin has. She has me questioning Jenny’s actions throughout, but never actually made me dislike Jenny which is a feat in itself.

Why Can’t I Be You really did surprise me. I thought I wasn’t enjoying it, until I reached the end and the tension evaporated. So I didn’t dislike it, I was just really, really terrified for poor Jenny. Obviously, Jenny’s secret had to come out that she wasn’t really Jessie, but it was very well done. I thought the novel was just as satisfying as Stay, if not more so. Larkin’s writing has become better, I was hooked on the novel from page one, and just the atmosphere was what really made the book for me. Sometimes it can be a plot, sometimes characters, and in Why Can’t I Be You it was very much the characters. Jenny herself, but it’s those around her who make it worth the while who make you realise that in Jenny’s situation you would do the exact. same. thing. for friends like Myra, Heather, Robbie and Fish. I know I would. Easily. I’m pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it, but be warned, it will mess with you, but in the end, trust me, it is soooooo worth it.