Spin

by Catherine McKenzie

[Leah]

As soon as I saw Spin by Catherine McKenzie was on Netgalley, I wanted to read it immediately. The cover, the synopsis, it all sounded just perfect. We hear a lot about celebrities going to rehab for alcohol, drugs, nervous breakdowns, eating disorders etcetera, but we never get to hear about what goes on in rehab. (Obviously.) Which means that any kind of novel that gets the scoop on rehab is going to be worth reading and will help satisfy our cravings for knowing what celebrities go through. There’s only one novel I’ve read that’s also set in rehab and that is, of course, Marian Keyes’ ridiculously awesome Rachel’s Holiday. So Spin was right up my street and McKenzie knocked it out. of. the. park!

So as you may be aware (because I’ve already mentioned it), Spin is about rehab and it all begins when Katie Sandford gets drunk the night before her 30th birthday – and, and the night before she’s meant to interview for her dream job at The Line. She shows up for her interview still drunk, forgets everything she’s meant to say, and then spends an age puking in the bathroom. No, she doesn’t get the job. However, when Amber Sheppard is sent into rehab Britney-style (as in, it’s mandatory not voluntarily), The Line’s sister magazine wants the scoop and who better to send into rehab than someone who, quite frankly, looks like she needs rehab. Enter Katie. Enter rehab. Enter 30 days of no drinking and a lot of talking at a time when Katie really, desperately needs a bloody drink…

It’s not just a novel about a girl sneaking into rehab by pretending to be a drunk, though. Sure, that’s how it starts and sure, that’s how Katie sees it, but somewhere along the way, Katie realises that rehab may actually be helping her and that, perhaps, Katie has been using drink in more than a social way. I think it’s kind of a given that that would happen; but it’s still fascinating to see Katie go through that, because Katie appears for the most part as a happy-go-lucky party girl who does not have a problem with alcohol and it’s only when she spends the time thinking (and talking) that she begins to wonder just how “social” her drinking really is. It’s on point, as well; I’m not a drinker myself because I just don’t like it and the idea of spending any amount of time in a bar drinking would bore me to death, but you’re always reading in magazines about binge drinking and how people just don’t realise that you don’t need to be a homeless person with a brown paper bag to be an alcoholic. It happens to everyone, or it can, I should say. So it’s a novel that will hit the mark with some people and I just found the whole thing fascinating.

McKenzie is a ridiculously talented writer. I mean, the novel just FLOWS. You just keep reading. I just kept reading. I went to bed at like 11.15pm and the next time I looked at the clock it was 12.15am and I hadn’t even noticed, I was just absorbed in carrying on with Kate’s madcap adventures. As she makes friends with Amber (aka “The Girl Next Door; TGND”, to write her article, as she avoids her ex-boyfriend who works as a gardener at the rehab center, as she starts up a cute flirtation with Henry, who is manager to an actor, Conner, who plays “Young James Bond; YJB”. It’s like a rollercoaster, I’m not kidding. An addictive rollercoaster, which probably isn’t the best way to describe a novel about rehab, right? But it is. I didn’t want to put it down! I didn’t want to go to sleep! I just wanted to read, read, read and I wanted to see how Kate would extricate herself, whether Kate would get the scoop, how she and Henry would get on, whether Kate would realise this was more than a chance to write an article on TGND.

It’s a fast-paced, frantic, addictive read. I’m not kidding, you get so caught up in Kate’s life that it’s sooooo easy to forget she’s a fictional character. She speaks to you and you want her to realise her own issues and you want her to learn something from her experience, but mostly, I just wanted her to be my friend and take me out. All of the characters are awesome (but mostly Henry, sigh) although I wasn’t a massive Greer fan (she kind of irritated me). I just loved Spin from start to finish. It’s the kind of novel that can suck you in so, so well that you’ll finish it all in one sitting. I read 70% of it to finish it up all in one go because it’s just so good and just so readable. It blew me away, utterly and truly and I knew from the first sentence it was a book I was going to love. I can’t wait to get my hands on Catherine’s second novel “Arranged” and I recommend you go and pick Spin up. What are you waiting for? It’s ridonkulously good and it’s become a firm favourite of mine.