Promising Young Women (not to be confused with the film Promising Young Woman) was a mixed read for me. It has elements of multiple genres but in the end it didn’t really seem to gel into a story that flowed well for me. It’s a story about the workplace and unhealthy relationships, with some gothic and thriller threads added in. Some of these weren’t fully realised for me, which left me unsatisfied at the end. I did consider DNF-ing this book multiple times.

At the start of the novel, Jane is a typical, if unspectacular, young woman working in an advertising agency in London. She’s not really noticed by management, while her friend has just got a promotion and is feeling pretty pleased with herself. Jane has also just come out of a long-term relationship and is a little messed up at being newly single, needing a place to live etc. Jane does have one secret though – she runs an agony aunt blog anonymously. It’s not overly popular but she has a group of loyal followers. Jane then catches the eye of Clem, a senior colleague and suddenly gets a promotion and is invited on ad campaigns. She is doing well professionally, but one drunken night with Clem turns into a clandestine relationship. (Because of course he’s married). That’s when the plot changes from workplace relationship fiction into something weirder. Jane starts to lose weight, not eat and develop a rash. She spends time with Clem that she can’t recall, she blogs while out of it and she’s being stalked online. She’s a mess. It’s not clear from the narrative whether Clem is drugging her, whether Jane has become (or always was) an unreliable narrator or whether there is some strange vampire-ish element to Clem that requires him to feed off the energies of young women. (I reject that last one because a vampire just can’t be called Clem in my book).

The novel ends up with Jane coming to her senses and breaking it off with Clem after meeting up with her stalker and his wife (who is creepier than Clem). Unfortunately, in this power imbalance where toxic masculinity presides, Jane comes off worse and is the one seeking a new beginning while Clem continues on his way. His manipulation of Jane starts off subtly, before becoming full-fledged at work and in her personal life. That’s when the plot turned from toxic relationship to thriller. I felt there was too much packed into here, from Jane’s blog expose to her stalker and confrontation with Clem’s wife. Not to mention the finale when Jane sees that Clem is the serial young women predator type and that she was in no way special.

O’Donoghue writes well and gets readers into Jane’s head. Unfortunately the multiple genres took the plot from believable to just silly for me, which lessened the impact of the toxic relationship. It’s much darker than portrayed by the bright yellow cover and blurb.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com ( )

Jane Peters is a 16-year-old women working in marketing. She mainly does secretarial tasks, nothing too demanding and far from the fancy marketing stuff she had expected. It is her private website where she provides advice as agony aunt “Jolly Politely” that keeps her mood up since she spilt with her boyfriend. When she attracts the attention of her boss Clem, an unexpected chance opens up and she can win a new and important customer for her company. Yet, Clem is not only interested in her professionally and thus an uncontrollable spiral of dependence is set in motion.

Caroline O’Donoghue’s debut novel promised a new side of the old man-woman, power-dependence topic with a witty and strong minded female protagonist who is capable of breaking through old walls and securing herself a place in a man’s world. However, this isn’t what I found in the novel and admittedly I am a bit disappointed.

First if all, the characters are full of clichés and quite foreseeable. Jane as well as her colleagues are rather naive and slightly stupid when it comes to relationships and interpersonal dynamics. Why don’t they see the obvious thing in front of them and why are they eagerly abused? That you are not full of self-confidence when you are young and new in the job and quickly impressed by male conduct is understandable, but running into the trap in front of you isn’t necessary either. Likewise, the male characters are also rather one-dimensional and predictable in their behaviour.

Thus, the whole story becomes a bit stereotypical and lacks individuality and originality. What I could expect from a really important and ground-breaking novel would also be a completely different ending, this was a quite disappointing, the message cannot actually be to look out for a more female adequate job where you don’t meet those bullying men.

The style of writing, however, is something I really liked, it is funny and often amusing and full of puns. Caroline O'Donoghue is witty and creative and the light-heartedness with which Jane comments on the postings on her website are not just funny but also very clever and true. Sadly, she herself does not act accordingly. All in all, there was more in the story from a feminist point of view, as it is, it is somehow nice, but without the impact it might have had. ( )