In her debut short story collection, British writer Marni Appleton displays promise and a keen mind. The 11 stories in I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY grapple with the experiences and perceptions of her female main characters who each navigate their own reality like ‘possibilities unspooling like a ribbon of tape from a cassette’.
Appleton’s women act as windows into the mysterious ways in which they feel and think. Each story has its own premise and main character and is either in first or third-person.
In ‘Under the Circumstances’, Appleton uses a first-person plural perspective, favouring ‘we’ over ‘I’ and ‘our’ over ‘mine’. The protagonist is entwined within her collective of girlfriends; they share thoughts and even dreams. Initially, this results in a lack of connection with the characters due to a blur of new names.
However, this narrative device is used as an example to portray conformity in young female friend groups and to highlight the social wrath of exclusion.
The author continues to explore the messy, non-linear lives of women throughout chapters like ‘Intimacy’ and ‘Shut Your Mouth’, both of which foster wacky, out-of-the-box ideas through unseen societies and realities.
Appleton’s book showcases the battleground of girlhood in its bittersweet deep dives: a daily flurry of bullets from social media that fuels obsession and alienation. A standout story is ‘Margot’, a gripping chapter that explores the murky depths of competitive female friendships. The tale showcases Appleton’s knack for dancing with memory and time.
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I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY also unravels the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship, career endeavours and women’s sex lives. These short stories are a must-read for fans of unpredictable, politically-attuned fiction about what it means to be a woman in a modern world.
This book would satiate any millennial or Gen-Z readers who enjoy delving into female perspectives and stories.
I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY, Marni Appleton
Publisher: NewSouth
ISBN: 9781911648871
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288 pages
Release Date: 1 April 2025
RRP: $32.99
