Say What You Think

Selena’s life is changing: she is afraid of this loss of continuity and unsure of her future. Since she has just begun her final year at school she must decide which universities to apply for and which course to choose. To her closest friends Kira and Faye and her English teacher Ms Harkness the choice is obvious: Selena’s enormous talent for English and her ‘Selena Says’ bulletins on the idiosyncrasies of school life mark her out for a career in journalism, but Selena simply can’t decide.

A further source of distress is the fact that her neighbours of 17 years are moving to Manchester, splitting up the lifelong friendship between her and Ollie. The beginning of the book presents their friendship with great tenderness, but their shared familiarity is salted with Serena’s realisation that she has grown to love Ollie and dare not tell him in case he doesn’t feel the same.

The backdrop to this fraught mix is Rose Conrad, a singer who is universally adored, not least by Selena and her close friends. Each chapter begins with a snippet of lyrics from one of Conrad’s songs, which suggest tangentially what the content of the chapter might be. The desperate attempts to get tickets for her latest show occupies Selena obsessively and her first inkling that Ollie is drifting away from her in his new life is when he fails to come to her aid.

The new neighbour’s eldest son, Ty, proves to be devastatingly handsome but also unbearably and persistently acerbic and Selena further mourns the loss of her friend. However, the narrative arc acts like a pair of scales and, gradually, as she gets to know Ty better and meetings with Ollie emphasise how their friendship has a lower profile in his life the balance shifts inexorably towards her new neighbour. This slow shift in perspective is skilfully handled and dialogue is authentic, clever and insightful.

Similarly, the relationship with her friends Kira and Faye is handled flawlessly, through all the troughs and peaks which assail them throughout this last year together in school. The stresses which assault their friendship cause a temporary rift but this is followed by a deeper understanding of each other’s needs and an awareness that change is inevitable but not destructive.

Say What You Think is the perfect maxim for the journeys which each of the main characters embark upon and the exploration of emotional intelligence throughout the book creates a meaningful and entirely believable backdrop for the crises and joys which are an inescapable part of stepping into full adulthood.