REVIEW: ‘Sunset’ by Jessie Cave (queitly devastating, a generational yell)
Ahh, millennial fiction. Sophie and I have a tumultuous relationship with this genre of books (don’t believe me when I say it’s a genre? Check out Sophie’s post here) but I still wanted to believe that someone out there would be a better voice for my generation than I had found so far. Anything had to be better than ‘No One Is Talking About This’.
Thank goodness for Jessie Cave. I have been a fan of Jessie, following her art on Instagram for years. Her book though! Hello. ‘Sunset’ quietly devastates in its descriptions of the mundane and everyday motions, while also describing with great accuracy what it means to be a lost millennial.
Oh, boo hoo, us millennials crying about our lot again. But while I am happy to concede to the next gen (where are my gen Z peeps at?) millennial pain is a hill I will die upon. I kind of have to, because we were severely short changed and now have to live with that.
I don’t know if the author would describe the book as a piece of millennial fiction, and that’s fine, because the way I resonated with it in delightful and hugely uncomfortable ways has helped me make some sense of the grief and emblazoned apathy of being born into this generation.
What is ‘Sunset’ about? Here’s the summary:
One summer can change everything . . .
Ruth and Hannah are sisters. Bonded by love and friendship, they are perplexingly different characters.
Hannah is radiant, organised and hard working. Ruth is forever single and totally aimless. Together they are invincible.
Every summer they go on a budget holiday together where they bicker, laugh, fight and make up.
But this time is different. Something bad happens.
And now everything is changed forever.
The writing was so accessible, and yet the emotion felt so acutely personal that I almost felt like I was a voyeur, looking upon something that I had no right to. The way grief can chew us up and spit us out, in often very insidious ways.
Ruth was an interesting character. As a narrator, she had very little filter in what she shared with the reader, and I really appreciated the hard honesty, even if it was too close for comfort sometimes. There was nothing “special” about Ruth, but she was still an incredibly special character. She’s very much someone who you could be living next door to, or work with, or meet on the bus, but that very real and human quality is what drew me to her. On more than one occasion I felt like the author was saying “hey, dis u?” and the answer was “yes, yes it is”.
I loved the cyclical element to this book. It all comes back around to finish where you start, and without giving any spoilers away, I adored the uncertainty of the ending. I have my own thoughts and theories about it, but I won’t go into it. If you’ve read the book please hit me up on Instagram, or leave a comment below!
‘Sunset’ by Jessie Cave is a stunning debut. I really enjoyed it. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.
Written by Sarah
