Animals
Written by Emma Jane Unsworth
Narrated by Chloe Massey
4/5
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About this audiobook
Emma Jane Unsworth
Emma Jane Unsworth is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter. Her first novel, Animals, now a major motion picture, for which Unsworth wrote the screenplay. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2019. She also writes for television and various magazines. Her latest novel, Adults, has been heralded 'hilarious' (Dolly Alderton), 'tender' (Jessie Burton) and 'dazzling' (Marian Keyes) and is a Sunday Times bestseller.
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Reviews for Animals
72 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Animals tells the story of Laura, an aspiring author whose ambitions are somewhat curtailed by her hard-partying lifestyle courtesy of flatmate and best friend Tyler. Both women are in their late 20s/early 30s and take full advantage of the drugs and drink on offer in Manchester in 2012. Laura is also engaged to a newly sober pianist who frowns on the excesses that he once partook in, and her father is being treated for late-stage cancer.I loved so many things about this novel that I'm not sure where to begin. Laura herself is a wonderful character - deeply flawed but likeable, as you can see she has good intentions (sometimes) but is too tempted by various vices to follow through on many of them. I loved the interplay between Laura and Tyler as they get wrecked in various venues around Manchester - and I LOVED the way that Manchester itself is written throughout the novel.The novel is definitely laugh-out-loud funny, but only if you're not easily offended/disgusted and are happy to stick with characters who might seem unlikeable/unpalatable at first. Luckily I was prepared thanks to the 'like Withnail...' quote on the front cover, and even more luckily I'm a huge fan of Withnail and I, so I would say that the quote rings true in the very best way! The writing itself is excellent - Unsworth has a wonderful way of aptly describing something/someone in a few choice words instead of indulging in long paragraphs of detail. I zipped through Animals in a couple of days not just because the novel is fairly short, but also due to its very readable style.I'm definitely going to get hold of Adults by the same author soon, and also watch the film adaptation of Animals (although it's a bit disappointing that it's set in Dublin rather than Manchester!).
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brilliantly funny in parts, a fever dream of female friendships and experiences and - at times - unexpectedly heartwarming.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emma Jane Unsworth's Animals is a tale of drink and drug fuelled hedonism in Manchester that takes in love, death, happiness and fucking up, and spits out a frank portrayal of female friendship.It's a rare beast in its portrayal of female friendship as anything but cosy. The two main characters, Laura and Tyler, are extreme but truthful renditions of women in their thirties who hide from the pressure to grow up and take responsibility for their lives in endless days and nights of excess.In Laura, Unsworth gives us a bright, working class woman, educated into the world of middle class privilege, and constantly at sea as a result.It's an entertaining novel that deals with the serious things in life and explores how to be true to yourself when society, friends and family expect you to be something more conventional - a wife, a mother, sober, reliable - and your alleged best friend is using you as a prop.