Mo Fanning - British writer and comic

Rebuilding Alexandra Small

Difficult to put down …

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Rebuilding Alexandra Small

This is a review for Rebuilding Alexandra Small from Ceri’s Lil Blog, as part of my book launch blog tour.

I was drawn to this book as I was intrigued by the emoji style cover and the title. I wondered how each fitted into the plot, and how Alexandra Small goes about rebuilding her life as this was something I had to do, to a certain extent, a couple of years ago.

My thoughts:

I do love a revenge story, so I was taken in by the blurb. However this revenge story focuses almost solely on the experiences and difficulties faced by the victim, and this definitely helped me build a connection with the character of Alexandra, or “Allie” as she is known to her friends.

I definitely identified with Alexandra and in some ways I admired her as well. She is brave and hopeful following the upheaval in her life, and she is extremely strong when it comes to facing her demons and remaining on the right path.

However, I am aware that that description makes it sound like a far more serious book than it is. It does cover some sensitive subjects including suicide, alcoholism and infertility, but I think it is definitely accurate to describe it as laugh out loud and humorous at times too, as well as being dramatic and serious.

I really enjoyed this book and found it difficult to put down. I think Alexandra is a character that will stay with me for quite some time. I enjoyed following her journey and meeting the wonderful support network she finds around her. I would recommend this book to fans of Jessica Redland, Lucy Diamond and Milly Johnson.

Buy my latest book here

Think of the neighbours

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Neighbours

It’s time for the Fannings to leave Brighton and float up the country. Hopefully coming to land somewhere in the middle – far, far from neighbours.

Like Alexandra Small in my upcoming book, we’re moving from the home we’ve never really loved enough to want to make it forever. While Allie’s hand is somewhat forced after losing her job and her husband all in the space of a few hours, the need for quiet guides our hunt. I’m dread invites to ‘supper’ from former public schoolboys wearing red jeans. I end up sat next to a skinny branding consultant called Justin. We’ll chat about hot yoga, Tom Hiddleston, the hazards of buy-to-let, and the novels of Elena Ferrante. There’s always some woman crying about an imaginary problem she won’t remember in the morning. We don’t fit in.

I’ve had neighbours most everywhere I lived. In Amsterdam, we were crammed in tight, under a hockey teacher who made vigorous love each Sunday afternoon at 3pm to her otherwise placid looking companion, and next door to a man who wore very little in the house, but surely should have. We overlooked one of the five most fascinating places … to pass out wasted. Smoking strong Dutch weed is perfect if you need psychological help, but have made a conscious decision not to get any.

Cigarette stealing spaniels

Years ago, in Manchester I lived next to lesbians whose King Charles Spaniels made it their mission to steal my Marlboro Lights – I was drinking a lot back then, and found it charming.

Our temporary bolthole is my late mother’s house. Or ‘the money pit’ as I like to call it, with a leaking roof, dodgy heating systems, rising, falling and ingress damp and taps that refuse to switch off. Or on again. New neighbours have made matters worse. They have five cars between the two of them and an addiction to solar lighting. I swear the lady of the house is on a mission to create the summer version of those Christmas houses that were all the rage a few years back.

Anti-vaxxer neighbours

And they’re anti-vaxxers. It’s tempting to pass comment as they stage yet another family barbecue on people who’ll eat sausage but decline a vaccine … because they don’t know what’s in it.

Mr Fanning has used the lockdown well. He’s learned how to plaster a wall, plumb in a sink, move electrical sockets and lay paving slabs. I’ve reorganised my spice collection and reupholstered a chair. Badly. And lost most of a fingernail. Something they seldom mention in those smug YouTube videos.

There’s one month to go before we put the place on the market. By a curious twist of fate, that’s when ‘Rebuilding Alexandra Small’ hits the shops for real. I’m expecting to have the audio book on sale around about the same time, so that’s three ways to show you love me more than any of those dreadful neighbours.

Rebuilding Alexandra Small by Mo Fanning

Everybody loves an unreliable narrator … don’t they?

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Rebuilding Alexandra Small

I’ve owned an unreliable washing machine, an unreliable car, and worst of all roller-coaster results from a not entirely trustworthy recipe for spaghetti carbonara. And yet I persist. It’s the same with an unreliable narrator. Make the people who live on your pages too predictably perfect, and nobody cares.

I just picked up my first advance review for ‘Rebuilding Alexandra Small‘. One thing the reader zoomed in on is the fact that Alexandra Fox is far from perfect.

“At times I felt sorry for Allie and at other times I blamed her. Allie is not perfect, hasn’t always made great decisions, and sometimes lashes out. She’s like one version of ourselves, the version we are always trying to hide. Yet even then, I envy her. Allie doesn’t suppress herself. She reacts. She says what she shouldn’t and acts on impulse… but not all the time. She is trying to pick up her pieces and move on with her life, except she’s been thrust into a state of limbo. Mo Fanning has cleverly crafted this complex environment for Allie and I was enthralled watching the ups and downs of her everyday life within this environment. I was forever guessing what she would do or say next. I couldn’t put the book down.”

Who invented the unreliable narrator?

An unreliable storyteller is a narrator whose credibility is compromised. Wayne C. Booth first coined the phrase in 1961 in The Rhetoric of Fiction. Sometimes unreliability is made immediately clear. Also, it’s better if a reader finds out about selective memory once they get to know them – just like in real life. Who hasn’t made a friend with hidden depths?

When writing Allie, I wanted to create someone readers engage with on a deeper level. First person narratives put the reader in the storyteller’s mind, and transmit their exclusive take on the world … but everyone has their less shining moments, and having Allie confront her past is my way of framing an up-down-up recovery. I didn’t want her unreliability to jump out of the first page, rather it should reveal itself in unexpected ways.

Quoting the rather lovely Rachel Barnard once more:

“Allie wasn’t always nice to others growing up, so perhaps the way people see her and treat her now might be some kind of karma, but she doesn’t deserve it.”

 

Rebuilding Alexandra Small by Mo FanningRebuilding Alexandra Small is available this month to request on NetGalley.

It’s also on sale for advance orders as both an eBook and Paperback at all good booksellers.

 

Brighton – Six fun facts

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Brighton

I’ve spent eight years in Brighton – and it’s the setting for my upcoming book ‘Rebuilding Alexandra Small‘. Brighton, though, is more than just a seaside town.

When Swedish supergroup ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Waterloo‘, it took place in Brighton – at the Dome – and a few years back, the BBC went back to Brighton to pick the 2018 UK Eurovision Song – sadly Surie is better known for a stage invasion than winning the event.

Home to the UK’s newest national park

Locals might know Brighton and Hove as London by Sea, but the city stands on the edge of a huge national park. From my front door on the edge of town, it’s just ten minutes walk to the South Downs – officially the UK’s newest national park.

From something new to something very old. The oldest cinema in town is the Duke of York’s – also said to be the oldest working cinema in Britain. You get to sit in big wide chairs and watch a mix of big hit and festival films – and when Eurovision comes around, watch the show live and cheer along (obviously not right now, because Covid).

All around town, Blue Plaques tell you about all the famous people who once lived in the town. I share my street with Nick Cave and at one point, Cate Blanchett was once a neighbour. Other faces spotted around town include Fat Boy Slim, Zoe Ball (doing a complex three-point turn in my street), Adele and even Sir Paul McCartney!

Brighton Pier

Brighton's West PierIf you’ve ever thought how much fun it might be to live in a Grade 1 listed building, I’m here to say it isn’t. If you want to change things, you’re up against many rules and committees. But one listed building designed for fun is the West Pier. These days, it’s little more than a ragged structure after fire destroyed the fun. Each year, high winds and storms take a little more away. At this time of year, starlings gather in a murmuration. The best way to show you this is with a picture.

The city is said to have once had many tunnels running under the streets – most now lost. One remains between the Royal Pavilion and the Dome. There’s another one leading from the gardens on Sussex Square to the sea front – believed to be the inspiration for Lewis Carroll when writing Alice in Wonderland.

Want to know more about Brighton? My next book ‘Rebuilding Alexandra Small‘ set in this beautiful city comes out in June. If you’d like to read early chapters and enter the draw for free signed copies, please join my mailing list.

 

Alcohol and me: An uneasy mix

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Alcohol and me by Mo Fanning

Ten years ago, I woke in a fog, knowing that what happened the evening before was bad. I’d stumbled and cracked a rib. Broken glass littered the kitchen floor. At some point, the police came. None of this stopped me drinking again that night.

It took another year of making a total arse of myself before I grew tired of drink. I’ve enjoyed a few pints since, but the urge to lose myself at the bottom of a bottle has gone.

Do I miss being able to drink? Yes. To some extent. I miss having an easy way to turn off my brain. Some nights, I lie awake for hours, going over the tiniest detail of some conversation that (to others) likely meant little. I replay each exchange and try to understand why I failed to be a better version of me.

Hangovers

Do I miss the hangovers? Yes. I loved to eat junk food and guzzle Orange Fanta without remorse.

Do I miss opening my eyes and trying to remember what happened before I tuned out? No. I really don’t.

I became one of those drunks who lost track after one too many. I’d still talk and walk, but wake the next day with no memory of what I’d said or done. Writing about such madness now, it sounds a million years ago.

It’s tough not drinking in a society where alcohol rules. Especially during lockdown. Every Friday Zoom meeting ends with someone saying how much they can’t wait to pour a gin and switch off. I no longer allow myself that luxury. I can’t pour myself one of anything, and so make do with none.

As I wrote Rebuilding Alexandra Small, I looked back over my career as a problem drinker and tried to work out what I wanted to say about why. The answer seemed easy. A perfect life. And thanks to the fog of alcohol, I felt sure I had one. It’s only now I’m sober that I find otherwise.

Help with alcohol

If you think you have a serious drinking problem and are experiencing any of the associated symptoms of alcohol dependence, you should consult your doctor or another medical professional about it as soon as possible.

There are also a number of national alcohol support services that you can go to for advice.