Josie's text review on The Girl's Guide...
By Josie Bygraves / Spinebreakers Crew
Melissa Bank’s first novel, The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing, tells the story of Jane, who doesn’t have much luck with the opposite sex, through her relationships with men. After a handful of failed ones, Jane turns to an old-fashioned self-help book, which shares the many vows of ’hunting’ and ’fishing’ for men.
On the whole, I enjoyed the story as it was a light-hearted read, which also touched on lots of different emotions. Bank characterises beautifully and writes about people we all recognise, whether they are our mother, brother, or, in my case, father. The book changes narrator in some chapters, which can be a little confusing at first, but I felt added to the unpredictable nature of the story.
In the last chapter, Jane turns to How to Meet and Marry Mr Right and begins to hallucinate, seeing and interacting with the authors. I found this chapter strange and didn’t know whether the protagonist was truly losing her mind, or just having harmless daydreams.
The book doesn’t fail to please with it’s sweet yet believable happy ending and holds the moral everyone’s mum loves, “just be yourself”.