IT SOUNDED BETTER IN MY HEAD BY NINA KENWOOD

It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood is the winner of the 2018 Text Prize and is her debut novel. It is a gentle and very funny story about love and coping with being a teenager with a highly developed sense of self depreciation. Natalie lives with her parents and Christmas Day this year comes with something extra. Her parents tell her they are divorcing and have known this very important piece of information for over ten months without telling her. Natalie’s dream of a lovely long summer with her best friends Lucy and Zach is quickly slipping through her fingers. They are all waiting to hear if they got into the universities of their choice, but this is coloured by the fact that Lucy and Zach have hooked up and although Natalie is still a huge part of their lives, she feels on the outer edge of the group. Her parents’ break-up and the rapid move to start dating on her mother’s part, leave Natalie with a feeling that nothing will ever be the same again.

Natalie’s internal dialogue with herself and others is wonderful. As the story develops we get an insight into how hard her life was during her recent school years. Her self-esteem is lower than even the most introverted and confidence lacking average teen. She finds herself attracted to Zach’s elder brother, Alex, and from that point on she has to endure all kinds of social situations. She has spent years avoiding things like parties and therefore has absolutely no knowledge about how these things work. It doesn’t matter that she no longer is covered in pimples and the terror of people seeing her in a swimming costume can still throw her into a tail spin faster than toddlers eating red frogs. Her defence mechanisms are putting up a sterling effort at sabotaging both her love life and social life. Natalie must try and negotiate her way through all of this without actually losing the one person she cares about, Alex.

Nina Kenwood captures the angst and self-destructive talk that creates the multiple contradictions within ourselves. A quality so universal that everyone will find something in this book they can relate to. The language used is both hilarious and sensitive and all the characters are portrayed with a depth that flows beautifully amongst Natalie’s inner conversations. I highly recommend this light hearted and eloquent novel.

For Ages: 14+ years

Number of Pages: 292 paperback.

Published: August 2019

Themes: Love, family and self esteem.

Rating: 4/5