Ooh @Tarragon123 that retreat sounds very interesting, and great to have a positive review as you never know whether these things are worth it.
69 Missing Fay, Adam Thorpe
Thorpe is a British poet and author whose first novel, Ulverton, was one of the It Books of the 90s. This one, set in 2012 and published in 2017, is told through several chapters each from the close POV of a different and loosely connected characters. The thread connecting them is the disappearance of a teenage girl (Fay) from Lincoln, and the characters' chapters are interspersed with short chapters in Fay's voice. She's a spiky little thing with a not-entirely-convincing working class voice: her stepdad is a petty criminal, her mum frequently in bed with depression. Fay's closest friend is her mongrel dog, who she is (unsuccessfully) trying to train, with a dream of winning a TV talent show.
The characters' main preoccupations are sex. class and immigration (the book is set before the Brexit referendum but, with a publication date of 2017, was presumably being written against a Brexit backdrop - it certainly has the feel of a Brexit novel). There are sections that feel like waffly filler as a narrator rambles through their thoughts, but later link to other parts of the story - you have to pay attention. I suspect that a proper, attentive re-read would allow the reader to piece together part of Fay's story that aren't spelled out.
70 There's No Coming Back From This, Ann Garvin (RWYO)
After our recent discussions of less-than-highbrow books, I picked this one off my Kindle as I'd left the hardback of Missing Fay at home while I was away, and with only a couple of chapters to go, I didn't want to pick up anything too heavy as a distraction before I got to finish it.
So I chose this, and ended up thoroughly enjoying it.
It's the sweet story of Poppy, a Midwestern single mother who ends up taking a job as a wardrobe assistant on a Hollywood film production. Initially too nice and way too naive for the ambitious, duplicitous world of showbiz, where you can be fired overnight and where the big names rule (and the little people are anonymous), she's faced with the choice to join the backstabbing or stay true to herself, even if it places her in the firing line.
The joy of this book for me was the wealth of detail of how a film production wardrobe department is run (presumably accurate, but if not, then well imagined). There's a lovely cosiness in the idea of a trailer full of beautiful clothes and shoes, a trusty fanny pack of double-sided tape, nipple covers and safety pins, and the job of delivering outfits to the handsome leading man and helping him to button his shirts every morning. Pure escapism and good fun.