Not great literature, but quite an interesting idea and I keep thinking about it a week or so after finishing.
It took a while to get going, but once the election campaign was launched I was hooked to see how they'd get on and then finished the book in two nights (regretting it at seven in the morning when I had to get up).
I'm surprised to hear about people sobbing 'on one occasion'. I think I was crying pretty much for the last quarter.
There seems to be a fashion at the moment to set a story in a place and pop in lots of local references for local people to get as an in-joke and I don't like it. How about describing the place so well that people who've never been there feel like they know it intimately?
I was also annoyed by the way the characters spoke. All three had pretty much the same voice and all the supposedly witty sarcasm left me cold. And trying to convey a Northern accent just by leaving out all the 'the's I find very clumsy.
Someone else pointed out the Jackie/Anna substitution and I also noticed a typo (been/seen) at one point, and near the end one scene started as morning and five minutes later was evening. Does nobody proof-read any more?
I think this would make a great BBC drama, with a good screen-writer to re-write the dialogue. The story itself is involving and moving.
You'll like it if you like easy-to-read mummy variety chick-lit.
Thanks MN for making me read something I wouldn't normally. The scenes in the hospice will stay with me for a long time.
Best line: "Mummy's trendy and she owns Justin Bieber."