The Two Lives of Lydia Bird - Book Review
Genre: Fiction | Contemporary fiction | Romance
Author: Josie Silver
Year: 2020
Pages: 432
I was enamoured with Silver’s debut novel One Day in December, so I was excited to get my hands on her latest work.
Lydia and Freddie are childhood sweethearts – they’ve spent nearly a decade with one another. With their wedding fast approaching, they’ll soon get their happily ever after. But on Lydia’s twenty-seventh birthday, Freddie dies. Now Lydia is all alone, caught between exhaustion, anger and despair. So, when she’s suddenly given the opportunity to see Freddie again, to live as if he never died, she takes it. Soon, she finds herself caught between two very different worlds. But which will she choose?
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is such a lovely book and a delight to read. I actually expected something more along the lines of Forever, Interrupted but this book is so charming and witty. Silver is certainly a skilled writer and Lydia is a relatable protagonist, struggling with the loss of her well-rounded life. Coupled with heart-wrenching and tender moments, this novel certainly won me over.
“Billions of humans, all of us scurrying around the planet, falling in and out of love with each other for no reason explicable by logic or numbers or common sense. How unaccountably strange we are.”
The only thing I didn’t like about this book was Freddie; I couldn’t warm to his character at all. It might have just been me, but I found myself reading for Lydia rather than her relationship with Freddie. I didn’t fully enjoy this as much as the popular bestseller One Day In December but The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is still a charming read.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★