The Cows by Dawn O'Porter

To be entirely honest there are things about this book that I really dislike intently.  However, they are not things that the author has written or dreamt up they are the realities of the world around us.  Mainly the monster that is Social Media and the way it shapes our daily interactions without us really realising it, the way it isolates and vilifies, the encouragement it gives bullies by virtue of the anonymity of it all.  The other thing I cannot abide is Feminism and, ultimately, much of the book is a treatise on feminism - so divisive, we are all human and it doesn't matter if we have an inny or an outty we are all deserving of the same basic levels of respect and care as each other.  The feminism displayed in this book is of the oft-peddled 1960's and 1970's kind that appears to speak to women being somehow superior and it drives me batty.

So why the 4-Stars?

Quite simply I really enjoyed the book. 

I don't get the laugh out loud humour touted in the blurb though; I struggled to raise a wry smile most of the time.  What I did like was the individual voices of the three main characters and their struggles were well told and felt eminently believable for a modern world; even if I did not entirely agree with their actions many times.  It is very much a cautionary tale though, or that could be my inherent cynicism poking through.

The plot is secondary to character development and this works very well here.  In fact, you can almost feel the script for a 3 part Saturday Night Drama or a butchered 90 minute chick flick.  The characters are disparate and somehow the author has given each an individual voice - something that is to be applauded as often the author takes over and it is their voice that colours everything.

Cam is a darling of Social Media, in at the start she makes her living from blogging and does so very well.  She is the link to the other characters as they both visit her blog and through it interact with her.  To be honest her blog is something I would avoid, I have to agree with Stella that it is all a little bit "look how happy I am.  Look how perfect my life is"; in other words all a little bit fake with something controversial thrown in to boost the ratings.  Stella has simply never recovered from the loss of her mother and her twin sister and is in a downward spiral of grief and anguish that leads her to behave in quite unexpected ways (the rationalisation for her actions is actually well thought through and her descent to an emotional hell is well plotted and described).  Tara is in the wrong place, at the wrong time and doing the wrong thing and this throws her life, and the lives of her family, in to complete disorder as she is tried in the Court Of Public Opinion and found Guilty (admittedly what she did is rather unbelievable but it could have been so much worse).

It was a surprisingly intelligent book about modern society and the assumptions we make about others but hate them making about us.  I was expecting this to be far more trite and formulaic and was quite pleasantly surprised - so much so I may even be eagerly awaiting a new novel from Ms O'Porter.