The Nearly Girl

Fiction. Women's Studies. Fans of A Prayer for Owen Meany and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest will love this clever, fast-paced and enjoyable thriller. Like a modern-day Joan of Arc, Amelia Fisher attempts to carve out a "normal life", showing us how mythic the idea of "normal" really is. With a poetic genius for a father, an obsessed body builder for a mother, and an enchantingly eccentric group seeking the help of an unorthodox therapist, what could possibly go wrong? A chance discovery propels Amelia and fellow therapy attendee, Mike, with whom she is in love, into a life-threatening situation instigated by the crazed doctor's own dark secret but Amelia's psychosis saves the day. Told with warmth, humor and populated with vividly original characters, this sprint-paced novel has it all, from restraining orders to sex in office bathrooms, and a nail-biting ending. A novel about an unusual family, expected social norms and the twists and turns of getting it all slightly wrong, the consequences of which prove fatal for some.