Adults

Emma Jane Unsworth’s Adults follows Jenny, a thirty-five year old woman in Manchester who is failing at most of her life with very modern thoroughness. Her relationship is over. Her career is wobbling. Her social media is curated to the point of dishonesty. Her best friend has stopped speaking to her for reasons Jenny can’t quite admit.

Unsworth writes interior monologue with a sharp, comic voice. The book is funny in a way that doesn’t dilute the underlying pain.

The friendship at the center is the real story. Romantic relationships come and go in Adults but the female friendship is the one that matters and the one whose loss Jenny can’t process.

For readers who liked Otessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation or Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation, this is in adjacent territory. Funnier than either. Worth reading for the voice alone.