Things You've Inherited From Your Mother
978-1-927063-83-5 | 186 Pages May, 2015 Accolades!, Ebook, Fiction, Humour, Nunatak First Fiction Series, Women's LiteratureAlso available as an ebook from
About this book
- Shortlisted for the Cover Design Award at the 2016 Alberta Book Publishing Awards!
Everyone deals with grief in their own personal way. Take Carrie, for example. To get over her mother’s death from ovarian cancer, she launches a passive-aggressive war with her fellow office workers, embarks on a campaign designed to let her ex-husband know she’s over him (which naturally only pushes her teenage daughter farther away), and plots to rid herself of her mother’s overweight cat, all the while consuming heroic quantities of red wine, spiked coffee, and coffin nails. Nobody’s perfect.
Situated at the midpoint between booze-soaked mayhem and middle-aged ennui, Things You’ve Inherited From Your Mother is a riotous assemblage of found objects, Choose Your Own Adventure-style in-jokes and useful facts about mice. In her startlingly funny first novel, Hollie Adams takes the conventional wisdom about “likeable” literary heroines and shoves it down an elevator shaft.
Reviews
“Things You’ve Inherited From Your Mother rocks— like a small boat on an ocean of discontent. Hollie Adams’ debut is inventive, authentic, energetic and so funny I nearly peed myself.”
"Hollie Adams has boldly tossed most first-novel conventions out the window." full review
"This is an impressive debut from a talented Alberta writer." full review
"Accessible, energetic and humorous!"
"This is a quick read and it is pure comedy gold if you have a fondness for bumbling heroines bent on self-sabotage." full review
"Adams possesses a comedic gift, [a] memorable debut." full review
"This book was absolutely hilarious!" full review
"At its best, Things You've Inherited From Your Mother realizes the inability of some people - we all know one or two - to be authentic, with the genuine humanity behind their smarminess only peeking through in times of disaster."
"A very different story and it will chuckle you to the possibility of a redemption - or maybe just a recovery." full review
"I couldn't help laughing out loud." full review
"The prose remains buoyant even when the narrator is sinking. And the novel’s structure is tightly knit, so that the final words leave readers with an understanding that the simple fact that readers are holding this story in their hands demonstrates that Carrie’s means of coping with her grief were effective after all." full review
"Hollie Adams has a dark and wicked sense of humor. Luckily, I do too – so I giggled, chortled, snorted, and laughed aloud as I read her first published missive." full review
"Adams' humor is sharp and witty and keeps the story rolling through the landmines of life." full review
"Things You’ve Inherited From Your Mother is the perfect choice for escaping stressful situations."