Oh Dear Silvia: The gloriously heartwarming novel from the No. 1 bestselling author of Because of You

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for me, a very mixed bag and whilst there are a fair few characters, each chapter is titled with their name so it is very easy to follow. I was expecting something like an in-depth analysis of Sylvia Schute from a variety of angles, but for the most part the novel is far more concerned with everybody else. So, I approached her new novel with a little trepidation, unsure as to whether she deserved a second chance. It's a story about loss, and saying goodbye, but it's also a story about finding the truth and finding love. The eponymous Silvia is lying in hospital in a coma after having fallen off her balcony, landing three floors below.

I’m betting there are some really comical as well as serious thoughts coming from each of these visitors.For every heartfelt or memorable moment, there is another monologue about trees, an oh-my-god-who-cares backstory, and let's not forget the damnable Jamaican lilt which seems to become more pronounced with every passing conversation. She might not win any awards but I am sure most of us will find a bit of ourselves in these pages and be able to smile when we recognize it. I did not, however, think that the book was 'side-splitting' or 'hilarious', which were terms used on the front cover to describe the book. It's just so hard to read, and you really don't need that much of it to understand that the character has a thick Jamaican accent.

But then we find out that the end of the marriage was precipitated because Silvia helped Cat dispose of her dead husband’s body, which happened three years ago, so Cassie can’t have been kicked out over four years ago.It didn’t bother me so much (even if I had to read a few things twice) but I can see why it has grated on a few people in their own reviews of this book as it’s something you tend to get told to avoid in creative writing. When Dawn French wrote her first novel [[A Tiny Bit Marvellous by Dawn French]] I was eager to read it, looking forward to plenty of silly humour and those elusive-when-reading out loud laughs. The book is a mix of humour, sadness, tough issues, abuse, possessiveness, relationships, violence, suicidal intentions. Most of these visitors are absolutely bloody nuts and should be in some kind of institute themselves.

I was disappointed unfortunately, and actually came away from the book feeling annoyed with the characters and quite discouraged and depressed somehow.

I really wanted to like this book and in fact I had mentioned it enough times that my boyfriend bought this for my 21st birthday (3 years ago, oh my goodness). The fact of the matter is that the lady in the coma has ostracised almost everyone, and all of their lives have well and truly moved on without her. The dialogue is comedic at times which I found to be a small reprieve from the slowness of this book.

I couldn't tell you what genre this book is because i found it dark, funny, moving it was so much more than i was expecting after reading some of the mixed reviews. The difficult thing with Winnie was that her perspective was written in heavy Jamaican dialect which made it very slow to read and understand fully. There is an awful lot of padding and repetition and little in the way of plot development considering the not inconsiderable size of the book. I actually liked Cassie's character and had immediate sympathy for her but my problem with her character was the timeline.Yes, there was a bit of dark humour, and I smiled at a couple of things (mainly concerned with Tia) but I think there was a bit of false advertising at work here. As is said near the climax, "she is the pivot for them all", all their lives are changed after her coma, with her doing and saying nothing except in flashback, her situation effects her family and those close to her. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. The only niggle I can identify is that one of the character’s sections is written in the style of their Jamaican accent (Winnie the nurse).