A very thought provoking book, parts of which brought back painful memories that I’d forgotten.
It shows we don’t change as we grow up and mature, we just, with luck, grow into ourselves.
I liked the realistic ending too - no Disney princesses here!

Tennis Lessons is an assured debut from poet Susannah Dickey. Tracing the life of a girl.from 14 to her mid 20s, it perfectly captures the pain and confusion if adolescence. As the narrator gets older, the book is kess effective and her lurch from one painful sexual encounter to another can be a bit wearing.
Overall though, this marks an interesting debut.

Tennis lessons by Susannah Dickey is dark with glimpses of something like hope. Told from a young girls perspective (are we ever told her name?), it’s constantly sad and a little bit desperate. She hangs about with a group of three “friends” where she’s obviously only tolerated because of her friendship with Rachael- yet the same Rachael allows the derision and humiliation to be perpetrated whilst remaining her only anchor and sounding board. It’s definitely the sort of book where you are left thinking about it afterwards but some of that is just wondering....did I miss something. It’s a niche book, insightful and also largely depressing.

I quite enjoyed this by the end so I'm glad I persevered but I'm afraid I didn't love it. I found the second person narration quite hard to read and it made it difficult for me to connect with the character (rather than feeling closer to her, which I imagine was the intention). My favourite thing was the friendship between the main character and Rachael - I liked seeing the development of this through from their time at school into adulthood. The humour and familiarity between them is relatable and really well-written. I also liked the hopefulness of the ending but it felt like a long time coming and also like it didn't really connect with the rest of the narrative - it was like the character had some kind of revelation about needing to change things yet this moment wasn't in the story itself so it felt a little disjointed and unexpected.

Tennis Lessons is a coming of age story. A young woman recounts short clips from her childhood through to her adult life. There are no filters on this, no rose tinted recollections or awkward parts removed, but the story is told in such an endearing style that you somehow need to be a witness to this. The main character is brutally honest about the most intimate parts of growing up. It is written in the second person, with an unnamed character, and I found this made the book more personal.

I loved her interactions with a lifelong friend. Whenever things got too serious, a silly comment, a shared joke, or just a simple play on words would lighten the mood. This felt very welcome, and made an otherwise quite awkward character much more relatable and real.

There are many areas explored that make the reader feel uncomfortable; bullying as a child, a funeral, periods, sexual encounters and drunken episodes. These are all so honest and raw that it is hard not to relate to them. Susannah Dickey writes about all of these with a sharp wit and careful approach. The most delicate of subjects with a sexual encounter is starkly void of any humour, taking a darker turn in an otherwise light hearted look at growing up. She does not dwell here, but gives enough to represent the truth of some young women’s experiences that are often not discussed amongst friends. This darker secret brings an undercurrent of sadness to the rest of the book whilst she takes a more rocky route on to adult life.

I wanted the unnamed main character, with an award and very normal childhood, to find something to empower her in adult life. Then I realised that was something that would equally disappoint me for not being realistic. As the story ends some readers will always be left wishing for an alternative. I found the conclusion to be like walking away from an old friend, ready to hear more when we next bump into each other. As if the next instalment is yet to come from Susannah Dickey perhaps? I would love to read about how the next 10 years turned out.

What a fascinating book. I absolutely loved this inner monologue style recordings of growing up and what it is to navigate your childhood, teenage years and early twenties as a young female. Written in the 2nd person, I was drawn instantly into the story and at points it felt as if Dickey had written down my thoughts and memories from this time. Beautifully stitched together, this story follows the pains of what happens in our main character's life in contrast to what she imagined it to be.

Expertly written, you feel as if you've been allowed access into the depths of someone's innermost private thoughts and feelings. Also Dickey isn't afraid to tell it how it is, this is not a romantic rose tinted look at childhood, she writes about significant moments (first period, first sexual encounters) in vivid detail and doesn't shy away from the explicit truths of these moments.

I raced through this book and throughly enjoyed it. One to recommend.

The best thing about this coming of age novel is the writing style, written in 2nd person perspective throughout you are drawn into the character, completely immersing yourself in their world. Dickey has done such an excellent job, I can’t wait to see what comes next.

As for a storyline, this book spans over so many years and yet so little happens. It’s one of those books that are completely engrossing however you can’t really describe it. The characters are very relatable and that is what gives this novel its edge. It’s like reading over your old high school memories.

I’ve given it 4/5 as it is fairly slow paced and at times cliche but it’s a very good novel to lose yourself in. The nostalgia I got from reading it was so well done, just wish there was more of it.

I absolutely loved this novel. Susannah takes you through the life of a young girl, from her early years up until around 28, in short but impactful chapters. The snappy chapters makes it hard to put down, as you feel compelled to read on for 'just one more' chapter.

It unpicks the ordinary, seemingly insignificant moments in a girl's life and shows how they can be surprisingly defining. For me, it was particularly relatable reading about her female friendships and social pressures during her school years. We also experience her navigating family dynamics, her changing body, romantic relationships, experiences with sex (which aren't necessarily related to her romantic relationships), and ambitions and feeling about the future.

I can't fault the novel (apart from maybe feeling squeamish about her painful ingrown toenail!) and I found Susannah's writing so warm and witty.

It's being compared to Expectation by Anna Hope, which I loved, but I would argue that it's even better. At 25, I found some of this personally relatable to my experiences growing up, and where it was not directly relatable to me, it still felt completely recognisable.

I'll be recommending this book to all of my friends, and can't wait to see what Susannah comes out with next!

Tennis Lessons by Susannah Dickey follows the life of one young woman through from early childhood to adulthood. It depicts her negotiation of friendships, bullying, family trauma's and sexual relationships in a way that is at times raw, relatable, shocking and funny.

Dickey has written the novel from the second person perspective, using "you" instead of "I". You are also not told the name of the protagonist. This adds a sense of universality, but it took some getting used to, and I did expect the writer to change perspective at some point in the novel, which didn't happen. I also found myself wanting more of a plot, rather than this gradual depiction of a life.

Ultimately though, this is an interesting book, that is not afraid to talk about a girls development from a vivid and new perspective. It will be interesting to see what Dickey writes next.

adored this book! A brilliant debut that has just the right level of humour, heart and heartbreak. This is more than a coming of age novel, it is about a girl who's future is unravelled and put back together by various people, including her mum, best friend and her former tormentor. The sense of humour Rachael and the protagonist is one I wished I could have shared with my friends! Safe to say I will be recommending it to all!

This book is told by the protagonist but in the second person narrative (perhaps to convey the sense of not belonging the protagonist feels in her real life). We never learn her name. Once I got used to the second person narration the book did draw me in. It is snippets from the girls life from childhood through to late twenties with quite a lot of time spent on the difficult teenage years for our heorine who is constantly criticised and made to feel no good by her parents which then extends into her teenage years being bullied and sidelined by her so called friendship group. Although considered bright at primary school she starts to fall behind at secondary, gets poor A levels and ends up at a "bad" uni and drops out. She can't seem to lift herself out of the trough her life falls into. When she does follow advice and tries to be more out going she suffers a horrendous sexual assault. There is one bright spot where she gets the sort of job humanities and English graduates would give their eye teeth for but frustratingly it is not explained at all how this "miracle" has come about.

I think anyone who has felt disconnected fromt he crowd and an outsider will recognise some of the writing here. It doesn't follow the usual narrative of outsider eventually gains acceptance and hope or true "lurve". It is more realistic, dour and fatalistic than that. I did find the narrator a bit frustrating in her apathy at times, but agin, I guess that's life. Interesting and different.

I read 40% of this book before I stopped. I didn’t like that it was written in the present tense, and I didn’t feel any empathy for the main character. There was also, in my opinion, an unnecessary amount of descriptive text about menstruation.. The book just seemed to drift, it was not my cup of tea, though other readers may enjoy it.

An unusual, intense, bildungsroman. It's not easy to pull off the second person narrative style convincingly, but Susannah Dickey very much does. It feels like she's speaking to you directly, maybe from under a duvet, in hushed tones of intimacy.

The narrator is unnamed and she decribes her unhappy school days (with a horrible bully), her unsatisfactory teens, her unexpected failure to achieve her academic potential, her awkward and unfulfilling consensual sexual encounters, the unexpected and frightening non-consensual ones. Her gradual realisation that she is emerging butterfly-like into a world that she might survive in.

Somehow she prevails. An unusual book, sometimes self-consciously literary, but mostly lyrical and engaging. I'd love to read more from this author.

Thanks to Susannah Dickey, Random House and Net Galley for the ARC. Told in the unusual second person narrative this is probably the first of many stories toldwith this concept. It is a little odd at first but then.....the story of a life is exposed, the struggles when growing up, coping with bullying, feeling out of place and unable to fit in, this is a story for everyone. Seeing into someone's mind in this way really gets to the grit of the story and I envisage it becoming very popular.

I loved how raw this book felt. I felt as if Susannah Dickey had dipped into some of my own forgotten memories and emotions and written them down for me to unpick and revisit in such a personal yet shared way. I found myself laughing, crying and everything in-between. The prose is beautiful, being so raw it felt almost like poetry. Lovely.

Tennis Lessons – I really enjoyed Tennis Lessons; it’s an endearing and strange look at being a young woman, growing up at roughly the same time as I did. Dickey’s prose is lyrical and flows beautifully; she makes several profound statements that make you stop and think. Nothing and everything happens, and having to piece some things together meant I engaged with the novel more, which made it an interesting and arresting reading experience. I would highly recommend it and can’t wait to see what Dickey does next!

I find this book hard to describe. It's format and layout made it hard for me to get into the story and I felt that the themes were a bit repetitive. However, the book speaks to the reader about growing up, friendships, sexual experiences and trauma and it does it in a very compelling way. I can see this book winning awards but not sure the format will be enjoyed by everyone.

Tennis Lessons is a engrossing, heart renching debut novel. It is incredibly exposing and raw look at life and coming of age. This is far more than a coming of age novel though, its more wide ranging and refinded than that. It’s a journey of life. I have never seen a character go from a young sweet girl to a troubled woman before. It was troubling to read but equally gave the book so much more strength and stature. You see the character grow and make mistakes but because of the emotional investment made earlier in this short book, it makes the later stages painful. You can forgive mistakes in characters but it exposes them all the more when you have seen the character grow. I did prefer the early parts of the book but, perhaps that is whole point. You are not supposed to enjoy the later parts, but you have to go through them anyway? It did not stop it being an excellent book and I am looking forward to seeing more from the author in the near future.

Susannah Dickey’s misfit narrator at the centre of ‘Tennis Lessons’ is a truly memorable character. Whilst she doesn’t seem to have much going for her – bullied at school, low self-esteem, car crash A levels – literally! boring job, tricky home life – she is an amazingly resilient, funny, forgiving girl who certainly endeared herself to this reader!
Dickey’s use of second person narrative throughout may alienate some but it is the perfect way to project the quizzical, imaginative, slightly off-kilter mind of someone who, at nine years old, asks her father, ‘If you could get shot anywhere, where would it be?’ At ten, she scores 96% in a practice entrance exam for a local secondary school, so how come by the age of eighteen she is no longer even academically mediocre?
Other than when ruminating with Rachael, her long-term friend, or chatting with her mother, the narrator’s off-beat way of looking at the world makes her a target for the school bullies. Dickey’s scenes of cruelty in the park or throwaway mean remarks at parties feel very real and remind us of how insecure and unkind the teenage years can be. Sexual experiences are unsatisfactory and, in one case, extremely traumatic. And yet, in her twenties, she gives love a go and has the wisdom to know when to walk away.
By the end of the novel we know that she’s going to be ok. This is not a read for those who want a neatly packaged story in which our heroine is rewarded with ‘happy ever after’. The author is highlighting that life isn’t really like that. However, this reader believes that the narrator will go from strength to strength. Why? She has learnt to believe in herself and those around her are learning to appreciate her generous spirit, her open-minded manner, and her great sense of humour.
My thanks to NetGalley and Transworld Publishers Random House UK for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Tennis Lessons is told through a series of short snippets from the protagonist's life - from a small child up to nearly 30. She's a slightly odd teenager, bullied by one of her "friends" but remaining close to Rachel, and actually that friendship is one of the redeeming features of the book. Otherwise it's a relentless stream of failures, drunken vomiting, miserable sex (including rape) and having no idea where you fit in life or where you're going. Often I wanted to shake the protagonist hard, whilst also feeling very sorry for her.

It's very well written and compelling, even whilst I was aware I wasn't particularly enjoying the book I found it difficult to put down. i'm not sure I'd recommend it as such, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it win awards.