Book Review - Preloved by Lauren Bravo - #HolidayReading Mexico

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Title: Preloved

Author: Lauren Bravo

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 27th April 2023

Rating: 4 Stars

A love story about things... 

Gwen’s life has stalled. She’s in her mid-thirties, perpetually single, her friends are busy procreating in the country and conversations with her parents seem to revolve entirely around herbaceous borders and the council’s wheelie-bin timetable. Above all she’s lonely. But then, isn’t everyone?

 

When Gwen’s made redundant from a job she drifted into a decade ago and never left, she realises it’s time to make a change. Over what might be the best – and most solitary – meal she’s ever eaten, Gwen vows to find something meaningful to do with her life, reconnect with her family and friends – and finally book herself a dentist appointment.

 

Her search for meaning soon leads her to volunteer in a local charity shop where she both literally and metaphorically unloads her emotional baggage. With the help of the weird and wonderful people she meets in the shop and the donated items bursting with untold stories that pass through its doors, Gwen must finally address the events and choices that led her to this point and find a way to move forward with bravery, humanity and more regular dental care.

 

Brimming with life, love and the stories bound up in even the most everyday items, Preloved is a tale about friendship, loss, being true to oneself no matter the expectations – and the enduring power and joy of charity shops.

This is clearly a book that is an ode to charity shops, the people that work in them and the objects that are sold in them. 

In between chapters we would get a look at an item, and either how it came to be in the shop or where it went.  And these are more cleverly woven in than I initially thought, so it helps when early on you are told a whole host of names of people that work in the shop, to try to keep those in mind. 

At the heart of the book is Gwen who was a character I really found it hard to bond with, but I was curious about her, as perhaps could see elements of myself in her.  She starts volunteering in the shop after being made redundant, and through her eyes we meet many of the other volunteers, and see just what she is, or isn't willing to do with her life. 

What I greatly admired about this book was when the author would take a phrase / subject and then wax lyrical with many other ways of describing it, or explaining it for a paragraph or two. It allows you to look at things in a completely different light and some of the lines in those sections are rather amusing. 

This debut novel is a great showcase for this authors talented writing. 

Thank you Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily,