The Opposite of Lonely (Hilde Hinton, Hachette)

For the past few years, Rose has felt disassociated from her own life, struggling to come to terms with the passing of her cherished father and the collapse of her marriage. Unfulfilled and emotionally numb, she has retreated from her friends, her family and even her young son, Max. However, when she meets the generous and confident Ellie, things finally start to look brighter, and it’s not long before Ellie seamlessly threads herself into the fabric of Rose’s life. But just as her world starts to open, Rose begins to feel like she’s playing by someone else’s rules. In her third novel, Hilde Hinton delicately confronts the complexities of motherhood and friendships – their fulfilling yet sometimes all-consuming nature – while also delving into themes of emotional and financial abuse, postpartum depression, and mental health struggles. While the book attempts to approach toxic relationships with a light touch, it occasionally risks oversimplifying the weight of these issues, making them feel more palatable than profound. Hinton’s strength lies in her ability to create characters who feel remarkably familiar, holding up a mirror to the reader and telling us something about ourselves. Fans of Hinton’s previous novel, The Loudness of Unsaid Things, and Kim Lock’s The Other Side of Beautiful will enjoy this important story about finding your way back to yourself.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Shannon Grey is an editor and writer from Perth (Boorloo) and is based in Melbourne (Naarm). Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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