Chosen Family (Madeleine Gray, Summit Books)

Warning: Clear your schedule for the all-consuming read that is Madeleine Gray’s second novel, Chosen Family. Set over 18 years, the novel follows Sydney friends Eve and Nell from high school to motherhood and everything in between. The story is propelled by a masterfully drawn mystery as Nell disappears for two years. The result is a novel that is both intense and laugh-out-loud funny. Gray’s acerbic yet fragile characters hook readers early. Eve is brash and brave, while Nell has a wary ‘offness’; both are well drawn and believable, offering a layered portrait of profound female friendship. An omniscient narrator sharpens the novel’s observations about human nature, while Gray’s witty dialogue and biting insights cut deep. (Her depictions of the cruelty teenage girls can display are chillingly accurate.) Readers of Gray’s debut, Green Dot, may be surprised by some of the steamier, more explicit scenes in Chosen Family, though the humour remains consistent across both novels. Gray’s latest will be celebrated as a love letter to the queer community. With themes of privilege, sexuality, homophobia and parenting, it’s an epic and thought-provoking tale about growing up and finding your people – your chosen family. As Eve and Nell demonstrate, that bond is only really possible once you’ve chosen your real self first. For fans of Gray’s Green Dot, Sally Rooney’s Normal People and Thomas Vowles’ Our New Gods.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Michelle Atkins is a communications professional and published educational author. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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