The Twenty Seven Club by Lucy Nichol | Book Review

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The Twenty Seven Club by Lucy Nichol - 4/5

Blurb:

"It’s 1994. The music industry is mourning Kurt Cobain, Right Said Fred have re-emerged as an ‘ironic’ pop act and John Major is the country’s prime minister. Nothing is as it should be.

Emma is hurtling towards her 27th birthday, riddled with anxiety that her idols Joplin, Hendrix and Morrison all died aged 27, and now Kurt Cobain has gone too. Will Emma be next to join The Twenty Seven Club?

Emma, a working-class rock music fan from Hull, with a penchant for a flaming Drambuie and a line of coke with her best mate Dave down The Angel, is troubled. Trev, her whippet, has IBS, and her job ordering bathroom supplies at the local caravan company is far from challenging. So when her dad, Tel, informs her that her music idol, Kurt Cobain has killed himself aged 27, Emma is consumed with anxiety.

Why have so many legendary musicians gone aged 27? Is there a link between the members of the so-called Twenty Seven Club? Is this why her mum had an affair and left them? And could Emma be about to join The Twenty Seven Club too?

The 27 Club is a nostalgic, often humorous, drug and booze-infused tale of friendship, discovery and anxiety as Emma tries, for once, to focus on life, rather than death."

Review:

A funny, laugh out loud read with a deep undertone.

It's 1994 and one of Emma's idols, Kurt Cobain, is dead. A member of the 27 Club. Emma becomes a little obsessive over this. Is it to do with rock music? Pop stars don't die at 27, do they?

Emma herself is 26 and is stuck in a bit of a rut. Her life consists of going to her local pub The Angel with lifelong best mate Dave, having some beers (maybe taking some cocaine on the side) and working a 9-5 job that doesn't challenge her. Her 27th birthday is coming up fast and she is convinced that she will end up in the 27 Club.

We learn a lot about Emma's family, her mum who cheated on her dad when she was a young child and that fact that her dad has been single ever since.

I love the political tone throughout this book and honestly, it seems like nothing has changed in 2021! Quote of the book about Boris Johnson: "Thank Christ he's a journalist and not a politician." Eek!

The reason I liked this book so much is because I can relate quite a bit. I listened (and still do!) to a lot of the bands mentioned throughout the book and it is just so my scene - even if I was only 2 years old in 1994! 

Although it is hilarious and I laughed out loud a lot, it is mainly about Emma finding her place in life, overcoming anxiety and coming to terms with a trauma that she experienced in childhood.