The book is set in the Midlands and her ‘brummy’ accent is wonderful and familiar (my mother was from Birmingham) I was really impressed with Katherine Manners the narrator. I soon began to see this as just a solid 3 star read.Īs the book moved on though, I began to find myself becoming more attached to Susan and more drawn into her radically changing world. The situations and outcomes also seemed a bit predictable. There’s a lot of humour in The Cactus, some of it a little obvious, some, genuinely amusing, although more ‘smile’ than ‘laugh out loud’. However, I found that living inside Susan’s head and seeing the world through her eyes for the duration of a novel was quite wearing at times. We all know characters like Susan, those that find human interaction difficult and build a protective wall around themselves - so as a character she felt real. She is thrust into the paths of ordinary humans with all their faults and weaknesses, causing great irritation …… but as the book progresses and she gets tangled in complicated, messy, real life situations, the everyday kindness and good nature of those around her begin to melt the ice. First a bereavement and then a personal situation that she never, ever expected to find herself in!Īs life changing events start to crowd in on Susan’s well organised life, her resolve begins to fray. Susan’s calm, somewhat sterile life is suddenly shaken to its core.

She is also sharp tongued, stern and prickly, as the the name of the novel, not so subtly, suggests. The laws of efficiency and logic rule supreme. In Susan’s world she has complete control and has no time for the human frailties of those around her, she certainly doesn’t suffer fools gladly. She has a man friend that she finds convenient for rare social occasions, cultural events and. Susan is in her mid forties, lives alone and is perfectly content living her well ordered life in her well ordered flat, dependent on no one. This seems quite fitting as Susan Green, the central figure of this novel, lives a largely socially distanced life. The audio version of The Cactus by Sarah Haywood has accompanied me on a number of my (socially distanced) lockdown walks.

Sarah haywood the cactus