Single Bald Female is a moving debut by Laura Price. I ran through it, connecting with the characters and the story. It was such a heartwarming and heartbreaking story, all in one.
Table of Contents
Single Bald Female
From Amazon:
Jessica Jackson has hit all the milestones for turning 30 – the career, the loving boyfriend and a cosy London flat they share with their cat. But a shock diagnosis of breast cancer turns Jess’s world upside down, and her contented life implodes with it.
Around her, her friends’ lives continue to follow the script, with the big white weddings and the baby scans. With her own future so uncertain, the only thing Jess is sure of is that she’s being left behind.
In the midst of it all, she meets Annabel, an enigmatic twenty-seven year old with incurable cancer. But while Annabel may not have long left, she understands much more about living than anyone Jess has ever met. And she’s determined to show Jess how to make every day count . . .
Detour To the Olive Tree Grove and the Unknown
It’s olive harvest season. Olives are the most common trees in my region, as they are in the rest of the Mediterranean. Looking at those grayish-green leaves and branches bent under the weight of the olives and with my brain rewired, I can’t stop thinking about Palestine. I can’t do much in general and not think about Palestine.
The genocide in Gaza has been going on for a month now (years now, decades now). I will link my previous post HERE, and if you click there, you’ll find some useful links that I ask you to check out. It may seem like our efforts are falling on deaf ears with our governments’ indifference, but we have to be persistent. The number of deaths in Gaza passed 10,000, and Israel is continuing its war crimes.
eSIMs for Gaza
How to purchase an eSIM card for Palestinians in Gaza:
Step 1: Download the Simly App.
Step 2: Select Palestine (you can also enter it manually if it doesn’t show immediately).
Step 3: Purchase any data plan.
Step 4: After the purchase, screenshot the QR code and send it to gazaesims@gmail.com
Wandering back between the olive trees, the harvest season was one of my favorites growing up because my grandparents on my mom’s side would come over and help pick the olives. My grandma would tell stories, both funny and educational. Her contagious laugh would ring through the grove. Olives are a symbol of peace and longevity, and my grandma means love, safety, and home to me.
I study in a different city now, a different country, so I’m no longer home for the harvest, and both of my grandparents are too sick to do anything. There was this fragile thread holding all the good memories from my childhood together, and then, at some point, it ripped. Slowly, I’m losing the crumbs, and I don’t know how to deal with it.
On that note, I don’t know why I chose to read Single Bald Female now when cancer is already a very present topic in our lives, but I did. And I feel like it was a conversation I’m not having with my family, with all the sugarcoating and withholding things.
About Single Bald Female
I have to admit, picking this book now wasn’t a good idea. It affected my reading experience because my mind was a mess (so I apologize in advance for the mess that is this review). Still, writing-wise, the story ran easily, and I got through it quickly.
It was very real. I was able to connect with the characters, love or hate them, as the story was moving along. A big part of Single Bald Female is the friendships and relationships between different characters. In an experience such as this one, when Jessica finds out she has cancer, support is very important.
I love how this allowed exploring different people’s reactions to someone having cancer or their treatment of someone with it, like the bar scene or Jessica’s dad or her relationship with Tabitha.
‘Actually’, I say, picking up a pebble and throwing it as far as I can towards the ocean, […] I think I’m going to be single for a while.’
Single Bald Female by Laura Price
What pushed me away from Single Bald Female was that at some point while reading it, I thought to myself how different stories with cancer look in books/movies than in real life. I always find them more positive because they are all ultimately uplifting, and those are my genuine feelings after reading/watching.
In reality, seeing my grandparents, I’m angry. I’m biased in talking about this topic at this stage, but Single Bald Female was nonetheless a beautiful story of friendship before all. When I look at the cover of this book, I see determination and boldness staring back. And that’s the round-up of this story.
In Conclusion, …
Apologies again for a terrible review. I’ll leave now. I hope you still found this post fun and that you may read the book. If you’ve read it already, let me know your thoughts down in the comments.
As for Palestine, please check the links and help. Any help is welcome, and every effort matters.
Okay, thanks, bye!