Hard Place by Gab Torr - Review

I can't remember where I heard of this book, I probably saw someone I follow on Instagram reading it. I requested it at the library and when it came in I took it away for the weekend with me. However it took me ages to read because it was SUCH a slog. I really didn't like it at all. 

Billy is a twenty something and she's a lesbian and she has been in a relationship with a girl called Rose, who breaks up with her on the beginning of the novel. Rose has sort of controlled Billy for years, leaving Billy to barely make a decision by herself. But now she has to move out and she doesn't have anywhere to go. She had an abusive childhood and her addict mother has died. Billy was mostly raised by her grandad, who still lives in his bungalow by the sea. She has a strained relationship with him although it's not exactly spelt out why. I think he finds her sexuality hard but the book doesn't really expound on it. Anyway Billy doesn't want to go back to her seaside childhood home so she has to trawl through roommate ads. 

She answers one placed by Sid, who is non binary, and Rhoda, a cis lesbian. They are loud and unapologetically queer and talk a lot about taking accountability and holding space for each other in their communal flat. Sid works in mental health care and Rhoda is kind of between jobs, propped up by her parents. Her parents also happen to own the flat that they all live in which is very yikes and which is never really unpacked. 

They have a ton of friends and they get Billy involved in their clique but she's just kind of - removed? Apathetic? From her own life and her new life. I just didn't get her at all. I didn't get the book. Maybe I am just too much of an older queer to understand what Gen Z are doing. But I DO have polyamorous friends, I do believe in accountability and making space for each other, but I don't think the book DID that. I think it skirted with the concepts but just didn't get there. Billy almost becomes self aware but then she doesn't. I found it just so annoying and sadly I can't recommend the book. I wouldn't read anything else by the same author unless someone REALLY sold it to me. I am giving the book two out of five.