Deep Down: the 'intimate, emotional and witty' 2023 debut you don't want to miss

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There are no histrionics here, nor any glib resolutions, but a superbly observed exploration of intimacy and its failings. This perceptive account of the undercurrents that shape our family relationships and the ways in which they play out in adulthood had me gripped. Billie and Tom are not necessarily likeable characters, but as the story progresses with flashbacks to their childhood we start to understand why they’re a bit messed up and have such a tense relationship - they’ve both processed their father’s behaviour in a different way and are therefore handling his loss differently too.

Don't get me wrong, I do think that there are some really touching and relatable moments in this book. In one finely wrought section during a family holiday to Spain, 13-year-old Tom is privy to an awful altercation between his parents in the supermarket.Twentysomething siblings Billie and Tom are thrown together in Paris in the immediate aftermath of their father’s sudden death. Funny, moving and unexpected, Deep Down is an empathetic and hard-hitting look at both the struggles and the joys of sibling relationships, and the realities of grieving the loss of someone who was already an absence. The withholding of information is masterfully sustained as we come to understand why they have responded to their father’s death with such profound ambiguity. If you like stories of family, friendship and the power of grief I certainly wouldn’t be saying no this novel! And the novel is a serious and very accomplished examination of what it means to love and grieve for someone who might seem unlovable.

There was potential for some interesting explorations on family dynamics, domestic violence and complicated grief, but that didn't happen here.The only thing I would say (and it may well have been updated in the finished copies), was that it would’ve been helpful to have time frames detailed as it did jump around and you kind of had to guess when a flashback was etc. Secondly, I think that the story could have used additional layers on top of the grief and resentment they were experiencing in the present day. We learn, for instance, that when Queen Elizabeth II died, the state trumpeters were on a plane to Canada and the bearer party was in Iraq. The subterranean climax introduces a note of the uncanny that doesn’t quite convince, and the ending feels unresolved, though perhaps this is in keeping with the idea that the “möbius strip” of complex grief does not allow for tidy closure. I agree with one reviewer who said that the author is a 'human story- teller' but disagree that she is 'hilarious' as I didn't find much humour in the book.