It is the summer of 2019, and Sophie Evans, the reckless protagonist of Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett's unsettling second novel, has arrived on an idyllic island in the Cyclades with her university friends Helena, Iris and Alessia to celebrate Helena's forthcoming marriage. Helena doesn't want it called her hen Like we're dumpy little featherbrains going cluck, cluck, cluck, but all the same, the men including Sophie's curator boyfriend of six years, Greg will not arrive for another five days.
"Finding good help is so difficult these days." I nearly choked on my coffee the first time I heard this at a dinner party. The speaker was lamenting how their cleaner had rescheduled, throwing off their entire week. Meanwhile, most working class families I know clean their own homes after pulling double shifts, often with kids in tow. What really gets me is when they complain about these services in front of people who could never afford them.