I’m so excited to be part of this tour guys. I mean this was my first book by Tom and Lucy, (I know right, terrible reader) but I have to say I’m glad I started with Freshers first. It totally has you wetting your pants and snorting out loud. It’s pure genius. Anyways that’s enough of my fangirling, you can read more of that further down the post with my review. But first I have a guest post from the lovely Tom and Lucy with pictures too. So before you read that, here is a little more about Freshers.
Freshers
by Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison
Publisher – Chicken House Books
Release Date – August 3rd 2017
Buy – Amazon | Book DepositoryUni beckons. Phoebe can’t wait to be a fresher – especially since her crush from school will be there too.
She’ll be totally different at Uni: cooler, prettier, smarter … the perfect potential girlfriend. She’ll reinvent herself completely.
But Luke’s oblivious: still reeling from the fallout of the break-up with his ex.
Thrown head first into a world of new friends, parties and social media disasters – can Phoebe and Luke survive the year, let alone find each other?
Guest Post
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNI SOCIETIES
Early on in our new book, FRESHERS, the two protagonists, Luke and Phoebe, do what all new students tend to do and head to the Freshers Fair. For the uninitiated, this is where you either a) sign up to lots of new and exciting sporting, cultural and political societies, or b) collect lots of free pens. Joining ‘socs’ was a massive part of our university experience, so we knew we wanted to make it a big part of our campus-set novel, too.
In FRESHERS, our main characters sign up for Quidditch Soc which, unfortunately, did not exist during our time at York University (if it had, we would DEFINITELY have signed up). Back in our real life Freshers’ Week, in the Early Noughties, we signed up to Yoga Soc (Lucy) and Skateboarding Soc (Tom).
Lucy went to Yoga Soc with the primary goal of making friends, rather than doing yoga; so when, during her first session, she met Nell (who is still now one of her best mates), she never bothered going back (hence why there are no existing photos of her doing yoga, so we’ll have to make do with a pic of University Card…).
This is the thing about university societies; you soon learn that meeting nice people is much more important than doing whatever activity you’re supposed to be there to do. Tom enjoyed a slightly longer stint at Skateboarding Soc (please see embarrassing photo, below). When he went to sign up at Freshers Fair, he found that Skateboarding Soc had been slightly unfairly placed right in between Football Soc and Rugby Soc. Both these tables were crowded with people, shouting and cheering and jostling to sign up. And in the middle was Skateboarding Soc, which consisted of just one bloke, sat by himself. When he went to sign up, the bloke’s first question was: “Would you be prepared to be Chairman of Skateboarding Soc next year?”, which gave Tom the (correct) impression that Skateboarding Soc did NOT have many active membersโฆ
One comment on my part – I’m disappointed that there’s no Quidditch Society, I think uni goers need to start a petition. I would go to uni just for that.
My Review
So Freshers was an experience for me, why? because I never went to University. I was in the undecided path when I left 6th Form, but in a way I’m glad for it as I’m proud of what I’ve achieved and where I am now. But then sometimes I will always wonder what would have happened if I went to university, would I enjoy it, make friends for life, be more social, enjoy the experience? I don’t know, my experience in school and 6th Form wasn’t exactly great, but then people always told me that Uni is different.
Freshers takes two very different perspectives of uni life with Phoebe and Luke, they both went to the same high school together. Phoebe has always had a crush on Luke, but I think the years between she hasn’t been brave enough to be who she is, to be finally come out of her shell. Phoebe feels now that she’s in university it will be different from high school. While she tries to contain her feelings for Luke, both Luke and Phoebe try to fit it, or not fit in as the case maybe, the thrills of nights out, uni societies and occasionally ride on a broomstick and striking a goal. Two weeks of Freshers begs to be the most dramatic, crazy, and compulsive ride of their life that will reveal their true selves at the end of it.
The line ”you can be surrounded by people but be completely alone.” by Cordelia in BTVS springs to mind with this book. University isn’t all sunshine and unicorns, and it can effect everyone in different ways. Take Luke, I really loved him because he had fragility and a vulnerability to him. He was no longer the high school jock with the hot girlfriend prepared to go long distance. Luke changed, he became human, real, by noticing that living in a dorm can be difficult, that it’s not home and not your family either. It’s about building a life of your own, with you leading it on your own. It’s daunting and scary, and freshers isn’t getting any easier, it’s only a taster for the next 3 years. I fell that Luke grows balls in the end. Phoebe on the other hand, grew out of her crush phase, she valued her friendship, fitting in or not fitting in on occasion, being played by guys and the reality of how ugly they can be (Damn you Will!). But what I loved about her was that she proved to herself that she can do it, she can survive, with or without love, it’s focusing on yourself, whilst also embracing uni life for what it really is.
What was thrilling was diving into the unknown of Tom and Lucy’s writing. Yes you’ve heard it, this is my first book by these two geniuses. During the book it was full of laughing-out-loud-to-the-point-of-snorting moments, in public I might like to add. (There is one scene that to this day, still cracks me up but then scares me at the same time.) In the end… I was sad that it was over but also just simply awed by it, and I was like that for a quite a while. I believe that this book was the one that Tom and Lucy have been meaning to write, a story that they needed to write all along. Luke and Phoebe were them, you can see so much of themselves in each of their parts of the book. It felt real, like you were there with them in university, that takes great skill and you can feel the passion in their writing style and I felt that not only with this book but with Lobsters too.
It’s obvious that this book is for those who are or have been of ‘Freshers age’, this is totally the book for you. But from my non Fresher perspective I got from this is that in the end its the making of who you are, coming out of your shell and learning to be the person you want to be for the rest of your life. Also Uni sounds completely bonkers! Haha. Freshers is addictive and the funniest book I’ve read all year.
Rating – ๐๐๐๐๐
