#BlogTour Audiobook - Dear Lina by Jess Glaisher

It's an absolute pleasure to take part in the BlogTour for the Audiobook Dear Lina by Jess Glaisher, narrated by Amélie Roch and Dervla Kirwan, 

About the Author

Jess is a queer disabled feminist and activist, whose writing focusses on LGBTQ+ character representation, mental health visibility, and the lives of women. Her first short story ‘Destiny’ appears in the anthology (Re)Sisters: Stories of Rebel Girls, Revolution, Empowerment and Escape. Her work has also been featured in Novelty Magazine, Severine Lit, The Tiny Narrative, and on Dear Damsels, including their print anthology for 2019. 

She writes alongside a creative collective of women who met through the amazing Write Like a Grrrl course. She has written a TinyLetter about her mental health called The Stories I Tell Myself, as well as a blog about her experiences with endometriosis called Eight Years and Counting.

Follow @JGlaisher on Twitter, jessglaisher_writer on Instagram, on Goodreads, Visit jgrenaissancewoman.com, Buy Dear Lina

About the book

 England is recognisable on the surface: the buildings are the same, there is still a government, the tube still runs through London. For Lina, however, the England she knew when she was little, when her mum was still around, has disappeared completely.

Arriving home one day to find her mum gone, Lina finds in her place a leather-bound notebook containing hundreds of pages of her mum’s handwriting: letters of advice and memories; all the things her mother would no longer have the chance to teach her. Through these pages, Lina learns that her mother, Eve, left in the middle of the night to avoid being arrested. The Government crackdown on immigrants meant that Eve either had to flee or risk the same fate as her friends; friends who were taken away from their homes and families, but never made it back to their country of birth.

Taking Eve’s advice, Lina leaves her life behind, and sets off on a journey north to Scotland to find freedom and, she hopes, her mother.

Review

I hope this is released in book format, although there is a particular emotional element to hearing both characters speak to each other. I loved it. There is so much packed into this dystopian read, but in a subtle way, which means the reader may be paying attention to either woman and the oppressive structure of the time Lina lives in flows alongside like a bad dream.

The story is delivered by mother and daughter, as both narrate in turns. The mother speaking about the all the hopes and dreams she had and has for her daughter. The daughter as she tires of the Big Brother society, the inability to live and love as she pleases, and as her thirst for freedom grows stronger.

All that is left of her mother are memories and a notebook with thoughts her mothers wants her to acknowledge and hear. The mother who disappeared without a trace one day. Is she alive or is she a victim of the suffocating rules of the country they live in.

It's a scathing social commentary on our own times and yet takes place in a dystopian setting. A moving and harsh scenario that shines a light on the systemic racism, discrimination of the population, but predominantly of those considered to be inferior and different. Women fit into that category, non-whites fit into that category and any LGBTQ+ fit into that category, as do Lina and her mother.

This author is definitely one to watch out for in the future. The intuitive, intelligent and accurate portrayal of a futuristic society bogged down by the shortfalls of the one we live in today is a sharp tongued warning delivered with finesse. Excellent listening experience.

Buy Dear Lina at Audible Uk, at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.

Listening Length - 9 hours and 7 minutes,  Author - Jess Glaisher, Narrator - Amélie Roch, Dervla Kirwan, Audible.co.uk Release Date - 03 December 2020, Publisher - Audible Studios, Program Type -Audiobook, Version - Unabridged, Language - English.