Everyone in our club read, finished and enjoyed this book which is a recommendation and a rarity! It was well written, easy to read, funny and sad in equal parts and with an interesting story running through it. We thought the rules were those which most people automatically know and try to adhere to but even “normal/typicals” struggle with the one that says you have to adapt them to suit the situation. Not being familiar with this type of situation we were unsure whether the way the story developed was entirely realistic but it was very enjoyable. The parenting of both mother and father left a lot to be desired and Elvira managed to grow up and eventually function at a reasonable level in general society in spite of their efforts rather than because of them. In the case of teaching her the nuances of male/female relationships her upbringing left a lot to be desired and caused Elvira considerable difficulty.

The characters were well drawn and developed and the story drew us in making us want to know what happened next. Altogether a very enjoyable read and we scored it a very healthy 7.5 out of 10.