The Cactus

Started out slow, got much better mid-way through. I ended up really enjoying the story! I would say to Give it a read

Unexpected. Intriguing. Good character development. Paced just right. Left me wanting more, which is how I want a good story to be. I am new to this author. I will look for more of her writings. Of course, I was convinced early in the book this woman must be on the ‘spectrum’ due to her not demonstrating signs of the usual bonding with those in her circle. Without spoiling it, life situations mold us early, and we build high fences and thick walls to shield. Those shields designed to protect do and, often greatly hinder. I recommend this read.

2.75 starsI purchased this book because it was on a popular list, not really knowing much about it. I believe it has been likened to “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” but that book is far superior to this one. Honestly, at 55%, I strongly considered not finishing the book because I didn’t like the main character, Susan. She is often rude, dismissive of others, selfish, and has an overwhelming bitterness toward her brother (which the author tries to justify, but it just made me dislike both characters). I thought Kate and Rob were nice enough, and they still hung around Susan, despite her aforementioned traits. Sylvia and her twins were shallow, and the dead parents were both failures in their own ways. Oh, and Richard didn’t make any sense at all.I wanted to like Susan, to understand her drive to push people away, but I just couldn’t. Someone so opinionated about being prepared and sticking to ones plans doesn’t read any parenting or baby books at 8 months pregnant? Or purchase a crib or clothes? And in the last 3 pages throws away all of her natural tendencies and becomes a kinder, more loving, rule-breaking version of herself? I don’t think so. I am glad that Susan is trying to grow and sees some need for change in herself, however.I would give the first 2/3 2 stars. There were a few compelling later sections that brought up my interest level, (but I think Susan could have reacted differently... alas I didn’t write the novel.)I don’t mean to be so prickly about it, but The Cactus wasn’t my favorite.

I struggled to get into the story, the main character is prickly and unrelenting. It is a good story but doesn't feel throughly related. As I type this, the word relatable is key, I think that is what makes this harder to read. Instead of being engrossed in the story and character, I could easily put it down and not worry when I'd get the next chance to read.Good overall story however.

The book is centered around Susan, a London lawyer who never wrote her bar exam. Her mother passes away in Birmingham, where she grew up. Susan contests her mother's will and the story unfolds as she has to deal with her family members and friends of her brother and mother. And she is 45 years old, single, dedicated to a lonely existence, and has just found out she is unexpectedly pregnant. I read the reviews that the main character was unlovable and quirky and many did not like her, so did not like the book. The fact that Susan was stuck in her ways, compulsively neat, inflexible, isolated and quirky made me love her. I wanted to keep reading to find out how she got to be the way she was.

This book is a solid 3.5 and I will definitely recommend it to people. I can see the similarities to Eleanor Oliphant, but it is also a much more cerebral book. The story is told entirely in Susan's first-person POV. It is very very British in the names of food, objects, holidays, and activities. Years of BBC and multiple visits to the UK were not enough...but you get the gist. Mostly.Susan could easily be compared to Temperance Brennan of the show Bones. Rough childhood, rapscallion of a brother, and infinitely logical. Susan has an ordered life and is always convinced of her own control and rightness.I enjoyed the slow revealing of Susan's past heartache, issues with her brother, and her attempts to right her life. Building friendships and nurturing her unborn child really made the story pop. It just took until halfway for me to get interested. Rob and Kate were delightful at breaking down Susan's walls. But we're stuck alone with just Susan for too long.This is not a romance, but there are some small romantic elements. It's more about self-discovery and family. I liked that Susan was blunt and talked through even the worst options. But rationality isn't always right.

Have you ever watched a movie or soap opera and you hated a character so much, you want to jump in and get rid of them yourself??? They say an actor is performing superbly to make the viewers feel that way. This book’s main character - Susan was the same type of aggravating, annoying character superbly created by the author. I. Could. Not. Stand. Her. ; I was sick of her complaining and her meticulous way of living “her way or the highway” manner! She was a real queen bitch. Chapter after agonizing chapter I kept considering to quit the book. It was such a dry read. I felt like I was watching a room of paint dry until I could see what the true color looked like. I felt sorry for all who had to deal with her. I kept on going because I felt there had to be a breakthrough of some kind that occurred in this story. There was, praise the heavens! I just wish I didn’t have to read 80% of the book to finally read about the breakthrough. Let’s just say, no matter how straight and exact one thinks life can be lived; there always going to be the unexpected that occurs to roll you around and make you see other views you refused to see. That is what happens to Susan towards the end. Which I’m happy to have read knowing all those around her now will be safe....phew!

Just didn't know what to expect when I started reading this book... it's delicious and touching! I recomend for every woman

Muy recomendable.

Great story about relationships and how we each have our own idiosyncratic ways but that’s what makes each of us different and special 😊

Me encanta la complejidad del personaje principal. El juego entre lo que piensa y lo que dice me recordaron al formato de Fleabag. El humor es genial sin restarle importancia a la profunda crisis por la que atraviesa Susan.

I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to get round to reviewing this book, I listening to it ages ago. I think maybe I have been afraid that I wouldn’t do the book justice, I loved it so much.This book is the story of a very unusual woman, and her character is so perfectly formed and then tested by the author that I defy anyone not to be entranced by the story. Susan is a woman whose life is perfectly ordered. She knows exactly who she is, what she is doing, how she wants things to be, and she has it all arranged perfectly, from her flat, to her job, to her relationship of convenience with Richard, who seems to think exactly as she does. Which is a miracle, because nobody sees the world exactly as Susan does. The best thing about her, for me, is her absolute belief that she is always right, her way of approaching things is obviously correct and pretty much everyone else in the world is an idiot that needs to be tolerated at best. Her disdain for most of humanity as irredeemably stupid drips off the page and it is delightful.You might think a woman like this would be hard to relate to as a character, but it isn’t so. I think because the author sets her up so early on with problems that we, the reader, can see are going to force her to adjust her view, because when we meet her family we can possibly understand that a great deal of her spiky ways have developed as armour against the tribulations of her early life and her dysfunctional family, and because other characters who are more likeable in the book see her as a redeemable character, so we do too. The writing is so clever in this regard, I have to tip my hat to the author.This book is incredibly warm and funny. The situation that Sarah puts Susan in, finding herself pregnant in her forties, would be ripe for comedy in any situation but, given how ordered and uptight Susan is, the chaos of pregnancy and childbirth is magnified tenfold. There were parts of the book that had me absolutely howling with laughter. The part where she and Richard meet to discuss how they are going to handle the parenting of this unexpected child was delightful in its naivety for anyone who has children. Then the incident with the Bananagrams towards the end of the book made me laugh so hard I had tears in my eyes. I read someone else’s review of this book that claimed it was not as funny as Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, I would beg to differ, I found this much funnier.As I have now brought up Eleanor Oliphant, I want to say that anyone who loved that book will really enjoy this one. It is a similar social misfit tale, but a completely different story. Sarah obviously has so much love for the character of Susan, it shines from the page and makes the reader fall in love with her too. I listened to this book as an audiobook in the end, even though I originally got the book via NetGalley, but when I had finished it, I immediately went and bought a hardback copy for my shelves because I know I will want to return to it again and again.I just wanted to say a word about the audio version of this book. I think listening to it via audio gave Susan a really strong voice for me. She is from the West Midlands, and the narrator has the accent down perfectly throughout. I am not sure about you but, when I read text, even if the author places the cast in a particular location, I never read with an accent in my head. Listening to someone read with the accent really cemented Susan as alive and kicking for me, and her tone and pacing was also perfect for the character. I think this is one of those stories where the audio really enhances the story and I would highly recommend it (although it did take me several days to get the Birmingham accent out of my head after finishing the book!). The narrator was perfect and I don’t have high enough praise for her performance, as the narration makes or breaks an audiobook.The Cactus is already on the shortlist for being one of my Top Ten books of the year. I cannot express how much I adored it. It is no surprise to me that it was chosen by Reese Witherspoon for her book club and everyone who hasn’t read it should get a copy now. It is the perfect antidote to the dark days we are currently living through and you could do a lot worse that share your isolation with Susan Green.