Review: Brand New Friend

Synopsis


When Rob's girlfriend asks him to leave London and live with her in Manchester not only will it mean moving cities and changing the only job he's ever had, it'll also mean leaving behind his best mate in the entire world. 

Believing that love conquers all and convinced of his ability to make new friends, Rob takes the plunge. 

Six months, and yet to find so much as a regular drinking buddy, Rob realizes that sometimes making friends in your thirties can be the hardest thing to do. With drastic action needed, his girlfriend puts an ad in the classifieds for him, but after three excruciatingly embarrassing 'bloke dates' Rob begins to truly despair. Until his luck changes . . . There's just one problem. Apart from knowing less than nothing about music trivia, football, and the vital statistics of supermodels, Rob's new friend has one huge flaw . . . She's a girl

Review

I love Mike Gayle for two reasons: one, his books are funny and two, he understands dialogue. I loved His and Hers and Mr Commitment  however Brand New Friend is rubbish, completely and utter nonsense.  Actually it is beyond rubbish, it was so rubbish I fell asleep whilst reading the book albeit it being that I read it whilst I was tired and commuting from work. This is the second book by Gayle that I haven't been inspired to rave about, the first one was The importance of Being a Bachelor which was also a tad bit dry and bland.  Brand New Friend is worse and here's why and for brevity I will list the reasons.

1. Brand New Friend sounds like every other Mike Gayle book (I've read so far.). It has the same stereotypical block characters with similar settings and similar conversations. 
2. The concept could work but it doesn't. It is cliched and lacked feeling. It felt at times that Gayle had given up and was recycling old material whilst watching an episode of Hollyoaks with his mates in a pub somewhere in Manchester. 
3. The book reads like an outline of what the book is about, it lacked content. Some chapters are way too short. I usually love short and snappy chapters but a page is a not a chapter unless you're writing a short story. There is also a half page chapter that made little sense. 
4. And lastly the characters are stale, Rob is caricature and Phil, the only redeeming character in the book wasn't utilized. 
5. And finally the women in this book are ridiculous, self pitying and lacking in personalities. 

I should end by saying that I still love books by Mike Gayle.