One of my all time favourite quotes is Winston Churchill’s famous “Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down”. Although this can be seen as a justification for decadent laziness, for me it’s also a mantra for simplicity. Simplicity in writing is a wonderful, if often neglected, skill. Unfortunately Eleanor Catton has chosen to neglect this and The Rehearsal, her debut novel, suffers immeasurably for it.  By page six if I’d seen one more quote followed by “she said…
” I was ready to scream.  Which is why I hit the book against the table in frustration by page seven. The premise of the story is interesting enough; a high school sex scandal thrust into the spotlight when the local drama group turn the story into a show and how the characters react to the outside glare and subsequent confrontation. However with the narration poorly executed I really struggled to engage with the story or warm to the characters. Perhaps the content is more suited to a young adult market, however I hope that Catton is able to gain maturity and simplicity in her writing and that The Rehearsal is therefore able to act as just that.  - Kylie