One-Hit Wonder by Lisa Jewell

Synopsis :

Bee Bearhorn had a number-one-hit single in 1985 – and was never heard of again.  Fifteen years later she is found dead – and nobody seems to care.

Ana Wills has always daydreamed about the exotic half-sister she hasn’t seen for years.  When she comes to London to clear her flat, Ana begins to unravel Bee’s life : her missing cat, her secret country cottage and her mysterious weekends away.

So, instead of going back to Devon, Ana tracks down Bee’s closest friends, mad Lol and strong, silent Flint, and together they set out to discover exactly what happened to Bee Bearhorn, the one-hit wonder…

I was attracted to this book while in the local library not because it’s new (which it is) but more because I recognized the author as the one who wrote 31 Dream Street which I read a few years back.  I enjoyed 31 Dream Street for it being really a feel-good book to curl up with on a raining day.  One-Hit Wonder, however, other than being written by the same author, does not share much similarity with 31 Dream Street.  It is very different in many, many ways.

Bee and Ana are half siblings.  They had the same mother but Gay, their mother married Bill, Ana’s father after Bee’s father left her for another man.   The last time Ana saw Bee was many years ago as you can say that Bee and her mother is estranged and her mother kinda prevented Bee from seeing Ana.  

The book focuses on Ana’s attempt to find out more about Bee and why she died the way she did.  The more she discovers, the more she realized that she didn’t know her sister at all and she wished that she did.   *Spoiler alert* Bee actually suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome and guilt which led to her committing suicide and Ana and her friends finally found out why she did so. The book starts with a letter that Bee wrote to Ana and the book ends with the same letter as Ana read it for the first time as their mother kept the letter from Ana for about a year.

I didn't like the fact that Bee committed suicide. It's not something that I believe but yet, I know that it's a common social ills.  I believe that the author attempted to address this issue through this book but I don't think she manages it successfully.  It is very difficult to address such serious issue and I do commend her for it but in my opinion, it wasn't well written. 

Well, it's either that or I just totally misunderstood her intention.  Either way, it's not that bad a book to bring home with you.