There’s no two ways about it, this is a baffling book. Part thriller, sometimes veering wildly towards fantasy, with a heavy dash of romcom and a sardonic kind of farce, it defies convention ... I was hooked from the opening pages ... While the beginning of the novel is a shockingly funny and satisfying story of one woman’s illness, the latter part is confusing and very odd. Perhaps that is Barrett’s point—that life is ridiculous and uncategorisable and doesn’t wrap up with any neat answers. Is Eleanor possessed, or mad, or the only sane person in town? Is her lover a killer? Is there really a disembodied hand scuttling around seeking its revenge? After reading this book, you’ll be none the wiser, but read it you should; it’s laugh-out-loud horrible and perfectly nuts—you’ll never find anything like it again.
Thirtysomething Eleanor Mellett should be ecstatic to have survived breast cancer, but her nipple-less implants make her feel like a freak. On the advice of her doctors, she starts a blog, and her adventures take a turn when Eleanor impulsively accepts a job in remote Talbingo, a town barely big enough to have its own school and whose previous teacher, the beloved Miss Barker, disappeared suddenly and mysteriously ... The blog format makes for a quick read, and Eleanor’s voice is frequently hilarious, even as her world turns crazy, then dangerous. Barrett’s second novel...will delight readers of weird fiction.
Written in Eleanor's snarky, seething voice, this warped gem will throw readers off-balance with its mix of horror and humor ... With her irreverence, pluck and cringe-worthy mess ups, Eleanor often seems like a nonplussed chick-lit heroine who landed in the wrong genre, a deliciously successful gambit ... A raw exploration of grief and illness woven into a more traditional horror story, The Bus on Thursday will chill readers across the board.
The Bus on Thursday, Barrett’s second novel, tackles the absurdity of surviving cancer in a zany, energetic tale that doesn’t quite come off. In a similar vein to Patty Yumi Cottrell’s Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, Barrett’s novel is as highly original in concept and as funny in parts, but lacks the former’s rigour in style and language ... The Bus on Thursday is black and profane in its comedy – scenes of paedophilia are mixed with cupcake baking – and the force of its humour shocks the reader into realising the desperate loneliness of cancer ... however the clipped sentences don’t flow well and the conversational tone frequently veers into a whiny overshare ... Despite its obvious farcical overtones, the cumulative effect is that not enough care has been taken with language or editing.
If you were to put together a British-like romantic comedy with horror overtones together, the end result would be a book a little like The Bus on Thursday. Written in diary-like form as a series of blog posts, the book is about an Australian woman named Eleanor, a primary school teacher, who discovers a lump in one of her breasts ... The Bus on Thursday is a light farce. Yes, it is gooey and disturbing, but it’s also often really, really funny in a darkly comedic kind of way ... if you’re looking for a good, solid read, The Bus on Thursday will more than fit the bill. It isn’t brilliant, and it isn’t the very best book that you’ve read ever.
Eleanor Mellett is in her early 30s, recently single, and in recovery from cancer treatments that have culminated in a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. A support group misfit, Eleanor begins to keep a private blog as a therapeutic gesture. It is through this device that Eleanor’s 'funny-angry' voice, the unchallenged star of this unconventional novel, dictates the reader’s experience of the plot ... Eleanor’s voice is bold, frank, and savagely funny. Her observations about the intersections of cancer culture and the rom-com ideology of a certain kind of 21st-century feminism are so keen as to draw blood ... Narrated by a cybercentury Wife of Bath, this bawdy tale suspends both our disbelief and our scruples.
Australian author Barrett’s frantically original and sometimes overwrought novel traces the breakdown of headstrong young Eleanor Mellett ... Told in a series of blog posts (though at times the conceit is hard to believe), the narrative races and stumbles from one darkly hilarious pratfall to the next, and is recommended for readers who can laugh while cringing.
