"Intergenerational differences are swept aside in this entertaining dual-time frame story of coming to joyous understandings through mother-daughter misunderstandings."
August 2025 Debut of the Month
Laugh-out-loud hilarious and smartly pitched for younger YA readers, Gill Sims’ Lila Mackay Is Very Misunderstood is sure to make those on the cusp of their teenage years feel totally understood. Fabulously funny and filled with empathy as it relates a 14-year-old’s frustrations and MASSIVE CRINGE moments, it’s sure to strike a powerful chord with tweenagers and oldies alike, as Emily comes to realise that she and her mum might not be so different after all…
“I am only fourteen years old, and my mother hates me. She must hate me, because why else would MY OWN MOTHER purposely, selfishly, cruelly set out to ruin the life of her only daughter”. In this case, Emily’s mum is ruining her life by forcing her daughter to spend the holidays with her best friend Tom while she goes on a residential writing course. As a result, Emily is forced to take a Train of Doom away from the boy she’d been hoping would ask her out.
While Uncle Tom is pretty cool, and in the process of doing up a Brontë-esque rectory Emily should adore, given her love of Wuthering Heights, Emily is absolutely certain she will have absolutely NO FUN whatsoever. But then, after finding her mum’s diaries from the ancient 1990’s, and discovering a world of Wonderbra worries, reading Cosmo and shopping in River Island and Top Shop, along with her mum’s parental woes and aspirations, Emily gradually comes to the shocking conclusion that they might have more in common that she could ever have imagined.
Super-readable and eminently entertaining, Emily’s present-day narrative and her mum’s diaries combine to create a relatable account of coming-of-age issues that affect pretty much everyone, with Uncle Tom’s warmth and wisdom adding to the gloriously feelgood vibe.
