American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple recently removed her music from TikTok, allegedly in response to the growing popularity of the ‘manic, sad girl’ trend. Her songs had become anthems for self-professed ‘femcels’, a growing cohort of Gen-Z users who find solace in the morose. They embrace the Tumblr-esque aesthetic of the chaotic and messy young woman. Their idols include Fleabag and the Lisbon sisters. Their playlists are incomplete without Lana Del Rey. You get the idea.

Susannah Dickey’s sophomore novel ‘Common Decency’ manages to explore female pain, whilst transcending the reductive ‘sad girl’ trope. We follow the lives of Lily and Siobhan, two women living in Benson Tower, a fictional apartment block in an otherwise very real Belfast. Their lives run parallel, but there are moments in which their worlds collide in unexpected ways. It’s simultaneously dark and deeply funny, as Dickey captures the neuroses of her protagonists with acute (and painfully relatable) attention to detail. 

Crucially, this is a novel that prioritises character over plot. Dickey’s writing seeks to illuminate the inner worlds of her troubled protagonists, without giving too much in the way of a narrative structure. Siobhan is having an affair with a married academic, each encounter leaving her emotionally annihilated. Lily has lost her mum, and her existence continues, much to her chagrin. I particularly admired Dickey’s raw portrayal of grief, as Lily keeps her mother’s memory alive through her internal monologue. The past and present bleed together through her recollections; she drinks tea with her mother, they watch tennis, she sits by her hospice bed. Dickey writes these scenes without sentimentality, but anyone who has experienced a similar situation will be left aching. 

Dickey’s voice is singular and striking, as she captures the experiences of her millennial protagonists with deft attention to detail. Her predilection for visceral imagery is particularly effective when exploring themes of pain, both physical and emotional, and how mental anguish can affect our corporeal form. Finger nails, flesh and bodily fluids are all part of the DNA that make up this book. Fans of Ottessa Moshfegh will appreciate these moments, in all their grisly glory.

As the novel is set in Northern Ireland, many reviewers have commented on the lack of engagement with the Troubles and its legacy. This critique suggests that Northern Irish authors have a duty to carry the weight of our country’s complex history, which is not entirely fair. Dickey resists the impulse to explore identity politics, but still manages to paint a realistic picture of modern Belfast, through the lens of millennial experience. 

This is one of my favourite reads of the year. Star ratings are arbitrary but for the record, I'd give Common Decency a spirited and juicy five out of five!