I want to move on from now. I want to grasp the future that is available to me and stop fixating on what I've done. I'm not alone, I've never been alone; I just had the wrong idea of what loneliness meant. I want to stop pretending I believe what I've been taught happiness is: I have to find out for myself.” My feed is full of photos, so many that they don’t all load at once. One by one, my phone presents me with different areas of the world lit up purple, blurred from how hastily the users took the photos. Most of them are too grainy to make out, but I find a gif someone’s posted of the star shooting across the sky. I watch it on repeat, each time feeling like something inside me is tearing apart. If you say so, but I think you should drink again,’ Dan teases me. He always teases me; it’s part of how he shows affection. I could totally relate to Sally Rooney’s protagonists even though I am a couple of years older. It was much harder for me to sympathise with Sophie as she is much too passive and has made herself comfortable in lamenting her situation without doing something against it. Her best friend accuses her of being selfish and arrogant, an opinion I would agree with. She is too self-involved to notice others and pathetically cries over and over again.

None of This Is Serious by Catherine Prasifka | Goodreads None of This Is Serious by Catherine Prasifka | Goodreads

If I can’t think thoughts for myself, at least I can consume those of others, and regurgitate them if anyone asks. Dublin student life is ending for Sophie and her friends. They’ve got everything figured out, and Sophie feels left behind as they all start to go their separate ways. She’s overshadowed by her best friend Grace. She’s been in love with Finn for as long as she’s known him. And she’s about to meet Rory, who's suddenly available to her online.

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Grace says, ‘Yeah, but he messages you all the time, he’s not fair. You actually just can’t trust men.’ Certainly, our friendships say a great deal about who we are as people. Those with whom we keep company are reflections of ourselves. In this case, I think that Grace is a reflection of who Sophie is to herself. She is often times condescending, & rude, but is ultimately set on seeing something come of all the grunge that takes place on the daily. Grace is simultaneously someone who comes across as being ‘too much’ & ‘not enough’ which is fascinating given that every other character in this book fits snuggly into one only category. Sophie’s parents were never enough, they abandoned their child whilst she lived in their home. Every other member of Sophie’s friend group is too much themselves to be very much of anything for anyone else. Balancing visions of the apocalypse with a Gen-Z everywoman’s daily grind, None of This is Serious is an astute portrayal of how the minutiae of our personal lives inevitably loom larger than global issues.

None of this is Serious | Catherine Prasifka | 9781838855529 None of this is Serious | Catherine Prasifka | 9781838855529

None of this is Serious is a celebration of just how wonderful the world is but also just how strange modern life can really be. Delving into the amazing truth of having worldwide connection at your fingertips - but the dangers that come with it too. The mental anguish that seeing polished, curated social media feeds can cause and of course how easily the internet can become a rumour mill. In None of this is Serious we meet Sophie. A 22-year-old University graduate who is job hunting, living at home with her parents in Dublin, feels more at ease in the cyber world than the real one and is more than a little lost. She spends an inordinate amount of time online – she has a true addiction.God, you look like a drowned rat, come in come in come in, I didn’t even notice this rain starting.’ She pushes me through the door. ‘Need a drink?’ Look,’ she says, ‘I need to tell you something. I just heard it, and I don’t want you to be upset or anything, and I didn’t invite her, by the way, it just happened, but I thought I definitely had to be the one to tell you. But finish peeing first, please.’ None of This Is Serious is about the uncertainty and absurdity of being alive today. It’s about balancing the real world with the online, and the vulnerabilities in yourself, your relationships, your body. At its heart, this is a novel about the friendships strong enough to withstand anything. I inhaled None of This Is Serious. I’ve been waiting for a fictional story that reflects the all-consuming influence that the Internet has on my life. None of This Is Serious is that story. A compulsively readable, fresh and painfully accurate description of the way we live now. Don’t let the title fool you. It is serious. Seriously good’

None of This Is Serious by Catherine Prasifka | Goodreads

None of this is Serious is not always an easy read but I binged it. If you’ve ever been in a toxic relationship, or are a woman who has been on the receiving end of any kind of sexual harassment, or ever used social media to drown out reality, or ever felt alone and confuse about your place in the world, you’ll resonate. I need him, like this, right now. The problem is I can't need him any more. I don't want to stop being with him, but I can't be with him.” Someone says, ‘Why do you girls always have to make these things so political? You can feel however you want about your tampons, right?’ With the constant hate that Sophie purports for herself, it is not inconceivable to see her pursue relationships with people with whom she might be better off without. Within the opening chapter of this book, I became intrigued by Sophie’s character & wanted to see her experience a happy existence. It was troubling to see her forgive Finn for his disconnect because that is what she is familiar with experiencing. I applaud the author here once again for rendering these invisible relationships so accurate, so real. Every character within this story was as authentic as the people we walk alongside every single day.

However, many of the interactions between characters on these subjects feel rehearsed and flat. Of course, this is part of the point – these are characters who have reiterated their complaints to each other time and again. What sometimes hinders these moments is a too-fleeting glance at the topics at hand, so that they feel like the Cliff’s Notes version of night-out banter. of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars None of This Is Serious by Catherine Prasifka Catherine Prasifka, as it happens, is the sister-in-law of the author-who-shall-not-be-named. A standing ovation, then, to her and her publicity team for admirably resisting the temptation to ask Rooney for a blurb or even mentioning the connection in the marketing materials of Prasifka’s debut novel. Fortunately, [Prasifka] doesn’t need any sprinkling of Rooney’s fairy dust; she makes her own magic. In the seriously good None of This is Serious, the 26-year-old author conveys what it’s like to be a young woman today navigating life in Dublin and online … She is an astute observer of the social dynamics of her generation” Ultimately, this is not negative or positive, it simply is a style of presenting the extremities that exist within ourselves & within the world around us. When we are well-placed we find the world can be a kind place. When we are on the wrong foot, our heels snap & our bones are forever tender to a misstep. With every phrase this story crafts a tale as stark as the ripple in the sky over Ireland. Does anything matter when the world is coming to an end? Can we focus on any one particularly serious matter in hopes that it results in being more than it is?