Review: All About Ella

Title: All About Ella

Author: Meredith Appleyard

Publisher: 1st September 2021 by Harlequin Australia & MIRA

Pages: 384 pages

How I Read It: ARC book

Genre: women’s fiction, contemporary

My Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

At 70, and widowed, Ella is about to find out that blood is not always thicker than water. A wise and warm-hearted story about aging, family and community for readers of Tricia Stringer and Liz Byrski.

At 70, Ella's world is upended, leaving her at odds with her three adult children, whose attention is fixed more firmly on her money than her ongoing welfare. After an argument with her son Anthony, she flees his Adelaide home for Cutlers Bay, a seaside town on the Yorke Peninsula. There she befriends Angie, a 40-year-old drifter, and becomes an irritant to local cop Zach. He's keen to shift Ella off his turf, because Anthony phones daily, demanding his mother be sent home. And besides, Zach just doesn't trust Angie.

Ella warms to Cutlers Bay, and it warms to her. In a defiant act of self-determination, she buys an entirely unsuitable house on the outskirts of town, and Angie agrees to help make it habitable. Zach is drawn to the house on the clifftop, and finds himself revising his earlier opinions of Ella, and Angie.

A keenly observed story about aging and its inherent vulnerability, about community and chosen family, about how family stressors shape us all, about trust and loyalty, and about standing up for yourself.

My Thoughts

‘I ran a comb through my hair. Who was that old woman in the mirror, scowling back at me? Whoever she was, she was in dire need of a hairdresser. And look at all those wrinkles. There hadn’t been nearly as many a year ago.’

All About Ella is a brilliant book … gosh I enjoyed it! Meredith is part of a group of authors writing tales that involve our aging population and I salute her for shining the spotlight on this undervalued age group. It’s not overly dramatic but packs a punch where it counts with real events and reactions that highlight the vulnerability of the aging and the greed of some families. 

‘What was it I’d hoped for from my eldest son? Acknowledgement that he respected his mother’s right to make decisions about her own life? Some kind of sign that he understood why I might need time to get used to life without a husband and a home? Anything that might have indicated I hadn’t become invisible to my family. That I hadn’t passed my use-by date and become nothing more than a hindrance to them.’

Told from the points of view of three characters - Ella, Angie and Zach - Meredith covers all thoughts and angles seamlessly. You cannot help but admire Ella’s strength of character yet still her need of support and encouragement to stand strong in the face of adversity. Angie and Zach, whilst providing support to Ella, face their own journey and add a real depth to the story as people in their forties and the challenges that come with that age bracket. The town of Cutler’s Bay is a place I’d want to visit as the people exemplify that family do not have to be related - they are the people who are there when you need them most. 

‘I’m entitled to the future I want, not the one you think I should have.’

I just love how this book makes you think, forces you to examine the value we place on our aging population - giving them the support to make their own choices with family to support and not dominate. It really is about acknowledging the pursuit of  purpose and living a meaningful life at any age. Meredith places Seniors at the forefront of this novel and mixes in family greed against independent living. She really highlights these issues and the challenges that face our older population. 

‘On reflection, my life today bore little resemblance to the life I’d been living a year ago. Most of what I’d known about myself no longer applied. I was single, a widow, and without a home to call my own. On top of that, my children were behaving as if I’d become nothing more than a nuisance, getting in the way of them having what they’d decided was rightfully theirs.’

Only recently I read an article about older divorced/single women and the plight of finding themselves homeless at a time of their life when such things should not ideally be an issue. Meredith has written a truly wonderful tale full of lovely characters who speak to the reader as their issues are real and relatable. The reflections on life, relationships and friendship are something I highly recommend people to read about. 

‘I’ve decided the reason these memories pop up is to remind us that we have had lives that were worth living. When you get old, younger people treat you as if you’ve always been old. That you haven’t had a life. That you weren’t young once.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.