I have really enjoyed Shappi Khorsandi's previous work, and so I was excited to be given the opportunity to read new her novel early. I knew very little about Emma before reading this, and I adored how it drew on real events and brought them into the modern world. A super book that will help begin some important conversations with younger readers.

Emma is desperate to leave school and get a job so she can start making money and help her and her mum move out of her nans cramped flat and into one of their own. But when she’s scouted on the street and promised a life of fame and money based off her good looks, she thinks all her Christmases have come at once.

I absolutely adored Shappi Khorsandi’s debut novel, Nina is Not Okay, and had high hopes for Kissing Emma too. Unfortunately, I’m a bit torn about this book.

On the plus side, this has a really good message about the warning signs of grooming. It highlights the scams out there for modelling and the sleazy men preying on young girls. It talks about the beauty industry and the pressure on young girls to look good, and that their worth is apparently linked to their appearance.

The thing that I found most unrealistic is that Emma was telling her mother and her mother’s best friend about the experiences she was having and they were just like ‘well if you think he’s a good guy’ or ‘don’t do anything to upset him, we need the money.’ And like…. There were MAJOR red flags in every little detail and they just did nothing at all. None of the adults actually acted like adults.

But, that being said, I still do think it has a worthwhile message and highlights some very important topics that need to be discussed more in YA. 3 stars from me, and I’ll still be looking out for more of Shappi Khorsandi’s work.

The third part of the Bellatrix Collection, Kissing Emma takes inspiration from real life events and brings it up to a modern audience with style.

Kissing Emma by Shappi Khorsandi is a Young Adult novel published by Orion Children’s Books that is part of the BELLATRIX collection. This collection of books which also includes Kit de Waal’s Becoming Dinah and Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Deathless Girls was launched by Hachette Children’s Group. “In literature and in life, women of the past and present have a million stories that are untold, mis-told or unheard,” Hachette Children’s Group explained. In response, they proudly launched BELLATRIX “a new collection of gripping, powerful and diverse young adult novels by leading female voices. From gothic to thriller to romance to funny, each book is entirely unique, but linked by a passion for telling her whole story.”

Shappi Khorsandi’s novel, Kissing Emma is the third novel in the BELLATRIX series and it inspired by the real and untold story of Emma Hamilton, Lord Nelson’s lover and mistress. Unlike the historical Emma, Khorsandi’s Emma lives in the modern-day and gets her happy ending by sticking her middle fingers up to all the men who wish to use her, and instead of going her own way in life.

The novel touches briefly on the real-life Emma Hamilton with stories told by one of the characters, and a further history is outlined by Shappi Khorsandi in the Author’s Notes at the very end of the book for those readers who are interested in the person who inspired the main character of Kissing Emma.

The fictional Emma Hamilton is a teenage girl growing up in a contemporary world that is still obsessed with looks, money, and status (especially when it comes to the female portion of the population.) Emma and her mother and down on their luck, struggling for money and finding themselves sleeping in her Nan’s living room after events force them to leave their own flat.

Emma struggles with her family, money issues, and school where girls are bitchy to her and where the boys only seem to be interested in her looks. She is already contemplating quitting school altogether to start earning money sooner – to finally escape her cramped living conditions – when she meets two men who convince her they can give her a modelling career.

Their motives, however, are far from innocent and she finds herself dragged into a dark world where she no longer feels in control. Then, she meets Con, a rich, handsome, romantic man. Has her luck finally changed or will Emma forge her own way in life?

Shappi Khorsandi’s novel is a brilliant read for teenagers and adults alike, with a compelling and gripping storyline, a cast of characters with deep and intriguing personalities (not all good and not all bad). This modern fable charts the rise and fall of a young, beautiful woman – much like the real Emma Hamilton – as she learns to live on her wits, looks, and talents of acting.

Kissing Emma explores a variety of important themes and issues including; domestic violence, the cycle of poverty and self-fulfilling prophecy, the darker side of being an Instagram Influencer, racism, class prejudice, and relationships. It is reminiscent of Jacqueline Wilson’s YA fiction in the way it explores these important topics that may impact the lives of many teenagers reading it.

Kissing Emma by Shappi Khorsandi is brilliantly written – much like her début novel Nina Is Not OK – and the story not only makes for a great reader but will likely inspire many readers to research the life of the real Emma Hamilton, and perhaps many other women like her who have been down-trodden or forgotten by history.

I knew very little about Emma Hamilton before I read this book, but it's easy to see how her story inspired Khorsandi- and how little has changed for women without money or status in the intervening 300 years.
I have ordered a copy of this book for the Library where I work, as I know from experience that our students are vulnerable to the type of abuse that Emma suffers in the novel- 'boyfriends' who offer gifts and money then start to make demands, trolls who tear women apart, and families who are determined to use their children to their own advantage. I appreciated the way the novel didn't downplay the impact that failed friendships have on young people- to adults they might seem less concerning than Emma's relationships with older men, but Emma's friends are her anchors and her self-esteem plummets when they abandon her. Emma frequently finds herself homeless and rarely eats a proper meal- her school attendance suffers and she is effectively written off by staff who should support her. This is a very realistic portrayal of a modern teen in poverty- one with a unique voice and irrepressible charm, who strives to take others with her as her star rises.

I really enjoyed Shappi Khorsandi’s Nina in Not OK a few years ago, so I was excited to have the opportunity to read her first novel for young adults, Kissing Emma. It is part of Hachette Children’s Book’s Bellatrix collection, which focuses on the untold, mis-told or unheard stories of women in literature and life.

The book begins with the kind of opening line that immediately pulls you in: “When your mum has been all over the internet, accused of murdering your dad, well, life changes.” We learn how Emma and her mum have been living in fear of her dad for years, but they are now finally free of him. However, with rumours flying that Emma’s mum is a murderer, the estate turns against them and they’re forced to move into Emma’s nan’s crowded house, where they sleep on the sofa. Emma and her mum begin desperately trying to make money in any way they can to find a way out and a place of their own.

Inspired by the untold story of Emma Hamilton, Lord Nelson’s mistress, this is a difficult read at times. Emma’s low socio-economic status, her good looks, her desperate need for money and her difficult start in life living with her abusive father result in her being taken advantage of time and time again. The book explores abusive relationships, sexual assault, coercive control, alcoholism and the darker side of social media and ‘Insta fame’.

However, Emma never truly loses hope in the book, which made me keep turning the pages even when it felt like things were getting worse and worse for her. This hope sometimes leads her to be too trusting, especially of the men in her life, but she never loses the ambition or the belief her mum instilled in her at a young age that she would be able to do better and that something good was coming. Shappi Khorsandi gives Emma the happy ending she needs in this retelling, allowing her and her mum to break free and find the independence Emma has been striving for.

A high school romance, supposed to be feminist but not really realistic - about poverty, domestic violence and social discrimination. Maybe transposing the life of an 18-century lady into a 21-century teenage girl isn't easy, and some things don't work.

The writing is quite compelling though and I kept reading because I wanted to know what would happen to Emma, but she just makes the same mistakes over and over again before finally breaking the circle - we don't really know how or why.

The subject is greatly important, but maybe it needed a more serious treatment and a couple more hundred pages to really develop. In the Bellatrix series, I'd rather recommend "The Deathless Girls" by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, much more magical and intriguing.

Loosely based on the life of Lady Hamilton (Amy Lyon).

The cover caught my eye of this book and after reading the cover, I went in search of more information about the historical Emma Hamilton. After reading a brief bio, I was ready to read an updated homage to this interesting character.
I found Kissing Emma to be an accurate and disheartening representation of current stories you hear time and time again in the news: young people caught up in a spiral of poverty, addiction and/or domestic violence with very few positive options to escape.

Emma lived with her mum and dad .
"For a long time, I wondered why God didn't bless Sheila with kids. How could he have looked at lovely, kind Sheila and gone. 'Nope. Not trusting you with a baby, ' but then looked at my dad and thought, 'He's fine, he can have one'?"

3% into this book and its already apparent Emma's dad is proper scary. A violent unpredictable thug who takes out his frustrations on the most vulnerable - his family - but is naturally the best mate going.

After her dad's unfortunate but welcomed death he's remembered by friends as :
"...a good man.
Solid. Never backed out of a fight"

Emma is increasingly ostracized at school which doesn't help her home situation. She no longer terrorised, under the threat of violence but she's not happy, secure or safe.

Poverty makes you desperate. Desperation takes you to places you wouldn't intentionally go.

Essentially Kissing Emma, is about searching for love, a home to call her own and finding herself. This is a difficult task for Emma, as while there are role models around her, they're ones with low aspirations. Those who seek more in life, are not part of Emma's family unit and so she's not interested in listening to them. Meaning that it's easy for Emma to make impulsive often poor decisions and unfortunately suffer the consequences.

It is sad but relatable to see Emma running so far and fast away from her past, making choice after choice that will ultimately prove disastrous. Repeating the patterns of her mum, in her need to find someone to love, somewhere to belong.

Kissing Emma, clearly illustrated grooming techniques and the different presentation of predators. How it can be obvious and edgy or sophisticated and lightly done. It revealed that when your manipulated, you can find yourself degraded in the pursuit of connection, material goods or security.

There's nothing sexy about being coerced into something you don't want to do, because it makes someone else happy.
It's a cliché, but if you don't know yourself, value yourself, then you run the risk of others taking advantage, then liberties, until you cease to exist as an individual and become an extension of another.

As downbeat as the subject matter was, I wouldn't say that Emma had hope and that kept her going. It was more that she didn't lose her trustful nature, she got knocked down, got back up again and tried again. I'm not sure if that's resilience or stupidity.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"
Albert Einstein

In summary, reading this book made me further despair of this age of influencers and reality TV celebs, who want to be rich and famous but have no discernible skill or ability. Being good looking naturally, via surgery or the short-term fix of Adobe Photoshop, FaceApp and Instagram filters is not a job. How and why would you get fulfilment from influencing is baffling to me. But I'm old and supremely grateful that social media wasn't around when I was growing up. I still don't understand how people proport that they're empowered by being on sites like Only Fans, not realising the exploitative nature of this business, which is par for sex work. It's not the punters or workers who are getting rich.

It's easy for the reader to forget with all that's she's been through and what she's doing that Emma is a child. She's 16 year old and she shouldn't have to think about STDs, coercion, domestic violence, let alone experience them.

I haven't mentioned Emma's mum (who I couldn't like despite her poor attempts at doing the best she could) or the various cast of characters who were a good support of real personalities living in inner city London, because this review is long enough as it is. Suffice to say, I found them and the situations they were in believable.

Kissing Emma was thought provoking, concerning and a must read to see the intersections and ramifications of low educational achievement, domestic violence, and poverty. A real peek into the challenges of modern urban living for a significant number of families.

My thanks to NetGalley, author and publisher for a copy of this book in return for a candid review.

Would love to be able to read but can’t as no send to kindle option (my kindle is too basic for netgalley app)