'An emotionally charged novel of female friendship, for readers of Elena Ferrante and Diana Reid.
''When we spoke, I never knew what Olive would reveal to me. There were nights where she would lie next to me and pour herself out into the darkness, and others where it seemed she was hardly there at all.'
'Millie is in her final year at a Catholic girls' school, subdued by the conformity of her life and her parents' quiet pain. But when her schoolmate Olive moves in next door, it marks the beginning of an intoxicating friendship that changes everything. In all the ways Millie feels unsure and half-formed, Olive, an aspiring actor from a devoutly Catholic family, seems at ease with her place in the world.
'On the precipice of freedom, the two young women seize nights out and a school retreat as opportunities to further their own increasingly uncertain ends. Olive urges Millie on in her sexual encounters, but Millie is only becoming more consumed by Olive. When they're not staying up all night talking, they're watching each other from their bedroom windows - their selves are becoming blurred, their lives intimately mirrored.'
That makes it all the more excruciating when, seemingly out of nowhere, Olive cuts off all contact. For all her efforts, Millie cannot understand what's changed between them. Has she missed something? Or was their friendship, for Olive, just another performance?
An emotionally charged novel of expectation, compulsion and desire, Lead Us Not charts the unseen currents of tension and control that shape a friendship. (Publication summary)
'What happens when a friend ghosts you and you have no idea why?'
'Debut Spotlight: Abbey Lay’s debut novel joins a rich canon of literature that explores the complexity of intimacy between young women. The exhilirating possibilities of adolescence buzz through this suburban-set Australian coming-of-age story.' (Introduction)
'A few years ago, I had a crush on my best friend. I remember the panic, of beginning to suspect that these feelings might be something more than friendship, the desperate need to pretend that I wasn’t falling in love with someone who was then presenting as the same gender. I remember the tension and the yearning, the way that they became the centre of my universe and later I the centre of theirs.' (Introduction)
'Reading Abbey Lay’s debut novel, I was beset by a case of déjà vu. The narrative follows protagonist Millie, a smart but insecure teenager who develops an obsession with her thespian classmate Olive. Their relationship is saturated in unease – there is always a sense that something important is not being said. At sleepovers they philosophise about sex, intimacy and self-knowledge, and at school they ignore each other. Eventually Olive ghosts Millie, and Millie cannot for the life of her work out why. She wraps herself in self-pity and refuses to see the obvious truth.' (Introduction)
'Reading Abbey Lay’s debut novel, I was beset by a case of déjà vu. The narrative follows protagonist Millie, a smart but insecure teenager who develops an obsession with her thespian classmate Olive. Their relationship is saturated in unease – there is always a sense that something important is not being said. At sleepovers they philosophise about sex, intimacy and self-knowledge, and at school they ignore each other. Eventually Olive ghosts Millie, and Millie cannot for the life of her work out why. She wraps herself in self-pity and refuses to see the obvious truth.' (Introduction)
'A few years ago, I had a crush on my best friend. I remember the panic, of beginning to suspect that these feelings might be something more than friendship, the desperate need to pretend that I wasn’t falling in love with someone who was then presenting as the same gender. I remember the tension and the yearning, the way that they became the centre of my universe and later I the centre of theirs.' (Introduction)
'Debut Spotlight: Abbey Lay’s debut novel joins a rich canon of literature that explores the complexity of intimacy between young women. The exhilirating possibilities of adolescence buzz through this suburban-set Australian coming-of-age story.' (Introduction)
'What happens when a friend ghosts you and you have no idea why?'
