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Tennis Lessons
You know you're strange and wrong. You've known it from the beginning.
This is the voice that rings in your ears. That worries you never say the right thing and you’re probably a disappointment to your parents. That you’re a far cry from pretty – and your thoughts are ugly too. It says no one will ever like you just as you are.
But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend until your stomach hurts, to feel the first delicious tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the goriness of your ingrowing toenail.
There is a place for you out there. You just need to find it.
TENNIS LESSONS is the unflinchingly honest story of one misfit and her uncertain journey to something like happiness. Stopping by each year along the way, she navigates disastrous dates, dead pets, crashed cars, best friends and lost loves. Susannah Dickey reminds us that we're all a bit weird. And that's just fine.
This is the voice that rings in your ears. That worries you never say the right thing and you’re probably a disappointment to your parents. That you’re a far cry from pretty – and your thoughts are ugly too. It says no one will ever like you just as you are.
But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend until your stomach hurts, to feel the first delicious tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the goriness of your ingrowing toenail.
There is a place for you out there. You just need to find it.
TENNIS LESSONS is the unflinchingly honest story of one misfit and her uncertain journey to something like happiness. Stopping by each year along the way, she navigates disastrous dates, dead pets, crashed cars, best friends and lost loves. Susannah Dickey reminds us that we're all a bit weird. And that's just fine.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 11, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 497 reviews
January 30, 2023
warning: there's nothing about tennis lessons in here. only bits and pieces of someone else's life.
reading this felt like hearing my childhood best friend's life story or even reading my own diary because it's so... personal. it literally has no plot so i don't think everyone will like it, but i loved it SO SO MUCH
reading this felt like hearing my childhood best friend's life story or even reading my own diary because it's so... personal. it literally has no plot so i don't think everyone will like it, but i loved it SO SO MUCH
May 20, 2023
a mundane coming of age story with an edge of melancholy. perfectly captures the cruelty of adolescence and the discomfort of growing up.
Shelved as 'dnf'
February 7, 2020Another DNFed ARC - this wasn’t terrible, I just don’t have the time (or willpower) to finish average books which think they’re saying something profound anymore. 🤷🏼♀️
November 3, 2021
relatable and reassuring in a weird way. felt like i was reliving school, friendships, leaving school and feeling lost which was kind of hard but it ended on a light note :)
April 26, 2020
When I think of certain passages of Tennis Lessons, my cheeks burn and my toes curl with embarrassment, because Susannah Dickey's account of the good, the bad and the ugly of growing up and feeling out of place excruciatingly real.
The book follows the main character from the time she is three years old up until her late twenties, and never flinches away from things we prefer not to talk about, from conversations we were never supposed to hear to dark thoughts we can't unthink, from ingrown toenails to blood clots, from times we were the victim to times when we were the bully.
For me the strongest parts were when she was among her own peers, whether that was with her best friend or the people she outwardly were her friends but were her tormentors. Many teenage girls know about that balance, and whether the reader knows about this first hand or through observation these relationships felt painfully real. Moreover, I challenge anyone not to relate to how it feels to have a joke not land or say the wrong thing at the worst time, as this character so often experiences.
However, her absurd and witty conversations with her friend are funny and heartwarming, as for all the bad luck she has with friends she struck lucky at least once. Similarly, though her parents relationship is fraught, it is clear that they love her so dearly. We watch the character stumble so many times and I genuinely felt for her while reading about unsatisfying to horrific sexual encounters and being completely certain something is wrong with her, and it made me quite emotional then towards the end of the book as she slowly but surely starts to find her place in the world, and starts to find out what it is like to be happy in her own skin.
Not always an easy read, but something you will fly through, cringing and laughing all the way. Dickey is certainly a talent to watch.
The book follows the main character from the time she is three years old up until her late twenties, and never flinches away from things we prefer not to talk about, from conversations we were never supposed to hear to dark thoughts we can't unthink, from ingrown toenails to blood clots, from times we were the victim to times when we were the bully.
For me the strongest parts were when she was among her own peers, whether that was with her best friend or the people she outwardly were her friends but were her tormentors. Many teenage girls know about that balance, and whether the reader knows about this first hand or through observation these relationships felt painfully real. Moreover, I challenge anyone not to relate to how it feels to have a joke not land or say the wrong thing at the worst time, as this character so often experiences.
However, her absurd and witty conversations with her friend are funny and heartwarming, as for all the bad luck she has with friends she struck lucky at least once. Similarly, though her parents relationship is fraught, it is clear that they love her so dearly. We watch the character stumble so many times and I genuinely felt for her while reading about unsatisfying to horrific sexual encounters and being completely certain something is wrong with her, and it made me quite emotional then towards the end of the book as she slowly but surely starts to find her place in the world, and starts to find out what it is like to be happy in her own skin.
Not always an easy read, but something you will fly through, cringing and laughing all the way. Dickey is certainly a talent to watch.
August 3, 2024
this one’s for the weird girls with deep platonic relationships who ask their boyfriends if they still loved them even if they were a worm
January 17, 2023
this is it. this is the one. a book you don't want to lend to anyone because it feels like giving them your diary but are desperate for your friends to experience.
brutally honest and sometimes a bit tmi (this is how i would want my friends to describe me)
i've never read feelings put into words like this - they weren't mine but they could've been. a mother-daughter relationship that reminds me of kind-of-not-quite-but-so-close scenes with my own mum, ones that i think every woman on earth has with her mother, but that are incredibly personal and unique nonetheless.
if you read a single book about sad irish women in their late teens/early twenties make it this one.
brutally honest and sometimes a bit tmi (this is how i would want my friends to describe me)
i've never read feelings put into words like this - they weren't mine but they could've been. a mother-daughter relationship that reminds me of kind-of-not-quite-but-so-close scenes with my own mum, ones that i think every woman on earth has with her mother, but that are incredibly personal and unique nonetheless.
if you read a single book about sad irish women in their late teens/early twenties make it this one.
July 26, 2020
2.5/5
Quality of writing: 3
Plot development: 3
Pace: 2
Characters: 2
Enjoyability: 2
Ease of reading: 3
I really, really, really wanted to like this book. The first 1/4th of Tennis Lessons was actually pretty good but then it somehow went downhill for me. The writing is pretty interesting but it seems like the idea wasn't thought out and polished enough.
Quality of writing: 3
Plot development: 3
Pace: 2
Characters: 2
Enjoyability: 2
Ease of reading: 3
I really, really, really wanted to like this book. The first 1/4th of Tennis Lessons was actually pretty good but then it somehow went downhill for me. The writing is pretty interesting but it seems like the idea wasn't thought out and polished enough.
October 27, 2021
Hmmm. This book begs me to ask myself the question - is it time to leave the ‘emotionally detached intellectual woman in her 20s’ genre behind?
September 2, 2022
2.2/5 🌟
I enjoyed for a while before it stopped being relatable.
I enjoyed for a while before it stopped being relatable.
October 29, 2023
i expected to learn a thing or two about tennis, considering that’s the title of the book. false advertisement.
1/5
1/5
July 31, 2024
Reading this felt almost invasive as the prose is separated into our main character’s age and date of entry, coming across like a personal diary entry. From ages 3 to 29, we are witnessing her weird thoughts, personal traumas, feelings of discomfort, and slow progression in achieving happiness in her platonic and familial relationships. There were moments where I could relate to her, whether that was her concerns or in her awkward interactions with friends and strangers, making me enjoy the book a little bit more. This is a personal coming of age story, reflecting experiences many women face growing up and the harsh realities of becoming an adult.
March 29, 2024
remembering the conversation i had with a literary agent last year about existential womany litfic with very little plot in which she told me that these books are somewhat sarkily referred to within the publishing industry as ‘quiet girl books.’ well if that’s the case the only creatures on earth who can hear the girly in this one are bats and those mice with really enormous ears
July 6, 2022
i read this because i am also taking tennis lessons. there is nothing about tennis lessons here but i loved it.
May 23, 2020
In a roundabout/non-verbatim way, Susie Dickey said: a young female writer pens her coming of age novel before she writes the book she actually wants to write.
This was that best book I've ever read in second person so I'm looking forward to seeing what Dickey does with that voice in the next novel and what it is she has to/wants to say.
This was that best book I've ever read in second person so I'm looking forward to seeing what Dickey does with that voice in the next novel and what it is she has to/wants to say.
July 23, 2020
Tennis Lessons by Susannah Dickey is the Authors debut novel. I found this to be a great surprise as there is an individuality that shines through in the writing and the skill with which the story is told is extremely accomplished. I was really transfixed as the pages rolled past.
This story is told in the second person which is something that I found unusual but worked spectacularly in the delivery of the contents. Our main protagonist does not have a name and is referred to as the 'you' of the second person narrative. This is brilliant as the 'You' only draws the reader in to compare experiences.
Tennis Lessons evolves over the years of our protagonists life from a very young age up until just under thirty. The reader learns of her experiences growing up and the way she develops. All of the good things and the bad things. This is really a no holes barred story and I loved it for that. The awkward experiences that can shape lives. I found myself nodding at some points and squirming at others. I found the times of those teenage school years to be particularly moving. The feelings of never quite fitting in but also being afraid to stand out, and of course the way we feel about our bodies and how they change.
I really adored the protagonist of this story. I found her warm and although sometimes troubled, highly likeable. I was rooting for her throughout to forge her own path. I was sad when this book ended as I could have kept on reading to find out what happened next in her life.
Tennis Lessons is beautifully entrancing and well thought out. I found it to be completely mesmerising and I will be thinking about is for a long time to come. This is a very impactful story and deserves to do well.
This story is told in the second person which is something that I found unusual but worked spectacularly in the delivery of the contents. Our main protagonist does not have a name and is referred to as the 'you' of the second person narrative. This is brilliant as the 'You' only draws the reader in to compare experiences.
Tennis Lessons evolves over the years of our protagonists life from a very young age up until just under thirty. The reader learns of her experiences growing up and the way she develops. All of the good things and the bad things. This is really a no holes barred story and I loved it for that. The awkward experiences that can shape lives. I found myself nodding at some points and squirming at others. I found the times of those teenage school years to be particularly moving. The feelings of never quite fitting in but also being afraid to stand out, and of course the way we feel about our bodies and how they change.
I really adored the protagonist of this story. I found her warm and although sometimes troubled, highly likeable. I was rooting for her throughout to forge her own path. I was sad when this book ended as I could have kept on reading to find out what happened next in her life.
Tennis Lessons is beautifully entrancing and well thought out. I found it to be completely mesmerising and I will be thinking about is for a long time to come. This is a very impactful story and deserves to do well.
May 6, 2020
thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a free copy in return for an open and honest review.
found this coming of age novel interesting as the major character fumbles her way through life in a haze of alcohol and discovery and in some parts funny as we all search for a way in life no matter what mistakes are made.
found this coming of age novel interesting as the major character fumbles her way through life in a haze of alcohol and discovery and in some parts funny as we all search for a way in life no matter what mistakes are made.
June 14, 2020
I was primarily drawn to Tennis Lessons based on the endorsement by Louise O’Neill, author of the stunning decidedly dark narratives Only Ever Yours and Asking For It. Both have complex, flawed yet sympathetic female protagonists at their centres. Raw? Fierce? Shockingly honest? Tennis Lessons was entirely lacking for me in this regard. I was intrigued by the first third, which moves through snatches of time from the female narrator’s third birthday up to her late teens and into her early twenties. Sadly the remaining novel stays with the excruciatingly unpleasant narrator during her self-destructive years but without any sense of her learning anything along the way. It’s just one horrible experience after another with no indication that the narrator has any motivation at all to make things better for herself. I’m sorry to say that I found this to be completely vacuous.
March 17, 2024
this shattered me.
April 10, 2024
3.2⭐️Absolutely zero tennis. Loved it. Louisa Harland narrating the audiobook is brilliant. Make sure you avail yourself of trigger warnings.
January 2, 2021
(3.5) I enjoyed this second-person novel about a young woman who is her own worst enemy, but the title says nothing about it and the cover would have been a turnoff had I not won a signed copy from Mslexia. The story is in short vignettes following ‘you’ from age three to age 28: from the only child of parents in a troubled marriage to an unmotivated student left out by a lot of the popular girls to a reluctant working girl at various dead-end jobs. Her mother is kind to call her a “slow-burner.” Like the protagonists of Stubborn Archivist and little scratch, she’s also still dealing with the psychological fallout of a sexual assault. In the most memorable sequence, . An early prediction for next year’s Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist.
September 30, 2024
Initially I was on board with the weirdness of this girl - it was relatable. But eventually she became too weird, and I lost the connection. And this book insists on relatability by using the second person narration. You, the reader, are the weird girl.
This is yet another novel of a sad, millennial girl. The narrative is pretty is directionless, there is no plot here - more of vignettes of this girl's life - from childhood to young adulthood. It just wasn't good or fresh enough to shine in this oversaturated genre.
I want sad, millenial girls to stretch themselves a bit more and tackle a more robust narrative. But it seems they are just quietly quitting.
This is yet another novel of a sad, millennial girl. The narrative is pretty is directionless, there is no plot here - more of vignettes of this girl's life - from childhood to young adulthood. It just wasn't good or fresh enough to shine in this oversaturated genre.
I want sad, millenial girls to stretch themselves a bit more and tackle a more robust narrative. But it seems they are just quietly quitting.
February 2, 2023
I liked this more than the reviews suggested; I thought it was very cleverly wirtten and loved the darkness underlying but light coming through always, definitely interested in more by this author!
October 11, 2021
I first spotted this book in a bookshop a few months ago. I dawdled over it, read a few pages, put it down, didn’t buy it, never stopped thinking about it, borrowed it from the library, inhaled it in a day.
Tennis Lessons is Susannah Dickey’s debut novel and it’s an accomplished and unique piece of work. Set in Northern Ireland but not obviously so, it’s a coming of age novel written entirely in the second person - not an easy thing to get away with but the author makes it work and it got under my skin.
Our unnamed narrator takes us through her life, from the age of three to twenty nine. In short vignettes, we glimpse her desperate insecurities, her inability to fit in, her awkwardness among her peers and with her parents, and her slowly finding what it means to be happy in your own skin.
There are some uncomfortable sexual scenes that are painful to read, but every bit as excruciating are the interactions with her teenage friends (or frenemies). I defy any woman not to relate to some of it. It’s so funny and moving too, there’s a lot of love in the book, especially in her friendship with Rachael. I adored their quick witted exchanges.
The scalding honesty of Acts of Desperation meets the humour and tenderness of Sorrow and Bliss, I thought this was a super read.
Tennis Lessons is Susannah Dickey’s debut novel and it’s an accomplished and unique piece of work. Set in Northern Ireland but not obviously so, it’s a coming of age novel written entirely in the second person - not an easy thing to get away with but the author makes it work and it got under my skin.
Our unnamed narrator takes us through her life, from the age of three to twenty nine. In short vignettes, we glimpse her desperate insecurities, her inability to fit in, her awkwardness among her peers and with her parents, and her slowly finding what it means to be happy in your own skin.
There are some uncomfortable sexual scenes that are painful to read, but every bit as excruciating are the interactions with her teenage friends (or frenemies). I defy any woman not to relate to some of it. It’s so funny and moving too, there’s a lot of love in the book, especially in her friendship with Rachael. I adored their quick witted exchanges.
The scalding honesty of Acts of Desperation meets the humour and tenderness of Sorrow and Bliss, I thought this was a super read.
May 12, 2023
TW: rape
Habe die Konversation zwischen den zwei besten Freundinnen geliebt! Schmerzhaft relatable
Habe die Konversation zwischen den zwei besten Freundinnen geliebt! Schmerzhaft relatable
Read
August 9, 2023Beautiful 🥹
January 17, 2021
lol like I didn't realise this was in the 2nd person until page 66 and the line
'Your alarm goes off'
and instead of being insular the tense sounds more like I am reading a story to you and that sort of authority feels strange when it should be the author reading a story to the reader, I honestly don't think Dickey thought through the possible complexity of her narrative because there didn't seem to be any 'Weight' to the narrative it was VERY light so we could be dealing with a red herring here but when a second person tense has the ability to 'grip' in a way different to 1st and 3rd TENNIS LESSONS has no hold over the reader instead they almost become the story teller but in a really awful 'you are now responsible for what happens to the main character' way that has ramifications that are too existential and BORING to handle
Where was the slow build up of suffocating ENNUI that this narrative was practically crying out for? That would have saved everything, but then TENNIS LESSONS lacks any identity, the novel is that meme, you know:
child: MOM CAN WE GET A Sally Rooney NOVEL
'mom': WE HAVE A Sally Rooney NOVEL AT HOME
And the novel at home is TENNIS LESSONS.
But okay so Dickey has like really weak control over her own authorial voice because there are threads of different stories within Tennis Lessons like it's just a half-formed Bildungsroman that has no concept of time despite constantly moving forwards, the text informing us of 'our age' from 3 to 27/8, it reads really plainly half the time (dialogue is super trite, like well done for the Bildungsroman but we read books to escape the Banal of the Quotidian!) and the other half is just lazy and confused resulting in the narrative cohesion and structure being unable to pick itself up because within the weird gimmick state of the 2nd person tense there is no sole propeller to provide forward momentum other than the arbitrary shifting of time which Dickey could have presented in line with Absurdist Philosophy to justify and really present the presentation of forced fragmented vignettes but instead the reader is left with the 'weirdo' main character, a 'tag' given to her simply because that is what everyone calls her despite the text never admitting to why she is a weirdo other than 'weirdo' status is 'clearly' qualifiable, as is apparent to Tennis Lessons, if you enjoy listening to 'Riders on the Storm', and I don't know
maybe this is a satire
'Your alarm goes off'
and instead of being insular the tense sounds more like I am reading a story to you and that sort of authority feels strange when it should be the author reading a story to the reader, I honestly don't think Dickey thought through the possible complexity of her narrative because there didn't seem to be any 'Weight' to the narrative it was VERY light so we could be dealing with a red herring here but when a second person tense has the ability to 'grip' in a way different to 1st and 3rd TENNIS LESSONS has no hold over the reader instead they almost become the story teller but in a really awful 'you are now responsible for what happens to the main character' way that has ramifications that are too existential and BORING to handle
Where was the slow build up of suffocating ENNUI that this narrative was practically crying out for? That would have saved everything, but then TENNIS LESSONS lacks any identity, the novel is that meme, you know:
child: MOM CAN WE GET A Sally Rooney NOVEL
'mom': WE HAVE A Sally Rooney NOVEL AT HOME
And the novel at home is TENNIS LESSONS.
But okay so Dickey has like really weak control over her own authorial voice because there are threads of different stories within Tennis Lessons like it's just a half-formed Bildungsroman that has no concept of time despite constantly moving forwards, the text informing us of 'our age' from 3 to 27/8, it reads really plainly half the time (dialogue is super trite, like well done for the Bildungsroman but we read books to escape the Banal of the Quotidian!) and the other half is just lazy and confused resulting in the narrative cohesion and structure being unable to pick itself up because within the weird gimmick state of the 2nd person tense there is no sole propeller to provide forward momentum other than the arbitrary shifting of time which Dickey could have presented in line with Absurdist Philosophy to justify and really present the presentation of forced fragmented vignettes but instead the reader is left with the 'weirdo' main character, a 'tag' given to her simply because that is what everyone calls her despite the text never admitting to why she is a weirdo other than 'weirdo' status is 'clearly' qualifiable, as is apparent to Tennis Lessons, if you enjoy listening to 'Riders on the Storm', and I don't know
maybe this is a satire
February 25, 2020
Thanks to Transworld and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of this title.
I really enjoyed Tennis Lessons; it’s an endearing and strange look at being a young woman, growing up at roughly the same time as I did. Dickey’s prose is lyrical and flows beautifully; she makes several profound statements that make you stop and think. Nothing and everything happens, and having to piece some things together meant I engaged with the novel more, which made it an interesting and arresting reading experience. I would highly recommend it and can’t wait to see what Dickey does next!
I really enjoyed Tennis Lessons; it’s an endearing and strange look at being a young woman, growing up at roughly the same time as I did. Dickey’s prose is lyrical and flows beautifully; she makes several profound statements that make you stop and think. Nothing and everything happens, and having to piece some things together meant I engaged with the novel more, which made it an interesting and arresting reading experience. I would highly recommend it and can’t wait to see what Dickey does next!
April 24, 2023
I should stop reading books based on their covers…
January 18, 2023
this book was so boring. i did not enjoy this at all. it just kind of made me sad.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 497 reviews