Book Club - Nina Kenwood’s Unnecessary Drama

Final Draft - Great Conversations

I have been having a tremendous amount of fun with my reading lately. It’s a necessary evil of what I do that there’s often more than one book on the go and while this presents some challenges in keeping it all straight in my head, it also means that I can lean into the book that most fits my mood on the day.

Today I’m going rom-com because after finally seeing a bit of sun over the weekend it’s looking like the rain and cold might be setting in again. And so what better to remind us that despite the rain there’ll be sun again than a genre that always has the sun come out at the end.

Nina Kenwood’s Unnecessary Drama is the exact right balance of the aforementioned drama and dappled sunshine to see me through till the next five minutes of spring.

As Brooke arrives in Melbourne and into her first share house she is ready for life. She’s planned for every eventuality and has a list to back up her plan in case the worst still happens.

Best of all she’s hours away from her hometown and everyone who knows she’s the sensible, listmaking girl. Even better, she's a whole world away from her old life and THE event that defined her whole life in high school.

Yep, Brooke is really going to make something of her new life. That is until she meets her new housemate Jesse and suddenly high school comes rushing back to find her.

I don’t think Unnecessary Drama is trying to hide its intentions when it throws Brooke and Jesse together in the same share house. In fact I know it’s not trying to hide it as we are privy to Brooke’s cripplingly anxious POV as she tries to navigate this seeming;y impossible situation.

Instead Unnecessary Drama does what it says on the box, or more appropriately it challenges the notion of the aforementioned unnecessary drama.

The title comes from one of the few and ill defined house rules that Brooke, Jesse and Harper live by: no pets, no house romance, and no unnecessary drama. The idea of unnecessary drama is so loose that it sends Brooke spiraling wondering at how she might break it while at the same time we learn about Jesse’s past misdeeds and it left me wondering if Brooke’s drama might be necessary after all.

Unnecessary Drama is full of people and behaviors that are really not ok. More than the bad behaviors is the quiet acceptance that allows them to flourish.

In Brooke we meet a character who is simultaneously loving and cripplingly anxious. She wants so much to care for others that she blinds herself to what she actually needs (and ends up putting up with a lot of shit along the way). Brooke’s so afraid of unnecessary drama that she avoids all drama and really a little bit of drama would do her the world of good.

So as readers we’re left to wonder; if rom-com conventions tell us that Brooke and Jesse will be thrust together how can we overcome our distaste at Jesse’s misdeeds?

What is acceptable behavior? What is forgivable?

It’s really terrific to explore these behaviors and as we watch the inevitable love mishaps question whether the outcome we think we want is the right one.

The phrase Know Your Worth is absolutely relevant here and I’m not sure how much we’re spinning Lizzo here on 2ser but I reckon Brooke could do with rinsing 2Be Loved until she takes that message to heart.

I’m going to say stuff the weather and prescribe Nina Kenwood’s Unnecessary Drama for everyone’s weekends, whether it’s reading on the beach or under the doona in the cold November rain.