Books
Jessica Stanley
Consider Yourself Kissed
The title of Jessica Stanley’s sophomore novel, Consider Yourself Kissed, initially reads as a bit trite, a bit twee. The cover of the novel, with its cartoon bird and cherries, seems to confirm the “women’s fiction” energy the title gives off. The explanation for the title, however, speaks to the overall tone of Stanley’s novel. It is droll, smart and cheekily literary.
“Consider yourself kissed” is the sign-off used by “bad boy” Harald in Mary McCarthy’s The Group, and Stanley’s lovers, Coralie and Adam, adopt the phrase with a knowing wink, using it to bookend exchanges throughout their relationship. This is, at its core, a love story, but it is also much more than that. It’s a thoughtful and evocative portrait of the ups and downs of a romantic partnership over time. It’s incisive political commentary on Brexit-era Britain. It’s a meditation on what it is to be an Australian living in Britain. It’s a deeply moving emotional examination of motherhood and stepmotherhood. And it is also, thank heavens, extremely funny.
Coralie is a 29-year-old Australian copy editor who moves to London to escape a toxic and creepy male boss. Adam is a divorced political journalist with a remarkably likeable four-year-old daughter, Zora. What begins with the flourish of a rom-com meet-cute soon turns into something much deeper, a novel that questions how love can overcome the mundane but nevertheless painful traumas of grief, renovations, sexism at work, child rearing, political disappointment and difficult in-laws, to name a few. Stanley asks, “How could the world with all its inequalities be made fair – when two people who loved each other couldn’t even manage a life?” Fans of Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss and Diana Evans’s Ordinary People will find plenty to enjoy here, as will anyone who’s had to work and parent at the same time.
Stanley’s first novel, A Great Hope, was well received but came out towards the end of the pandemic, garnering minimal press and selling few copies. Nevertheless, Stanley persevered, and the buzz surrounding Consider Yourself Kissed is palpable. This year, Stanley has graced the cover of British book industry magazine The Bookseller and has been endorsed by the likes of Meg Wolitzer, Liane Moriarty and Curtis Sittenfeld. Why the euphoric response to this book and not the other? Luck is part of it; timing too. But really, Consider Yourself Kissed is a novel that enjoys people, that likes them, and this intelligent goodwill saturates the pages. Buy this for yourself and then buy a few more copies for everyone you know.
Text, 368pp, $34.99
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on April 26, 2025 as "Consider Yourself Kissed".
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