Click here to read reviewer Helen Hancox's take on Unpredictable.
Sophie Kintock has found the man of her dreams. Doug is everything she wants – or at least she thinks he is. When he unceremoniously dumps her while she is folding his laundry, she decides that she will do anything to get him back. She undertakes a series of capers to make Doug think he can’t handle life without her, only to find that he has moved on to a new blonde bombshell named Melanie.
In Sophie’s most desperate hour, she meets Nick, a member of a society who is out to prove that psychics aren’t real – and so the basis of a plan forms. Sophie convinces Nick to teach her how fake being a psychic in order to convince Melanie that Doug isn’t the one for her. And so a spiral of hilarity begins – especially when, to Sophie’s delight, she finds out that she has a real talent for fake psychic readings. However, things get much more complicated as her popularity as a psychic begins to grow and she has to decide what she really wants and what really is important in life.
Unpredictable by Eileen Cook is a unique and hilarious addition to the chick lit genre. Cook writes her characters well: Sophie is quirky and creative, but her misguided notions sometimes make her seem rather selfish. Though it is clear that she only wants the person whom she considers to be the love of her life back, she doesn’t seem to take the time to consider that others are affected by what she says and does. It is unclear whether the character grows in this regard by the end of the novel. Despite this quandary, Unpredictable is utterly enjoyable - funny and witty, with Sophie finding herself in increasingly entertaining predicaments and struggling to escape the situations she gets herself into. The fallibility of the characters gives them depth and makes them believable, yet the reader still gets to see the happy fairy-tale ending that is critical to novels of this genre.
One question that is addressed but goes unanswered by the book is the question of whether it is immoral to give fake psychic readings to people. On one hand, it is a downright lie to tell people that you know something of their future when, in reality, you have no more idea of what’s going to happen than they do. On the other hand, for some it gives some comfort and something to look forward to. While Sophie does wrestle with this issue, she seems to be more concerned that her friends disapprove of her psychic persona than the fact that she is misleading people to believe she knows something of their future. In the end, the moral dilemma is never fully resolved.
As a fan of chick lit, I found Unpredictable completely refreshing and fun. It brings together a wonderful story of love with the very unique perspective of the world of psychics. It is a highly enjoyable, laugh-out-loud novel that I would recommend to anyone, young or old, male or female - and I don’t have to be psychic to predict that they would enjoy it!