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Purchase this book
\n Chosen Family<\/p>\n
Madeleine Gray distils the zeitgeist in her characters and stories. They entertain in a way that makes middle-aged Millennials like myself devour them in a single bed-rotting weekend. I was thrilled when I saw she had followed up her debut novel, Green Dot, with Chosen Family.<\/p>\n
At the centre of the story we have Eve, our lead lesbian, and Nell, her best friend and soulmate. The book tracks the iterations of their relationship and lives over the course of 18 years, from when they met at school and became enmeshed, through betrayal, estrangement, reunion, co-parenting, unrequited desires and heartbreak. The novel oscillates in time between 2024 and 2006, weaving the tapestry of their heart-wrenching relationship.<\/p>\n
Gray colours in her leading ladies as the reader\u2019s allegiances are questioned. Along the way we meet Tae and Marcus, the gay besties Eve never had in school, who form the basis of her new life at university, and Lake, Eve and Nell\u2019s charmingly precocious daughter who Eve carries, getting pregnant first go with Marcus\u2019s sperm and a turkey baster. Eve\u2019s mother, Emerald, is a largely absent single parent, more interested in finding a date and a glass of chardonnay than in her daughter. There\u2019s also a bitch from school named Naomi, whom you recognise at first glance with a shiver.<\/p>\n
Gray explores the intensity of formative friendship, and how both cruelty and resilience emerge from being an outsider at\u00a0high school. In a scene where Nell rejects Eve, Gray writes: \u201cEve wants to cry, she can feel the tears welling. Instead she gathers up all her strength, and she starts laughing too. Nell is not meeting her eyes, but Naomi is. And Naomi\u2019s eyes are saying, \u2018I see you, Lesbian.\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n
Nell\u2019s betrayal is the pivot that determines Eve\u2019s life as she moves through and on from school. \u201cShe will wait out the rest of high school as a ghost. She will read, she will learn, she will watch. She will bide her time until she enters a place where she can be recognised as she is. She will find her people. In a few years Nell will not recognise the person Eve has become.\u201d Eve subsequently inverts the power dynamic between the two, toying with Nell\u2019s affections and punishing her for her original betrayal.<\/p>\n
Gray\u2019s modern-day love story is as Shakespearean as its current moment. She asks whether we can forgive and whether love does actually conquer all. To my delight, she gives us an answer. Keep your tissues handy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Simon & Schuster, 368pp, $34.99<\/p>\n
\n This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on
\n October 11, 2025 as “Chosen Family”.<\/p>\n
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\n Chosen Family<\/p>\n
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