28 Questions explores a friendship and eventually a relationship between two young Australian women in the UK. The feelings explored are intense but I tended to feel that I was more than arm’s length away from the characters and their passions. It was like watching a movie from the back row when you’ve forgotten your glasses – sometimes things come into sharp focus, but mostly it’s a bit fuzzy.

The story is told from the first person point of view of Amalia, who leaves Australia to attend Oxford University in the UK to study music. Amalia is a little overawed by it all at first, but soon becomes very close friends with Alex, a fellow Australian who has been at Oxford for longer. The intensity of the friendship is quick and intense. Amalia and Alex feel they can tell each other anything and start to ask each other the big questions. Is this what it takes to fall in love? Both feel their relationship could be romantic, but it’s frustrating for both as they shy away from their feelings the majority of the time. But love isn’t just beautiful, it’s painful, frustrating and confusing especially when you are trying to find your way in the world.

I think my feeling of detachment with the characters stems from the way conversation is written in this novel. It’s written text message or script like, for example:
Me: Hello.
Her: Hi.

The reader can only truly gauge the other characters through Amalia’s interpretation of them. Adding in that Alex is referred to as ‘Her’ throughout adds a layer of ominousness, like Amalia can’t bear to write her name. I felt this way of describing conversation detracted away from the feelings and their intensity of a very close, fraught relationship. The novel does contain big ideas, such as sexuality, career choices, types of love and how superficial many of our conversations with our friends can be. Despite this, it doesn’t come across as preachy or crammed too full of ideas. I think 28 Questions would be excellent on the screen as we could see each character ourselves.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

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Amalia leaves her Australian home to study music in Oxford. She has only just arrived when she meets Alex, another Australia in her third year already. They befriend immediately and spend more and more time together philosophing, questioning life and sharing everything. It is an intense but perfect friendship. Yet, things become complicated when their friendship turns into love. What was easy and carefree suddenly becomes complicated, misunderstanding after misunderstanding, unexpressed and unfulfilled expectations turn the perfect friends into the worst lovers.

“(...) every so often, I come across a new piece of music and getting to know the music kind of feels like falling in love. And the idea of spending my life falling in love over and over again... who wouldn’t want that?”

The title refers to a study by psychologist Arthur Aron which postulates that a certain set of questions can lead to more intimacy and a deeper relationship between people. The protagonist of Indyana Schneider’s novel asks “28 Questions” which actually bring her closer to her first friend, then lover but they cannot help untangle the complications they have to face. It is a kind of college novel about becoming an adult, about love and about identity in an ever more complex world.

“I just don’t get how it’s possible to be such wonderful, compatible friends and so ill suited as lover.”

This is the central question. How can two people being that close, sharing the same ideas and attitudes simply be so incompatible as lovers. They are fond of each other, there are butterflies and they even match physically – but the relationship doesn’t work out. Over years, they have an on/off relationship because they can neither live with nor without each other.

Yet, the novel is not a classic heart-breaking love story. What binds Amalia and Alex is an intellectual love, they get closer over the questions which address core human topics, from social interaction over social categories of identity and the definition of themselves. They grow with each other, reflect upon their convictions and finally enter the real world of adulthood for which they are still not quite prepared.

A wonderfully written, intense novel about love which goes far beyond just being attracted by someone. ( )