The Cactus – Sarah Haywood Review

First of all, I know you should never judge a book by its cover, but can we take a second to appreciate the cover of The Cactus by Sarah Haywood. I love it!

The Cactus follows the life of Susan Green, a 45-year-old Londoner who thinks her life is perfect. Following the loss of her mother and her own impending motherhood, Susan’s life becomes a little bit more complicated.

The Cactus is called as such because of Susan’s love of the succulent plant, as well as her prickly exterior. People who enjoyed the character Eleanor from Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, will also warm to Susan. They both appear to suffer from autism, and both books explain their thought processes well. I have to say though, I found Susan a bit more likeable and instantly warmed to her, whereas it took me a while to warm to Eleanor.

Susan is very funny. There were certain parts of the story that made me laugh out loud and were an absolute joy to read, especially her interaction with her neighbour’s daughter.

Susan starts off rather isolated, but throughout her pregnancy and another event (which I won’t spoil) she lets more people into it. There is friendship and even a little romance in there too! It’s lovely to see those friendships develop, and the friendships at least seemed genuine and progressed at a nice, believable pace. The relationship was a bit cliche and not as realistic I found, but it was only a small portion of the book.

There was a twist at the end that was actually quite clever and unexpected, but all in all this is definitely a feel good book for those who like quirky main characters. Although the storyline differs, I’d recommend it to people who liked Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.

Have you ever read The Cactus by Sarah Haywood? What did you think of it?