This month’s Angels Book Club pick was Untold Story by Monica Ali. An intriguing concept, the story explores the possibility that Diana, Princess of Wales faked her own death and escaped to America to begin a new life, with a new identity, away from the paparazzi and pressure. (Although the story never explicitly states that it is Diana, it is clear from the clues in the story that this is who Lydia is based on.)  The story is told from three points of view; from the third person as we follow Lydia in her new life working at a dog shelter, again from the third person through a paparazzo who is in America writing a book to be released for the 10^th anniversary of Diana’s death (and who also falls in love with Lydia) and from the point of view of Diana’s former aid, who helped her to carry out the escape plan (referred to as their ‘little plan’) and who is also supposed to be composing a book shortly after her ‘death’. Instead, he finds himself composing a diary the whole affair, in an effort to get it off his chest before his life is taken by a brain tumour. The narrative then moves in a third person perspective between Lydria and the paparazzo.

Although the book received mixed reviews from our members, these were unfortunately mainly negative with only one member really enjoying it.  It was felt that although the characters were interesting, they were also unrealistic. The concept itself was felt to be too unbelievable, our readers unable to get into the book due to this. Members said that they felt that the narrative was flat, with no passion. Sadly, this put them off reading other books by Monica Ali, which is a shame as some had already read Brick Lane and enjoyed it, feeling that Untold Story was not a true representation of what this author was capable of. Besides this, some members personally felt that it was wrong to write this story, believing it to be inappropriate and possibly upsetting for Diana’s family. (Again, it is never mentioned in the story that it is based on Diana, although it is explicit from the content.) It is also interesting that we held our book club meeting during the same week that the controversial movie ‘Diana’ was released, which added to our discussion.

Feeling that Diana should be let be and disappointed with the general story, the Angels book club has awarded Untold Story with 4/10.