Pandemic related entertainment is a very slippery slope, to say the least. We’re still in the pandemic, after all, and unless it’s something academic that actually teaches us something, most of us aren’t really in the mood to contemplate what life was like in early 2020. Been there, done that, wasn’t fun at all.
Several TV shows have tried and mostly failed — from Love in the Time of Corona, to Connecting — to reach audiences with pandemic-centered stories. I wasn’t exactly sure a book built on the same premise could entertain me. And I was sure it couldn’t make me care. But I tip my cap to Beth Reekles, because Lockdown on London Lane is actually …a great deal of fun.
Yes, I said fun. There isn’t anything heavy about Lockdown on London Lane, despite the setting being one that all of us will find very familiar. The book doesn’t focus on the pandemic aspect, even if it does make some of the same jokes we used to make when we were young and innocent. Instead, the book is about people, about connections, and about how in the end, especially in the world we live in, it all comes together.
In many ways, reading the book reminded me of Season 1 of Modern Love. Both explored separate stories that were important, and unique. All those stories were, of course, all leading somewhere. But it was never about that. It was about the journey, about the message. Never about the destination.
Like in any good story, every one of the individual storylines has an arc and a point to it. Even if the point was somehow driven home by the way they all come together.
But no story, no individual drama is about anything other than — well, that individual drama. This works very well not just as a storytelling device but also as a microcosm of a pandemic that we’ve all experienced together, but that in no way, shape or form takes away from our individual issues. One shared global experience doesn’t mean we all have to reach the same, or that our journeys are similar.
I, of course, had my favorite from the five stories this book presents. It was to be expected of a book that explores different groups of people quarantining together. You probably will too, and chances are it won’t be the same as mine. That’s not just okay, it’s the way it’s mean to be, the reason the book works. We all find comfort in different things, after all.
And strangely enough, I found comfort and laughter in Lockdown on London Lane. Perhaps the written word is better suited to tackle this pandemic than TV is. Maybe it’s just better to read about it than to see it. Or maybe Reekles just found a way to make this topic charming that no one else had figured out before. Either way, I picked up this book not expecting to get here, or to be saying this but this one’s absolutely worth it if you just want a quick, easy, fun read.
Considering the aforementioned pandemic, that’s truly all I needed.
Lockdown on London Lane is available wherever books are sold. You can check out the synopsis for the book below:
For the inhabitants of London Lane, a simple slip of paper underneath each of their doors is about to change their lives in a hundred different ways.
URGENT!!! Due to the current situation, building management has decided to impose a seven-day quarantine on all apartment buildings on London Lane.
With nowhere else to go . . .
Ethan and Charlotte wonder whether absence really does make the heart grow fonder when they end up on either side of a locked door.
A fierce debate over pineapple on pizza ignites a series of revelations about Zach and Serena’s four-year relationship.
Liv realizes rolling with the punches is sometimes much harder than it looks after her bridesmaids’ party goes off the rails, leaving the group at each other’s throats.
Isla and Danny’s new romance is put to the test as they jump ten steps ahead on the relationship timeline.
And Imogen and Nate’s one-night stand is about to get six do-overs they never really asked for—not awkward at all.
Through make ups, breakups, love-ins, and blowouts, friendships are tested as everyone scrambles to make it through the week unscathed. Amidst all the drama, one thing remains constant: life is full of surprises.
