Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler: a ‘sad girl novel’ that lacks emotional depth

In Adelaide, the debut novel by Genevieve Wheeler, a vivacious American woman living in London (the eponymous Adelaide) falls head over heels for the enigmatic Rory Hughes. By turns charming and distant, Rory entrances her, and the two fall into a whirlwind romance that never seems on solid ground. When tragedy strikes, the cracks only deepen – and when things fall apart, Adelaide does too.

Wheeler’s novel traces the progression of a romance that at times seems too good to be true, at others bewilderingly futile.