Eat the cake
Jo Morey's Heartbreak Seven
The gift that is the ‘2025 debuts’ WhatsApp group keeps giving - I’m delighted to welcome Jo Morey to the Substack today!
Jo’s fantastic novel The Night Lagoon has just come out in the UK - and under the equally compelling title Lime Juice Money in the US. It’s a twisty, bewitching book set in the remote Belizean jungle which has been described as ‘combining the transportation of The Beach with the earthy intoxication of The Paper Palace’. You can visit Jo’s website to sign up for her newsletter and read a sample of her novel’s opening pages - and in the meantime, read on for a whole new take on the cheese toastie and a description of Paris that will make you want to jump on the Eurostar immediately.
Eat the cake, roll in the grass, call that friend. When your head is a surreal and scrambled mess, it’s okay to take your mind off the hurt but then don’t be afraid to feel the loss –– deeply. Give into the pain, cry the cries, and mend. But go easy on yourself. In my debut novel, THE NIGHT LAGOON (titled LIME JUICE MONEY in US/Canada), when one of my characters is suffering from their first heartbreak, her stepfather tells her, ‘The biggest trap in life isn’t money or popularity or success; It’s self-rejection. It’s those voices in your head telling you that you are unlovable or worthless or not good enough.’ After a shock to the heart, don’t fall into the trap of believing you’re not enough. Your heart may be broken, but it’s also cracked a little more open. Delve into that gap and explore it with curiosity and kindness.
But also, eat the cake.
Something to read
Clarice Lispector’s The Hour of the Star is totally arresting. I discovered this novella in my early twenties and fell in love with the writing which was like nothing I’d ever read before. Lispector finds passion in the abyss, beauty in nothingness. A balm to a writer’s broken heart.
Something to listen to
‘Blackbird’ by Beyonce. Hauntingly beautiful, this song gets to the guts of me. It’s like a broken heart power anthem, compelling you to rise up and find strength in adversity.
Something to watch
After our miscarriage I made my husband watch The Sound of Music. He hates musicals and had never seen it, but I got to choose. There’s comfort in familiarity and the Von Trapps. Also, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Gilmore Girls. Basically, Amy Sherman-Palladino always has your back.
Something to eat
Melted cheddar cheese on sourdough toast with lashings of marmalade. Trust me.
Something to drink
English Breakfast tea. Strong. Endless pots. Or dirty martini (with vodka, and tears).
Somewhere to go
Paris. I lived there twenty-five years ago, and I love going back. All the old haunts and memories are still there, so it feels like coming home. I love walking the cobbled streets, staring in café windows after dark, imagining I’m a flâneur comparing notes with Baudelaire. Wine and baguette lunch beside the Canal St-Martin, then dinner at Chez Janou, strolling arrondissement to arrondissement; all enough to mend a broken heart.
A bonus seventh - balm for a broken heart
Friends. My best friends are my oldest school friends, and I’m so lucky we all still hang out. They are tonic to my soul when I’m feeling low. A weekend away in a cottage somewhere with too many drinks, some old Kate Bush classics, and some foraging and communal cooking works wonders for the heart and for the soul.
Photos provided by Jo Morey, and by Earth on Unsplash.