Life never turns out the way one expects

Life never turns out the way one expects, argues Jonathan Lee in the novel High Dive. High Dive depends upon a character driven plot, so it is only natural that the lives of those characters be examined in some detail in the novel. And the lives of the three main characters do not turn out as they expected it should.

Freya is 18 in the novel, standing between childhood and school, and adulthood and college. Freya wants to travel, is not so sure about college, and has concerns over her next step in life. She never expected to be facing this stage in life without her mother. However, she comes to realize that, between John and her father, she could begin a happy life in Brighton. Yet, even this turns out not the way she expects it to, as John...