My enormous thanks to Oliver Martin at Headline for sending me a surprise copy of Frank and Red by Matt Coyne in return for an honest review. It’s my absolute pleasure to share my (inadequate) review today.

Frank and Red is published by Headline’s imprint Wildfire on 1st February 2024 and is available for pre-order in all the usual places including here.

Frank and Red

Frank and Red are a mess.

Frank is a grumpy old curmudgeon. A recluse whose only company is the ‘ghost’ of his dead wife, Marcie. He is estranged from his friends, his son, and the ever-changing world beyond his front gate.

And then Red moves in next door.

Red is six. A boy struggling to adjust to the separation of his mum and dad, a new school, and the demonic school bully. Red is curious, smart, he never stops talking, and he’s got a trampoline.
From the moment Red’s blonde mop appears over the top of the fence that divides their two gardens, the unlikeliest of friendships is born.

. . . And it is a friendship that will change both of their lives forever.

My Review of Frank and Red

Frank has new neighbours.

I’m struggling to write a review of Frank and Red because I can’t find the words adequately to express how I feel about it. As Frank might say, ‘Just buy the bloody book.’

That doesn’t really explain why everyone needs Frank and Red in their lives, so I suppose I ought to try to articulate a little bit more.

There are some books that have no right to be as good as they are and Frank and Red is one of them. I thought the plot was wonderful. It’s relatively prosaic and that is its appeal. Anyone reading Frank and Red might find similar things happening in our own lives. Consequently it is impossible to read this story without being completely entertained, moved and mesmerised. It’s essentially just a tale about two people of different ages becoming friends, but my word it’s so much more than that. I absolutely adored every single word. Some narratives have the ability to make the reader laugh, some have the ability to make them cry and others do both at various points. In Frank and Red, however, Matt Coyne manages to do both simultaneously so that the story is both heart-breaking, uplifting and stunningly beautiful all at the same time as it touches the reader’s soul.

The developing relationship between Frank and Red is created with such dexterous insight into their respective worlds that Matt Coyne places the reader in their minds so that every one of their thoughts and emotions are experienced viscerally. I adored meeting both of them. Their direct speech in particular is joyous to read, even (or possibly especially) when Frank’s is littered with furious expletives and Red’s is filled with interminable questions, because they are both so natural and real. I have a feeling these two characters are going to live in my mind for a very long time. Indeed, closing the final page of the story left me bereft. I didn’t want to leave them behind.

Secondary characters are equally fabulous. I don’t know whether it is because we are a similar age, but I found Marcie exceptionally well drawn. She is the catalyst for so much of the story and although she has died before Frank and Red begins, without her there would be no narrative. 

Frank’s relationships with Marcie and his son Mikey embody such touching themes that reading Frank and Red is a physical experience. Love, grief, mental health and family are motifs that cast a spell over the reader. Red’s experiences as his parents split up and he begins a new school embody a reality that is both identifiable and engaging so that I truly found Frank and Red one of the most fabulous books I’ve read. Add in Frank’s spiral into grief and Matt Coyne writes with warmth, empathy and deep, deep understanding of our innermost fears and hopes.

As I said at the beginning, I can’t express clearly enough how much I love Frank and Red and I’m aware this review is vague and inadequate. Definitely one of the books going straight onto my list of favourite reads of 2024, I think it’s going to be hard to beat Frank and Red as THE book I have enjoyed the most. Filled with love, warmth and compassion, Frank and Red is just fantastic. Don’t miss it. 

About Matt Coyne

Man vs Baby’s Matt Coyne is from Sheffield, South Yorkshire.  In September 2015, Matt’s life was turned upside down by the arrival of his son Charlie. After three months of parenthood, he logged on to social media and wrote about his experience of having to live with ‘a furious, sleep-murdering, unstable and incontinent, breasts-obsessed midget lodger’. Within days, his post about surviving the first few months of parenthood was shared by millions all over the world.

Following this, Matt created his popular blog Man vs Baby, which now has over 370,000 followers on social media. And has written two Sunday Times bestselling books based on his parental triumphs and disasters, the first entitled: Dummy and the second Man vs Toddler.

He has also written for The Guardian, The Telegraph and GQ Magazine and is the current Vuelio Parenting Influencer of the Year and Blogosphere Parent Influencer of the Year.

Matt lives in Sheffield with his son Charlie, his partner Lyndsay and a Jack Russell terrier with ‘issues’ called Eddie.

For further information, visit Matt’s website, follow him on Twitter/X @mattcoyney and find Matt on Facebook and Instagram.