Main Characters by Bobby Palmer review – A love story like no other
A stunning modern love story and an instant modern classic.
Main Characters by Bobby Palmer: Key details
- Publish date: 2 July 2026
- Genre: Romance
- Publisher: Headline
- Available formats: Hardback, audio and ebook
- Series/standalone: Standalone
- Length: 416 pages
Blurb: Clara and Seb are about to fall in love. They don’t know it yet. But everybody else does.
When Clara and Seb meet in a quiet corner of London, it’s the start of something. She wants to be a director. He’s an actor, unsure what he wants from life. Their connection is magnetic. Everyone can see that falling in love looks something like this. But when Clara casts Seb in the film that will make her name, what should be the happiest time of their lives ends with a gut-wrenching betrayal.
Some love stories are bigger than just two people. This one is told through the eyes of friends, flatmates, exes and strangers who see all the sides of Seb and Clara, from their first date to the moment they fell apart.
Everyone has their version of events. But only Clara and Seb can decide how their story ends…
Main Characters by Bobby Palmer: The review
I’ve never read anything like Main Characters. Bobby Palmer has made this modern love story wholly original by writing it not from the point of view of the main characters, but from everyone around them. A parent, a friend, even a random server in a restaurant: everyone has their own story to tell about the protagonists. And from those points of view, we get a tale spanning more than a decade, of two people whose lives are infinitely fused together.
Clara and Seb meet as young, carefree 20-somethings. It’s not until a year later that their love story begins, however. Life gets in the way. As life often does. And that’s a theme in Main Characters: sometimes love just isn’t enough.
Over the course of the book, which spans through Seb and Clara’s 20s and 30s, we’ll follow them through ups and downs, moments of intense love and utter pain. It’s a microcosm of life, summarised in 400 pages: love, loss, birth, death, happiness, sadness and everything in between. As a reader, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll feel real feelings – for these characters, and for yourself.
What is most remarkable about Main Characters is its presentation. The realisation that a life can impact so many others, even random people. Noticing you, having a story to tell about you even if you’ve only fleetingly passed through their life. Each chapter is told from a different perspective and occasionally some exposition unrelated to Clara and Seb might dilute the focus a little. But it provides context, building the world that our main characters exist in. Learning more about their parents, their friends – ultimately, it’s all bringing us closer to Clara and Seb.
Beautifully written, moving and original, I’ve loved every moment with Main Characters. It took a little while to get into, given its unique format, but once I did, I couldn’t put it down. Palmer has crafted a story deserving to be revered as a modern classic, and it’s earned itself a place on my all-time favourites.
Is Main Characters for you?
- FOR FANS OF: Love stories without the ick
- EXPECT: Very clever writing, multiple points of view, a story steeped in the many emotions of real life
- READ IF YOU LIKE: David Nicholls, Sally Rooney
Thank you so much to the publisher, Headline, for providing an advanced copy of Main Characters for the purposes of this review.
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