Based on the success of Town House, Torontonian Tish Cohen’s debut novel, you might expect her to stick to a similar formula for her follow-up, Inside Out Girl. Many of the same elements are here: a single parent as main character, enough neuroses to keep both Freud and Jung busy for years, and – dun, dun, DUN! – impending doom. However, where Town House was sweet and endearing, if a bit mediocre, the sophomore slump hits Inside Out Girl hard.
    Cohen’s main character is Rachel Berman, a single mother of two young teens who is so obsessed with statistical reports on child mortality and the imminent demise of her laughably titled magazine, Perfect Parent, that she is oblivious to the fact that her 14-year-old daughter Janie is in love with her next door neighbour, a popular girl named Tabitha. Her 12-year-old son Dustin suffers from nightmares, no doubt spurred by his mother’s insistence that everything is dangerous and he could be killed at any moment. Rachel is, to say the least, annoying, if not completely unbelievable.
    The plot revolves around Rachel’s relationship with Len, single father to 10-year-old Olivia (dubbed “inside out girl” by school bullies), who suffers from a non-verbal learning disorder. The introduction of this special-needs child into Rachel’s perfectly structured life throws her for a loop, forcing her to face her decision to give up a daughter born with Down’s Syndrome years before. When Len is diagnosed with terminal cancer, it’s obvious where the story is going.
    A stronger writer may have been able to pull off a story with as many subplots as Cohen attempts to juggle here. But while her breezy style worked in her first novel, it casts a pall of superficiality over the weighty topics that she packs into the new one.