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dannyrwalker's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
beckyciupka's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
azu_rikka's review against another edition
3.0
2.5☆
Heartwarming, melancholy and amusing for the first half, then I started disliking the plot when a nurse is giving a handjob to her patient (the main character, a 24year old guy with learning disabilities), then he befriends this other patient and through him there's a lot of talk about sex and women which I didn't like. It bored me, it worked on my nerves. The plot gets more chaotic and I couldn't enjoy the book anymore.
Heartwarming, melancholy and amusing for the first half, then I started disliking the plot when a nurse is giving a handjob to her patient (the main character, a 24year old guy with learning disabilities), then he befriends this other patient and through him there's a lot of talk about sex and women which I didn't like. It bored me, it worked on my nerves. The plot gets more chaotic and I couldn't enjoy the book anymore.
elenajohansen's review against another edition
1.0
I only finished this because of its short length and my own stubbornness. This is not a book for me.
First, in the "others think it's great but I'm not the right reader" department, this is so heavily stuffed with Irish idiom and slang that there were stretches of the narrative that were absolutely incomprehensible to me. Like, I can look up words and phrases online to fill in a lot of gaps, but when Johnsey's internal monologue or someone speaking to him goes off on a tear and starts using endless idiom and it's all a long string of words that don't make sense in that order to me and it just keeps going and oh maybe I see something that makes sense for a second but then here's more slang and here's more idiom and at the bottom of the page the paragraph finishes but I'm not sure what just happened because it's all a rush and I don't know how it fits together. For a finish.
It's repetitive and exhausting. But I can see how it would flow for a reader who is far more familiar with the language. I can see the charm of the style, but only as an outsider who will never really "get" it.
On a much more widely damning note, Johnsey is one of the most boring and passive protagonists I've ever read. He doesn't do anything. Everything happens to him. His father died. Then his mother dies. Then he's beaten to a pulp by the local gang of bullies. Then he lies around in the hospital silently falling in love with his nurse, who for some reason gives him a hand job, thus securing his adoration forever. Then when he gets out, his hospital roommate starts swinging by, then the nurse. And all the while various townspeople are trying to get him to sell his land for development, and the newspaper is writing articles about him blockading progress by refusing to sell, but he's not refusing, he's just not doing anything. Then the weird, over-written and unsatisfying ending happens.
Everything happens to him. The only real active choice he makes for the bulk of the story is quitting his job when he's in the hospital and his boss comes to see him, but that's both out of left field and out of character. Johnsey just goes with the flow of everything because all his life he's been coddled/bullied/told he's too stupid to do things on his own. I understand that his history has built him to be that passive nobody, but that doesn't make him an interesting character to follow, and honestly I don't care for the constant conflation of mental disability, mental health issues, and violence. I don't think there was any ending, happy or sad, that would have made me like this story better, but I can say Johnsey with a gun followed by a cute one-liner restating the title definitely wasn't it, if such an ending could exist.
This ended up being just a slog of misery that I didn't enjoy at all.
First, in the "others think it's great but I'm not the right reader" department, this is so heavily stuffed with Irish idiom and slang that there were stretches of the narrative that were absolutely incomprehensible to me. Like, I can look up words and phrases online to fill in a lot of gaps, but when Johnsey's internal monologue or someone speaking to him goes off on a tear and starts using endless idiom and it's all a long string of words that don't make sense in that order to me and it just keeps going and oh maybe I see something that makes sense for a second but then here's more slang and here's more idiom and at the bottom of the page the paragraph finishes but I'm not sure what just happened because it's all a rush and I don't know how it fits together. For a finish.
It's repetitive and exhausting. But I can see how it would flow for a reader who is far more familiar with the language. I can see the charm of the style, but only as an outsider who will never really "get" it.
On a much more widely damning note, Johnsey is one of the most boring and passive protagonists I've ever read. He doesn't do anything. Everything happens to him. His father died. Then his mother dies. Then he's beaten to a pulp by the local gang of bullies. Then he lies around in the hospital silently falling in love with his nurse, who for some reason gives him a hand job, thus securing his adoration forever. Then when he gets out, his hospital roommate starts swinging by, then the nurse. And all the while various townspeople are trying to get him to sell his land for development, and the newspaper is writing articles about him blockading progress by refusing to sell, but he's not refusing, he's just not doing anything. Then the weird, over-written and unsatisfying ending happens.
Everything happens to him. The only real active choice he makes for the bulk of the story is quitting his job when he's in the hospital and his boss comes to see him, but that's both out of left field and out of character. Johnsey just goes with the flow of everything because all his life he's been coddled/bullied/told he's too stupid to do things on his own. I understand that his history has built him to be that passive nobody, but that doesn't make him an interesting character to follow, and honestly I don't care for the constant conflation of mental disability, mental health issues, and violence. I don't think there was any ending, happy or sad, that would have made me like this story better, but I can say Johnsey with a gun followed by a cute one-liner restating the title definitely wasn't it, if such an ending could exist.
This ended up being just a slog of misery that I didn't enjoy at all.
thunderhead's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
niamhdelmer's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I enjoyed every second of this book. Donal Ryan is a beautiful writer and captures rural Irish characters so well. This book really tugged at my heart strings.
emilyhoey's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
magicianactor's review against another edition
4.0
I love run-on sentences! I also love Ireland. I didn't understand some of the colloquialism, sure, but I got enough of it to know it was interesting. Even, profound, in spots. Compelling and quick to read.
sio1806's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
caitlin27's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0