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miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
god this almost book slumped me
i just found the actual plot so bland and annoying ('gonna have an affair with a 50+ year old married man when im 24 and he knew me as a child :D' *meets his wife* 'omg he has a wife what a fucking bastard' like, girl...)
yeah there was just so much of them and i didnt care about either of them tbh
i also found the lack of quotation marks very jarring because of how she writes, it was just sometimes so unclear whether something was being said aloud
the narrative was also quite frustrating and hard to follow, there would be intense details about specific things and then the next line would be a completely different time in a different place, or theyd be downstairs and then yay we're upstairs, how babe? what? it just felt very disjointed to me
just frustrated me more cause there were bits of the writing that i did like or found interesting but none of them were plot related tbh
i just found the actual plot so bland and annoying
yeah there was just so much of them and i didnt care about either of them tbh
i also found the lack of quotation marks very jarring because of how she writes, it was just sometimes so unclear whether something was being said aloud
the narrative was also quite frustrating and hard to follow, there would be intense details about specific things and then the next line would be a completely different time in a different place, or theyd be downstairs and then yay we're upstairs, how babe? what? it just felt very disjointed to me
just frustrated me more cause there were bits of the writing that i did like or found interesting but none of them were plot related tbh
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Death of parent, Medical content, Violence, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Vomit, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, and Infidelity
qqjj's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, Medical content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Xenophobia, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Classism, Alcoholism, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Addiction, Violence, and War
jacs63's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Can't recommend this book enough.
Best read of the year for me, so far.
Totally deserves all the nominations and rewards.
The writing is exquisite.
A tragic and heartbreaking, historical love story, on so many different levels of love.
The characters are flawed but loveable. The story is so....real.
As Cushla says at one point...'This is going to end badly...' and you know it will.
It's doomed from the start. The age gap, the different religions, the troubles in Ireland, he's married with a child....and a serial adulterer. The decisions you make. The coincidences. The lies and deceit.
It made me feel guilty that, as someone of recent Irish descent- 3 generations back-I haven't tried to read more about the 'Trouble in Ireland'. I am out to find some good books to read now. I lived in the UK till 1974 so I remember a fair bit.
Couldn't put it down once I started it.
I hope Louise Kennedy writes more books soon.
Best read of the year for me, so far.
Totally deserves all the nominations and rewards.
The writing is exquisite.
A tragic and heartbreaking, historical love story, on so many different levels of love.
The characters are flawed but loveable. The story is so....real.
As Cushla says at one point...'This is going to end badly...' and you know it will.
It's doomed from the start. The age gap, the different religions, the troubles in Ireland, he's married with a child....and a serial adulterer. The decisions you make. The coincidences. The lies and deceit.
It made me feel guilty that, as someone of recent Irish descent- 3 generations back-I haven't tried to read more about the 'Trouble in Ireland'. I am out to find some good books to read now. I lived in the UK till 1974 so I remember a fair bit.
Couldn't put it down once I started it.
I hope Louise Kennedy writes more books soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Torture, War, Addiction, Blood, Chronic illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Murder, Bullying, Death, Medical content, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Racism, Religious bigotry, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Police brutality, and Racial slurs
_inge's review against another edition
I loved how Irish this was. The characters all felt really real. Father Slattery was hilariously awful, I could practically smell the pub and hear the banter inside, and the Irish phrases used I could sometimes ‘hear’ on paper.
The story mostly focuses on how The Troubles influenced people in their daily lives. This was visible at the start of every second chapter or so, for instance. It would start by summarising news from the area, and sometimes you’d get to hear how this news impacts the protagonist or if it’s connected to her in any way, yet other times this isn’t brought on as there’s no connection between her and the news whatsoever. This really showed how odd it must’ve been to live during this period; if the news doesn’t broadcast anything on someone you may now, you’d still be wary that this might happen another day. People try to go on with their daily lives but current affairs always seep through. I found this perspective refreshing.
The style of writing included a lot of shifts. Sometimes you’d not hear what a character is up to, but it would be alluded to it. Someone might stand in front of a house, for instance, but the next sentence describes how the doorknob feels. This character would be inside the house in the sentences that follow. So you don’t read about them twisting the doorknob themselves, or even stepping inside, but from the next few lines you get that they must now be inside the house. Every chapter started at a completely different point of the story too. In the previous chapter you may have read about the protagonist leaving one place, but the next chapter would cut to her being somewhere entirely different. This fragmented style sometimes means you have to actively work out what’s happening. It’s never too difficult, but I have had times where I got lost in the details of a certain place and got confused at the location of the next scene. The author doesn’t use quotation marks either, but because there’s quite a few characters in this you might have to work out who’s speaking, too.
I did find it interesting how every character is referred to by their first name. Even Cushla’s mum or brother are never referred to as being that to her. This makes for interesting writing concerning the affair; just like the protagonist you don’t know who Michael is to her. I don’t know whether this was a fully conscious choice, but I did like it.
This could’ve been a hard read, and I could get that this character focused story could make that even more so for some, but there was hope found within the pages. People were as horrible as they were kind to each other. Throughout reading you’re never too sure what the intentions of each character are, and if their actions are wrong or right. That makes for an interesting read.
The story mostly focuses on how The Troubles influenced people in their daily lives. This was visible at the start of every second chapter or so, for instance. It would start by summarising news from the area, and sometimes you’d get to hear how this news impacts the protagonist or if it’s connected to her in any way, yet other times this isn’t brought on as there’s no connection between her and the news whatsoever. This really showed how odd it must’ve been to live during this period; if the news doesn’t broadcast anything on someone you may now, you’d still be wary that this might happen another day. People try to go on with their daily lives but current affairs always seep through. I found this perspective refreshing.
The style of writing included a lot of shifts. Sometimes you’d not hear what a character is up to, but it would be alluded to it. Someone might stand in front of a house, for instance, but the next sentence describes how the doorknob feels. This character would be inside the house in the sentences that follow. So you don’t read about them twisting the doorknob themselves, or even stepping inside, but from the next few lines you get that they must now be inside the house. Every chapter started at a completely different point of the story too. In the previous chapter you may have read about the protagonist leaving one place, but the next chapter would cut to her being somewhere entirely different. This fragmented style sometimes means you have to actively work out what’s happening. It’s never too difficult, but I have had times where I got lost in the details of a certain place and got confused at the location of the next scene. The author doesn’t use quotation marks either, but because there’s quite a few characters in this you might have to work out who’s speaking, too.
I did find it interesting how every character is referred to by their first name. Even Cushla’s mum or brother are never referred to as being that to her. This makes for interesting writing concerning the affair; just like the protagonist you don’t know who Michael is to her. I don’t know whether this was a fully conscious choice, but I did like it.
This could’ve been a hard read, and I could get that this character focused story could make that even more so for some, but there was hope found within the pages. People were as horrible as they were kind to each other. Throughout reading you’re never too sure what the intentions of each character are, and if their actions are wrong or right. That makes for an interesting read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Infidelity, Grief, Death, Addiction, Violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
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