Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Trespasses

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

42 reviews

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.

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jennikreads's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

4.0

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library_kb's review

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challenging sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I think I might have been able to enjoy this more if I had a better understanding of Irish history, but I really struggled to understand what was going on, especially when slang terms were used. I would have been able to push through that issue if I had cared about the characters, but I found Cushla highly frustrating to follow. She kept making awful choices, recognized that they were awful, and then just kept making them? At one point, it seemed like she was justifying her relationship because her home life wasn't great, but at the same time, she recognized her participation in the relationship was putting others in her shoes. Overall, I struggled with this one, and don't have a ton that I really enjoyed, but people who like character focused and "literary" works might enjoy this one.

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lostinthelibrary's review against another edition

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emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was a great book for anyone with an interest but basic knowledge about The Troubles. There is a lot of violence which escalates throughout the book both for the characters and in general from well placed news snippets.

But this book is only partly about that. It is also about relationships, family dynamics and the unfair position working class people and women were put into during this era. While few characters were likeable, their actions made sense amongst the setting and the writing was very evocative of the era.

There were a few things that bothered me along the way in the writing (please use speech marks, it's pretentious not to) and the plot (wanting to shake Cushla throughout) but overall a very positive reading experience that provided a great discussion for our book club.

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rachmco's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

crazytourists_books's review against another edition

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informative sad medium-paced

2.5

I was expecting it to be a bit more political, less about a love affair.. Ireland is a country I love and find quite interesting, so I kept reading till the end. I have to admit that it got a bit more interesting after the 24th chapter, but not enough to change my opinion about it.

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alisonannk's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad medium-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? No

4.0

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deedireads's review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.25

TL;DR REVIEW

Trespasses is a well-written, intentionally tense novel about choice, conflict, and community. I wasn’t quite in the right headspace for it, but there’s no denying its merits.

For you if: You are interested in novels set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

FULL REVIEW

Shortlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize, Trespasses is a well-written, character-driven novel about the ripple effect of personal choices on a tight-knit community, especially during times of political unrest (in this case, the Troubles in Northern Ireland). I think that I was perhaps not quite in the right mindset for this one, so it didn’t blow me away, but I certainly enjoyed it and have a lot of respect for what it pulls off.

The novel takes place in a small town outside Belfast around 1975. The main character is a young Catholic schoolteacher named Cushla who begins an affair with an older, married, Protestant barrister (lawyer) named Michael. She also finds herself a bit too involved in the home life of one of her less fortunate students, Davy. Of course, all that hardly lends itself to stasis even without the Troubles; eventually, the precariousness of the situation implodes.

This kind of felt like Milkman meets Shuggie Bain. That explains why critics loved it and I only liked it (I was lukewarm on Milkman but loved Shuggie). I feel like I’ve read a lot of novels lately about young women making morally gray choices, and a lot about the Troubles, so maybe that’s why it didn’t stand out as much in my mind. I also thought I was picking up on a couple of hints at the end that ended up being red herrings or just wrong assumptions about where the story was going; the actual execution made less sense to me, plot-wise, than what I’d assumed, which left me a little unsatisfied.

Lest you think I disliked this book, I will say that I very much appreciated how Kennedy managed to show both sides of the conflict with nuance, more like what I imagine it would have been to live in a mixed community than history or the press can convey. I also appreciated the way she brought the question of class into the mix of themes — this was very well done. Finally, I gotta hand it to the narrator of the audiobook, who read the story beautifully and authentically.

If you like Irish literature, especially about the Troubles, this one might be for you.

Content Warnings

barbarella85's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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rachelc1012's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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