Reviews

“Things aren't set in stone. The smallest creatures undergo the greatest transformations. We are all of us, always, in flux.”

He’s done it again! Just like Bobby Palmer’s extraordinary debut, Isaac and the Egg, Small Hours is a literary masterpiece. Mesmerising and poignant, this book was like a balm for the soul that wrapped me up in a warm hug as I read. Told in lyrical, melodic prose, I was transfixed and lost myself in its pages. I never wanted it to end but also didn’t want to put it down.

Small Hours is a story about a father, a son, and a fox. A story about family, estrangement, loss, grief, mental health, disillusionment, and new beginnings. Through Jack and Gerry’s strained relationship Palmer explores the father/son relationship from both sides. These characters are like chalk and cheese, and while I loved reading them both, I will admit that it was Gerry I had the softest spot for. Gerry is struggling with a memory problem that is never identified, but seemed to me to be like dementia and it was heartbreaking to read as he tried to grasp at disappearing memories or wandered through the world with no idea where he was or what was going on. Palmer’s research is clear in Gerry’s behaviours and thoughts.

"Did other people find it easy? To ask things, to say things out loud? To grab the stalks of the thoughts in your head and to pull up their roots, to bring them out of the soil and into her sunlight?"

Seamlessly blending literary fiction with fantasy, Palmer has taken the world we know and sprinkled in a little magic in order to help us understand ourselves and those around us a little better. It is so well done that I never once questioned that there was a talking fox or that the story was set in reality. I loved how Jack found a friend and confidant in the fox, and reading their scenes were some of my favourite parts of the story. Palmer's decision to write the inner monologues of the humans and the fox in disjointed, poetic verses that mirror the way our own thoughts take shape was a stroke of genius. It added to the feeling of authenticity and made me feel like I was really getting a glimpse into their thoughts.

Soulful, uplifting, moving, and original, Small Hours is one of the most beautiful stories I have ever read and it will stay with me long after turning the final page. This is one of those books that you have to experience for yourself and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

maketeaa's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

i bought this after attending bobby's author panel at trafalgar last night, and the way he spoke about this book, about the complicated tangle of love and tenderness with anger, put under the microscope of the innate temporality of human existence, was exactly what this work strives to do. definitely a tearjerker!! though i feel like the exploration of jack's relationship with his father, especially the fraughtness of it in the context of his memory loss, was overshadowed a little by the plot of trying to find him. still a great read!

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