A review by savvylit
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill

dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Lullabies for Little Criminals is incredibly bleak. Yet I couldn't stop reading. O'Neill has a gorgeous way of writing about brutal events that kept me craving more and more of Baby's story. Baby is an incredibly real-seeming narrator and character. O'Neill perfectly captured the thought patterns of a child and the ultimate effect is devastating. No matter what terrible things befall Baby, she only wants to be loved. That need for love gets her into even more awful situations that genuinely broke my heart to read about. As I read, I came to realize that O'Neill displays a clarity when writing about life on the streets as a child in Montreal that could only stem from familiarity. As it turns out, she was also a poor child in Montreal in the same time period as Baby. One can only presume that much of this book is drawn from what she did and/or saw in her own youth.

I'm very much looking forward to reading more of O'Neill's work after this. There's almost a melodic quality to her prose that I am eager to experience again.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings