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I have been sitting on this book, thinking about my rating, and feeling so confused since I finished it. And I finally decided to give it 4.5 stars. It’s not a perfect 5-star read for me, but this book is special and perfect in every other way. It is like you read a book and feel like it is just the type of book you love to consume; that’s what I felt while reading it.
This book follows our main character, Debbie, who lives on a countryside farm in Ireland. She is starting her college in Dublin, and it is this whole transition of her coming out of her sheltered yet complicated life to a new one where she meets people different from her background, navigating through life, and trying to fit in. I love reading about books where the characters transition into an adult and live through their 20s because I guess until you are 18 years old, you have this particular notion about life, and once you go to college, all that is suddenly replaced with unknown things, and it’s this battle of being an adult while still being not really one and being in the center of the complexity of it all.
Debbie is very close to her uncle, and she is dealing with many family issues along with her mother’s mental health and her own as well. Another aspect I loved is the discussion of dreams and their importance. As someone who dreams a lot and vividly remembers them all, it was fascinating to read that these characters also have that experience. Debbie goes to Trinity College, and one thing about me is that I love the library inside Trinity College, and I hope someday I can visit it. Other characters were also interesting and brought more depth to the overall story. I resonated with Debbie as a character, and it was just a magical book where nothing really happened, yet a lot was going on.
I understand why people compare it with Sally Rooney. I love Sally Rooney, and most Irish women writers, at least the ones that I have read from, have a similar style of writing and narrating stories. However, I don’t think their books should be compared because they are all equally unique and beautiful in their own way. Louise Nealon’s debut is everything I want in a book, and this is certainly a writer who I will look forward to reading from more in the future.