A review by abbie_
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC of We Pretty Pieces of Flesh. I’m a sucker for fiction set in the North of England, and this book is joining the ranks of Jessica Andrews and Eliza Clark who are shining a light on the brutal, gritty aliveness of teenage girls in the north of England. This book broke my heart into a million pieces. It’s so fucking hard being a teenage girl, and at the same time absolutely euphoric. Brown perfectly captures the feeling of a night spent with your mates that feels like it’ll never end, never be anything but that summer night. I might not have had the same (drunken) experiences of Shaz, Rach and Kel, but that didn’t stop me connecting deeply with them. They are genuinely some of the best characters I’ve come across recently.

A lot of tough subjects are tackled in this book such as rape, sexual assault, chronic illness, so take care of yourself when reading. It does a brilliant job of portraying post-Brexit Britain (when the girls are now adults), especially in rundown towns and cities where pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is literally impossible.

It’s written throughout in Doncaster slang, which might be difficult for some readers to get to grips with at first, but just let the rhythm of it carry you away.

Just a gorgeous, heartbreaking coming-of-age novel about friendship and growing up in a world determined to keep young northern lasses beat down. One of my favourite books I’ve read in a while.