Sophie

DNF @ 24%. I didn’t like the tone of writing from the start as it’s very clear that the author is a true crime fanatic, but it got too much for me when the author writes about “three college girls” were “all slain in the same house” in “Northern Idaho University”, a blatant reference to the Idaho murders in late 2022. To copy a real life crime with real life victims for the basis of the main plot of a fiction book is awful taste. This is really gross and everything that’s wrong with the true crime world. The book felt a bit icky anyways, but this decided it for me.

I can’t remember the last time I read a book this fast. Whenever I wasn’t reading it, I was thinking about when I could next read it. I already know I’m gonna be processing it for a few days! What an insane debut from Caro Claire Burke. I did think the overarching message was spelled out a bit too much (i.e. a cabin named ‘the manosphere’) and I would have liked if the satire was deeper and if the reader had been allowed to come to those conclusions with less hand holding. I also feel a bit silly for not realising the plot twist! I remember briefly thinking that the olden days characters didn’t speak how I’d have imagined, and there were some things they referenced (pancakes and syrup?) that didn’t add up but I thought maybe I just wasn’t giving the 1800s enough credit! Then as I was reading the scenes with older Clementine, I remembered a few things such as how Natalie and Caleb had chosen the name Mary when she was pregnant but I never connected the dots, or how Natalie said the two neighbour boys had familiar eyes. Most glaringly, Caleb was just Old Caleb. Overall fantastic read. Can’t wait to debrief at bookclubbbb <3

An excellent snapshot of this period in Irish history. Was really interesting to reflect back on the Repeal movement and the art and writings that propelled it forward.

It was definitely interesting to read this during a heatwave!! I liked some elements of this book such as the parts about the Nordic countries which brought me a lot of nostalgia for the semester I spent in Sweden. I also really enjoyed how much Gaelic lore is in it, which I hadn’t expected. However, I did find it a bit repetitive and wishy washy.

cried on the bus <3

”When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to say something”

Definitely the most powerful Eddie Flynn book I’ve read yet, though I’ve still a few to catch up on. I thoroughly enjoyed this!!!! Keep em coming Steve

I loved the pacing and Smith’s writing style, and thought her characters were fantastic.

this book definitely reeled me in, but it wrapped up too quickly and the story feels unfinished. i found it to be a frightening read

This book took me so long to readddd! I started it over a year ago as part of the reading I was doing for my Master’s dissertation, and once I got what I needed I kind of neglected it then. It provides a very thorough account of Gaeilge as a language over the previous centuries, from both a historical and a linguistic perspective. I personally found the history bits more engaging as I have little knowledge of linguistics and thus found those parts hard to connect with, and unfortunately this makes up a large part of the book. I definitely learned a lot about Gaeilge and the influence of English on it, and used some of this in my dissertation. I’d be curious to hear what the author thinks about the place of Gaeilge in Ireland now, considering the current revival and trendiness of the language, and his thoughts on how Gaeilge has evolved in the 11 years since this book was published.

I really wanted to like this because I loved Love in Colour, but it was really cringe and I couldn’t go on 😭😭

this book is so special to me <3

a work of art

Very dated

kinda goofy

Was a little bit slow in the first section, but I devoured it after that. Didn't care much for the romance elements, and I feel that song/poetry bits detracted from the experience of the book and took me out of the story a bit

3.5

Fell kind of short for me unfortunately :(

Just what i needed

I don't usually read this genre so I'm glad I tried it! I thought Hart did an amazing job at the world-building in this book, and her descriptive writing of all the various places and characters was fantastic and I felt I could really picture it all. I did find the plot kind of hard to keep up with, and all the different parts of the lore etc. I also found that some of the dialogue got a little bit repetitive, but that's bound to happen when a book is this long. I'm still not sold on this genre and probably won't read the next instalment of the series, but it was a good read!

Joyce's writing is so lovely and was also quite humorous. These stories discuss many social and political issues of the time and are often quite gloomy, but Joyce's descriptions of Dublin are still gorgeous and romantic and his various characters are so familiar and endearing. It was interesting and enjoyable to read this representation of Dublin in this era from Joyce's perspective. Despite this book depicting many of Dublin's/Ireland's shortcomings and problems, it somehow managed to enhance my love for her <3

My favourite stories were A Little Cloud and A Painful Case, but it's hard to single out a few when each story has its charm.

rip james joyce you would have loved fontaines dc

Ok i had said book 3 was my fave but book 4 takes the title

ceannródaíoch !! táim cinnte go mbeidh an leabhar seo an-úsáideach dom maidir le mo thráchtas - músclaíonn sé neart smaointe!!

3.5 maybe

Updating in May 2025 to say that in the months since reading this book, some of Klein's ideas have popped up in my thoughts and in my work for my masters too, so I think i enjoyed this book and took more from it than I originally thought i did!

Not sure i understood a lot of what was happening but the writing was gorgeous and beautiful. Need to brush up on my greek gods knowledge tho

Fun little spooky read!