Sarah

This is..... compulsively terrifying.
Don't be scared off by the description, which does it absolutely no favours.

Set in Ireland, reaching back into the not so distant past, of mother-and-baby homes and Magdalene laundries, it is a seemless blend of historical fiction, with a healthy dash of magical realism, intertwined with a queer coming of age story, and, above all, a tale of what happens when womans rights - and voices - are cloaked in shame and blame so thick it might as well be buried in the peat moss.

I picked this up on a whim thinking it would be light and fluffy.

It is not.

It's creepy, it's delicious, it's amazingly fantastic.

You know when you finish something good, all the hair on your head prickles? 😉

I have so many problems with this book I can't even rate it.

THIS IS TRASH. 305 pages of bad writing, too much info dumping/science, and SLUT SHAMING.

IN 2017?!!! IN LITERATURE?!!!

Get fucked Andy weir. This should have never made it past the slush pile. You're fucking disgusting.

NOPE. BIG FAT EFFING TO THE HELL NOPE.

This is SUPER cute.
If you love live theatre and are a total Shakespearean nerd, you will LOVE this.

This was a 5 star book and the ending was terrible so 4 stars.

This was a 5 star book and the ending was terrible so 4 stars.

I struggled with rating this one. On one hand, amazing story about mental illness and a protagonist after my own heart.

On the other......I just didn't believe the sex between them.

So 3.5 stars?

If you only read one book in 2016, this should be it.

READ IT.

2.5 stars.

I just....wasn't feeling it.

I hate when a girl gets absorbed by a boyfriend Aaand that is literally all this story is. Who is Isla? Oh. Just Josh's girlfriend. Literally, that is ALL she is. it rankles. even at the end, she Ohmerged LOVES HIM so OF COURSE she'll wait for him forever and ever ad infinitum barf.

And the “perfect” sex scenes? Where they reach orgasm together THE FIRST TIME THEY HAVE SEX?!? pffttttt. Lady, please.
Nope. Not happening at 17. Not buying that with a 100 dollar bill.

1.5 stars on subject matter alone. The rest ?
Zzzzzz.

I have no idea how she manages to do it, with every. single. book, but she does and I am in serious fan girl awe.

And for the record, I never fan girl.
Siiiiigh.

3.5 stars.