sarahxify's reviews
688 reviews

Found this narrator really self absorbed and uninteresting - wasn't very compelled by it so put it down 

Overall impressions thus far is that the writing is nice, the characters seem well-realised, and the setting is lovely - but this is just too racist for me. It's embedded into practically every scene, both implicitly and explicitly, and is just not something I want to be reading. 

This is a truly impressive debut. Set in a small town in Ireland, this literary thriller is about Kala, a teenage girl who disappeared twenty years ago. Her friends have reunited, and old mysteries and unanswered questions start to resurface. 

Although this sounds like a rather tired and familiar plot, this book is incredibly well executed, with excellent writing and characterisation. The dialogue is convincing and manages to avoid a lot of the tropes I tend to find frustrating in these kinds of novels. The characters were a real standout here, there are a lot of them and Walsh manages to give them all a unique voice and feeling. The book feels very complex and very well-realised, although I will caveat that pure mystery/thriller readers will find the pacing of this frustrating and slow. 

Have enjoyed Bridget Collins' previous two novels, particularly The Binding, but this one really isn't doing anything for me so putting it down. 

The setting is interesting but this really not pulling me in. It feels too deliberate and self concious, I'm very aware that I'm reading something intentionally written. The footnotes particularly I find really ineffective, I'm not enjoying them.