This story will tug at your heartstrings and will probably be very different from what you usually read. Home is told through a child called Jesika who is four years old, which some readers may find hard to read due to the child’s dialogue but as a mother to a toddler myself I had no problem reading this story.

Home will make you open your eyes to a child’s perspective of life and your actions towards them which I am sure we can all learn and relate to especially us parents. I fell in love with little Jesika from the beginning. I found Ryan’s character very shifty from the start and then I started to really dislike him.

This can be a challenging read to many readers, but it is a lovely story overall with a perfect, happy outcome. Very cleverly written through the point of a child. I would highly recommend. It also highlights how many children do face poverty which is what Jesika had to go through and beyond. Not what our children should have to face so young. A powerful story, a well deserved four stars.

*Please note this is the review I will be using on the 12th of February as part of the blog tour*

The expression "can't put down" really comes into its own with a book like Home. I started it one evening and stayed up until 2am reading it and then got up early to finish it the next morning. Jesika is four and lives with her mum and baby brother in a terrible flat. The book is written from Jesika's POV and it has a wonderful childlike innocence with it. Events unfold during the book where you have to try and work out what the adults are saying around her and work out what her innocent interpretations of a situation are. The book is very well written and reminds me a little of Emma Donoghue's room in its style. I can easily see this being the next bestseller!

Home is a moving and hard-hitting novel about a little girl and her family. Jesika is four and lives with her mum and her baby brother Toby in a flat that her mum calls a dump. She’s not allowed to touch the broken window and the scary money man is threatening to evict them. When Toby and her mum’s coughs get worse, Jesika finds herself away from home. All she wants is to be back at home, but her new friend Paige has a secret that Jesika isn’t sure if she should tell.

Told from the point of view of Jesika, the novel immerses the reader in her world and in the stark realities of the housing crisis. It doesn’t take long to get into the book’s style and understand the quirks in the way that a four year old sees the world, including the serious issues that she can’t quite grasp. Berriman uses campaigns and support for Shelter and the NSPCC to highlight real problems, including homelessness and sexual abuse, mixing this with heart and with a memorable protagonist.

With similarities to Kit de Waal’s My Name Is Leon, Emma Donoghue’s Room, and Allie Rogers’ Little Gold, this is a heartbreaking novel that uses a distinctive style and voice to show what children do and don’t understand about their situation and to present the housing crisis in a memorable and real way.