I was excited about the premise of this book, however found it to be confusing. It needed editing and to have some type of resolution, or reasoning behind it. I was interested in a book about living with a child with autism and got a jumbled mess about a mother with a stroke and a daughter that is reading Anne Frank.

Kindle Edition editReviewThis book is voiced by three characters.
Mammy,Jacob and Jenny.
Mammy has had a stroke,her thoughts are jumbled.
Jacob has autism,his thoughts are muddled but in a different way.
Jenny is a bright spark of a character.
I wish Jenny had narrated the whole book,as hers was the only voice I enjoyed... so I found the book a drag from the beginning when switching narration.
Granny was a cracking character too...

This book is not what I expected.

There are three people telling this story, one is a young girl, another her brother who is autistic and the other their mammy.
Then a terrible thing happens and we find out what and it's effects in a family through these different voices.
Some tremendous characters and absolutely beautifully written.

I enjoyed this book but would not rave about it. I loved the Irish family. I found the characters really engaging - they felt true. Granny was a masterpiece! The story is told through Jenny - the young daughter - who is having to come to terms with her mother’s absence - the one who held the family together and with whom she shares a love of stories. Granny - a force of nature - has to come in and hold the family together. Her brother Jacob has autism and is mute - Granny tries to understand him and make him more ‘normal’. Dad tries to cope without a job, a wife and a functioning family. Despite the odds against them there is hope and some light at the end of the book.

As a librarian it was lovely to see a book being read as a means of bringing people together.

I did not finish reading this book. The first chapter was quite gripping but after that I couldn't seem to concentrate on the overly descriptive language and very slow pace. Maybe I was in the wrong mood.

Each chapter focuses on a different member of the family and as far as I read the main 'driver' fr the story was the youngest child's autism and how the family dealt with it. The pace was too slow to grip me and I found myself not taking my kindle out on my commute, preferring my phone which usually for me is a sign that the book I'm reading isn't doing it for me.

It's a shame, I think it probably had quite good potential and the cover is beautiful.

Sadly I found this book a little bit on the bland side- nothing really caught my interest.
Thank you to both NetGalley and John Murray Press for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

I sort of enjoyed this, but I wish it had more umph. It wasn't unpleasant but a little too beige for me sadly although I adored the writing style

This is a story of an Irish family told through the eyes of each individual character. The first thing that really jumped out at me was how well written the Irish accents & dialogue were in this book. I loved the character of Granny.
This is an incredibly sad book particularly about half way through. There are some absolute gems of comedy too though.
What prevented me giving this a higher rating was the actual execution of the story. I felt the idea for the book was brilliant but it just took far too long to actually get to the main thread. My mind wandered a lot reading this book. The last 50 pages or so, were also hard to keep interest in too. I felt more than ready for the story to finish but actually don’t feel like it really did.

There were bits of this book I really loved. Jenny is a fantastic character and her narrative arc is so pleasing. All the characters actually grew on me as the book progressed and I found myself caring about them a great deal. There were certain sections I found frustrating in that I think they were just too long. Some of the Jacob sections in particular I found difficult and some of Jenny's dream sections and bits of Annette's narrative. I understood what the author was trying to do, but I think her writing is so good that it was clear reasonably early on and a bit of pruning wouldn't have gone amiss. As a debut, it's a really strong book and I'd be really interested to see what she writes next.

When I first started reading this I was expecting the usual Irish chick lit. It is not like that at all.
At first I found the chapters with Jacob confusing, Jacob has Autism so his chapters are written like how his mind works. I soon got used to that and even through all the confusion you got a real feel of Jacobs character.
All in all a very readable story with strong well written characters.

Lovely read a book that will have you emotional one moment hysterically laughing the next.A story about a family a normal family with issues.Their son has been diagnosed with autism the mom is consumed by him the dad is not much of a worker.We follow them in their day to day life till the mom has a stroke and has to recover in the hospital..That’s when her mom Mamy moves in and the family will never be the same she is a force of nature I fell in love .with her take charge personally her love for them .
This is a new author to follow .highly recommend,

A complicated and well-written book that deals with family life and Autism. The Augusts are an Irish family living under difficult circumstances, but with a thread that ties them together in a complicated way. Eleanor manages to keep the subject matter interesting and at times funny, but I did find the storyline confusing. The whole book is about words or invisible words spoken inside characters heads. Interesting and I'm glad I read it but it needs time to absorb.

A really heartwarming tale of family, told mostly through the eyes of the daughter Jenny, but also through her mother Annette and her Autistic brother Jacob.
Just as we feel the tale might be one of how the family copes with Jacobs lack of speech, we are thrown in another direction as Annette suffers a stroke. As Jenny and her brother struggle with the loss of their Mum in hospital, Granny moves in to help the family. Told with warmth and humour, but with an underlying sadness this is a rich cast of characters.