I'm not sure whether I enjoyed this book or not - I don't think it is one that will stay with me. but I was compelled to finish it,

The book is narrated by Majella O'Neill who lives on the border in Northern Ireland in the aftermath of The Troubles. There are so many fascinating plot points which could have been expanded on including the brutal murder of her grandmother, the disappearance of her father, her uncle Bobby (a potential paedophile) being killed when his own bomb exploded, and her inheritance.

However, none of these angles are explored or resolved i, and instead the book is a snapshot into Majella's day to day life with headings based on a list of things she likes and doesn't like. The book goes in depth into her shifts at the chip shop and her customers, her periods, and how she cares for her alcoholic mother.

The book is well written and the character development is great and I genuinely wanted to know what happened to her, her grandmother and her father. But sadly there was no real plot and one gets the impression that all of these are being resolved whilst we the readers are not looking..

I have given it 4 stars for the writing style, and the quirky approach to grammar, spelling and dialects.

I wasn't sure about this book for the first few pages but once I got into the style of writing and the characters,I really enjoyed it.It's set in a small town in Northern Ireland,where Majella,the main character, works in the local chippy,and lives with her hopeless,alcoholic mother.It doesn't sound like a promising plot,but the strength lies in the parade of characters who come in to the shop every night and the interaction between them.The book goes between earthy humour and genuine sadness,and follows the events of one week.
Things change for Majella following an unexpected death in the family but you're left wondering what she is going to do as a result of the change in her circumstances so I hope there will be a sequel.
I got to admire her for the way she deals with all that life throws at her,and look forward to finding out what happens next.

I’m sorry to say that I did not enjoy this book in any sense. Being written in the vernacular meant the narrative did not flow for me, and the extreme bad language added nothing to it’s appeal. The promised humour did not materialise for me, and I do have a good sense of humour normally . I just found this story gross and depressing, with some descriptions I truly wish I had not read, as I can’t unread them. I did not finish this book, which is rare for me. I could not recommend this to anyone else sadly.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this title.

I saw this described as ‘Milkman meets Derry Girls’ – and I LOVE Derry Girls, so requested an ARC from Netgalley!

Here’s the blurb:

” *Stuff Majella knows*
-God doesn’t punish men with baldness for wearing ladies’ knickers
-Banana-flavoured condoms taste the same as nutrition shakes
-Not everyone gets a volley of gunshots over their grave as they are being lowered into the ground

*Stuff Majella doesn’t know*
-That she is autistic
-Why her ma drinks
-Where her da is

Other people find Majella odd. She keeps herself to herself, she doesn’t like gossip and she isn’t interested in knowing her neighbours’ business. But suddenly everyone in the small town in Northern Ireland where she grew up wants to know all about hers.
Since her da disappeared during the Troubles, Majella has tried to live a quiet life with her alcoholic mother. She works in the local chip shop (Monday-Saturday, Sunday off), wears the same clothes every day (overalls, too small), has the same dinner each night (fish and chips, nuked in the microwave) and binge watches Dallas (the best show ever aired on TV) from the safety of her single bed. She has no friends and no boyfriend and Majella thinks things are better that way.

But Majella’s safe and predictable existence is shattered when her grandmother dies and as much as she wants things to go back to normal, Majella comes to realise that maybe there is more to life. And it might just be that from tragedy comes Majella’s one chance at escape.”

Now, I’ve never read Milkman – so my comparison would be it’s a cross between ‘Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine’ and Derry Girls.

The book is all written from Majella’s point of view – and each chapter is headed by an item off her list of things she likes and dislikes. That means the ‘chapters’ are seemingly random in length.

I really enjoyed the way the spoken elements were written in a Northern Irish dialect. I have friends and family who live in the Belfast area – and I could actually hear them talking at times!

I kept waiting for something exciting to happen – and something potentially very exciting does happen – but it does not change the book. It is the minutiae of Majella’s life, day in day out. Be it at home with her drunken mother or at the chipper with her colleagues and various customers.

Some of it is mildly entertaining, some of it is a bit gross (I’m not sure I’ve ever read a book which has a number of descriptions of changing tampons), some of it is a bit sad – but a lot of it is boring and repetitive.

This is not Eleanor and this is not Derry Girls. Majella does not have the appeal of Eleanor and there is nowhere near the humour of Derry Girls (emphasised by watching the Great British Festive Bake Off with some of the cast in during the period of reading the book!)

I persevered – as I don’t like to be beaten by a book, and I really thought it might suddenly get better – but I wouldn’t recommend you bother to be honest.

It’s not often I give a bad book review – I love all genres of books – but this was not one for me.

This novel is a work of art, cleverly structured and subtly presented. Majella is somewhere on the autistic spectrum and finds daily interaction with others a chore. She has learned responses to the chip shop banter by rote which has the effect of making her shifts there repetitive and therefore something she can cope with. Her life is one of routine for her but most aspects of it strike the reader (well, me anyway) as unusual. But then life in a small town right on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland would be unusual and I would guess not at all like the situation in cities like Belfast or Londonderry I have read about in other novels coming out of Northern Ireland recently. Majella picks up information obliquely and that is the way it is presented to us - what happened to her uncle and father, who might have attacked her granny, what to make of her granny’s will - the story unfolds in tiny increments and is all the more effective for that.

A terrific achievement, and I was surprised to think this is the author’s first novel. I loved everything about it - the dialogue, the mass of minor characters, Majella’s unique take on events, and especially the name of the chip shop - and wish it the success it deserves. I’ll certainly be recommending it as widely as I can.

This was a bit hard to get used to, but once I did it was quite a gem. The character feel real and are flawed, and incredibly funny and sad at the same time - a really worthy slice of life book. Definitely recommend, I think more people will like it than maybe you would think on the first few pages. It also reminds me a little bit of Adrian Mole, as well as The Rosie Project.

A crackerjack of a book if ever I’ve read. Michelle conjures magic from the mundane! Michelle has recreated the Ireland I grew up in but has edged it further by placing it bang on the border in the shadowy spectre of The Troubles.

Majella is a twenty something who still lives at home with her mother and works in the local Fish & Chip shop. Nothing overly surprising in this until we realise her Uncle was assassinated, her Da disappeared without a trace soon after & 10yrs on she is just recovering from her grandmothers death from a vicious beating. Majella explains The Prods & The Taigs and this is the part of her life living inside the border of Northern Ireland as a Catholic.

Majella honestly notes her issues without realising how extreme they are & though she knows her mother is a chronic alcoholic in need of help, she is is unempathetic. She does her bit & no more.

She enjoys her work at The Fish & Chip shop with Marty & aspires to no more. She sees nothing wrong with Marty using her for sex regularly when he can’t get it at home. The regulars at the shop are a colourful bunch & Majella ‘jella’ deals with them well on the basis of familiarity.

Her daily fish & chip dinners after work in the early hours, tucked up in bed watching endless episodes of Dallas are the closest Majella gets to happiness.

This all changes for Majella when she discovers she has inherited her Grandmothers house & land & she becomes a very unwilling woman of interest.

She ultimately deals with this in the best way she can but will it be the best way for Majella.

I can see this book flying off the shelves & I can’t wait to tell all my family about it! Brilliantly captured!

Michelle Gallen’s story of life in a post-Troubles Northern Irish border town is seen through the eyes of Majella. Majella is a little odd, was bright at school but now works night after night in the chipper and lives a small life with her selfish, alcoholic mum. Her dad has disappeared and her granny was recently murdered. Her IRA uncle is also dead (“it was years before Majella realised that not everyone got a volley of gunshots over their grave”.) Majella has had enough traumatic experiences to last a lifetime and she has her own strategies to cope, but her existence is pretty grim. Michelle Gallen paints a picture of a life in a town still damaged from the years of conflict with humour and unflinching detail. As a reader I was desperate for Majella to know she was worth more than her humdrum existence... and by the end there is a glimmer of hope.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Sadly this book wasn't for me. In my opinion none of the characters were very likeable or charismatic, nothing really happened and there was too much swearing.

This book is a slice of life kind of story set in Ireland. I thought the writer did what was intended really well. It was difficult to get used to the style, but once I got into the story and got to know the characters, it was quite enjoyable.

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Majella lives at home (in Northern Ireland) with her alcoholic mother. She works in a fish and chip shop, her da disappeared some years ago (it's not clear whether he just left the country or was 'disappeared' by paramilitaries) and her grandmother has just died as a result of being beaten up while alone in her caravan.

Majella has a fairly lonely existence - she finds her mother difficult (unsurprisingly - her mother is not only an alcoholic but also something of a hypochondriac) and Majella likes to keep herself to herself - which is tricky when, in the small community in which she lives, everyone seems to know everyone else's business. Majella does sometimes have sex with the guy she works with (Marty) and she isn't particularly close to him.

Most of the book is taken up with Majella working in the fish and chip shop; at first I found it strangely mesmerising (she's literally taking orders and then handing them over to the customers) but after a while I just skimmed through all the fish and chip shop exchanges. What's actually going on in the background (ie Majella wondering about her father, dealing with her mother, and what happens as a result of her grandmother's death) unfolds very gradually almost in the background - you may get one sentence per paragraph where, in between putting on the chips, there'll be a reference to another area of Majella's life. In the end, although I didn't mind when I first started reading, I thought there was far too many exchanges in the chip shop which quickly became, to me, fairly dull.

I'll be honest: the highlight of this book is the main character buying herself a new duvet. But I was so invested in her by this point that it was an absolute delight that she was treating herself.

Big Girl, Small Town is not like Milkman or Derry Girls in much other than the setting but it's still a quietly funny book which I think will divide readers. If you want to really get to know the characters, it's for you - if you're looking for an exciting plot then maybe avoid.

A solid 3.5 stars.

Michelle Gallen's Big Girl, Small Town is being promoted as Milkman meets Derry Girls, setting up expectations that Michelle Gallen's debut novel almost certainly cannot hope to meet. Inevitably, even though it opens with a quote from Anna Burn's extraordinary work, it doesn't rise up to the literary merits and philosophical insights of Milkman's view of living in a world shaped by the inescapable stranglehold of the twin authoritarian influence of religious observance and paramilitary terror, nor does it have quite the humorous exaggeration of the same conditions of Derry Girls. And yet in its own way, and from a Northern Irish small town perspective, Big Girl, Small Town is another small masterpiece that draws from that wealth of observations to be made about ordinary life in extraordinary circumstances.

It seems a little bit of a familiar literary contrivance use a character with some minor level of autism who is unable to comprehend all the subtleties insinuations and social conventions as a way of emphasising the absurdities of the world around her, but Majella O'Neill turns out to be an extraordinary character. Her perspective is perfect for the purposes of providing the deeper insights that Gallen reveals about life in a small provincial Northern Ireland. Majella is not there to provide an easy way in for outsiders, the work remaining resolutely true to language and behaviours that will seems bizarre to anyone outside of the province, and yet Majella's experiences relate to a very recognisable universal condition.

27 year-old Majella 'Jelly' O'Neill lives in the small town of Aghybogey in Co. Tyrone, a town with a distinct Catholic/Protestant (Taig/Prod) divide right on the border with Co. Donegal in Ireland. Although she's bright and intelligent, she doesn't cope well in most social situations, not that there are any great opportunities for a better life in somewhere like Aghybogey. Majella works in a chippy, taking orders and serving the regulars, exchanging well-rehearsed small talk that she has learned to make dealing with the public easier. Her father, a former IRA activist has 'disappeared' and Majella has to cope with an alcoholic mother addicted to prescription drugs.

Life in Aghybogey is as tedious and miserable as it sounds and Michelle Gallen doesn't try to brighten it up in any way, instead describing the minutiae and poverty of the existence of a large overweight girl lacking in social skills in excruciating and sometimes graphic detail. In terms of plot there's not a lot else going on here other than repetitive sequences of taking chippy orders, with the circumstance of Majella's grandmother dying after someone beat the old woman living alone in her caravan home, being the only event of note that gives the locals something to talk about. Not only does it provide gossip over who might be responsible, it also brings unwelcome attentions of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PissNI) to Majella's door.

if that sounds unappealing, Gallen's observations are however brilliantly accurate, the dialogue and the experiences utterly authentic (and potentially baffling to anyone outside Northern Ireland), but there's a dark humour that arises out of it, and a universal quality that makes it impossible not to feel deeply for the almost heartbreakingly sad situation and potential trajectory of Majella's life. But Gallen's book isn't looking for sympathies and despite the plain descriptiveness and the deceptive paucity of drama, the repetition, the chippy orders, the small talk and what it reveals about small town life takes on a form of its own. It has an almost Beckett-like quality; a meditation on the ritualistic behaviours that strive to impose some kind of order or meaning over the futility of existence, with a healthy dose of absurdist humour thrown in. Absurdist that is as in completely realistic and true to life in small town Northern Ireland.

After the success of Milkman's Booker Prize win last year, it seems incredible that another work from Northern Ireland could explore the undercurrents of another aspect of life in the province in such an insightful and involving manner. Big Girl, Small Town is no copycat however, no cash-in looking for the next Anna Burns or Derry Girls, but is seemingly part of a new golden age of post-conflict reflection on the world that has shaped the province, and it's equally as impressive. Michelle Gallen finds her own voice in Majella O'Neill, finds a unique expression and observation of the absurdities of everyday life, and the big girl in the small town might be more likely to work her way under your skin and leave an even deeper impression.

I have never been so happy about someone treating themselves to a new duvet.

Set in a small town in Northern Ireland somewhere near Strabane and Omagh, it brought back some good memories. I enjoyed the Norn Iron dialect, the chippy, all the customers with their own backgrounds, details thereof provided by Marty, and the ever present complicated history of the place. It was really lovely spending this time with Majella, always walking around in her sweat pants and trainers, with her big hands, but very at ease with her life and who she is. I completely rooted for her when she decided to buy herself a treat and loved the sense of change at the end.

I would love to read a sequel, I want to know what's next for Majella, maybe a bit more detail about her grandmother's and da's faith.

I didn’t find this book really interested me and have to admit that I didn’t finish it. However, I am sure there are those who would find it interesting!

I have read a large number of books this year and this is definitely in the bottom 3! There is no storyline what so ever, just full of random mumblings from start to finish. Not a book I would recommend to anyone!

I love a book set Ireland with quirky characters and this is what you get with this read - centring around Majella and her alcoholic mum we are introduced to various locals at the chippy where she works - haunted by her past Majella leads a simple life until the untimely death of her aunt could change her future
A great read with a great lead character - ended too soon for me !!

I tried, I really did, but I found very little about this book enjoyable. Such great praise for this book, but I just didn't feel the same about it.

At first, the language used was tricky but I still understood it. I love shows like Derry Girls so for me I was super excited to read this but felt the more I read, the more I became disheartened and uninterested.

Majella as a character didn't endear herself to me at all. I liked how the portrayal of her grief came across in the book, as in real life its there ever present at times, in the worst and most inconvenient of times, but that was the only point I found commendable.

The repetition, again, I understand that this is real life, just was not enjoyable to read about and felt so much of it was already drilled home that it felt like overkill at times. I felt like I missed an entire hook to the story and prayed that something would happen.

There was one scene in the book (the kittens) I found horrendous. The less I say about that the better really (I am a cat lover!)

Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for an advanced copy of this book, Sadly its not one I would be likely to recommend.

This will stay with you for quite a while after you've put it down. The destitute sadness of a small town life, combined with alcoholism, the Troubles and great use of colloquial expression makes this a real tour de force in Irish fiction. Majella, hurt by the loss of her missing father and murdered grandmother, minding her alcoholic mother and acting as constant carer, works in the local chip shop and knows the routines of all around her. Unable to see past the life she's living, Majella fears the unknown and her autism sets her apart from everyone around her. Focusing on tiny, repetitive moments of a small life, the story chugs through the brain and the reader, suffocating, roots for Majella's escape.

I initially found this a hard read as it took me while to get into the book, however once I got stuck in I wanted to carry on! The books focus on everyday life and what it throws at you! The way it ended paves way for a second book, but let’s see