If novels about dysfunctional families are something you like to gauge your childhood against, Our Little Cruelties might just be the book for you as it will make your early years look blissful. The Drumm family - particularly the brothers Will, Brian and Luke - are textbook perfect illustrations for the word 'dysfunctional'. They are each bad seeds in their own way making this one of the most addicting novel.

As the book progresses we hear the story of their individual lives growing up in Ireland, and as grown adults, told from each of their perspectives. I couldn't put it down. The level of cruelty is high and lack of shame or any sibling loyalty is apparent. It's both shocking and enticing as the level of wickedness seems to ramp up knowing that one of them will be dead by the end of the book.

Normally, not being able to warm to any of the characters spells doom, but, in this instance it is a mark of my good judgement. There isn't much that is likeable and that works wonders for this novel as the reader feels a safe distance from the slings and arrows hurled about with reckless abandon. The cruelty and the twists that transpire would be worrying in a real family but here it simply feels like a guilty pleasure for the audience.

A great read, Our Little Cruelties opens the door to a world filled with cold, messed up people who might just deserve what they get. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

'Our Little Cruelties' is a book full of deeply unpleasant people being deeply unpleasant to each other. Don't let that put you off as, just like watching a car crash, I couldn't look away. I was fascinated to be able to see some scenes and events from the different perspectives of the three brothers. I loved the differences in the way the characters saw themselves and their actions compared to how others saw them. This is a fantastic in depth character study and an absorbing read.

Three brothers. One of them is dead. Murdered by the others? Brilliant on the slow train wreck that is dysfunctional family. Brilliantly written and constructed.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy of Our Little Cruelties, Liz Nugent's latest psychological thriller. And all I can say is... woah! Cancel all plans (oh, wait...) and devour this twisty little number.

The story opens with three brothers at a funeral. Only thing is, one brother lies within the coffin. One brother has been murdered, and you don't get to find out who it is and how he was killed until the final page. Our Little Cruelties really kept me guessing, tossing heaps of unexpected twists and turns my way.

Think your family is crazy? Think again! Liz Nugent writes delightfully delicious characters that leap off the page and remain etched into your memory for good. You just love to hate them.

Some pretty deep, dark stuff crops up in Our Little Cruelties, including addiction, rape, the #MeToo movement, mental health issues, and, of course... murder.

It's not my first Nugent and it certainly won't be my last!

Not her usual gripping kind of novel but this is a thought-provoking book about an unusual and dysfunctional family. The brothers are all self-absorbing and looking out for themselves alone. Lots of resentment from their youth probably because of their mother. The only “normal” character seemed to be the father. Covers sibling rivalry, addiction, adultery, “Me Too”. I loved this book.

OUR LITTLE CRUELTIES is the fourth psychological thriller by Liz Nugent. This is a character driven psychological family drama that will hook you in right from the beginning.

Her Novels Include:
Unravelling Oliver (2014)
Lying in Wait (2016)
Skin Deep (2018)
Our Little Cruelties (2020)

The story starts with three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin. None of the brothers had been close.

The Drumm family is one dysfunctional family, and one that I am glad I never grew up in! The story centers around s three brothers: William, Brian and Luke, all growing up competing for their mother's unequal love. The mother is a minor celebrity in Ireland and does not know how to be a real mother to her boys As men, the competition continues for status, money, fame, and women.

Will-Eldest, married to Susan with 1 daughter, Daisy.
-Film producer
-Mommy’s boy
-Always took what he wanted
-unfaithful (infidelity)

Brian-Teacher, living in Paris, later fired from a school for inappropriate behavior
-Was later managing the careers of most of Ireland’s young talent

Luke-Rock-star, successful kid-brother
-history of psychotic episodes and drug abuse
-lifetime of baggage

Each of the brothers betray each other, over and over, until one of them is dead.

But which brother killed him? We don’t know who died until the end of the book.

The book is told by each of the brothers, who all have their own story.

Their experiences had scarred them deeply, one of many that contributed to the plot of “Our Little Cruelties.” This is an addictive intriguing psychological family drama heading to a catastrophe.

Many thanks to the author, Penguin Books (UK) and Netgalley for my digital copy.

Liz is a genius at writing horrible characters and in her newest offering she definitely does not disappoint!

The Drumm brothers are pretty despicable although I did quite like Luke, however Brian and William were something else!

I'd loved how the story was split into 3 POV and how it flitted to different times in each of the brothers life's, it really helped to build a complete picture of the Drumm family and their inner workings.

Three brothers are at a funeral. Two stand by the grave;one of them is in the coffin. Sounded a promising start & that mystery is something that the reader has to wait to find out. From the looks of it I am very much in a minority in my opinion of this book. The one mystery of 'Who is in the coffin?' kept me reading till the end but the characters were so awful that I really wanted to give up.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is the first Liz Nugent book I have read the blurb intrigued me 3 brothers one funeral 2 alive and 1 dead and you do not find out who is dead until the end of the book. The story follows the lives of the 3 brothers all 3 were quiet unlikeable so I did find it hard to care who was dead but I did enjoy the story how it progressed over the years and how the lives of the 3 turned out. It was an interesting and easy read!

Sometimes I listen to an audio book that’s just so extremely well done that I can’t imagine having a better experience if I had read the book. And this is one of those times. So, for those of you that listen to and enjoy audio books, I most definitely recommend this one. But to those of you who don’t, please don’t be put off. You’ll enjoy the actual book just as much, of that I’m sure. (As an aside, I also had a copy of this book on my Kindle and now and then I would flip between the two).

Whenever I read a book written by Liz Nugent one of the first things that I notice is how easy her writing style is. I’ve always found that she has an amazing way of creating characters that come alive, and that you grow to know intimately. One of the ways in which this author does that is by mastering the art of realistic dialogue, by making the things that people say to each other believable. As a massive reader, I’ve often found that authors battle with this and many times I’ve found myself unconvinced by the interaction between characters. Well, not with Liz Nugent.

This is the story of 3 brothers, and it’s basically the story of their dysfunctional family. It’s told over many years, from the time when the brothers were young boys until well into adulthood. And their story is anything but lovely. It’s narrated by all 3 brothers, each of whom tells the story from their own personal viewpoint. And here’s the thing – I didn’t like any of them. My word, they were such despicable characters and their treatment of each other was, at times, diabolical. Their relationships seemed to be characterized by jealousy, envy, nastiness, abuse and disrespect. But the character that I disliked the most was William, who was the oldest of the 3. He absolutely made my skin crawl. What a self-centered, egotistical *bleep* (I’m going to keep it tidy, but I think you probably know what I wanted to say). If I had to pick a favourite character, it would probably be Luke, who was the youngest brother and the one who seemed to display some genuinely nice and kind qualities. The thing with Luke was that he was mentally messed up, a drug addict and an alcoholic. And he too bothered me at times, but at least he had a kind heart.

Reading this you may well be wondering how I could have awarded this book 4 stars, especially when all the characters were so unlikeable. But that’s the thing – these characters, and the story in general, made me feel something and as most of you already know, I love books that make me feel strong emotions, even if they’re negative ones.

Something to bear in mind if you think you might like this one is that the narrative does jump around a lot. One chapter might be set in 1994, with the next in 1987, and the next in 2002. But despite this fact, I never actually felt lost. The story of the brother’s lives and their experiences is told so well that I always knew where I was in the story and what was going on. I can understand that some people won’t necessarily enjoy this, and the thing is that I’m normally someone who also prefers the story to follow a logical time line…but I was okay with the jumping around in this novel.

Overall, this was a great family drama. There’s plenty that will get your blood pumping, there’s plenty that will irritate you, there’s plenty that will make you mad…but when all’s said and done, there’s plenty to love about this rather depressing yet totally engaging story. It gets a thumbs up from me!

I throughly enjoyed this book is a brilliant read. There is so much detail it has you at its knees. You are squeamish in your seat when reading this story.

With thanks to Penguin UK and NetGalley for the ARC.

We start at a funeral, it's for one of three brothers. But which one?

The Drumm family are a seriously dysfunctional Dublin family.
Mother, Melissa is a former big band singer and minor TV celebrity.
Her eldest son, William is a film producer. He's a misogynistic, narcissistic piece of work.
The 2nd son, Brian is a mean, controlling agent.
The baby son is Luke, he's been a huge pop star with serious mental health issues.

The story is told from all three sons POV and tells the story of their lives from childhood right up to the funeral.

It's not so much a whodunnit as a whosdead.

The story is captivating, the characters are brilliant and the writing is flawless.
I could not put this book down.
One of the best of the year so far.

Review
The blurb description is fairly brief, three brothers - William, Brian, Luke. One of them is dead, which of them is lying in the coffin? During their lifetimes, each of them live in the constant want and need to impress their mother for various reasons, whether to gain her respect or love.

This description doesn’t do this book justice, it’s so much more. From the first chapter, I was completely hooked and enthralled in the lives of the three brothers and the Drumm family. William and Brian grew up shockingly selfish and it was interesting how this didn’t change throughout their lives.

I really enjoyed the way that the book was written from each brother’s perspective and would then touch on individual scenarios but not in a repetitive way as some books do. The author was very clever to cover all aspects of this, eg Luke speaking about finding Brian in Paris, then later Brian giving his version of events.

Even through to the final chapter and the final sentence, the book didn’t disappoint. For me, it’s been the best book I’ve read in 2020 and Liz Nugent is my favourite newly discovered author.

I would definitely recommend this book and rate it 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thanks
Thank you to the author and publishers Penguin Books (UK) for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an independent review.

Our Little Cruelties is a twisty, clever, family saga that kept me thoroughly engrossed in these strange lockdown times.

Ms Nugent skilfully creates a very believable sibling dynamic between the three wildly different Drumm brothers which takes us along with them as they each narrate the events that bring them to the funeral of the one who has died. There is no black or white to be found in any of the characters; I veered between sympathy and dislike for each one of them (and for their damaged, narcissistic mother) right through to the end.

Yet another gobsmacking novel from Liz Nugent – I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Many thanks to Penguin Books UK, to Ms Nugent and to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this terrific book.

I am almost entirely alone in disliking this novel I see from reading other reviews. I have thought about why that is and can't come up with anything specific. Maybe I need to have just a single character I can root for? Everyone in this book was repugnant to me. I've seen people say that they liked this complexity and realism, but for me it was so unutterably bleak.

Even the women - whom I'd expected to identify with as they suffered the vicious selfishness of the three protagonists - refused to hold their abusers accountable. Susan was inexplicably loyal to the man who only married her because she was pregnant and was never faithful. Though she left, she still slept with him, which only rewards his awful behaviour. Mary let Will get away with physical, verbal and psychological abuse even after holding him to account would no longer have been even a tiny risk and could have supported other women. Daisy, a character who could have shone a light on mental health stuggles, was a caricature at best and at worst perpetuated all sorts of potentially harmful stereotypes: 'She's fat? She's gay? Bisexual? Non binary? Promiscuous? Addicted? Yes kids - all of those because she's mentally ill!' What kind of message does that send about marginalised groups?

The MeToo movement is sidelined and oversimplified. No one learns anything about themselves or develops as a person. The mother, her rapist, the brothers - all get away with both major crimes and small ones. No one is punished. No one is a better human. It seemed to me the author put every possible trauma into one book - how many people in a single family have their lives affected by suicide, rape, infidelity, alcholism, drug addiction, sexual harassment/abuse, paedophilia accusations, HIV, false paternity, financial mismanagement, schizophrenia, leukaemia, murder and international celebrity all in the same generation? My goodness. It's a veritable smorgasbord of suffering!

Our Little Cruelties is a psychological thriller with heavy emphasis on the psychological. It is testament to Liz Nugent's skill as a writer that each of the three main, deeply flawed, characters are depicted in such granular detail - as though their psyches are under a microscope with the reader squinting down at them.

It is hard to like William, Brian or Luke but through examining the patchwork quilt of their earliest memories and childhood experiences - in the context of minor tragedy, misplaced fortitude and Irish Catholicism - we can begin to understand and even, at times, sympathise with them.

The nonlinear structure of Our Little Cruelties works incredibly well. Patch by patch, we stitch together the quilt - revisiting some scenes through another brother's perspective to enhance our knowledge of what really happened. As so often with life, many of the little cruelties are inflicted through a simple lack understanding of another person's perspective and motive. William didn't know why Luke missed Christmas dinner; Luke didn't question the scandal that befell Brian. The whole novel is nearly a lesson in why empathy is so important - yet it never feels so instructive. The tightly woven plot and brilliantly sustained suspense (which brother is dead? Who killed him?) propels the story and eschews any cloying moral tone.

This is the first of Liz Nugent's novels I have read and I'm delighted to have discovered such a gifted storyteller who creates these complex and credible characters. Even the family matriarch, clearly responsible for much of her sons' odd or mean behaviour, is somehow understandable. In the hands of a lesser writer, Melissa would be a one-dimensional pantomime villain, but Nugent gives her just enough context and misfortune to explain her choices and actions.

Whilst Our Little Cruelties isn't a novel to make your heart sing with joy, if you're fascinated by the human condition and you appreciate truly great storytelling, I can't recommend it highly enough.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“We’re all brothers, aren’t we, Dad?”
... “You sure are, boys, you sure are!”

Thank you to @vikingbooksuk for sending me the latest fabulous book from Liz Nugent. OUR LITTLE CRUELTIES is a family drama which twists and turns, takes dark unexpected turns as we become absorbed in the lives of the Drumm brothers. One is a less than squeaky clean film producer, another a washed-out pop star and the third, well is Brian.

Liz Nugent does a fabulous job of creating vivid but realistic character as we walk to streets of Dublin unable to disconnect from these men’s less than simple lives. Hearing their story from all three brothers is a great touch as Nugent explores each brother’s perception of events in their lives, causing the reader to question what really happened.

Another great read from Nugent! Out now!

‘’Three brothers are at the funeral. One lies in the coffin’’.

This is a great new thriller by Liz Nugent which tells the story of the three Drumm brothers, William (the oldest), Brian (the middle child) and Luke (the youngest). I really enjoyed that this story was told from multiple POV’s (each brother shares his own story) and it spans over 40 years from their early childhood to adulthood.

As much as I loved this book it was such a dark, disturbing and twisted family saga, which left me totally despising the majority of the characters in this book! They were truly awful people who did and said awful unspeakable things to each other. Usually motivated by fame, fortune or women, it was the most extreme case of sibling rivalry I’ve ever witnessed for sure and will make most other families you know look like the ‘Waltons’.

This book definitely left me feeling conflicted. I detested the characters, but I loved the book overall, which I never though would be possible if you hated the characters so much.
I guess that’s just testament to Liz Nugents writing style and her genius ability to create such realistic yet unlikeable characters.

If you like a good dark psychological thriller full of twists, turns and toxic characters, this is definitely the book for you

Wow! What a cracker of a story.

There really isn't one innocent person in this book except maybe their father who was a nice but weak man.



The mother was amazing. I absolutely hated her!! The witch.



I had sympathies for each of the brothers but most especially Luke who seemed to bear the brunt of his family's little cruelties growing up.

I disliked Will most of all and I had to laugh when he got caught up in the #MeToo movement.

The story is told from each brother's point of view and it jumps timelines multiple times in their retelling. This was really cleverly done and the flow of the story was quick and enthralling. I couldn't put it down.

I was kind of dreading finding out which brother was going to die as I had weirdly liked the characters by the end but it managed to take me completely by surprise even though I was gearing up for it! It was a deliciously evil moment and I was left with a gleeful feeling that that that terrible deed and everything that came before it wasn't going to go unpunished!!

Fabulous.

‘Our Little Cruelties’ is told from the perspective of 3 brothers, it tells the story of them growing up and the lives they went on to lead as adults. It isn’t a warm fuzzy story, 2 of the brothers are pretty awful and one is suffering from severe mental health issues. However, it is an interesting read and one that has you wanting to know more. It’s intriguing to see how each brother perceives certain events compared to each other. It slowly builds to show not only how destructive they are to themselves but also everyone else around them. It’s cleverly done with a smart ending.

Thanks Netgalley & Penguin Books.