O’Donoghue is a new writer for me, despite her work getting a lot of buzz and I can see why because the actual writing style trots along at a comfortable pace. The skilful depiction of Charlie living through the trauma of losing her dad to cancer over a prolonged felt really human to read, which I know many people will find hard to read as it is so relatable. The character is so lost and absorbed in her grief, which does sometimes verge on a narcissism, so it was in all honesty a tough read for me to get through. I look forward to reading other Caroline O’Donoghue books in future based on the narrative voice alone

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

Family secrets. Tragic accidents. Small town loyalties. This was more dramatic than I was expecting as Charlotte Regan returns to a tiny island off the West coast of Ireland to investigate the scene of her father's childhood trauma. Well-written and strong characters.

I loved O'Donoghue's debut and this did not disappoint. I wasn't expecting it to be as dark as it was but still enjoyed it nonetheless.

This book was so gripping, it really is a page turner. It sets up so many elements, like the fragmenting friendship between the main character and her best friend; her dad's illness; her relationship with her mum; the amateur porn work she does - and others I won't say as they're spoilers - but it doesn't quite tie up the knots. The end feels rushed for this reason. I still enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend, but I can't help feeling there was more potential.

Great read I raced through it, enjoyable & intriguing plot with characters I want to know more about!

Charlie Regan's life is complicated. Her career isn't going to plan leading to a side hustle selling intimate photos, her relationship with her best friend Laura is somewhat strained and everything is much harder to cope with because Charlie's father is terminally ill.

When It Takes a Village the short film — based on her father's childhood on Clipim an (fictional) island off the coast of county Kerry— Charlie wrote and directed with Laura is accepted into an Irish film festival, things start to look up.

There is just one problem, Charlie has never been to Ireland and she is terrified that everyone will hate the film and her portrayal of Irish people.

Following the film's debut in Cork, Charlie decides to travel to Clipim in order to finally get some answers about how and why her father was the only survivor of the fire in the schoolhouse. Realising that this is a community full of secrets, with an inability to talk about them, Charlie soon wonders whether her life is in danger.

There were occasions when I thought the story was beginning to get away from O'Donoghue — that there were simply too many different strands to pull together into a cohesive plot — yet she proved me wrong.

O'Donoghue writes great female characters, who happen to be queer, something that while we are seeing more of in fiction recently is still lacking in so many ways. Not every story with LGBTQ+ characters needs to be about coming out because gay, lesbian, bi+, trans, and non-binary people lead lives just as complicated as cishet people. Our sexuality is obviously important to us but in having it be one aspect of Charlie's life without being the only thing we learn about her, O'Donoghue provides the type of representation so many LGBTQ+ people — including me — crave.

Scenes of a Graphic Nature is a novel about connection, love, family, and identity which balances the emotional with the humorous leading to a complex tale full of interesting characters.

A great Irish author, with a great wonderful insight in the Irish culture. Here we get to see the beauty of the west coast of Ireland and all the funny and loving ways the Irish can be.

A fascinating, engrossing story about dark pasts, the stories we tell and the things we hide - as individuals, as families, as communities, as nations.

Scenes of a Graphic Nature follows Charlotte (Charlie) Regan, a queer woman filmmaker in her late twenties who is dealing not only with one of her parents being terminally ill, but all the ups and downs (mostly downs in her case) of being in a creative industry, as well as jealousy and sadness that her best friend Laura, who made her last film with her, is progressing far more with her career than Charlie is. Charlie and Laura's film is about Charlie's father, who is dying, and a tragedy that happened on the Irish island when he was a child in the 1960s, of which he was the only survivor. It hasn't done very well and so Charlie supplements her meagre income with online porn, while high-flying Laura is set to move to LA. The beginning of the story is very gritty and depressing...so much so I almost stopped reading. I'm glad I didn't!

Charlie gets word that her and Laura's film will be shown at a film festival in Cork. Having had zero interest in the film to date, she and Laura decide they have to be there for its premiere - to close this chapter of their lives, if nothing else.

Charlie's father has never returned to Ireland since he left, and she has never been. It's not quite the homecoming she expected! What ensues is the uncovering of the truth about her family's past - which is far more horrifying than Charlie realised. Without giving too much away, the truth she discovers is connected to controversial and extremely dark aspects of Irish history, particularly the systematic abuse of women and children by the Catholic Church. Charlie grapples not only with her family's past but with her own present - what it means to be English with Irish parents, how she feels both at home and like an outsider in her father's birthplace. This is explored further by O'Donoghue in how she juxtaposes Ireland's reputation as a welcoming and friendly nation alongside its violent history.

"The story was a changeling that morphed every time you tried to catch it in your hands. How could it be real? It was the sort of thing that you could believe about a concentration camp in the Second World War. But Ireland? A place where so many of our parents and grandparents were from? Where Saoirse Ronan was from? A country that had Topshop and Nesquik and chemotherapy and gay marriage?"

I really enjoyed the mystery at the heart of the novel - the more Charlie discovers, the more she is forced to consider why her father told the story in the way he did and why the villagers are so resistant to people digging around in the community's past. The novel is very much about the narratives we create in the name of self-preservation. Charlie learns that just because you discover a secret doesn't mean you are then entitled to tell about it. The truth can come later - and sometimes that's for the best.

Compelling and funny, with complicated characters and difficult themes, I was very impressed by this novel. I look forward to reading what Caroline O'Donoghue writes next!

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Scenes of a graphic nature is a story of belonging and identity. Charlie finds herself in Ireland for a movie she made about her dad’s childhood tragedy - but once she gets there, she realizes that people might not know the full story, and she extends her stay to try to find out what really happened. Caroline O’Donoghue wrote a story about finding your roots in Ireland: it’s gloomy, and it’s beautifully immersive. It’s my second novel by O’Donoghue and I’m impressed with how unique and refreshing her books are!

Caroline O'Donoghue is an exciting new voice in Irish literature. Her novels have a feminist drive fused with the fantastical. This novel is interesting, for me, in its depiction of the young Irish diaspora reconnecting with their Irish past. I would recommend this to friends for a light holiday read.

3/3.5

I have so many conflicted feelings, some of which I can't even articulate. I think some it is homesickness...

It took a wee while for Scenes of a Graphic Nature to find its feet. Everything set in England, the descriptions of the hospital room, Charlie being told to wear a bra...it felt like a different book. The same with Charlie's friendship with Laura, and the changes they are going through, I loved those parts of the story - but it was never completely fleshed out. It felt like these were two different plot strands, with the third being the mystery of Clipim's past. They are all loosely tied together by Charlie's less-than-promising film career.

Charlie's ignorance about modern Ireland and her sense of entitlement because of her roots is a big part of the story and is very well done, because I very much disliked her for it...the book isn't preachy about it, but I've met people as ignorant as her in real life and it's just tiring how naive she is.

I really, really enjoyed the mystery part of this book, and that was a part of the book I wasn't expecting. Small town/village secrecy is one of my favourite tropes in mysteries/horrors. However, I had a hard time distinguishing Clipim locals from one another (mainly the younger generation). I also did not understand the behaviour of some of the younger residents of the island, and newcomers to the island...were they aware of the truth? did they just know it was a scandal of some sort but not the details? I just didn't really understand their motivations fully. The ending ultimately felt a bit messy, and I'm not sure the epilogue being that far in the future was needed when important parts of the plot were glossed over because of it.

I was really excited to read this, I love Caroline's writing style and was especially interested in the storyline. It did not disappoint. Loved it.

At the start of the book I have to confess to finding Charlie a bit of an annoying millennial – sorry, I know I’m an old fart – but I wanted to give her a good shake! But I persevered and the book did, thankfully, improve.

The fictional island of Clipim off the West Coast of Ireland was, in my imagination, like Great Cumbrae off the West Coast of Scotland where we used to visit as children. A very small island where everyone knows everyone else’s business! This mythical place had been part of Charlie’s family history – but she’d never been. In fact she’d never set foot in Ireland at all despite her proud half Irish heritage! However, she’d made a film about her Dad’s time in Clipim as a child and a terrible tragedy that had occurred back then which was being shown at the Cork Film Festival – so Charlie and her best friend Laura hopped across to Clipim too.

Once on Clipim Charlie begins to suspect there is more to the historic tragedy than meets the eye. There are some weird goings on in the present day there too.

The book is part self discovery for Charlie, part friendship / relationship issues, part murder mystery – and consequently kept me interested.

Charlie’s relationship with her parents was tricky – she seemed to be a complete Daddy’s girl – and her relationship with her Mum was generally really strained. It was a real shame for both of them, as with a very poorly father, it would have been better for them both if there’d been some more give and take.

And her best friend Laura seemed a bit of a cow at times I have to say. Charlie’s relationship with Maria was interesting – and I do wonder how it developed between the end of the main book and the epilogue.

The book seems to conclude really quickly, within the last few pages – and it didn’t feel like there were PROPER answers. And I was also left confused about some of the characters – who appear to have just been totally weird, but not for any specific reason! Benjamin Barry who ran the caravan park was completely odd, manipulative and weird – but with no explanation why.

Whilst the book is not based on a true historical incident, and Clipim is not a real island in Ireland – there were ‘Magadalene laundries’ as is referenced in the book with stories that are still being uncovered today. The unfolding of the tragedy did seem totally believable – if terribly sad.

Overall I did enjoy the book and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

I initially thought this book would be a standard chick-lit read, but I was proved wrong; it was so much better!

The story follows Charlie’s journey to Clipim to discover her Irish roots after making a documentary about her father’s childhood on the island. However, things aren’t as they seem when she arrives, and she soon realises that there’s more than meets the eye to her father’s stories about a seemingly innocent tragic accident.

This book verges on a mystery in respect of plot line, the story about the tragedy in Clipim and Charlie’s investigations into it keep the narrative interesting and keeps you reading to the end to find out what happens. However, this is surrounded by colourful characters and writing that provides a humorous and truthful look into living life in your late 20s.

This book has everything you're searching for in a mysterious, dark, summer read. An overarching theme of identity and roots, while forsaking the cliched rosy-tinted view of families living in the protagonist's ancestral roots and vague rettings of stories. I am that just happens a lot in stories, but perhaps these relatives are not what you think they are.

Contained within the pages of 'Scenes of a Graphic Nature' is clear and well-written prose, alongside realistic descriptions of the very picturesque coastal parts of Ireland which soon turn into the claustrophobic environment of a town with a secret to hide. The observations of an Irish pub on the weekend versus a weeknight are astutely observed and wittily retold.

It's definitely a page-turner and gripping as you encounter well-realised personalities on the island. The histories they carry on their shoulders make you need to find out what has happened on the island to make them turn on the central character and her friend. I felt that the denouement could have been a good ending for the book, I found that I wasn't as interested in her return to Clipim but rather in finding out if the friendship thrived or perished after the trip to Ireland.

Caroline Donohue tackles some big themes with a lightness of touch in this debut novel. Charlie is struggling with adult life in her late twenties. As a filmmaker she is not successful in the way that her best friend is becoming, and has to come to terms with the shifts in their relationship as the once inseparable friends’ paths are diverging. Out of the blue she hears that a film they made together has been accepted for inclusion into the Cork Film Festival and they set off, finding themselves, however on a very different journey to the one they had in mind. This book is billed as ‘darkly funny’ and I did not find it a humorous read, but an engrossing one. Themes of friendship, sexuality, dual heritage and the legacy of Irish history are all here within a gripping plot.

☘️🟩🟢 today i finished ‘Scenes of a Graphic Nature’ a fantastic little read by @czaronline - i’m seriously in awe at how well someone can describe the atmosphere of Ireland and Irish people so incredibly spot on !!!

THIS STORY BASICALLY HAD IT ALL - an extremely sick father, a turbulent mother/daughter relationship, a drifting long-term friendship, an aspiring filmmaker nearing her 30s at the speed of light, feeling unaccomplished on goals, LBGTQ+ themes, an Irish island, secrecy, Ireland/England tensions, a traumatic event that doesn’t quite add up, aaaaaaaaand elements of mystery !!! 🔍 but overall this book is about identity and belonging 🥰

AAAAAAAND it’s released today, so if you’re looking for a novel thats raw, relatable, has a bit of dark humour, in parts emotional, gives of a real Irish feel and is character driven with perfectly imperfect characters, then this book is right up your street !!!!!!!! 🟢🟩☘️

big thank-you to @netgalley as always for my advanced preview of this novel

I have reviewed this book as part of my What I Read in July Video https://youtu.be/ylUnrAUV1qA

It has also featured in a book haul video https://youtu.be/-f39yG4sDLE

This is a wonderful character-driven novel. You can really feel Charlie's confusion as to where her life is going and her despair at being left behind by her best friend.

I also loved the LGBT representation in this book. Charlie is a lesbian, and her saying she hadn't come out to her family yet for fear of their reaction is increibly real and relatable.

There's also a hint of mystery to the book, as you try to decipher what really happened in the 1960s, and why Charlie's father is so secretive about it. Coming from a small community myself, I'm very aware of how "outsiders" are seen.