Listening Still by Anne Griffin

I enjoyed this novel and think I should go back and read all her others because they have some great reviews. This is a story about duty and freedom, should Jeannie take a chance and follow her first love to London and a new life? Or is the pull of being a dutiful daughter and running the family undertakers make it too hard to leave? Jeannie clearly has an inner voice but struggles to do what it tells her. Either way there’s a sacrifice. Her family may ostracise her if she goes with her heart. That small voice inside wonders if she’ll ever again feel that all consuming love if she stays. Her parents bring the dilemma to a head as they announce their retirement and plan to hand her the business. How can she turn her back on all they’ve done for her?

Jeannie also has a special skill. She is able to talk to the dead, something passed down from her father. In hearing their words Jeannie works through her own concerns. It’s almost as if they are her counsellors, their messages for loved ones act as signposts for building a happy life. As she takes in words of love and comfort, there’s also those of regret: avenues not taken and pages never turned. It seems to help at this critical juncture in her life to express how trapped she feels. While her parents see the business as a gift, Jeannie feels it as a burden. Firstly, taking over everything her father does is overwhelming. Having always been the assistant, she isn’t sure she can take the reins, but this could just be a lack of confidence or fear of failure. Yet it’s also a cry from a soul that’s never been allowed to wander and find it’s own place.

We learn that the toll the family business has taken on Jeannie starts in her school days, when other kids would call her Morticia. Once they learn about her spooky ability to speak with the dead, the bullying spirals. She learns to hate her gift and her family’s business. This has built to a sense of panic that her life is running out and she wants a space where no one wants anything from her. She is a people- pleaser, something a lot of women can identify with. This feeling has also bled into her relationship with husband Niall. Niall is an embalmer and they’ve known each other since she was a toddler. Her father’s announcement seems to have lit a fire under him and he sees it as their life being able to start. He has long since wanted to start a family, have a dog and look for their forever home. Jeannie is always prevaricating, as a result of constant people pleasing and her family’s habit of never expressing what they really feel.

She does get a little frustrating from time to time. I’m a big ‘sayer’ in these sorts of situations and I get genuinely upset if there’s an elephant in the room. She’s conflicted all the time and I could see why Niall was finally giving her an ultimatum. I don’t think she means to hurt people, but doesn’t realise that her silence leaves everyone hanging. Could it be the only way she has power? When Ffion appears back in Kilcross, she has to face what her life has become and what has brought her there. Many years ago Ffion was her first love, but his plans to run away to London and make something of his talent in photography. He asked her to go with him but she didn’t make up her mind and he left without her. Jeannie stayed, sleepwalking into a life she never wanted. Now that everything is exposed, can she make the change?

I loved the quirkiness in this story and the conversations she has with their clients. It gives a layer of humour to an otherwise emotional story. I also enjoyed her relationship with brother Mikey, who’s on the autistic spectrum. I was lost in the complex relationships here and the premise that if we aren’t honest with those we love, even if it might hurt them, we are deceiving them and ourselves. It made me think a lot about failure and how we only fail if we never try. I’m reliably informed that the wonderful Nicola Coughlan narrates the audiobook so I’m going to search that out.

Didn’t love Jeanie in the beginning - she felt immature and whiny, but I can understand why she may have wanted to escape her life and wish for more.

Listening Still
by Anne Griffin
An extremely well written story that is very beautiful and very different. Set in an small village inIreland about a family of undertakers. Jeanie is the daughter and she has a special gift she hers from the dead. This book follows Jeanie life and family structures and expectations, lost love and pressures involved in many aspects of life living in a village and people’s views about the ‘family gift’. A thought provoking and humour ,sadness and many emotions besides and when Jeanie’s parents decide they are going to retire what will Jeanie decide to do the characters in the book are wonderful. This a great book from start to finish. 4.5/5

This one was just too wordy and slow - nothing had happened at the 25% mark; it was just the same rehashing of the same old, same old - and while I loved the tone, I just wanted something to finally happen. And all the while, the MC just ended up growing more and more unlikeable and I was finding myself unable to get behind her and root for her. Unfortunately, wasn't for me

This was such a Good book, Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review.

Listening Still Anne Griffin
As a huge fan of Anne's previous book When All is Said, I was delighted to get my hands on this one. I felt it got off to a slow start, but just as I found myself wondering, where is this going, I realised I was being drawn into the story, and I found myself picking up the book at every opportunity.

I loved Jeanie, and if anything, I would have loved to hear more of her conversations with dead people.

Unique story, well written.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this ARC

A beautifully moving story, that is poignant and heart warming. A nice easy read

Jeanie has both a blessing and a curse. She can hear the last words of the dead and they can also hear her and she feels as though she is obliged to pass these messages on to the living. Jeanie is not the only one who can do this, her father can too, but he does not always pass these messages on exactly. He will alter these messages with the hope to not hurt anyones feelings. This leads to Jeanie feeling conflicted when her father retires. Is this the right thing to do going forward?

This novel shifts from past to present. It gives us an insight into Jeanie's life, her bestfriend, Peanut, Fionn, and her relationship with Niall. Jeanie's character was frustrating at times. I'm not too sure if this was the authors intent or not as I have seen a few people say they have felt this way? Saying that though, my favourite parts of the books were Jeanie's encounters of talking to the dead and I wish we had more of that, but I suppose with only the limited amount of time this could be done that wasn't possible.

The premise to this book was extremely promising and like nothing I have ever read before, sadly it was just lacking that little something that I can't put my finger on! Despite this, it was a very enjoyable read and I would definitely be interested in picking up this authors work again!

Thankyou to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I very much enjoyed this story. It was lovely to read something so different but written in a way that felt totally natural and believable and was actually a backdrop to the story rather than being a forced supernatural tale. I've already recommended this and will certainly continue to do so.

Wow, beautiful, moving and wonderfully heartwarming. This book kept me reading long into the night and left me feeling bereft once I had finished it. Utterly beautiful.

Jeanie Masterson has a gift: she can hear the last words of the dead.

Passed down from generation to generation, this gift means she is able to make wrongs right, to give voice to unspoken love and dying regrets. She and her father have worked happily alongside each other for years, but now he's unexpectedly announced that he wants to retire early and leave the business to her and her life is called into question.

Does she really want to be married to the embalmer, or does she want to be with her childhood sweetheart, off in London? Does she want to have children, and pass this gift on to them? And does she want to be stuck in this small town, or is there more of the world she wants to see - like the South of France, where she's discovered a woman who shares her gift?

Tied to her home by this unusual talent, she begins to question: what if what she's always thought of as a gift is a curse?

Powerful, moving and completely enthralling, Anne Griffin is such a wonderful writer.

i liked the premise of the owners of a funeral parlour having the ability to hear the deceased. I also thought the cover was beautiful.

Jeanie Masterson lives in a small Irish town and has inherited this unique ability from her father. When her parents decided to retire, she must decide whether to continue the family business or try something new.

There was a nice cast of characters. I particularly liked the relationship with Jeanie and her brother, Mikey, who has autism and her school friend, Peanut, was really funny.

There was some lovely writing here and I felt engaged throughout. I had expected more about her gift, but the novel focussed on Jeanie's life and the choices she is faced with.

I will definitely look out for more by this author.

Thanks indeed to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book held my attention and was charming in its way, without really meeting my expectations gleaned from the blurb. I didn’t really take to the main character Jeanie and so found it hard to involve myself in the ups and downs of her life. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

I found the book was good but didn’t think it got going u til the halfway point.

Jeanie can communicate with the dead who have recently passed. She works in the family funeral business. Jeanie had the opportunity to go to London with her boyfriend but circumstances made it that she stayed where she was.

It was a novel way of a story which was interesting.

A good read .Enjoyable story about Jeanie who works in the familes funeral home and has the gift of hearing the dead speak after Passing away. There are quite a few misunderstandings going on especially in her private life and her relationship with her husband, Well written and especially liked her autistic brother's character but the ending was a bit sudden but overall I enjoyed it

Jeanie Masterson can talk to the dead, but only in their last few hours, a trait that has been handed down through the family, Listening Still follows Jeanie through childhood to adulthood. A really god book, I really enjoyed it.

Wow, I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read more from this author. It was an emotional rollercoaster for me (and Jeannie the main character) with plenty of tears! Left me wanting more. It a 5 star from me, thankyou

I had high hopes for this book, but if I'm perfectly honest it fell a bit short, perhaps because I'd enjoyed When All Is Said so much. I felt so much more could have been made of Jeannie's 'gift' of being able to hear the dead. I honestly thought this book would be quite funny but it wasn't. I liked the characters though, and the ending was lovely.

Listening Still is a beautifully written novel about life, death and relationships. The synopsis tells us that Jeanie Masterson can hear the dead, which brings great comfort to the recently deceased’s loved ones. Although this is an important storyline within the book, the various characters and their individual backstories and relationships were far more intriguing to me.
Jeanie’s family are well known undertakers in Ireland. Both Jeanie and her father can hear the dead for a few hours shortly after death, which gives them an opportunity to pass on any messages. Jeanie is still in touch with her close group of childhood friends and is married to one of them. The book takes us back in time to tell the fascinating stories of Jeanie, her family and friends. The tales are sometimes funny and often desperately sad either due to tragedy or missed opportunities.
I absolutely loved this book and hope the supernatural element does not put people off reading what is essentially a study of life and human nature. Truly beautiful.

I would like to extend my gratitude to NetGalley for giving me this advanced readers’ copy in exchange for an honest and frank review.

I could not put this book down. The premise of the book was so unusual. Jeanie was such a loveable character and I loved being part of her journey. It was beautiful and not too far fetched at all. It was very real and left me thinking about how the veil between life and death is very see through. I cannot wait to read more by this author.