I loved Caroline O"Donoghue so I was very excited to read this one, another great book from her and I can't wait to read more from her in the future!

I like it when a story is like nothing you have ever read before. Charlie Reagan is feeling the strain of trying to enter the British Film Industry, its not going well! Whilst also dealing with the failing health of her father, the two talk a lot about his life in Ireland as a child and the tragedy which lives on in his mind. Charlie decides, along with her friend Laura, to visit the island where her father lived. Wanting to find out about her heritage and uncover more details of the mysterious tragedy that haunts her father.

I was more fascinated by the real life stories raised in this novel (about the Magdalen laundries and the Church) than I was by the people in the book whom I mainly found unlikeable and irritating. So I’m grateful to the book for pushing me to research a dark and complex period of Irish history. But the novel itself, I found grim and bleak despite the author’s clear desire to provide a hopeful outcome.

I am obsessed with Caroline so I will read anything she writes. I loved everything about the book; the characters, your writing style, the island! Highly recommend.

I'm glad I had the audiobook for this. I feel like I would have given in reading otherwise.
The writing just didn't work for me. With lines like "My body feels like a pillow filled with sticks and peanut butter" just taking me out of the story and just wasn't for me.
Overall I found even when I had finished reading this I hadn't retained anything. The characters just aren't memorable for me.

I started reading this book but sadly it didn't draw me in. It was too slow for me and not really my thing. I'm sure others would love it but it didn't engage me enough to stick with it.

Unfortunately I can’t review as this archived before I realised I hadn’t downloaded, apologies

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

This was a quick easy read with some big topics; terminal illness, pornography, dark mysterious elements. I enjoyed the astute observations on Ireland but overall there was possibly a bit too much going on plot wise that wasn’t actually resolved, I’m also not sure I’m the right age for the target audience, suspect I might be above the intended reader age!!

Couldn’t put this down. Funny , whitty yet compelling. A range of topics were covered but handled well. Would definitely recommend!

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.

5 stars all day long….what a great book, it had me laughing my head off and crying into my kindle! Fast paced and I was gripped throughout, a great plot and main character was fantastic, really loved her, can’t wait for more from Lucy ❤️

I very much enjoyed this. I'd intended reading more in 2020 and barely managed a few magazines, this was the first book I've read in 2021 and I practically devoured it in two sittings.

Caroline's writing style is very easy to read with a goodly amount of humour; as I type this I'm smiling as I recall some of the lines that made me laugh out loud, her character's are relatable and I felt like some of them were people I've met, while others where people I'd like to meet. Some I wanted to give a good slap to and others a hug. By the time I'd reached the end I was both satisfied but disappointed that it had ended.

Whilst reading there were a few occasions where I thought, "I should look that up on the internet" mainly places, events. I'm glad I didn't, mainly because it would have meant stopping, and I'd encourage you to resist the temptation too as my questions were answered at the end. All good things, etc., etc.

I couldn't put it down.... I absolutely loved this story. It made me smile and broke my heart at the same time. Thank you for the opportunity to read your book. A must read.

This book made me laugh and broke my heart at the same time! O'Donoghue's prose is honest and truly moving, and the topic is so fascinating and important. Thank you for this ARC!

Scenes of a Graphic Nature is engrossing, gripping and, at times, very humorous. Charlie is a filmmaker, living in London and struggling to survive on a tiny income. The film she has made is based on the childhood of her Irish father, who is terminally ill and was the sole survivor of a freak accident when all his classmates died from carbon monoxide poisoning. When the film gets selected for the Cork Film Festival, Charlie and her best friend Laura (who worked on the film with her) set off for Cork to attend the Festival but also dig a little deeper into the story they based their film on.

The book has, for me, a winning blend of mystery - what really happened all those years ago? Is everything as it seems in the tiny island where this tragedy took place? - and a character-driven plot. We are inside Charlie's head, and she makes for a brilliant narrator. I thought she was funny, self-deprecating and honest, and though she made some questionable choices at times, I really warmed to her and wanted her to succeed. Her friend Laura is an interesting one - you'll find out more as you read the book - and together they make quite a twosome.

Scenes of a Graphic Nature explores family loyalty (and community loyalties), sexuality, friendship, having a parent whose history is rooted in a different country, and the pressure that is often piled on those in their late 20s/ early 30s to 'succeed' and make something of yourself. It makes you think and laugh at the same time, and there's grit and shocking moments in here too. The added intrigue around what really happened is (as someone who loves a mystery) just makes this even more enjoyable a read for me. Would recommend!

Charlie's greatest achievement is a film she's made about her father - the only survivor of a desperate tragedy. It was 1963 and having been sent home from school on the small island of Clipim, he was saved from death by carbon monoxide poisoning. All 18 of his classmates, together with their teacher, Emma Casey, perished.

Visiting Ireland for a film festival with her best friend and co-producer, Laura, Charlie becomes obsessed with visiting Clipim and finding out more about the tragedy. Something has never added up for her.

Whilst at first receiving a warm welcome from the locals, things soon take a dark turn and it becomes clear that the islanders will go to any lengths to prevent the past being revisited.

A rich and imaginative tale, full of complexity and intrigue.

Fast-paced, witty and well-written; O'Donoghue's "Scenes of a Graphic Nature" is enjoyable and reads in one-sitting, although the characters are not drawn out well enough and the ending felt kind of rushed.

Charlie Regan's life is at a standstill; she's looking after her terminally ill father and her career is going nowhere fast. When she's given the opportunity to visit Ireland for a film festival Charlie and her best friend Laura travel to her Father's home town and her father's stories of his childhood are suddenly not all they appear to be.

This novel was a mix of emotions; the story line of Charlie and her Father was particularly emotional and then the added suspense of his childhood in Clipim and the tragedy that occured there is completely gripping. This novel was a rollercoaster of emotions and I couldn't put down and now I want to visit Ireland and feel the warm welcome that Charlie had.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

This is definitely a book of two halves. The first part comes off as annoying millennial complaining about her first world problems which I found pretty irritating in all honesty. But once Charlie and Laura went over to Ireland the story really picked up and changed tone. That said it wasn’t quite as dark as I expected based on the other reviews I’d read, and at times I found it a little silly. Many of Charlie’s thoughts in what should have been scary situations just didn’t ring true and I found comments like ‘I thought for a minute he was going to show me his penis’ didn’t fit with what was actually happening. On top of the that some of the other characters rash actions seemed to come out of nowhere, so I found it quite jarring at times.

Charlie isn’t a likeable character, she’s very self-centred, and the others are all glossed over with very little back story. I’m not sure whether it’s intentional that Charlie’s annoying but for me it’s hard to love a book if you don’t like any of the characters. Laura is horrid too, as are most of the islanders. Scratch that, Satan the dog is a cute addition but as a terrier Mama myself clearly I’m biased.

I did enjoy reading this story and was hooked throughout but found that the conclusion for what really happened to the kids in the school wasn’t what I was expecting and didn’t really make that much sense. It felt like it was building up to something bigger and even more sinister so I found it quite anti-climatic and like we’d been led down lots of wrong turns that just petered off. I didn’t like the fact that we’d had all that suspense but then the whole thing was revealed a few pages from the end, just in a single conversation with one person; On top of it being something of a lame, half-hearted explanation it felt really rushed. And what was all that with Benjamin Barry all about? <spoiler> I thought he was going to play a bigger part than he did, and I’m still unclear as to why he was so odd. What was the head in the lap thing? Confusing! <\spoiler>

Overall I did find it hard to put down once I’d gotten in to it, as it is very tense, but it just didn’t amount to much for me. I don’t want to come off as if I’m writing a really negative review as I did enjoy reading it and I thought it was a real page turner, it’s just I had high hopes for what was to come and for me personally the conclusion just wasn’t strong enough.

Thank you to Virago and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I have really mixed feelings about this.

I enjoyed the conspiracy theory and mystery element of the plot. And I think the author portrayed feeling completely lost in 20s perfectly.

However, I did feel there was a lot going on in this and felt it focused on some areas a little bit too much.

The twists and turns did keep me guessing though and I was satisfied with the end reveal.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group for providing me with a copy to read