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

I adored Caroline O'Donoghue's first book and this one lived up to the expectations I had for it. It follows the story of Charlie, who goes to Ireland to uncover a family secret during a difficult time in her own life. I can't wait for future books by this author - a truly fantastic writer. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Set on a small Irish island off the coast of Kerry, the story seeks to uncover the mystery around the death of all but one schoolchildren at a schoolhouse in the middle of the twentieth century.
The main character, Charlie, has grown up with her father telling her stories of how he was the only one to survive and as a budding filmmaker Charlie creates a documentary film about her father and his life. Upon attending the screening at a film festival in Cork, she’s drawn to the island of Clipim after a fellow director suggests that there might be more to the story than just what her dad has been telling her.

I enjoyed the mystery element of the story, and the atmosphere created by the other characters when Charlie is trying to find out more from the reluctant locals. I didn’t find it ‘side-splittingly funny’ and I although the story was dark I certainly wouldn’t describe it as a ‘blackly-comic thriller’ - I think from this description I may have been expecting something more. There are a few plot points that I felt were left unresolved, and I found Charlie a little hard to sympathise with sometimes.

Personally I think this book was a victim of the blurb trying to make it sound like something it isn’t. As a novel about a scandal - hushed up by the church, ignored by the government - this is a decent book, and one I would recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this book, I actually had it ‘sitting on the shelf’ for ages because I was unsure how it would be but I needn’t have worried because I loved it. Charlie goes to Ireland to discover more about her past and her families heritage and ends up uncovering a lot more than she expected, it’s funny but deep at the same time!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Failing as a film producer and secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie’s life is stuck in limbo until she takes a trip to uncover to truth behind her dying Irish father’s secretive migration to the UK. This is an amusing tale of friendship and belonging starts with an all female road trip to Clipim, off the West Coast of Ireland, to uncover the truth of a local tragedy and dispel a few Irish myths and stereotypes along the way.

A moving, intelligent, perceptive and well written novel. As an Irish woman who has lived outside Ireland for almost all my life, I connected with Charlie's mixed feelings about her 'home' country, that sense of being both Irish and not. Of feeling that you understand, and are understood, while also being totally 'other'. Never knowing if you can relax and enjoy it or if you're being sucked in by the shenanigans put on for the tourists.

It's also a very good novel about the messiness and ups and downs of old friendships, how people can disappoint you and surprise you, be there for you and let you down, irritate the hell out of you then connect with you in a way no-one else can.

And it's a good story. Plenty of mystery and intrigue and a satisfying conclusion. There's also the start (at least) of a love story.

All in all, a very good read from an author I'll be looking out for in the future.

I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a novel that's thoughtful and a bit different, but still extremely readable.

Very interesting and gripping story which I could not put down. Will look out for more books by this author in the future. Well drawn characters made it very easy to get into the plot line.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is the first book I have read by this author. Essentially this is the story of a wannabe film creator/ producer unpicking her father's past including a terrible tragedy on a small Irish Island. It was an incredibly slow burn for me the first two parts of the book seemed to have little to do with anything more than the MCs sexual orientation and jealousy of her supposed BFF. The real grit of the book was in the final part and it was grit, well told, fabulously tense and almost surreal at times. It nearly made up for the tenor of the beginning.

I must say that i find it disconcerting to read reviews and find that the first one is the Author's own which simply blows her own trumpet - surely Her's is far from an objective opinion.

Having said all this i think there is potential for me in this author's work and I would read more by her. It will be interesting to see how they compare

The book was ok and the main reason I probably kept going was because it was an easy read. The storyline was ok not anything complicated and it felt like this kind of plot was being reused alot so I felt I had read this kind of book before.

It is focused on relationships and family and if you like them type of stories then this could be for you.

This book is one of those strange ones: a real page-turner (especially the second half) and explored lots of interesting subjects. I'm just not sure how much I enjoyed it, if I was expecting more from certain aspects.

I thought Charlie - despite, and perhaps because of her messiness - was a great character and her relationship with Laura felt very realistic of one forged between two quite different people at university. I thought her relationship with her family was done well, too. The book also explored aspects of Irish history I didn't know much, if anything, about. It also made me sad that Clipim isn't a real place because now I really want to go.

However, because there was a lot going on, it felt like some aspects of the story didn't really get properly tied up or were finished a little too neatly and quickly. It was always going to be a challenge given the scope of the book and didn't quite hit the mark here for me.

However, the author writes compellingly and there's lots of great observations, characters and scene-setting in there. I'd definitely read another book of hers, I just think she gave herself too much to do with this particular one.

Charlie Regan is in her late thirties & is struggling to find direction. She has always been close to her Irish dad & as he battles with cancer the tale of how he escaped death when his teacher & eighteen classmates died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Along with her close friend they made a film of the event. She graduated with a degree in film but apart from filming herself for her pay to view porn site there is not much action in her career, unlike Laura who is off to LA. When their film is chosen for showing at the Cork Film Festival it is a chance for her to connect with her Irish roots. Being so close, it makes sense to go to her Dad's island & see for herself. However when they get there it is not quite what she expected.

I wanted to read this book because of its setting (my Dad was from Kerry) This was an interesting multi layered story. Although I wanted to shake her at times, I liked Charlie. I must be getting old, but could have done without the sex bits- time to skim read! It was an engaging read with lots of surprises. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I'm not sure what to say about this book, I didn't love it, yet I didn't hate it, it kept me intrigued enough to stay up late to finish it, a good story set in a beautifully described setting, just didn't particularly warm to any of the charecters

An addictive and captivating read of being a woman, of life struggles and still trying to figure rhings out. Parts of this book felt a little slow for me but overall once I got into it I couldn't put it down. This is the first time I have read Caroline O'Donoghue and I am looking forward to more from her.

I found this to be just an ok read. Personally I am a wee bit tired of authors employing cliched writing about small villages/ towns in Ireland with ‘murky’ pasts involving numerous inhabitants of whichever village they’re set in. And I’m not Irish! I found it hard to connect with Charlie, as she is not a particularly sympathetic character, delving into the past without any thought as to any pain she may be causing. Or asking someone if they had been a member of the IRA - unbelievable!
It is well enough written, but not for me.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚 Scene’s Of A Graphic Nature by Caroline O’Donoghue - Publication Date - 1st July 2021

So when I saw the cover, it wasn’t the book description I was expecting. Charlie and her friend Laura go to Ireland for a film festival and Charlie is able to visit the place her father was brought up. This book tells the story of Charlie looking into tales that her father has always told her and some of the locals aren’t best pleased at that.

I absolutely loved this book! Having been to Ireland numerous times, I could relate to the small village feeling described in the book. There was times I giggled, felt sad, felt happy reading this book. A book I felt Charlie was trying to find out things about herself, as well as the stories about Ireland she had been told. Definitely worth a read this book.

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I love the way this book is written, great tone of voice and it’s easy to relate to the main character, Charlie. It also tackles family dynamics, grief, loss and sexuality in a fresh and uplifting way. I recommend this for anyone looking to learn more about Irish culture and history.

This was undoubtedly well-written but it just didn't really grab me. It wasn't the kind of book that I find myself trying to finish in a day because I'm so desperate to know how it ends. But I liked the "voice" of the book and it was an interesting story.

I had mixed feelings about this book, and can't decided how I feel about it having finished it. You knew from the start that her Dad's story wasn't going to be quite how he remembered it but was quite disturbing for it to turn out the way it did. It was well written but was uncomfortable to read.

Scenes of a Graphic Nature follows Charlie, a fledgling filmmaker of dual English and Irish heritage who's been floundering since her father's cancer diagnosis. She's stuck, stagnating in a desolate routine of hospital visits, silent dinners and dead-ends.

So, when an Irish Film Festival contacts her about a nomination screening, she finally has the opportunity to connect with her heritage and find the missing truths in her father's traumatic childhood story. But when she and her drifting best friend, Laura, travel back to Ireland, they uncover a history that wasn't ready to be unearthed.

Although it didn't develop as I'd hoped, there's a lot to love here. Charlie's dry humour, her self-deprecation and untethered thinking, is juxtaposed with descriptions of a dark but beautiful rural Ireland in a way that's charming and familiar, yet uniquely complex. The tense relationship between her Englishness and her desperate desire for Irishness is flawlessly reflected and enhanced by the island's increasing distrust of her as she pries into its painful past.

However, I felt that, as the story escalated and we drew closer to the end, Charlie (and by extension, the plot) just ran out of steam. The harrowing history of the island is placed aside, left unconfronted and, similarly, the conflicts between Charlie and Laura, Charlie and her familial duty, Charlie and her sense of self, seem to be largely shrugged off, exchanged for the salve of a rushed romance. I understood this end, but it's not wholly satisfying and it was a shame to see Charlie again fail to reach for more.

Huge thanks to Virago of Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for providing a digital copy of the book in exchange for this honest review. O'Donoghue is certainly a skilled writer, I've already grabbed a copy of Promising Young Woman and am very intrigued by her new YA title as well.