Skip to main content

Member Reviews

This is a really great book to end the trilogy. This book brought back lots of emotions from reading the previous 2 books and seems a fitting conclusion to the trio’s journeys.

Was this review helpful?

If you enjoyed Harold Fry then you will love Maureens story. Rachel Joyce has a way of observing human behaviour to create quirky characters that you can relate to and empathise with.

Was this review helpful?

I've read all of Rachel Joyce's books even though she's on the extreme twee end for my taste. Those who have read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (Joyce's best book by a mile) will want to finish out the story with this novella about Maureen's mishap-laden road trip up to Northumberland to see Queenie's driftwood garden. Maureen has always been a difficult person, all the more so since her son's suicide, which she has never come to terms with. This trip has the potential to crack her hardened heart open.

I thought the portrayal of her as a stuck-in-the-mud older person was a little stereotyping, but I don't mind spending time with unlikable characters and she does get some opportunities to redeem herself. The message is a timeless and simple one, to be kind to others because you never know what they're going through.

Was this review helpful?

A pleasant enough coda to the two previous books about Harold and Maureen Fry, perhaps a little overly sentimental, but it gives the reader a chance to get to know Maureen better and certainly we gain a greater insight into her grief over her son David. Little more than a novella it’s a quick and enjoyable read but for me it fell a bit flat after the earlier novels. This time it’s Maureen herself who goes on a journey and things don’t always go according to plan.

Was this review helpful?

A good read .I did not realise that this was the last book of a trilogy but I still enjoyed it .A story of love ,loss and forgivenes and as I followed Maureen's journey It was quite an emotional read. It was only a short story but I will try and read the others in the series

Was this review helpful?

Beautifully written and a nice way to end the trilogy. However there was something I can’t quite put my finger on - i didn’t connect with it as much as the others. Definitely worth a read though.

Was this review helpful?

I really love Rachel Joyce and I adored both Harold Fry and Queen Hennessey and so I had high hopes for this book. I did really enjoy it but I didn't feel like it held my attention the way the first two books did. Overall though I would recommend it to fans of Harold and Queenie as a nice way to end the story.

Was this review helpful?

I was familiar with Rachel Joyce's writing from Mrs Bensons Beetle and thought this was a follow up. So I was a little disappointing to find out it was nothing to do with Mrs Benson and it was the final instalment in a trilogy. But I had read the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, so did know something about Maureen Fry. There is not much to the story, which can basically be summed up as "Harold's wife makes her own pilgrimage", but what I loved about this book is the descriptions of people and their activities. They are so insightful and so real. The writing was a joy from the first page. I'll have to pick up book number 2 in trilogy now, to round out the stories.
I read this book via @netgalley courtesy of Random House UK, Transworld Publishers.

Was this review helpful?

The trilogy is completed with Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North. This beautifully written novella comes with the emotional punch that you we’ve come to expect from Rachel Joyce. Love the characters she has created in the Harold Fry trilogy and the uplifting yet moving quality of the novels. Maureen, perhaps a harder character to like in the earlier novels is now given her own epiphany. A short but perfect novel.

Was this review helpful?

When I picked this up to read, I didn’t realise it was the third book in a trilogy, however it gave me enough information that I didn’t feel like I needed to read the other two before. However, on reading this, I really want to read the previous two as I enjoyed this one so much.

Maureen follows in the footsteps of her husband, Harold, to see the legacy Queenie left behind in the form of a garden. Maureen had been informed that their was a statue dedicated to her son, who we discover killed himself when he was young. Harold had previously walked to see Queenie on her deathbed and became quite well known for his journey. Maureen decided to drive to the garden, so she can put her thoughts about Queenie and her son to rest.

This is quite a short book, but it is packed with sorrow. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Maureen, especially when she found it so hard to interact with people that had previously befriended her husband. She is quite a tough character to like, but you begin to easily accept her for her odd ways.

This book is beautifully written and makes you thankful for the family you have around you. I’d imagine anyone who reads it, will be like me and want to read the previous two.

Was this review helpful?

The last in the trilogy giving Maureen a voice. I found Maureen quite unlikeable in the previous books so I might of clouded my judgement of this book. It didn't really change my opinion of her and the shortness of the book meant it was over before you could invest in it.

Was this review helpful?

This is the finalstory in the trilogy following on from Harold and Queenie’s stories [ you really need to read these two first ]

Maureen is Harold’s wife and 10 years after his epic journey she decides it’s her time to complete a journey of her own. Her own pilgrimage.

She drives from Devon to Northumberland alone in her little car. She meets people along her way and slowly learns to be a different version of herself. She is a woman of few words and can be quite prickly at times as well as not really liking people, or getting on with them. She has lost a part of herself and doesn’t know how to get it back.

There are some things Maureen hasn’t faced up to or let go and she is on a mission to go and visit Queenie’s garden.

This is a lovely story about loss and also about finding yourself again. It’s about Motherhood and forgiving yourself. Grief and acceptance and moving on with your life.

Beautifully written with a great ending for the trilogy.

Was this review helpful?

Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce

In a previous book, Harold Fry walked across England to visit a friend in trouble. In this sequel, his wife leaves him at home to drive to visit a garden this late friend of her husband has created. Maureen doesn't walk but drives, but her drive isn't without incident, and she uses the time to reminisce about events in her life.

This is a short story, and an easy read, but didn't quite grab my imagination. Possibly since I hadn't read Harold's story, although it is supposed to be a stand alone book.

I quite enjoyed it, but it wasn't one of the best that I have read this year.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/60171472

Was this review helpful?

I just loved this little book, a beautiful and heartbreaking tale with plenty of laughs along the way too. This follow up to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was short but sweet, following Maureen on her own adventure from Devon to the North East.
.
Maybe I love these books because they're full of familiar places or maybe it's the brilliant writing, either way I recommend them wholeheartedly.

Was this review helpful?

A beautifully charming and understated story that neatly completes the trilogy that brought us Harold Fry and Queenie. Now it is Maureen's turn to journey towards, well, she isn't sure quite what.

Devastated by David's suicide, Maureen is merely existing in a ball of grief and rage. She is on her own pilgrimage to visit Queenie's garden, where it's said there is a memorial to her beloved son.

With time to sit with her feelings, Maureen decides to be nicer to people. And when she has an accident, she realises how kind people actually are, and how wonderful it feels to be comforted and taken care of.

A short but incredibly moving story and the illustrations are, as ever, charming.

Was this review helpful?

Short but absolutely necessary glimpse of hope for Maureen and, by extension, the rest of us. The depths of her grief excused her prickliness and downright disagreeableness, I thought magnanimously in my previous encounters with her. Easy enough from a distance but less so when you find yourself empathising with the unwitting souls who cross her path. I found this incredibly moving.

Was this review helpful?

An emotional and heart-rending return to the Fry family and Queenie’s continuing influence upon their lives. Maureen isn’t a character who purveys warmth and friendliness yet despite this, the deft character-building invokes a sympathy and longing for her to find peace, from fellow characters as well as the reader. The book is a short one, but packs into it some important life lessons in the form of exquisite writing.

Was this review helpful?

Maureen Fry undertakes her own journey to Queenie’s garden to see her memorial to David - their son who committed suicide. Maureen drives up north through various mishaps and comes face to face with her garden and her memorial to Harold, David and Maureen. This brings out both negative and positive emotions which Maureen has to work through under the care of Kate.
An emotional read and a fitting end to the trilogy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Was this review helpful?

How lovely to be able to revisit Maureen Fry and get to know how so much better. While she played pivotal roles in both The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Queenie Hennessey, she felt like a support player with so much more to say. While a short story, it felt like a perfect length to get to know her and see where her and Harold are in their lives after such a long break.

As always, Rachel's writing is spectacular and so beautiful. I sobbed. And laughed out loud. And my heart broke a million times over. If you loved any of her books you should definitely read this.

Was this review helpful?

What a beautiful book to finish the trilogy of Rachel Joyce's book series that started with the Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey.

In this book, we follow Maureen, Harold's wife on her journey that will help her deal with the path that life has dealt her.
A compassionate and moving story as she finds healing in unlikely places with unlikely people.

Was this review helpful?