This is a skilful debut from a talented author - wry, funny, spiky and incisive, Lazy City takes in the many big and small crises that make up modern life, from economic instability and career uncertainty to climate anxiety, grief and loss. An intimate, immediate novel from a clear new voice.

When Erin's best friend dies she ups sticks from her life at uni over in England and returns back home to Northern Ireland.

She's not dealing with the loss of her best friend very well at all and seemingly has a terrible relationship with her mother.

There's not a whole lot that goes on in this book.

Erin drinks a lot, she takes drugs, she sleeps with two guys an American and an ex and hangs out with her friend at the bar he works at.

Occasionally she does some work.

I did enjoy where the book was set and the exploration of religion and how this is still such an issue even today in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The writing is really good but there just wasn't really much going on.

An astute portrait of a journey through grief and maybe one of the best I’ve read. There’s something to be said for the accuracy in its conveyance that life waits for nobody; yes, an unexpected tragedy can derail everything you thought you knew, but the world will move on with or without you. Alongside her grief, the protagonist Erin also grapples with the general disquietude and listlessness that comes with navigating early(ish) adulthood, and it was fascinating, comforting and slightly awkward seeing her traversing through her interpersonal, intrapersonal and theological relationships - kinda felt like looking in a mirror at times.

Though often bleak, Rachel Connolly has such a sharp and humorous voice, and there were a fair few genuine laugh out loud moments. A thoroughly enjoyable read and an absolutely gorgeous debut - I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next!

My enjoyment of this book fluctuated throughout reading it, it wasn’t entirely consistent and some parts were more enjoyable than others. Although, I did enjoy how it ended, and some of the characters were more interesting than others.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

I enjoyed this novel which was highly evocative of a certain stage in the late teens, early 20s, drinking taking drugs together sleeping around . The narrator has a dysfunctional relationship with her mother and navigate’s life as she returns to her small provincial Irish Hometown after dropping out of university. I didn’t grow up in Ireland, but I did grow up in a small market town where everybody knew everyone and found this novel recreated that atmosphere perfectly.
There were some things are very different to my personal upbringing in particular the way that phones and their notifications rule your life in modern times.
The author has the ability to create real three-dimensional characters that really makes sense and their reactions to each other gel nicely. It’s a novel where ultimately not a lot happens but this, but this is a relationship novel and this doesn’t matter one bit. The novel all is well crafted and held together well.
I liked the way the main character uses make up as a mask ,she is avoiding lots of things in her life and the ability to hide herself behind the make up was important to her.
I did find the casual recreational drug use even within the rural community quite eye opening it was more how I expected life for city teenagers to be.
I read an early copy of the novel on NetGalley UK. The book was published in the UK on the 24th of August 2023 by Canongate.
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK, good reads, Amazon, UK, and my book blog bioncsarahsbooks.Wordpress.Com

Stricken with grief after the sudden death of her close friend Kate, Erin has left London and returned to Belfast where she is temporarily working as an au pair, helping her employer Anne Marie to carry on in the wake of uncovering her husband’s betrayal. Erin’s mother still lives a few streets away, but their tempestuous, abusive relationship means home is not a place of safety: upon arriving back in Belfast Erin attempted to live with her mother but it did not end well - the book opens early morning, where the two of them have bumped into each other for the first time since Erin’s departure.

Adrift, Erin spends her days hungover, and most nights drinking or taking drugs, blotting out life – either accompanied by her gay friend Declan, her “it’s complicated” lover Mikey, or Matt, an American who Erin meets at a bar, who’s in town teaching while trying to write a novel.

This book perfectly captures that unique combination of hopelessness and hopefulness that comes from being young, being knocked for six by an event, and seeking refuge back in your hometown. It should be the place you feel most secure, yet there’s background radiation at work, crippling you from the inside out: the uneasy sense that somehow you’ve failed to launch, smouldering with injustice at the way life has worked out, the uncertainty of how to get back on track, all the while surrounded by people you’ve known or known of since you were a child – yet now you’re adults, and the world is harder than it was. Belfast’s Catholic churches still bring Erin an odd feeling of peace: the rituals and familiarity soothing in the chaos – and she ducks in and out of them sporadically as the story progresses, tiny moments of cool clarity amidst the messy chaos of her surroundings where she turns over recent events in her mind, weighing up the aftermath of her friend’s death and gently, hopefully stepping toward a future, whatever shape that might take.

Rachel Connolly writes exquisitely: stark, yet detailed, devastating yet grimly funny, perfectly capturing the unblinking harshness of the damage that grief can wreck on a life. Fresh, knowing, harrowing and unforgettable, this is not to be missed.

Featured in the September issue of Cambridge Edition magazine

Not exactly sure what I feel about this but my enjoyment just went spiking up and down. Perhaps it just wasn’t what I was expecting, on a different note though the ending was pretty OK for me but not enough to bring my rating up.

Full Rtc.

I'm not the target readership for this book but was intrigued. However it definitely wasn't for me. I struggled through the first third but did not engage. I think it would be very popular with readers from the same age group as the protagonists.

Erin in sad and battling loss and grief, and relationships, and worried about where her life is going. Set in a post Troubles Belfast, with a backdrop of the Catholic church..

I didn’t think there was much substance to this book. I admit I struggled with the very slow start and could have given up but didn’t and now I wonder why.

Liked the narrative voice and the pace of the writing, how the story slowly unfolded itself through past and present.

I enjoyed the beginning of this when Erin returns home to Belfast but the event that caused her return isn’t fully explained which I found unsatisfactory.

Her life is mundane and she uses the holy trinity of sex, drugs and alcohol to get through her days. The men she meets are also one dimensional and her dysfunctional relationship with her mother does not come to life.

Having said this the writing is fast paced and I enjoyed the read.

A moving and realistic depiction of what it is like to be a young person with all of your wants and needs and difficulties. Enjoyed my time spent with Erin's voice - I recommend!

Lazy city is one of those books that consumes you while you are reading and when you look up after finishing it you are shocked to realise you that you don't live inside the world of the book. If you love Irish writers and Irish cities pick this up and prepare to feel it all. Truly excellent.

I am sorry to say that this one did not do it for me. I enjoyed the characters and was hoping that something would happen at the end to make me change my opinion, but it didn't get any better. I hope others enjoy it, but I honestly found it lacking any substance.

Erin is a bit lost. Her best friend died last year and now she has returned to her Belfast home, fell out with her mum, dropped out of university and is now living with a friend doing childcare and housework.
Erin spends her time hanging around with her barman friend Declan, drinking or going to church.
She becomes involved with two different men.
One of them like herself is hiding from something.
A strange story with not much to it
I got a bit bored with it and not sure if I am missing something.

Following the death of her best friend, Erin is back in Belfast; avoiding her deeply horrible mother, drinking too much, and picking up the pieces of her former life. She's working as a live-in nanny, and when she isn't drinking, she's hungover. Connolly's debut is fresh and fascinating, taking the reader to unexpected places. Naoise Dolan is considered the queen of Irish observational humour - Connolly may just be coming for her gig, though. One passage in this book was so good and so sharp that I gasped, read it aloud to my partner, and then immediately pre-ordered a hard copy of this one.

In case you haven't guessed, Lazy City isn't a plot-driven novel; as well as its keen observations, it luxuriates in its setting and digs deep into its characters. It's a kinf of Millenial Messy Girl Novel in many ways - but that's no bad thing in my eyes. Erin interacts with her friend, Declan, two love interests, and - to a lesser extent - her employer Anne-Marie and mother. The small cast means that the novel really digs into these characters, getting under their skin; if you love slow-moving, character-driven novels, you will love this. Erin is obviously more than a bit traumatised, having fled England after her friend Kate's death.

She finds solace in the bottle, the bedroom, and the church: and yes, one of those things is not like the other. I found Erin's fascination with churches a bit strange - certainly I couldn't relate to it, and I do have something of an allergy to positive depictions of Catholicsm on an island where its done so much damage. But to be fair to Connolly, it gave me a lot of food for thought about the lack of spaces for quiet contemplation in the world now.

What really brought this novel to life for me was Erin's voice. She's funny - some lines in the novel made me laugh aloud - but also a deep thinker, and very wise. Though it's not a main theme of this novel, climate change looms large over Lazy City - and Erin's repeated grappling with the hopelessness of the situation was something that hit very close to home.

I loved this one; Irish women writers truly never miss. Come for the pitch-black Belfast humour, stay for the beautiful writing and vivid relationships between characters.

Megan Nolan recently wrote about ‘Ordinary Human Failings’; in Lazy City, Connolly skilfully captures ‘ordinary human sadness’ in a very similar vein to Michael Magee’s ‘Close to Home’ but from a woman’s perspective.

Do I have your attention? Good, Irish fiction is on top form right now, and this slow burning beauty is no exception.

Erin, in something of a knee-jerk reaction, flees London student life after the tragic death of her best friend. She returns home to Belfast, and if she expected a warm welcome, she’d be wrong, instead entering into more animosity with her volatile, emotionally dysregulated mother.

Erin soon moves in with Anne-Marie, acting as a house cleaner and live-in childminder for her smallies. This isn't the life she wants, but it suits her for now. Her mornings spent running by the Lagan, and her nights spent drinking with her hometown friend Declan, an aspiring artist who works in her local pub.

Looking for solace maybe, she quickly develops an obsessive interest in Matt, a lonely yet suspiciously cheerful American, who’s in Belfast to teach at Queen’s University and write his novel. She and Matt begin seeing each other, and, against her better judgement, she also resumes a quasi-relationship with Mikey.

As Erin moves through the quotidian mundanity, she struggles to confront the depths of her grief. The unholy trinity of sex, drugs and alcohol numb and blur the sharp edges of her pain, but unable or unwilling to confide in others, she returns to visiting churches, spaces where she can feel calm and where she begins to find some level of catharsis while sitting alone among the religious imagery of Catholicism.

Lazy City is the story of Erin, how she considers past relationships, her faith, and Northern Ireland’s recent history. However, her often underdeveloped introspection and lack of depth given to past trauma means the novel never quite reaches its emotional potential. Saying that I tore through it in one sitting, you can't help but root for our rather uprooted protagonist. Lazy City is a solid debut. 4⭐

It's probably a bit of cliche (and somewhat lazy - to borrow a word from the title of this book) to call Lazy City the female reply to Close to Home by Michael Magee, but with both being debut coming-of-age novels set in Belfast by young Northern Irish writers, the comparison is inevitable. Not to mention that there's a similar somnambulant vibe to both books - young characters growing up a post-conflict Belfast, struggling to find their way, their drug-fuelled nights and hungover days moving sluggishly along. One feels like the counterpoint to the other, though I'll admit I enjoyed this book more. Clear-eyed prose, realistic relationships and dry, sharp observational humour combine to make this a compelling read.

In the wake of the death of her best friend, Erin leaves London for home in Belfast, taking up an au pair job which conveniently gets her away from her mother, with whom Erin has a fractious relationship. She spends her nights at the bar where her childhood friend Declan works, and it's there Erin strikes up a relationship of sorts with a visiting American lecturer. In parallel, she reignites an old flame with her ex Mikey.

The book is light on plot but heavy on relationships and messiness, and it's Erin's relationships (with those around her and with herself) that really make the book sing.

Rachel also has a relationship/fixation with religion that irritated me a bit but it was pretty relatable to anyone who has grown up Catholic. For anyone looking for a book that throws a bit of nuance on religion and its place in modern life, you'll likely enjoy the author's spin on it.

I can't finish without mentioning the drugs. THE DRUGS. Do all young people do this many drugs or is it just the youth of Belfast? There's a whole chapter of hedonistic drug-taking and casual chat about the best way to pulverise your cocaine to make it more palatable. Just me?

Still, the writing is stellar and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. 4/5 stars

*Many thanks to @gillhessltd, and to the author and publisher @canongatebooks for the advance copy. Lazy City is published today.

Lazy City was the first of Rachel Connolly’s books I’ve read, and I was completely absorbed by the time I’d finished the first chapter.
This has a lot of the components of the “messy girl” novel that’s been popular the past few years, but it also has so much tenderness and heart.
The prose was beautiful, particularly the weather descriptions and that of the church, such vivid imagery alongside an excellent narrative voice made a very compelling read. I will definitely be looking out for more of Connolly’s books.