Wow, this was the perfect book to snap me out of a reading slump of very "meh" books. Raw, shocking and addictive, I devoured every page and adored it.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

So brilliantly written. The author has written with raw,honest, emotional thought provoking text…..one minute I was laughing out loud and the next I was crying!

I couldn’t put this book down.

An absolute page turner that I could not put down.
Brilliantly written, raw, honest, emotional, hilarious and utterly thought-provoking, you'll switch from laughing to crying at the turn of a page.

I absolutely bloody loved this book bloody amazing.

This book had me gripped from the start and kept me up until the early hours.

Charlotte bloody amazing character in her i saw some of myself and friends throughout our teenage and earlier adult years

First I wasn’t sure were it was going but then i realised and yes its shocking, however in some ways i see her point of view

Bloody amazing
Would highly highly recommend

Best book of the year so far

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was a powerful read - it really felt like you were living the moments with the narrator and while I was suspicious of the coincidental events of the novel (no spoilers!) I actually didn't see the twist coming. The book explores a spectrum of violent and manipulative relationships that most women will identify with - if they themselves haven't experienced one, they'll know someone who has. So actually the ending has an almost satisfying catharsis, alongside the lyrical prose and compelling narrative. Women's bodies often seem to belong to everyone apart from themselves. A powerful debut novel.

Ms Foley has a way of finding these strange little universal human thoughts and stripping them bare on a page. It's dark, obsessive, real and painfully honest - an account of the relationships that change, hurt, evolve and shape us as human beings for better or worse told in that uniquely stream-of-thought, internal voice way of storytelling that she nails every time. It's not lighthearted reading, but it will stay in your head for weeks.

flew through this book in a couple of days- it was very readable and surprisingly dark. We follow Charlotte through a series of relationships with men who take advantage of her, treat her poorly, disrespect and even sexually assault her only to find out they each end up dead. The chapters are interspersed with the story of her late sister (spoiler: it turns out she was murdered and Charlotte’s behaviour is a kind of revenge.) This was an enjoyable and interesting book which is very different to books out there at the minute, the unreliable narrator is cleverly written I just felt it got a little repetitive in parts.

"I realised how bodies controlled us, how our bodies were not merely vessels but in fact dictators with their own resolve."

Charlotte Murphy is seventeen when she first meets Johnny a boy who really grabs her attention and with whom she forms a connection. But throughout her youth, she'll meet boys, then men, who are toxic, who are abusive, who are gaslighters. Until she meets one who isn't; the problem is, it might be too late for her.

'Bodies' is about how Charlotte wields hers as a weapon, but also about how vulnerable she is. She's a deeply damaged young woman and this plays itself out in her relationships – she seems to drift from one bad one to the next, despite the misgivings of her friends. Then, even when she meets someone who is good to her and with whom she can form a healthy bond, this too takes a bad turn.

The writing is raw and stripped down, revealing the bleak and stark realities of Charlotte's life and her desperate search for belonging in the men she spends her time with. There are drugs and sex and manipulations.

This book is engrossing, disturbing, and incisive. It has a very dark and shocking ending that I did not see coming but that provides for a fitting denouement. A razor-sharp debut.

I loved this book. A dark style romance. It kept me intrigued throughout out and a romance from a younger age.

this was such a refreshing yet dark take on the romantic relationships that so many experience, from the drama of the youth to the excitement of first & lasting love. the core enticement of the story really situated in how dark & twisted it is, but also how it’s so relatable & real. it really feels like an early twenty-somethings diary who unfortunately goes through the inevitable stage of depending on male validation but does so with pure intentions of finding love & harmony.

the story is told through a structure of events, focusing on one guy at a time, with a raw & unapologetic tone that grips the reader & forcing them to see through the protagonist’s eyes. Foley does well in capturing the loss of innocence, naivety & emotional turbulence that so many have gone through, collecting points of recognition to navigate the idea of self-worth in relationships. despite how short it is, the book really sticks with you especially the last few pages…

DNF @ 33% - an interesting premise and a character full of promise, but unfortunately the novel is confusingly written and horribly edited. At one point a character mentions waiting for blue ticks on a message - the chapter is set in 2003. I couldn't bring myself to continue after that, really - not the author's fault but it's really poor, especially as I am reading a finished copy of this one. Other discrepancies cropped up as I skimmed through so I decided this wasn't the one for me.

What a highly engaging dark read, that even though it creeped me out I just could not put it down. It was incredible, and I can't wait to read more of this authors work.

I have mixed feelings about this but there are lots of good things that I liked. With sex being the main theme, the protagonist’s inner thoughts were portrayed in delicate detail, exploring the longing, yearning and reminiscing of sex in one’s early 20s. It reads like a journal, private and reflective. Some sensual writing here and there that felt original and intimate. The protagonist’s messy life didn’t make me rooted for her, but the main issue being the storyline felt a bit scattered to me, I would have liked it more if it feels more intact, even though I did like a lot of it.

Thank you netgalley for the arc!

Deliciously dark, I was hooked from the opening pages and could not put this down, a really compelling and unflinching read. Charlotte is an excellent character and this is a really strong debut. Painfully realistically at times and jaw droppingly surprising at others, I could not put this book down and loved how Foley takes a somewhat familiar story and adds a deeply original twist .

There were one or two errors and I am loathe to say this , me who has never written a book, but I think this book deserved a tighter edit. There is a glaring error about the main character's sisters age and a couple of sentences that jarred and stood out in what was a really well written novel. I think because I was so brought into Charlotte's world that these things stood out starkly.

I was really impressed by this novel overall though and am looking forward to more from this author.

4 star. Recommend.

Foley’s debut novel is dark, twisty and absorbing. Bodies, follows Charlotte a young-Irish women, navigating life, relationships and female desire. I enjoy books with elements of unreliable narrators, in moments whilst the prose flowed and I was absorbed with the story sometimes it felt somewhat flat, with a lack of ‘clear plot’ (for me) reduces the rating to a 4. Definitely, a book for fans of thrillers and first person narratives.

This was a really interesting novel which I found to be really quite unpredictable - I wasn’t sure I was enjoying it, until I realised I couldn’t put it down and stayed up late to finish it!

While I can't quite say I enjoyed it, this was an extremely powerful read. Unique, dark and suprisingly twisty.
It's a great approach to the violence that happens to womens' bodies and cycles of abuse that feel impossible to escape. This is all told through our narrator and her experiences with men from her teen years to the present. As we go through this with Charlotte, we see her start to take control - and how this grief and rage manifests itself in cycles of destruction.

Bodies, Christine Anne Foley

John Murrays is smashing it with their recent releases. So grateful to have received an ARC of Bodies on NetGalley, thank you!

Bodies confronts the way that women's bodies are treated and the lasting impact of trauma. So many women reading this book will sadly find the recounts uncomfortably familiar.

The book follows our protagonist Charlotte, who recounts her toxic experiences with different men.

The prose is syrup-like and pulls you in. I was hooked throughout and couldn't believe the twist! I will say though as a warning, this book is so much darker than I was expecting.. you have been warned!

I can't believe this is a debut, outstanding! I have also timed this with publication day, so Bodies is available now!

I absolutely loved this. It was funny and relatable for many reasons, it felt as if it could have been the diary of every young girl. I couldn’t wait to keep on reading and enjoyed the dark and twisted turn that it took. I look forward to seeing what this Christine Anne Foley comes up with next.

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

Oooo well wasn't this the gift that kept on giving! We start with a young girl, Charlotte, who lives in Dublin and who goes on to tell her story... At 17 she was lusting after Johnny who was everything a girl could want. But he had an older brother who was similar but also held the added advantage of being a bad boy! When she went to college, she met Dave and they had a bit of a toxic relationship. Then there was Kyle, the "best friend" who probably wanted more. And Adam who was a bit cute. And all amongst her retelling of these relationships, she also references "you"...
Now you might think this is just a woman talking about her past lovers. You'd be right, but also so so wrong. It's hard to expand on what I mean here as it would probably spoil things for you but suffice to say that there is way more to this that just being unlucky in love!
Charlotte was a cracking character. Not sure I liked her but that really doesn't matter. She's wild and shocking and naive and, well loads of other complex layers that all surround her and hide the inner "her". She's a bit of an enigma at times. But so much fun if that's the right word.
It's a bit chicken and egg too. Is she a product of what happened to her, or is what happened to her part of who she is? But again, I'll leave you to work that one out yourself. Suffice to say that I am hanging for the Audiobook to be released so that I can go back and revisit her and all her suitors...
As far as I can tell, Bodies is her debut book... Colour me even more impressed! So much so that I am really looking forward to seeing what she serves up for next time! My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.