A very slow paced read that did take me a while to get into, but I was very invested by the end. Lots of important subjects explored with depth and pain and tenderness.

Hard to get into, but once it gets started it's hard to forget. Well written and steeped in Irish history.

Elaine Feeney’s Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way is a raw, lyrical, and deeply affecting portrait of womanhood, grief, and the weight of inherited history. It captures the fractured experience of returning home—not just to a place, but to the parts of yourself you thought you’d left behind.

Claire O’Connor has put her life on pause, leaving behind the hum of London for the wind-bitten West of Ireland to care for her dying father. When her ex, Tom Morton, reappears nearby, Claire is forced to face not only old wounds but also the ghosts that linger in the land and in her blood. Feeney deftly weaves the personal with the political, the domestic with the ancestral, exploring the legacy of violence and the burdens passed down through generations of Irish women.

The prose is unflinching and poetic, capturing the everyday brutality and beauty of rural Irish life. Claire’s narrative is filled with quiet rage and subtle hope. Feeney gives voice to the tension of being both rooted and restless, of loving a homeland that has hurt you.

This is not just a book about love or loss—it is about the slow reckoning that comes when you sit still long enough to hear your own past echoing through the walls. With its haunting atmosphere and searing emotional truth, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way is a powerful reminder that healing is not always gentle, and that sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is simply stay.

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Took me a while to get into this book but I enjoyed it more as I read on and the more of the story that I could piece together. Very interesting subject with thought provoking topics such as the generational impact of trauma, colonialism and Irish history.

Thoughtful interesting read I think this author will develop and is one to watch I will keep an eye out for more from her

This was a slow burn for me.
The more we learnt of Claire, her family, their history, the more I enjoyed it.
Interesting.