Our Ethel

3.5 stars


What a bleak life Ethel lives.
Abusive father, crippled mother, on the poverty line and then pregnant out of wedlock.
You can't help but feel for her.
Some absolute horror of characters in here, the male ones, that summed up the backwards thinking of the times perfectly.
Interesting to see the science being used at the times.
Can't say it was an enjoyable read, but I like a bit of the depressing and downtrodden.

This book sounded so up my alley it wasn’t funny… so I immediately requested and was delighted when I was given a free ARC. Thank you to the publisher, author and NetGalley for that.

Unfortunately, it is unable to keep my interest. I really love the actual writing and the way the Yorke slang and accent is very prominent in here… it like reading a conversation with my aunt and grandmother. But… I just don’t think I will go back to it…. The storyline is not engaging enough for me.

So instead of reading to the end and having a bad experience I am going to give 4 stars in good faith and leave it at that. My review will not be posted anywhere else other than NetGalley.

I very much enjoyed this book, Fair warning, it is depressing subject matter but it does shine a light on injustices i'm sure have happened numerous times to many " Ethels" out in the world. Beautifully written. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I really enjoyed how good this novel was, it was great to read a great trial novel. I was invested in what was going on with the characters and loved how well everything was written realistic. I enjoyed what I read and glad this was so well written.

Great book and throughly enjoyed.
Our Ethel was a simple soul that people overlooked or took advantage of and the writer has written this with great insight to her world.
She has been taken advantage of from she was born and has now been left with a murder charge hanging over her.
Great book well written and throughly enjoyed.

Our Ethel is set in York, in the 1950's Ethel lives with her downtrodden, ill mum - who mostly lives in her bed in the front room. Dad is a womaniser, drinker and is often violent to Ethel's mum.
Ethel falls pregnant by her childhood friend - the boy next door and the book opens with Ethel finding her newborn dead in her bed.
The story is gritty, raw, and very thought-provoking, Ethel is a gullible but loveable character who has been used and manipulated by the men in her life and as Ethel navigates the accusations, police, the courts, it's clear to the reader just how much Ethel doesn't understand of her new world.
The book should come with a trigger warning as the chapters covering the baby's demise and subsequent scenes in the pathologist are really hard to read.

Fascinating and grim police procedural. The author did a great job with all the courtroom scenes. Difficult to get through but extremely important and well written tale of a dead baby and his vulnerable mother living on the fringe of society. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an E ARC of this

On first glance this is the story of Ethel, who’s pregnant by her next-door-neighbour and all her hopes and dreams of marrying him have fallen apart. What could be a miserable, downtrodden tale of poverty, domestic abuse, illness and playing away, is ultimately a warm tale with glimmers of hope - strong characters like Auntie Annie, Olive, and the barrister Joyce and even Mrs Sath… ultimately I found that even in the pits of despair around the loss of William, there was a hopeful message. Additionally I really enjoyed the whodunnit aspect and had my own theories - all of which were totally unfounded. All in all, I would highly recommend this book.

Our Ethel is a beautifully written and heartbreaking account in which we follow the ups and downs of Ethel: a vulnerable young woman growing up in a deprived York neighbourhood. Much of the dialogue is written in Yorkie.

The story begins with the autopsy of a young baby who is said to have died under suspicious circumstances. His mother Ethel, a young, vulnerable, good-natured somewhat naive girl of nineteen is arrested on suspicion of murder, or culpable homicide.

I was immediately taken by the truly beautiful writing style, the harrowing circumstances in which Ethel lives are positively Dickensian.
The story has a slightly pessimistic undertone and zooms in on poor living conditions, lack of money, unemployment and domestic violence.

Part II follows shortly after the introduction, a flashback to Ethel's childhood (1942).
Despite the war and the regular destruction of houses due to bombing, Ethel is reasonably happy, especially when the circus comes to town.
Ethel and Eddie, the boy from next door, are the only children in the street and Ethel very much wants to marry Eddie later.
Part III focuses mainly on the sometimes degrading conditions in which Ethel and her parents live. Her mother is constantly bedridden and Ethel looks after her, while her father is an idler and a bully, more interested in other women and in his pigeons.

I found it a compelling and moving account of a young woman whose life is not going well.
Personally, I would have handled the order of the story differently, I would have started with Ethel's childhood, with her youth and the circumstances in which she grows up as a prelude to her baby's death, but I certainly understand the author's choice.
This story is written by a pathologist, and I could tell by the medical evidence given at the court hearing. I found the court hearing engaging, but ultimately also a tad too long, making the story lean a bit towards a courtroom/jury procedural. The story ends on 2 June 1953, with the coronation of Elizabeth II.

The story mainly revolves around Ethel. She cannot really be called pretty - she squints quite considerably, is naive and not well-educated, but she does have a good heart. Circumstances make her life tough and everyone seems to be against her.
What I found most poignant was her loneliness and the fact that she gave birth to her baby alone. The most interesting part was where the pathologist/writer gives a lecture in the courtroom to prove Ethel's innocence.
Beautifully written story about how bleak and unfair life can be.

4.5 stars. Highly recommended. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy. I leave this review voluntarily.,

A gripping and gritty novel set in York and Rochdale in the 1940s and 1950s. This is a profoundly moving story, full of extraordinary, eccentric characters and evocative scenes of poverty and hardship.
I don't think I have ever had so much empathy for a character before. Ethel Slater, looking after an invalid mother, living in fear of a violent father, and accused of murdering her four day old son, William, has drawn short straws all her life.
The courtroom drama as Ethel faces life or death is as vivid, realistic and tense as Witness For The Prosecution and To Kill A Mockingbird.
The author has beautifully captured life and death in a Yorkshire terraced street in WW2 and the years of austerity following the war.