headinthepages's Reviews (834)

My rating is 3.5 but I didn’t quite feel like I could round up to 4. I did enjoy this book and thought the setting was lovely. The story starts off sad and I think the journey Leanne went on was heartwarming. The only reason it’s not a 4 os that I found a few parts unrealistic and although I enjoyed the story and thought it was a very quick and easy read, it hasn’t left a huge impression on me.
3 stars isn’t a negative review for me. I enjoyed the book, it just wasn’t necessarily a favourite :-)

Oh man. This book. I listened to the audiobook version which was brilliant!

I’m not one for historical books usually, but I think maybe as I’m getting older I’m getting more interested in historical fiction and non fiction.

At first I was surprised by the way it’s written, in that I didn’t feel a lot of emotion from the telling of Lale’s experiences, but after a while I realised that with time and retrospect you would probably have a morbid matter of fact ness about the events.

This is a book about horrific events that we all know about, but it’s in the smaller details that you get a feel for how it was.
This is also a book about optimism, love, hope and friendship.

There’s not much I can say about this book - short of telling you Lale’s story - apart from that it made you feel ashamed of human kind at times and the behaviours some people were and are capable of.
It will also make you want to be a better person, be more optimistic and personally it’s made me want to learn so much more about the experiences of those during WWII.

I’m going to ramble (even more) if I carry on! Basically I loved this and I felt like I learnt a lot.

This was exactly what I wanted it to be. This was the first of Lia’s books that I’ve finished, but the 2nd I’ve started, ha!

I started Dear a Emmie Blue and got half way but stopped so my friend & biddy read partner could catch up (admittedly I jumped ahead... by a week).

So to give me my Lia Louis fix, I started this. I already knew that I loved her writing and I wasn’t disappointed.
The characters are written so well and 3 dimensional, the scene setting was great and the family dynamics were some of the strongest I’ve read. You really feel the frustration/desperation/lack of understanding/love/empathy/comfort (delete appropriate) with the different family members and it felt like a real, tangible family that you could relate to: messy and complex.

Lizzie’a friendship with P made me so happy. I love a well written friendship and I’m lucky enough to have some really close knit friends that I can be 100% myself around. I related to this friendship so much and massively enjoyed reading them together. They had each other’s backs and behaved in a realistic manner.

Overall I adored Louis’ writing style and this story is wonderful. It deals with mental health on a respectful but gentle way, and the ending was exactly what I wanted.

The only thing I can’t condone was the opinion that marmite was a good thing. WTF Lia?!

I thought this was a brilliant book, and especially impressive being a debut! It’s short at 175 pages and took me a few hours to read.

I loved reading about Addie and her family and friends. I love reading about neurodiverse characters and seeing more neurodiverse authors getting the love they deserve.

This was such a sweet read, but handled some difficult and important topics well, and was a brilliant story. It’s difficult to read about a child who was punished by some people for her differences rather than celebrated and supported. But that’s the reality sometimes and needs to be addressed.

Overall a brilliant book and one I’d recommend

I don’t even know where to begin with this one. It was so much more than I expected.

First of all the story and the characters aren’t cliched, they’re relatable and likeable and don’t make those annoying decisions that make you want to shake them!

The story itself is emotional and relatable again, it’s complex - like life and family is - and genuinely interesting. It has realistic outcomes and it’s a novel concept in itself.

I really enjoyed Emily’s writing style and loved the plot.

The setting was beautiful but with a back story and I just loved the dynamics between family members and friendships.

This is a brilliant contemporary fiction novel and I’ll 100% be going through the authors back catalogue! Thank you Penguin & NetGalley!

Gosh this was beautiful. I think Matt Haig could write about watching paint dry and I’d want it.

This book is so well thought out and so *human* and so empathetic. This book is a study in empathy, human emotion, desperation, loneliness, love, family, community, self loathing, self refection, self respect and mental health.

There is no filler in this book, nothing to skim-read or gloss over. It all matters and everything adds to the story and your experience. Nora is so likeable and relatable. We’ve all experienced poor mental health in varying degrees, even if it’s just feeling a bit ‘meh’, and so Nora is automatically someone we can read and understand and feel for.

Matt has such a personal experience with poor mental health and depression and a clear understanding of how it can make you feel (and it’s different for everyone). This is an honest book about how bad things can be, it doesn’t belittle depression of hopelessness or suicide, it respects it but handles it delicately in a way that isn’t overwhelming.

It is also a book about hope and how perception, good mental health and seeing others’ perspectives can make the world flip on its head and seen a different place.

I adore the general concept of the midnight library as a place and a plot. That we can contain multitudes in an infinite universe and all this can be within us and all be influenced by the smallest of choices and decisions, is amazing, overwhelming and somehow comforting with the way that Matt writes it.

I’m so grateful for this book and think everyone should read it. It is a book that takes you out of your own head whilst making you feel understood. It has so much heart, feeling and empathy and is written with an emotional intelligence that is unparalleled.

TW: please remember that this book does have an emphasis on suicide and poor mental health and although dealt with very respectfully and delicately, please keep your own MH in mind when reading this & take care.
Other TWs: cancer and death by cancer, adultery, pet death, loneliness, sibling death by suicide, death by car crash, alcoholism, addition, self harm.

Thank you so much to Canongate and NetGalley for my gifted eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.