Terry is a worrier, in an okay marriage, with two mostly grown girls, a house in a sought after address and she sticks to the rules of the road. She is also really good at laundry, I mean really good, she may be imaginary but she is never allowed in my house unless she is going to do some good. I thought that was an important part of her character to establish :)


Then one day, she drops off the 58th Birthday cake to the Yoga retreat that her best friend Iris staying at only to find her best friend is not booked there and never had any intention of going. Iris has a whole other secret intention of how she is going to spend her birthday week. Will Terry, together with her Alzheimers suffering Father, abandon her well ordered but gently crumbling life to bring back her best friend from Europe? Well, the answer is in the title of the book I suppose.


Written with warmth and humour this book nevertheless explores some dark themes of loss in general and Alzheimer's and Assisted Suicide in particular. Ultimately though it is a book about love, friendship, self-discovery, and living your best day every day.

The prose is relatively simple and the outlook from Terry’s first-person perspective is straight forward, somewhat self-deprecating but full of love.


Ciara Geraghty writes big bold characters that sing off the page with humour, wit, and a touch of irrelevance and I came to love them all in the end.

This book is recommended for those who don’t mind a little bitter with the sweet and some tears at the end, as this uplift novel includes some darker themes.

I really must go back and re-read some of King's short story and novella collections. His stories always seem to be more perfectly formed when he allows them to reach their natural length and conclusion. Sometimes the ends of longer novels feel like they lost their way and were forced.

I am not sure that the Holly Gibney story (though very welcome - I love Holly) quite tied in with the other three. Nevertheless really enjoyed the ride on this one.

From my first read Autumn 2016:

There were problems with the plot in places, I think it suffered from “too many cooks/authors” syndrome, in that the author may have taken too much advice from too many people and that it shows? I don’t know why I think this, it’s just an impression I have.

However, most importantly this is a rollicking good story! I enjoyed it immensely, an almost magical clockwork pet octopus, foreseeing the probable future, clockwork bombs, is he a villain or a hero and if so can we be friends or more than friends? watches that find their owners again when they get lost – together all these elements make a really good enjoyable story.

That after all, in my opinion, is the primary purpose of fiction.

Thoughts on my second read early Summer 2020:

Once more on reading this I loved the elements of the story, I am once more charmed by Mori's remembering and forgetting of past events, clockwork pets, and the strange mix of magical realism and steampunk throughout the novel. However, there is definitely something wrong with the narrative flow. If this was one of Mori's watched it would have all of the pretty jewels but the clockwork would be misaligned.

Wonderful language and prose, loved the Nature, descriptions of food and sense of place. I found the characterisation of the central protagonist well done. The central love story is not for me but then so few of them are. In short I am not surprised this was nominated the Dublin International Literary Award - it deserves its place.

So not for me. I was never going to like an American Soldier as a protagonist but I knew that when I was going in and I was assured it was only the first chapter and the story and prose made up for it.

However the writing (I won't say prose, there is none) is amateurish and dull, the dialogue unconvincing, and the characters two dimensional and not credible. I rarely give a very harsh review but I honestly think that this author has all the elements of a good novella but absolutely no writing ability to put it together.

In fairness now, my review is contrary to nearly everyone else's and I guess this novella may be lost in translation somewhat and only American audiences get it? That may explain my hate of the dialogue from the get-go? So a book that is very much for others just not for me?

However I still have to say, I will not be reading any more of her work and I am still looking out for good female horror writers. In the vein of [a:Samanta Schweblin|2898936|Samanta Schweblin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1545389695p2/2898936.jpg], [a:Shirley Jackson|13388|Shirley Jackson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1550251468p2/13388.jpg] and [a:Michelle Paver|119755|Michelle Paver|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1243618873p2/119755.jpg].

Apols for the grumpy guss review - I am so in the minority on this one!