wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

Set in dual timelines, The Amendments follows the experiences of Dolores and Nell - mother and daughter - as they grapple with what being an Irish woman means to them, bodily autonomy, faith and motherhood. 

 

I thought this was a really thought-provoking and at times moving and powerful read and it’s one of the few novels I’ve seen tackle the topic of the Eight Amendment with such nuance, taking in so many different opinions while not declaring any as wrong and really understanding that it’s a topic that causes pain, confusion and really isn’t a black or white decision for a lot of people - especially in a country steeped in religion for so long. 

 

We first meet Nell as we learn that her partner Adrienne is expecting a baby and it becomes clear that Nell is at therapy trying to face up to some issues and trauma she has held onto since she was a teenager. We also learn that as a teenager, Nell was involved in a religious group in her small town and was quite involved in a ‘sisterhood’ of faith. 

 

We also follow Nell’s mother Dolores as a young woman in the 80s as she leaves the town to study in Dublin, and ends up falling in with some ‘women libbers’ who introduce Dolores to the idea of repealing the Eight Amendment and the many arguments there are around pro choice vs pro life. 

 

Dolores and Nell are both complicated characters with so much hidden and forced down feelings between them that I just loved reading about them and their dynamic so much - as well as how they related to everyone around them. At first I wasn’t sure about the Hermanas as it does come across quite cult-y but I also understood how for a teenage Nell somewhere that fostered sisterhood like that could be something great. 

 

Martina herself was also a sad character in the background of Nell’s story - almost a tragic figure and maybe I would have liked a bit more time with her. 

 

CW abortion, miscarriage, suicide, stillbirth 

A truly charming novel perfect for anyone looking for some whimsy, academia and dark fairy folk. 

 

We follow Cambridge professor Emily Wilde as she arrives in Hrafnsvik, a Scandinavian island that contains its own special kind of faeries no-one has studied before. Emily is undergoing work on her Encyclopedia of Faeries and is one of the best academics in this area though she is often overlooked due to gender and serious personality. Emily is soon joined by her colleague Wendell Bambleby, who may be more than he first appeared. 

 

I loved this. Emily is a brilliant main character -studious and single-minded and most likely a touch neurodivergent too I think - she sometimes struggles with connecting with others (understanding what they want from her or not understanding some social cues) yet still manages to form a lovely type of found family by the end of the novel. We see in many ways how Emily fits into and understands the fairy world in a way she often doesn’t in the human one. 

 

The relationship between Emily and Wendell was brilliant from Emily’s exasperation and hate/love relationship with Wendell to how they just get one another and some of the soft yearning that verges on surprise from both of them. 

 

I really enjoyed the Scandi setting and customs in this book as well as the healthy respect/fear of the fae folk from the locals which I very much understand as an Irish person (never destroy or walk across a fairy fort! Or chop down a fairy tree!). 

 

Very much enjoyed my time reading this and looking forward to the next book. 

This is a fantastic and engaging book about America's Great Migration in the 1900s as Black Americans left the Jim Crow South for new lives and better opportunities in the North. We follow three people's real stories - Ida Mae, George and Robert from three different Southern locations as they move themselves and their families and how their lives turn out in the North but they never lose their connection to the South.

I listened to this on audiobook and while it was a long listen, I throughly enjoyed it. As a non-American reader, I enjoyed learning more about this time in American history and this isn't something I had known about before though obviously we learn about the American Civil War and the US Civil Rights Movement in Irish education, this is a topic that is connected to these but its own story entirely. I found it interesting to see how the North wasn't automatically better for the migrants - while they escaped the suffocating Jim Crow of the South, they still faced and dealt with a lot of racial discrimination and divide in different ways in the North - and Northern cities such as Chicago and New York were forever changed after his migration as well in socio-economic and city division ways as well which was fascinating. It was also amazing to hear of some of the famous people who would never have been able to reach the heights they did if their parents or family members hadn't chosen to migrant to the North where they had the opportunities the did.

The care and detail put into the research for this book must have been immense and really commend the author for doing a stellar job - from the sounds of it, this book took a long time to research and write as she sat and talked to Ida Mae, George and Robert in the later years of their lives to understand their story and experiences better.

Highly recommend this!