wordsofclover's Reviews (2.16k)

Erin is a young woman living in Belfast with a spiky relationship with her mother, and trying to deal with her grief after the death of her best friend. Waling away from her college degree, and drinking with friends while working as a nanny, Erin is trying to put the past behind her while hooking up with on again, off again love interest Mikey as well as developing a relationship with American professor Matt.

This kind of a coming of a age novel - there’s not a lot a plot but very character focused on Erin’s decisions from what she’s going to do with herself as well as how she actually treats herself from drink and drugs, as well as casual sex with two different men. Her relationship/sanctuary with religion is a touching part of the novel and I liked at one point when she’s talking to Matt about how in Belfast (or Ireland in general) you don’t have to necessarily be religious to go to a church to light a candle for someone.

I think I would have liked to have seen more happen between Erin and her mam as there were definitely a lot of things still unresolved by the end of the novel, and it’s a relationship that started the novel and is obviously a very hurtful one in Erin’s life.

I wish I would have liked this a little bit more. It was fine but it didn’t blow me away the way I thought it was going to be. I think people who like books like Snowflake by Louise Nealon or The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue might like this one as it follows the same vein of ‘messy gal trying to figure out where she’s going’ vibes.

In this book translated from Korean, we follow Hornclaw - an elderly lady who is coming up to the twilight years of her career as an assassin. As Hornclaw thinks back on her life and the decisions that she made to lead her up to now, someone close to her begins a revenge plan to bring her down. 

 

I didn’t know what I was going to think of this book going into it but I found it very paced, fun and I really loved getting to know Hornclaw’s background. She was a fascinating character with a personality of steel but also someone you would want to have on your side. I enjoyed seeing the moments when a peek of humanity would come through such as her thoughts about the young doctor, his daughter and also her past relationship with her mentor. Not to mention her relationship with her dog who she comes home to every night but also makes sure to leave a window open for in case she never comes home. 

 

This book also highlights quite well some of the feelings and experiences of being an aging person in a world and society that overlook the old in favor of the young. We see Hornclaw traded roughly and rudely by her younger counterparts and even going around on her day to day business she is almost invisible (which of course can come in handy in her line of work). 

 

I enjoyed this a lot - there is some violence in it as can be expected but I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Hornclaw during this book.