This is a beautifully written and difficult to read (in a good way) love story. This book was so much better than anything I have read recently that I was terrified the author might let me down. At first I wasn’t sure I liked where the last chapter was going, but in the end it was perfect. Anything else I could say would be a spoiler. I have already ordered McKeon’s first book, Solace, and I might save it until the summer. Highly recommend! ( )

When this opened I thought, I might like this. University life in Dublin - shades of Normal People. Even the audiobook's narrator, Michelle Ferguson, with a strong Irish accent in my books, was understandable with a reasonably pleasant timbre - two qualities I haven't always found with the Irish narrators chosen to read Irish stories.

And I quite enjoyed the style of writing, the sharp eye for detail, the perceptions.

Didn't much like the swearing, which wasn't in direct speech but in the author's writing, strangely.

But I couldn't get into the story. The story was a non-story, despite the sharp detail in the telling - where was it going?! So I gave up listening to the audiobook after 3/13 parts. ( )

4.5 stars ( )

This is a story of two immature people in a difficult relationship in the late 20th century. Catherine finds herself attracted to, and then dependent on, a gay man. She constantly behaves in a way she regrets and doesn't fully understand. I can completely accept review opinions along the lines of: "this was 400 pages of annoying, self-centred, destructive behaviour". Catherine certainly doesn't seem like someone I would like to know. But Belinda McKeon has done a pretty good job of creating such a character, and for painting a picture of Irish university life in the late 20th century. Being gay is never going to be easy in this largely homophobic society, and we do get a sense of the difficulty of negotiating a path to a good relationship through the many and varied obstacles. I didn't really understand what made Catherine into the girl that we meet, but I guess that's a situation we're always encountering. I behave in ways I don't like too....why? The ending of the book really makes the preceding 400 pages of reading worthwhile. And the author photograph by Alen MacWeeney is one of the best I've seen. ( )

I'm not sure why I even finished this. Catherine, a student at Dublin University, falls in love with James, who is gay. This goes on for nearly 400 pages. Catherine is totally self-centred and the worst friend ever (to all her friends). The one star is for the scenes with Catherine's parents ( )