Bookwitch

This has been such an Irish week, that I can only continue. I read Siobhan Dowd’s first published book second, which perhaps makes sense, as I believe she wrote it after the London Eye Mystery.

I couldn’t make my mind up to read it. On the one hand, everyone was praising it like mad. On the other hand, the subject matter and the cover did nothing for me. (Must learn not to look at covers. Though I’d have bought the London Eye Mystery for its cover alone…)

Ireland in the 1980s, teenage pregnancies, priests, poverty, ignorance. It didn’t tempt me. In the end it was the knowledge that Siobhan was unlikely to have written a bad book that sorted me out.

Good thing too. Yes, it had all that in it, but it’s a fascinating story. The reader quickly comes to care for Shell and her younger siblings. The village is interesting. Persuasive boys are the same everywhere. So are the gossips.

What’s important is that Shell grows. She learns things and works out what to do. She’s a very strong character.

Read it.