So It Is

by Liam Murray Bell

Spanning the decades that saw Northern Ireland move from brutal conflict to uncertain peace in the 1990s, this powerful new take on the literature of the Troubles is both a political coming-of-age novel and a fast-paced literary thriller. Aoife, a young girl growing up in 1980s Belfast, finds herself the last line of defence between the violence and her family. While her mother sinks deeper into a medicated stupor, and her father leaves the family for the comforts of the local bars, Aoife cares for her brother Damien, trying to keep him out of harm's way, while all around her friends and neighbours are swept up in the conflict. Meanwhile Cassie, a Republican paramilitary and honeytrap, lures and seduces her victims, inflicting lasting damage. But her infamous tactics have their repercussions, and before long her past catches up with her. So It Is is an unflinching and suspenseful debut that reflects the factions and fractures of the Troubles from a new perspective, culminating in a breathless sequence in which the choice between violence and personal morality becomes shockingly acute.

Genres: Fiction, Ireland, Historical

420 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Author of So It Is and The Busker, upcoming in 2014, both published by Myriad Editions. Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Stirling.

www.liammurraybell.com

Reviews

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I downloaded this after seeing a review on a social networking site and I am so glad that I did. It was the first book that I have read about the troubles, all I knew in the past is what I had seen on or in the news. All the characters in the novel, especially Aiofe and Cassie felt very real. I really felt for Aiofe, reading about her family trauma on top of the usual teenage angst. I didn't feel the same about Cassie at first, but by the time the second part of the novel started you realise why she was doing what she did.
I hope that this is made into a film, it would make a change to the stuff that is currently churned out and also that there is more by Liam Murray Bell soon.

[Padavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing skills for a debut novel. Some gut-wrenching scenes but I never felt the violence was gratuitous. The only aspect that makes me give this 4 rather than 5 stars is something to do with character development near the end - and I don't want to mention specifically as it would be a spoiler.
Looking forward to reading more of his work.

[eReader1UK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book so well written an I learnt about the troubles in Ireland as well. An excellent book

[Jim Laughren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some rough sh__, this. Excruciating. Educational. Contemporary. Bloody f____ing real. As an Irish-American my inner parts align with the hoped-for comfort and familiarity of the motherland. But here's a mother like no other. So It Is is author Liam Murray Bell's over-the-top (God, I hope so) parody of all the ugliness of Northern Ireland's troubles and it's affect on the younger generations of Irish. In startling prose and situations he pushes our faces into the real consequences of people behaving badly for generations, the collateral damage, if you will, of oppression and resistance. Life stripped to its barest. If you give a damn about war and life, about survival, about Ireland - or Palestine or South Africa or Kosovo - read this book.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book on goodread giveaway. To be honest I wouldn't have chosen this myself as the blurb shows full of violence which yes it was but loved the writing and the characters which more than compensated Well worth a read

[Lisa-Jaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brutal and not for the faint of heart, this paints a very real picture of "the troubles" from the 80's until present day. Original and with a magnifier held over human nature.

[Jennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book a real slog at first. Most of the story consists of long sections set in the past alternating with short sections set in the present, and the former were too detailed and the latter annoyingly vague (it eventually became clear why they were vague, but that didn't make them less annoying). Great care was taken to make the language sound authentically Belfast, but to such a degree that all of the different characters sounded exactly the same. There was also way too much feeling of "I have done all of this research, and now I'm going to dose every bit of it out to you little by little." And the point of it all seemed to be to show how the main character becomes what she becomes, but that point was never actually made in a way that made much sense to me. It was written by someone who clearly has a real deft hand with prose, though, and of course the subject matter interests me greatly, so I kept on reading.

Then, at around the point where the past catches up to the present, everything changed (in the book it's called "Book Two," but I'll call this the "list" section; those who read it will know what I mean). The conflict became more interesting (both the external threat and all of the inner turmoil), the characters more clearly drawn even when they only appeared "onscreen" briefly, and even the writing got crisper and cleaner. In the end it ended up feeling like the "list" section was, in reality, an extremely well crafted standalone novella, and the stuff that preceded it was a bunch of character backstory that was important for the writer to know about but not important for him to tell the reader about in order for that novella to work. Even the ending, which was terribly dissatisfying as an ending to the entire novel in many ways (mostly because the format meant that the novel presented itself as a coming-of-age story, but the main character falls well short of actually coming-of-age, so it ends up feeling like the larger narrative arc first shrivelled and then abruptly ended), built to exactly the perfect ending for the hypothetical novella it could have been part of. So I'll give the first 250 pages or so two stars and everything after that four, with an uneasy average of three.

(Editing to add this after noticing that I finished this the morning of July 12th. Lucky accident or unlucky accident, you tell me?)

[Carrie Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

So It Is is set in Northern Ireland in two time periods: at the height of the Troubles and as the peace process begins to bear fruit. In the former it follows Aiofe, a young girl growing up too quickly thanks to a selfish father and an ill mother, and in the latter it tracks a brutal revenge campaign against former paramilitaries. The combination of The Troubles and an Irish childhood might not seem particularly fresh but here it's given some interesting perspective, and on the few occasions where it starts to feel predictable the story quickly takes some unexpected turns. Well plotted and well written, the only real niggle is the revenge weapon of choice, which seems painfully unlikely. If it's based on a real case... yikes.

[Gillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really found this book a struggle. Read it for a book group. I found it upsetting and did not enjoy it at all.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK. Northern Ireland

[Abigail T · Rating 1 out of 5]

75% DNF!
I hate not finishing a book but by 75 percent I was skimming to the end. This book dragged page by page I could not wait to finish it