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We Pretty Pieces of Flesh
A gut-punch novel of girlhood in early noughties Yorkshire from a blazing new voice.
Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punch line of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.
But Doncaster’s also the home of Rach, Shaz and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. They shared everything, from blagging their way into nightclubs and trips to the FP (Family Planning) when they’re late. Never mind that Rach is sceptical of Shaz’s bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin charting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace — their friendship as indestructible as they are. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
Written in a Yorkshire dialect that brings a place and its people magnificently to life, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh takes you by the hand and drags you through Doncaster’s schoolyards, alleyways and nightclubs, bringing back the intimate treachery of adolescence and how we betray ourselves when we don’t trust our friends. Like The Glorious Heresies and Shuggie Bain, it tracks hard-edged lives and makes them sing, turning one overlooked and forgotten place into the very centre of the world.
Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punch line of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.
But Doncaster’s also the home of Rach, Shaz and Kel, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. They shared everything, from blagging their way into nightclubs and trips to the FP (Family Planning) when they’re late. Never mind that Rach is sceptical of Shaz’s bolder plots; or that Shaz, who comes from a rougher end of town, feels left behind when the others begin charting a course to uni; or that Kel sometimes feels split in two trying to keep the peace — their friendship as indestructible as they are. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
Written in a Yorkshire dialect that brings a place and its people magnificently to life, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh takes you by the hand and drags you through Doncaster’s schoolyards, alleyways and nightclubs, bringing back the intimate treachery of adolescence and how we betray ourselves when we don’t trust our friends. Like The Glorious Heresies and Shuggie Bain, it tracks hard-edged lives and makes them sing, turning one overlooked and forgotten place into the very centre of the world.
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 20, 2025
198 people are currently reading
17611 people want to read
About the author
Colwill Brown
3 books83 followersColwill Brown was born and raised in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and is now based in the United States. She holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a James A. Michener Fellowship, and an MA in English literature from Boston College. Her work has appeared in Granta, Prairie Schooner, and other publications and has received scholarships, awards, and support from the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Hedgebrook, the Ragdale Foundation, the Anderson Center, GrubStreet Center for Creative Writing, and elsewhere. For fifteen years she's lived with ME/CFS, a debilitating neurological disease triggered by a virus that, due to systemic medical neglect, currently has no treatment. A proud Donny lass, she claims to have played bass guitar in (nearly) every rock venue on South Yorkshire's toilet circuit.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 258 reviews
December 23, 2024
This book tore at old wounds.
I grew up in "Wakey" Wakefield, not "Donny" Doncaster, which is the setting of We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, but this could easily have been my town, my school, my classmates. The book is written entirely in Yorkshire dialect, which will probably be a challenge for some, but was easily recognisable to me.
I can’t imagine how this book will be received by those not from Yorkshire, but as Trainspotting and Shuggie Bain managed to cross barriers of language and culture, perhaps this one will also.
This book felt very personal to me. I was also young in the early 2000s (the blurb says the '90s, but this is not really accurate) and I experienced all of this. Yes, the references; yes, the music. Also, yes, the tidal wave of misogyny. I remember that acutely confusing feeling of fury at being objectified, yet at the same time to be objectified was to be desired, and to be desired was better than to be rejected.
What a horrific, miserable feeling.
I remember girls starving themselves, girls bending over backwards to find that sweet spot that evades being "frigid" or a "slag", kids losing themselves in alcohol and drugs. I remember getting out, going to uni, and it being like escaping to a different world. I remember being shocked that there were people who were shocked at underage teens having sex.
This book captures all of this, a very specific time and place, and it captures it well. The characters, especially Shaz, are dazzling and memorable.
For a while I really wanted to rate this 5 stars but it did get a bit long. In the middle it became a bit of a repetitive sea of dancing, boozing and bad choices… probably intentionally so, to create the effect of a kaleidoscopic whirlwind, but I would have preferred less of it.
Still, it was really powerful, and Brown's writing in the dialect was fantastic. I could hear their voices speaking in my ear... sounded a lot like the family and friends I grew up with. I'll be looking out for this author's future work.
I grew up in "Wakey" Wakefield, not "Donny" Doncaster, which is the setting of We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, but this could easily have been my town, my school, my classmates. The book is written entirely in Yorkshire dialect, which will probably be a challenge for some, but was easily recognisable to me.
I can’t imagine how this book will be received by those not from Yorkshire, but as Trainspotting and Shuggie Bain managed to cross barriers of language and culture, perhaps this one will also.
This book felt very personal to me. I was also young in the early 2000s (the blurb says the '90s, but this is not really accurate) and I experienced all of this. Yes, the references; yes, the music. Also, yes, the tidal wave of misogyny. I remember that acutely confusing feeling of fury at being objectified, yet at the same time to be objectified was to be desired, and to be desired was better than to be rejected.
What a horrific, miserable feeling.
I remember girls starving themselves, girls bending over backwards to find that sweet spot that evades being "frigid" or a "slag", kids losing themselves in alcohol and drugs. I remember getting out, going to uni, and it being like escaping to a different world. I remember being shocked that there were people who were shocked at underage teens having sex.
This book captures all of this, a very specific time and place, and it captures it well. The characters, especially Shaz, are dazzling and memorable.
For a while I really wanted to rate this 5 stars but it did get a bit long. In the middle it became a bit of a repetitive sea of dancing, boozing and bad choices… probably intentionally so, to create the effect of a kaleidoscopic whirlwind, but I would have preferred less of it.
Still, it was really powerful, and Brown's writing in the dialect was fantastic. I could hear their voices speaking in my ear... sounded a lot like the family and friends I grew up with. I'll be looking out for this author's future work.
February 21, 2025
The day I started reading We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, I ended up staying up all night to read it, hugely energised by the book, these girls already real to me. I knew straight away this was something very special. Since then, every time I’ve sat down to write about it I’ve baulked at doing so, unsure I would be able to capture what makes it so good. But here goes.
This is a novel about three girls from Doncaster, related, in its entirety, in its characters’ South Yorks dialect. In the first couple of chapters we’re introduced to the friendship between Rach, Kel and Shaz and the things that ripple out from it: love, envy, lust, resentment. The book follows them from childhood (in the late 90s) to their reunion in a future that looks nothing like any of them imagined (circa late 2010s). We meet them at various ages; still, it’s their teen years, their coming of age, that is the main focus.
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is told as a series of stories, jumping time periods, jumping perspectives. Because of this, the characters become whole while in some senses remaining unknowable. We learn more about what makes Kel tick as an adult, whereas most of what we know of Rach is about her teen self. Meanwhile, Shaz – who, in another’s hands, might seem the least likeable, or the most enigmatic, due to her defensiveness and her social status – becomes the beating heart of the story. Some threads drawn through the book, like a crucial secret Shaz keeps from the others, don’t come to fruition until the very end. Others never do. This is a story about people, about lives that feel true, so there’s no neat plotting.
I’m going to talk about the use of dialect a bit more, because I really loved the accuracy of Brown’s writing here. Her characters correctly use wa – was without the s – rather than were (which is common in less careful renderings of Yorkshire accents). She writes intut and ont rather than into t’, on t’; the latter examples ring false because in speech, the last t is attached to the end of the preceding word and doesn’t stand alone as a harsh sound; it retains some of the shape of the. Indeed, sometimes it’s so soft it’s barely there; here Brown omits it, as in a phrase like down front path. Niche analysis aside (and I could keep going!), the dialect is important. It’s a bold move by Brown – potentially divisive – but it is essential to these characters’ story. The power of their narratives cannot be separated from the fact that it’s related in their own voices. If you think this story could be told without it, you’ve misunderstood what this book is.
These girls’ lives were not quite mine (my friends and I were older than these characters before sex, drugs and nightclubs entered the picture) but, you know, it’s still a story about working-class northern girls in the late 90s/early 00s. How could it not feel close to my heart? The details are specific enough to spark some long-dormant memories: prank calling the operator, ‘chuddy’ and ‘IDST’, a boyfriend referring to you as our lass. (And making ‘top ten’ lists of boys you fancied was something I’d long thought was unique to me and my friends. How did these things spread before the internet?)
I was so in love with the details and the voice(s) that it took until I was two-thirds of the way through to pick up on something else I loved about it: I never knew where any of these stories were going. When I broke off in the middle of a chapter, I didn’t know what I would find when I returned to the book. Apart from anything else, it’s exciting. Brilliant storytelling. If I have one small criticism it would actually be that I’m not keen on the title, which reads as whimsical and twee next to the blunt poetry of the narration.
Coming-of-age stories about working-class people from nowhere towns are so often about getting out, but what happens when you don’t? Or when you have to come back? I loved that Brown envisions lives for these women that bring them home; their horizons may not expand in the way they’d hoped, but they’re not small, never that. The narrative is really good at being both compassionate and down to earth (for example, it’s sensitive to topics like chronic illness without making characters think or speak in ways unrealistic for them). I think there is also something here about how a working-class upbringing shapes you forever no matter how your life pans out later – again underlining why we keep coming back to the characters as teens. I haven’t read anything else like this book, so the best I can do for a comparison is: take the raucous energy of a ‘girls fucking up’ story, say Animals, and give it the fierceness, authenticity and political slant of an Ironopolis. Shaz, Rach and Kel are so vivid and alive in my heart that I can’t quite believe they aren’t real people. Glorious. Devastating.
I received an advance review copy of We Pretty Pieces of Flesh from the publisher through Edelweiss.
This is a novel about three girls from Doncaster, related, in its entirety, in its characters’ South Yorks dialect. In the first couple of chapters we’re introduced to the friendship between Rach, Kel and Shaz and the things that ripple out from it: love, envy, lust, resentment. The book follows them from childhood (in the late 90s) to their reunion in a future that looks nothing like any of them imagined (circa late 2010s). We meet them at various ages; still, it’s their teen years, their coming of age, that is the main focus.
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is told as a series of stories, jumping time periods, jumping perspectives. Because of this, the characters become whole while in some senses remaining unknowable. We learn more about what makes Kel tick as an adult, whereas most of what we know of Rach is about her teen self. Meanwhile, Shaz – who, in another’s hands, might seem the least likeable, or the most enigmatic, due to her defensiveness and her social status – becomes the beating heart of the story. Some threads drawn through the book, like a crucial secret Shaz keeps from the others, don’t come to fruition until the very end. Others never do. This is a story about people, about lives that feel true, so there’s no neat plotting.
I’m going to talk about the use of dialect a bit more, because I really loved the accuracy of Brown’s writing here. Her characters correctly use wa – was without the s – rather than were (which is common in less careful renderings of Yorkshire accents). She writes intut and ont rather than into t’, on t’; the latter examples ring false because in speech, the last t is attached to the end of the preceding word and doesn’t stand alone as a harsh sound; it retains some of the shape of the. Indeed, sometimes it’s so soft it’s barely there; here Brown omits it, as in a phrase like down front path. Niche analysis aside (and I could keep going!), the dialect is important. It’s a bold move by Brown – potentially divisive – but it is essential to these characters’ story. The power of their narratives cannot be separated from the fact that it’s related in their own voices. If you think this story could be told without it, you’ve misunderstood what this book is.
These girls’ lives were not quite mine (my friends and I were older than these characters before sex, drugs and nightclubs entered the picture) but, you know, it’s still a story about working-class northern girls in the late 90s/early 00s. How could it not feel close to my heart? The details are specific enough to spark some long-dormant memories: prank calling the operator, ‘chuddy’ and ‘IDST’, a boyfriend referring to you as our lass. (And making ‘top ten’ lists of boys you fancied was something I’d long thought was unique to me and my friends. How did these things spread before the internet?)
I was so in love with the details and the voice(s) that it took until I was two-thirds of the way through to pick up on something else I loved about it: I never knew where any of these stories were going. When I broke off in the middle of a chapter, I didn’t know what I would find when I returned to the book. Apart from anything else, it’s exciting. Brilliant storytelling. If I have one small criticism it would actually be that I’m not keen on the title, which reads as whimsical and twee next to the blunt poetry of the narration.
Coming-of-age stories about working-class people from nowhere towns are so often about getting out, but what happens when you don’t? Or when you have to come back? I loved that Brown envisions lives for these women that bring them home; their horizons may not expand in the way they’d hoped, but they’re not small, never that. The narrative is really good at being both compassionate and down to earth (for example, it’s sensitive to topics like chronic illness without making characters think or speak in ways unrealistic for them). I think there is also something here about how a working-class upbringing shapes you forever no matter how your life pans out later – again underlining why we keep coming back to the characters as teens. I haven’t read anything else like this book, so the best I can do for a comparison is: take the raucous energy of a ‘girls fucking up’ story, say Animals, and give it the fierceness, authenticity and political slant of an Ironopolis. Shaz, Rach and Kel are so vivid and alive in my heart that I can’t quite believe they aren’t real people. Glorious. Devastating.
I received an advance review copy of We Pretty Pieces of Flesh from the publisher through Edelweiss.
March 31, 2025
This novel is really more of a collection of interconnected short stories following a trio of best friends as they come of age in working class England in the Y2K era. The stories are laid out non-chronologically and told from different POVs —including more experimental ones like second-person and first-person plural. It’s a bold choice and it works SO well!
I’m not going to lie, I almost DNF’d this book at the beginning. It’s written entirely in local dialect, which I wasn’t expecting and found jarring at first. But I’m so glad I stuck with it, because by the third story I was absolutely hooked, and I came to love the linguistic choices.
This book portrays the experience of girlhood, and especially female friendship dynamics, in such a profound way. It’s deeply rooted in a specific place and culture, and yet so many of the feelings the characters experience are incredibly relatable. The stories were deeply moving and one in particular broke my heart.
This is my favourite book I’ve read so far in 2025. I am so excited to read more by this author!
I’m not going to lie, I almost DNF’d this book at the beginning. It’s written entirely in local dialect, which I wasn’t expecting and found jarring at first. But I’m so glad I stuck with it, because by the third story I was absolutely hooked, and I came to love the linguistic choices.
This book portrays the experience of girlhood, and especially female friendship dynamics, in such a profound way. It’s deeply rooted in a specific place and culture, and yet so many of the feelings the characters experience are incredibly relatable. The stories were deeply moving and one in particular broke my heart.
This is my favourite book I’ve read so far in 2025. I am so excited to read more by this author!
March 14, 2025
**ARC of this book provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review**
From the first sentence till the last dot this was a painful reading experience. For the first couple pages I was suffering because I’m stupid – I’ve entered giveaway of this book when I learned its about female friendship and for some reason I’ve completely missed the fact that it is written in Yorkshire dialect. English is my second language so reading books heavily relying on slang or dialect is quite challenging for me and this book was not an exception - first chapters required my full, undivided attention and frequent google searches. Fortunately after first 50 pages I started getting a hang of the language and then I started to ache because the story was almost too raw.
We are following three girls – Kel, Shaz and Rach – from adolescence till their adulthood. Girls are very vivacious and from the very young age they are plunging head first into alcohol, drugs and bad choices. Debauchery is very loud in this book but it never quite manages to cover the feeling of uncertainty and being lost. Even through their bravado you see how vulnerable this girls are, how unsure of what they are looking for and what they should become. In the middle of alcohol and drug haze the main theme is a relationship between Rach and Shaz. Girls share this complicated feelings od admiration, jealousy and desire and their friendship is beautifully realized, multilayered and complex. I would gladly spend 300 more pages just reading about the push-and-pull between them.
Then the character of my suffering changed again – I was feeling the anxiety of Rach, Kel and Shaz, I was savoring achingly beautiful descriptions and I didn’t even feel the ending creeping up on me. And boy, oh, boy, was that a disappointment. After lush prose and in-depth character examination we are suddenly presented with a conflict that flattens everything and presents you with a moral. Like in the old fashioned cartoons where at the end of the episode the heroes were spelling out moral lesson kids should learn from the story. Sprinkle it with perfunctory comments about mental health and I closed the book a bit confused. For the solid part the book was flawless and I will be thinking about it frequently but why such an underwhelming ending? I think I must be missing something here.
It's an amazing book. If Yorkshire dialect is not too scary for you then you should definitely pick it up.
From the first sentence till the last dot this was a painful reading experience. For the first couple pages I was suffering because I’m stupid – I’ve entered giveaway of this book when I learned its about female friendship and for some reason I’ve completely missed the fact that it is written in Yorkshire dialect. English is my second language so reading books heavily relying on slang or dialect is quite challenging for me and this book was not an exception - first chapters required my full, undivided attention and frequent google searches. Fortunately after first 50 pages I started getting a hang of the language and then I started to ache because the story was almost too raw.
We are following three girls – Kel, Shaz and Rach – from adolescence till their adulthood. Girls are very vivacious and from the very young age they are plunging head first into alcohol, drugs and bad choices. Debauchery is very loud in this book but it never quite manages to cover the feeling of uncertainty and being lost. Even through their bravado you see how vulnerable this girls are, how unsure of what they are looking for and what they should become. In the middle of alcohol and drug haze the main theme is a relationship between Rach and Shaz. Girls share this complicated feelings od admiration, jealousy and desire and their friendship is beautifully realized, multilayered and complex. I would gladly spend 300 more pages just reading about the push-and-pull between them.
Then the character of my suffering changed again – I was feeling the anxiety of Rach, Kel and Shaz, I was savoring achingly beautiful descriptions and I didn’t even feel the ending creeping up on me. And boy, oh, boy, was that a disappointment. After lush prose and in-depth character examination we are suddenly presented with a conflict that flattens everything and presents you with a moral. Like in the old fashioned cartoons where at the end of the episode the heroes were spelling out moral lesson kids should learn from the story. Sprinkle it with perfunctory comments about mental health and I closed the book a bit confused. For the solid part the book was flawless and I will be thinking about it frequently but why such an underwhelming ending? I think I must be missing something here.
It's an amazing book. If Yorkshire dialect is not too scary for you then you should definitely pick it up.
December 5, 2025
For the record, it isn't the author's written phonetic conversion into South Yorkshire accents that made this a tough read. That choice actually provides a lot of color and makes for a very rich experience. About 1/3 of the way in, the cadence was much more second nature and it stopped being a struggle. No, it was the lives of Doncastrian young people as portrayed here that was downright brutal to absorb.
Several of the hardcover pull-quotes (a majority of them from industry professionals Colwill Brown knows personally, as revealed in the Acknowledgements section) describe the contents as "fun" and "hilarious". There are some darkly sardonic moments, to be sure, but these are nestled amidst so much violence, trauma, abuse, deprivation, and misery that this reader did not come close to achieving a state of amusement.
Several of the hardcover pull-quotes (a majority of them from industry professionals Colwill Brown knows personally, as revealed in the Acknowledgements section) describe the contents as "fun" and "hilarious". There are some darkly sardonic moments, to be sure, but these are nestled amidst so much violence, trauma, abuse, deprivation, and misery that this reader did not come close to achieving a state of amusement.
October 25, 2024
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is the debut novel of Colwill Brown that follows the coming of age of three young girls as they age into adulthood. It is written in the Yorkshire dialect of Doncaster which was initially tricky for me to find the rhythm but lends realism to the story as does the authors’s descriptions of the setting. This was a gritty read for me. Although realistic about the difficulties and challenges girls face as they move thru their teens years and strive for adulthood and independence I often just felt incredibly sad as I read this. My youngest child and only daughter is 25, so close to the age these characters reach at the novel’s end. I just kept thinking how sad I would be to think that her own coming of age was this brutal. I don’t believe that it was but she had a large support system. The pressure these girls put on themselves and each other to experiment with drugs, drinking, sex and partying felt so heavy to me. Not to mention the way they are treated by the boys and men they encounter. They don’t often seem to feel any sense of power to say “no” even tho they seem to want to. They also don’t seem to have any significant adults in their lives they felt they could turn to. Some of their situations were just heartbreaking and I couldn’t find many glimmers of hope. I believe this is the experience many girls growing up today will face and again I find that incredibly sad. Maybe tho that is what might make this an important story to read. To try and grasp what young people face, to want better for them and to determine what might be done to help them reach the next phase of their lives healthy and whole.
July 27, 2025
The best of both worlds. Not only is the story always engaging, it’s also in the way the story is being told. If you’ve been paying attention to the hype around this novel, you’ll have heard that it’s narrated in a full-on Yorkshire dialect. Yes, it’ll take you a few pages to get used to that dialect (a lot of sounding out of words in your head), but once you embrace its rhythm, you’ll soon get the hang of it. The challenge eventually adopts a sort of musicality to the reading experience. The prose sings.
We follow three women from adolescence to adulthood. Rach, Shaz, and Kel are memorable characters—each with their own versions of wants, desires, and plights. As the narrative progresses, we get heartaches and betrayals and secrecies and misunderstandings, and the list goes on. You bleed right along with them. The novel also demonstrates how/why hometowns shapes who you are and who you will become.
A book about the ups and downs of friendship—sticking with each other as well as losing sight of one another. A natural progression or a product of our own doing? A novel that we can all relate to even if our circumstances differ from the characters’ actual experiences. A book that may just make you wanna reach out to that friend you let slip through your finders.
A banger and a stinger.
We follow three women from adolescence to adulthood. Rach, Shaz, and Kel are memorable characters—each with their own versions of wants, desires, and plights. As the narrative progresses, we get heartaches and betrayals and secrecies and misunderstandings, and the list goes on. You bleed right along with them. The novel also demonstrates how/why hometowns shapes who you are and who you will become.
A book about the ups and downs of friendship—sticking with each other as well as losing sight of one another. A natural progression or a product of our own doing? A novel that we can all relate to even if our circumstances differ from the characters’ actual experiences. A book that may just make you wanna reach out to that friend you let slip through your finders.
A banger and a stinger.
November 28, 2025
Shortlisted for the 2025 Goldsmiths Prize
Longlisted for the 2025 Gordon Burn Prize
You thought about them lasses ont bus, their painted faces and their bad sex facts, trying their hardest to grow intut only version of themsens they thought they wa allowed to be. Feminism had took one look at Donny and thought, Reckon I'll gi this a miss.
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown is a striking debut novel, set in Doncaster, and the distinctive voice reflects that, the opening pages telling us:
Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punch line of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.
They’ll recall afternoon they wa relegated tut station platform for fifteen freezing minutes, warming their hands round a paper-cup cappuccino, waiting fut LNER express route to tek em off somewhere else, suspecting that if they stepped beyond station doors forra second they’d be asked by five blokes—and at least one bloke’d ask twice—Alreyt, love, you got 20p fut phone? No point venturing intut town centre, exploring place affectionately described by natives as “Dirty Donny,” and spitefully described by posher towns as “chav central,” “a scowl of scumbags,” “a collection of small former mining villages who won’t stop complaining about Thatcher,” or “home ut country’s worst football team.”
[This last an oddly timed comment given Donny Rovers won the league in 2024/2025, although they've been no match for the Wombles this season]
The novel is told in a series of stories, and while the Doncaster dialect remains constant, the narrative voice flits between the first, first plural, second and third person, and from the perspective, both collectively and individually, of three girls who enter year 7 in 1998, through to their early 30s: Rach, who becomes a teacher; Kel who moves for a time to America; and Shaz, the most powerful voice of the three, you remains mired in the aftermath of the one secret she won't share with her friends, when she is raped by two older boys (one of whom becomes Rach's boyfriend then husband). That story is told in the most powerful and brilliantly written chapter of all, which published separately won the 2025 BBC Short Story Prize.
[and as Gumble's Yard's review points out, cleverly the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person voices are reserved for Rach, Kel and Shaz respectively]
The novel is compelling in its portrayal of teenage life; of life in Northern England; and of friendship, particularly in the dynamics of the three girls, and their individual feelings of inadequacy and jealousy. Perhaps one key recurrent theme is the need each feel to play the role expected of them, and my second favourite chapter neatly riffs on this as the three are asked by the drama teacher to put on a mini performance of Romeo and Juliet.
As a minor quibble, there were stories that were a little repetitive and didn't really add to the effector forward momentum of the novel.
Impressive and a book that should be on the Booker Prize shortlist.
Longlisted for the 2025 Gordon Burn Prize
You thought about them lasses ont bus, their painted faces and their bad sex facts, trying their hardest to grow intut only version of themsens they thought they wa allowed to be. Feminism had took one look at Donny and thought, Reckon I'll gi this a miss.
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown is a striking debut novel, set in Doncaster, and the distinctive voice reflects that, the opening pages telling us:
Ask anyone non-Northern, they’ll only know Donny as punch line of a joke or place they changed trains once ont way to London.
They’ll recall afternoon they wa relegated tut station platform for fifteen freezing minutes, warming their hands round a paper-cup cappuccino, waiting fut LNER express route to tek em off somewhere else, suspecting that if they stepped beyond station doors forra second they’d be asked by five blokes—and at least one bloke’d ask twice—Alreyt, love, you got 20p fut phone? No point venturing intut town centre, exploring place affectionately described by natives as “Dirty Donny,” and spitefully described by posher towns as “chav central,” “a scowl of scumbags,” “a collection of small former mining villages who won’t stop complaining about Thatcher,” or “home ut country’s worst football team.”
[This last an oddly timed comment given Donny Rovers won the league in 2024/2025, although they've been no match for the Wombles this season]
The novel is told in a series of stories, and while the Doncaster dialect remains constant, the narrative voice flits between the first, first plural, second and third person, and from the perspective, both collectively and individually, of three girls who enter year 7 in 1998, through to their early 30s: Rach, who becomes a teacher; Kel who moves for a time to America; and Shaz, the most powerful voice of the three, you remains mired in the aftermath of the one secret she won't share with her friends, when she is raped by two older boys (one of whom becomes Rach's boyfriend then husband). That story is told in the most powerful and brilliantly written chapter of all, which published separately won the 2025 BBC Short Story Prize.
[and as Gumble's Yard's review points out, cleverly the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person voices are reserved for Rach, Kel and Shaz respectively]
The novel is compelling in its portrayal of teenage life; of life in Northern England; and of friendship, particularly in the dynamics of the three girls, and their individual feelings of inadequacy and jealousy. Perhaps one key recurrent theme is the need each feel to play the role expected of them, and my second favourite chapter neatly riffs on this as the three are asked by the drama teacher to put on a mini performance of Romeo and Juliet.
As a minor quibble, there were stories that were a little repetitive and didn't really add to the effector forward momentum of the novel.
Impressive and a book that should be on the Booker Prize shortlist.
March 10, 2025
DNF @ p30
Pre-Read notes
This one got me with the title and the very strange cover design that seems to be at odds with the title. I love it when I get this sort of curiosity about a book from its cover alone.
Final Review to come
Review summary and recommendations
I was having to work too hard at translating this one, both in terms of the language and the story development. Unfortunately, I found the language so impenetrable that I couldn't connect with other story elements, like character, that would have kept me interested in what was happening. I'll work really hard for a good story, but I couldn't *find* the story in this one!
This is definitely an experimental novel, stream-of-consciousness always is. It will for sure find its audience who will be able to enjoy its weird brilliance more than I can!
Reading Notes
One thing I loved:
1. A bold use of dialect in this one! In this way, it reminds me deeply of KITTENTITS, which I liked.
Three things I didn't love:
This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.
1. Dialect is hard to read, and stream-of-consiousness makes the narrative hard to follow. Like KITTENTITS, I expect this will be a very challenging read. *edit I'm finding this dialect impenetrable.
2. I can't follow the over-arching story thread. I keep getting stuck in the details, which are often delivered in the form of long strings of phrases describing what is *not*, rather than how things *are*.
3. I just realized that I find stream-of-consciousness extremely tedious. Often, I find excessive repetition, as here. It's real work to decipher a story from the stew of random activity and unnecessary words. Though it is always interesting to see how different authors interpret the mind into writing.
Rating: DNF @ p30
Recommend? not sure
Finished: Feb 25 '25
Thank you to the author Colwill Brown, publishers Henry Holt and Co., and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH. All views are mine.
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Pre-Read notes
This one got me with the title and the very strange cover design that seems to be at odds with the title. I love it when I get this sort of curiosity about a book from its cover alone.
Final Review to come
Review summary and recommendations
I was having to work too hard at translating this one, both in terms of the language and the story development. Unfortunately, I found the language so impenetrable that I couldn't connect with other story elements, like character, that would have kept me interested in what was happening. I'll work really hard for a good story, but I couldn't *find* the story in this one!
This is definitely an experimental novel, stream-of-consciousness always is. It will for sure find its audience who will be able to enjoy its weird brilliance more than I can!
Reading Notes
One thing I loved:
1. A bold use of dialect in this one! In this way, it reminds me deeply of KITTENTITS, which I liked.
Three things I didn't love:
This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.
1. Dialect is hard to read, and stream-of-consiousness makes the narrative hard to follow. Like KITTENTITS, I expect this will be a very challenging read. *edit I'm finding this dialect impenetrable.
2. I can't follow the over-arching story thread. I keep getting stuck in the details, which are often delivered in the form of long strings of phrases describing what is *not*, rather than how things *are*.
3. I just realized that I find stream-of-consciousness extremely tedious. Often, I find excessive repetition, as here. It's real work to decipher a story from the stew of random activity and unnecessary words. Though it is always interesting to see how different authors interpret the mind into writing.
Rating: DNF @ p30
Recommend? not sure
Finished: Feb 25 '25
Thank you to the author Colwill Brown, publishers Henry Holt and Co., and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH. All views are mine.
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Want to read
May 23, 2024I have never EVER been more excited to read something. set in Donny, written in Donny dialect, by an author from Donny. SET IN THE NINETIES. get in my fuckin eyyyeeesss Donny birds ont RAZZZZZZ
July 20, 2025
Un’amicizia tutta al femminile nata tra i banchi di scuola, sotto i cieli dell’Inghilterra e della Brexit con padri ancora sporchi di carbone e con la tv accesa e sintonizzata sui discorsi della leader di ferro la Thatcher. Un’amicizia che non risparmia dolori, sofferenze e traumi perché questo legame così particolare così forte ha senso se si nutre di verità e sincerità altrimenti dura la sbronza di una notte, la pioggia di una primavera e la neve di un inverno. Un racconto a volte duro e spietato come la vita degli adolescenti che si sperimentano con coraggio e forza determinati a diventare qualche cosa, qualcuno che deve ancora essere.
November 20, 2025
I might have had a little stroke trying to translate this thing.
(also, is Doncaster really that bad?)
↠ 2 stars (DFN @5%)
Thanks to Random House UK, Vintage, Chatto & Windus and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
(also, is Doncaster really that bad?)
↠ 2 stars (DFN @5%)
Thanks to Random House UK, Vintage, Chatto & Windus and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.
April 9, 2025
copy gifted by publisher
Ok, I have to be honest here. For the first two pages I thought I was stroking out, not understanding a word on what was happening. I thought Donny was some guy! After a couple of failed attempts, and thinking that the Yorkshire dialect was going to do me in, I persevered and ended up reading a new favorite novel! When I tell you this book sucked me in: I pretty much ignored everyone and everything to finish.
Brown's use of dialect gives this working class town a voice and brings Rach, Shaz, and Kel to life. We get to see their relationship evolve and get more complicated as they meet when they're 11 until they reunite in their 30s. There are secrets kept, shifting allegiances, rivalries, and love. I can't say I read this and thought, of course! That's what my childhood was like. I honestly wasn't living a life like theirs, but I can relate to those weird tensions in friendship, the little group lies, the frustrations, the misunderstandings, the always having each other's back no matter what.
This is a classic coming-of-age novel that never falls into cliches. The writing and what Brown is doing with pov takes this to the next level. We switch around from first, second, and third pov, our emotions running the gamut from alienation, loneliness, to maybe a bit of hubris. Secrets are revealed to us while some of the characters are still in the dark, making this a heartbreaking read at times. I may have teared up a bit at some point. That's not to say this book is just dark and sad, there's definitely humor running through it.
I won't mention the author whose last name starts with an F, but there was that similar feeling of how the town you grow up in creates you, seeps into you. Are you ‘allowed’ to reach for more? Or is that a little much of you? In the friendship dynamics, how you think the other person is better, stronger, perhaps more brilliant 👀 than you.
Here comes the adjectives: this was raw, sharp, tender. These are some of the most real, most alive characters I've read.
Ok, I have to be honest here. For the first two pages I thought I was stroking out, not understanding a word on what was happening. I thought Donny was some guy! After a couple of failed attempts, and thinking that the Yorkshire dialect was going to do me in, I persevered and ended up reading a new favorite novel! When I tell you this book sucked me in: I pretty much ignored everyone and everything to finish.
Brown's use of dialect gives this working class town a voice and brings Rach, Shaz, and Kel to life. We get to see their relationship evolve and get more complicated as they meet when they're 11 until they reunite in their 30s. There are secrets kept, shifting allegiances, rivalries, and love. I can't say I read this and thought, of course! That's what my childhood was like. I honestly wasn't living a life like theirs, but I can relate to those weird tensions in friendship, the little group lies, the frustrations, the misunderstandings, the always having each other's back no matter what.
This is a classic coming-of-age novel that never falls into cliches. The writing and what Brown is doing with pov takes this to the next level. We switch around from first, second, and third pov, our emotions running the gamut from alienation, loneliness, to maybe a bit of hubris. Secrets are revealed to us while some of the characters are still in the dark, making this a heartbreaking read at times. I may have teared up a bit at some point. That's not to say this book is just dark and sad, there's definitely humor running through it.
I won't mention the author whose last name starts with an F, but there was that similar feeling of how the town you grow up in creates you, seeps into you. Are you ‘allowed’ to reach for more? Or is that a little much of you? In the friendship dynamics, how you think the other person is better, stronger, perhaps more brilliant 👀 than you.
Here comes the adjectives: this was raw, sharp, tender. These are some of the most real, most alive characters I've read.
October 28, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
February 22, 2025
Kel, Rach & Shaz. Friends from childhood. Born and bred in Donny, that’s Doncaster to you non-natives. They’ve seen it all during those teenage years; sex, drugs, violence, hardship, neglect to name a few. But their friendship has always been there, holding them up, the backbone to their lives. Will it stand the test of time though?
This is an incredibly fresh and original read. The entire book is written in a Doncaster dialect. Yes it takes a little getting used to but a few chapters in and you’re sorted (as a Geordie it took me even less 😂). It really helped to create an impression of these three girls, who I felt I knew inside out. I’m usually a fast reader (so many books, you know how it is) but I couldn’t rush this one because of all the colloquialisms, and as a result became so invested in their lives.
It’s grim, it’s bleak, it’s VERY gritty - some of these girl’s stories will make your jaw hang open and your toes curl. But it’s also so incredibly refreshing and honest, it made me laugh, it made me smile, hell it even made me cry. The power of friendship, what a wonderful thing.
Right I’m off to get my vodka and tabs and hang out down the park, who’s up for it?
This is an incredibly fresh and original read. The entire book is written in a Doncaster dialect. Yes it takes a little getting used to but a few chapters in and you’re sorted (as a Geordie it took me even less 😂). It really helped to create an impression of these three girls, who I felt I knew inside out. I’m usually a fast reader (so many books, you know how it is) but I couldn’t rush this one because of all the colloquialisms, and as a result became so invested in their lives.
It’s grim, it’s bleak, it’s VERY gritty - some of these girl’s stories will make your jaw hang open and your toes curl. But it’s also so incredibly refreshing and honest, it made me laugh, it made me smile, hell it even made me cry. The power of friendship, what a wonderful thing.
Right I’m off to get my vodka and tabs and hang out down the park, who’s up for it?
October 9, 2024
this is a debut???? insanee
i was honored to be able read this netgalley arc
cannot wait for it to be released and see the feedback it gets.
i generally think teens in the 90s had more fun?
see when i was a teen all i could think of was climate change and dictatorships
maybe i also need drugs
anyway dialect was a bit hard for me to catch on but it didn’t take more than 10/20 pages to get into it
5 stars because the cover is also rad
i was honored to be able read this netgalley arc
cannot wait for it to be released and see the feedback it gets.
i generally think teens in the 90s had more fun?
see when i was a teen all i could think of was climate change and dictatorships
maybe i also need drugs
anyway dialect was a bit hard for me to catch on but it didn’t take more than 10/20 pages to get into it
5 stars because the cover is also rad
April 13, 2025
Set in Doncaster in the late 1990s and early noughties, the story focuses on the lives and friendships of three girls. Kel, Rach and Shaz become a trio when they meet at big school and their teenage lives are a whirl of boys, alcohol, sisterhood and fallings out. But there is so much heart in this. It's raw and honest and depicts life in a working class town. As a Donny lass myself, and being a decade older than the girls, the stories told and the pop culture references are mine and my friends. A wonderful book that deserves to win awards.
July 10, 2025
I am spending this month reading books that are eligible for the upcoming 2025 Booker longlist announcement coming on July 29.
This book, WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH has been mentioned on several GR reviews and Booktube videos as a strong possibility for the list and even as the eventual winner by some and I definitely agree.
This tale of 3 subteen girls in 90's Yorkshire England seemed so real and brought back memories of my own life at that age! The written dialect didn't bother me at all after the first few pages and I found it helpful to speak aloud the unfamiliar words to understand what was being said.
The scenes at and after Kel's quick trip to McDonald's was one of the funniest and most cringe-worthy that I have ever read. This goes to the top of my list to make the Booker LL and I am wondering if male readers will react in the same way?
This book, WE PRETTY PIECES OF FLESH has been mentioned on several GR reviews and Booktube videos as a strong possibility for the list and even as the eventual winner by some and I definitely agree.
This tale of 3 subteen girls in 90's Yorkshire England seemed so real and brought back memories of my own life at that age! The written dialect didn't bother me at all after the first few pages and I found it helpful to speak aloud the unfamiliar words to understand what was being said.
The scenes at and after Kel's quick trip to McDonald's was one of the funniest and most cringe-worthy that I have ever read. This goes to the top of my list to make the Booker LL and I am wondering if male readers will react in the same way?
September 22, 2025
TEENAGE GIRLS FOREVER!!!! i loved this brash, self-assured, moving debut, set in doncaster in the 00s & told in donny dialect from the rotating perspective of three girls moving from adolescence to adulthood, growing up in the deindustrialised north in a “left behind” town. the voices in it are so vivid and strong, and there's such an evocative sense of place, from the upstairs loo in mcdonalds across the road from the underage nightclub to friday night ice-skating at the doncaster dome leisure centre to the kerb outside a chippy. there were some stylistic choices i wasn't too hot on, like the choice to switch narration from first person pov to second person to third person, then a chorus chapter. i am sure colwill brown had her reasons for it (and i can think of some myself: rach narrates from first person because of her self-involvement; shaz narrates from second person because her story has so often been told To her) but overall it made the novel feel messier than it should, messier than the quality of the writing and strength of the narrative. still, i loved the way this captured the difficulties of being a teenage girl in a town that makes you grow up faster than you should and the love and rivalry and envy and resentment and admiration that you feel for your friends. beautiful characterisation; i felt such affection for rach, kel, but especially for shaz. i'm glad the ending was hopeful. will look out for colwill brown's next work!
August 15, 2025
First, a warning: this book is not a book, it is a TIME PORTAL. Like Rach, Kel and Shaz, the teenage protagonists of Colwill Brown's We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, I started secondary school in 1998, needing, like them, 'to learn sharpish how to survive secondary school w'out gerrin their heads kicked in... She's alreyt, her. Not up hersen, not a clever clogs, not a geek or a buff or a sweatie or a posh cow or a frigid bitch'. I went to school nowhere near Doncaster, where this novel is set and in whose dialect it is written, and their specific language is not mine (we'd have talked about 'trevs' and 'keeners'), but the rhythm of it is exactly the same. Brown absolutely nails the experience of being a teenage girl in Britain in the late 90s and early 00s - and, as it turns out, that experience had a lot in common even if you were a middle-class girl growing up in Wiltshire rather than a working-class girl growing up in 'Donny'. This book fiercely shows that, especially when you're about twelve to fourteen, age can override other kinds of difference. I've never read anything that talks so vividly about the sad slow dances at the end of discos, the junky funfair rides (they call it The Cage, we just called it the cages), the judgy encounters with your Head of Year, especially if you were seen as 'too good' for the girls you were hanging around with, the songs (WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT), the hair-gelled fringes, sneaking into Titanic aged eleven. I stood on the sidelines when others experimented with alcohol and sex, but this was still the world I lived in during my early teens; a completely different world from the world I live in today. If I went back there, I would no longer know how to survive.
Brown gives us three fantastic, completely real characters. We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is written as a series of linked short stories, some in second person, some in third, some in first, switching between the points of view of its three protagonists and going back and forth in time, so we get to know all of them very well. Brown refuses to let us make comfortable assumptions, playing with our allegiances and loyalties. At the start of the novel, it feels like Rach is on the edge of the group. From a posher end of town, she's uncomfortable because she feels lads never go for her, and she's trying hard to keep up her easy friendship with Shaz and Kel, but it's just not working. 'Shaz called [her dad] "mi fatha", wi two short a sounds like "apple", and by us first half-term so did Kel... I wanted to say "mi fatha" an' all, but I knew... somehow wi'out asking that I weren't allowed.' (I loved Brown's attention to the nuances of dialect, and how the girls don't all just talk the same). But what Rach doesn't know is that Shaz, the bolshiest of them, is sometimes jealous of her: 'Shaz wished she'd worn trackies [to the ice-skating rink] like Rach. Wished she had Rach's confidence'. It's the love, tension and scraps between Rach and Shaz that drive this book, but Kel too, sweet and compliant, has her moments of feeling like the odd one out - and she's the one who tries to travel furthest away from Donny, ending up in Boston (the US version, not the Lincolnshire one) as an adult.
If there was one more thing I wanted from this brilliant novel, it was a sense of how Rach, Shaz and Kel fit into the ecosystem of their school. As they recognise, they're a bit of an odd lot. Shaz could easily have hung out with the hardest girls at the comp I went to, whereas Rach and Kel are stereotyped as 'nicer'. They feel strangely isolated from the complicated networks that would've been swirling around them, except for their occasional hook-ups with lads. There's a few token references to other subcultures, such as goths, but this felt a little lazy to me given the sharpness and sheer intelligence of Brown's writing. I wanted to get more of a sense of how they were placed socially and how far they got on with others outside their group. Nevertheless, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is an unforgettable novel, and I loved how Brown explored the thorny ties between the trio, how old bitternesses reoccur and twist back through the history of their friendship, but how she also decides that no, they are going to keep on being important to each other. You know, I think this might be even better than Eliza Clark's Penance. 4.5 stars.
I received a free proof copy of this novel from the publisher for review.
Brown gives us three fantastic, completely real characters. We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is written as a series of linked short stories, some in second person, some in third, some in first, switching between the points of view of its three protagonists and going back and forth in time, so we get to know all of them very well. Brown refuses to let us make comfortable assumptions, playing with our allegiances and loyalties. At the start of the novel, it feels like Rach is on the edge of the group. From a posher end of town, she's uncomfortable because she feels lads never go for her, and she's trying hard to keep up her easy friendship with Shaz and Kel, but it's just not working. 'Shaz called [her dad] "mi fatha", wi two short a sounds like "apple", and by us first half-term so did Kel... I wanted to say "mi fatha" an' all, but I knew... somehow wi'out asking that I weren't allowed.' (I loved Brown's attention to the nuances of dialect, and how the girls don't all just talk the same). But what Rach doesn't know is that Shaz, the bolshiest of them, is sometimes jealous of her: 'Shaz wished she'd worn trackies [to the ice-skating rink] like Rach. Wished she had Rach's confidence'. It's the love, tension and scraps between Rach and Shaz that drive this book, but Kel too, sweet and compliant, has her moments of feeling like the odd one out - and she's the one who tries to travel furthest away from Donny, ending up in Boston (the US version, not the Lincolnshire one) as an adult.
If there was one more thing I wanted from this brilliant novel, it was a sense of how Rach, Shaz and Kel fit into the ecosystem of their school. As they recognise, they're a bit of an odd lot. Shaz could easily have hung out with the hardest girls at the comp I went to, whereas Rach and Kel are stereotyped as 'nicer'. They feel strangely isolated from the complicated networks that would've been swirling around them, except for their occasional hook-ups with lads. There's a few token references to other subcultures, such as goths, but this felt a little lazy to me given the sharpness and sheer intelligence of Brown's writing. I wanted to get more of a sense of how they were placed socially and how far they got on with others outside their group. Nevertheless, We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is an unforgettable novel, and I loved how Brown explored the thorny ties between the trio, how old bitternesses reoccur and twist back through the history of their friendship, but how she also decides that no, they are going to keep on being important to each other. You know, I think this might be even better than Eliza Clark's Penance. 4.5 stars.
I received a free proof copy of this novel from the publisher for review.
March 26, 2025
There’s some books that you pour over, that you don’t want to finish because you never want to leave the characters, this is one of them. I loved carrying Rach, Kel and Shaz around with me, I missed them during work hours and loved getting back to them on train journeys, early mornings and late night reading sessions.
Rach, Shaz and Kel are from Doncaster, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. They share everything, from blagging their way into nightclubs to trips to the Family Planning clinic when their periods are late (or they’re pretending for attention). Following them through the schoolyards, clubs, cornfields and chippies of Donny, their friendship seems indestructible. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
This is a book about the things we tell our friends and the things we can’t, about gossip as currency and the power silence can have over us. It’s a book that exposes the raw reality of girlhood, the ugly, painful and the beautiful. Reading it opened up old wounds and pulled old memories out from under their rocks. These girls are so vivid, so real; they’re unique, and universal.
Told in the Donny dialect, the girl’s voices jump off the page. The sense of place, and time - mostly spent in the early 2000s - is visceral. The perspective jumps from from third to second to first plural person, which takes a bit of getting used to, but works to make you feel part of their trio, and how they see themselves as individuals and a group, how their conversations jump over and weave into eachother’s.
There’s plenty of trauma in these pages - SA, drugs, alcoholism, eating disorders and absent parents - but it’s balanced with humour and nostalgia that leaves a bittersweet feeling when finishing it.
For fans of Trainspotting, Shuggie Bain and Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels.
Rach, Shaz and Kel are from Doncaster, bezzies since childhood and Donny lasses through and through. They share everything, from blagging their way into nightclubs to trips to the Family Planning clinic when their periods are late (or they’re pretending for attention). Following them through the schoolyards, clubs, cornfields and chippies of Donny, their friendship seems indestructible. But as they grow up and away from one another, a long-festering secret threatens to rip the trio apart.
This is a book about the things we tell our friends and the things we can’t, about gossip as currency and the power silence can have over us. It’s a book that exposes the raw reality of girlhood, the ugly, painful and the beautiful. Reading it opened up old wounds and pulled old memories out from under their rocks. These girls are so vivid, so real; they’re unique, and universal.
Told in the Donny dialect, the girl’s voices jump off the page. The sense of place, and time - mostly spent in the early 2000s - is visceral. The perspective jumps from from third to second to first plural person, which takes a bit of getting used to, but works to make you feel part of their trio, and how they see themselves as individuals and a group, how their conversations jump over and weave into eachother’s.
There’s plenty of trauma in these pages - SA, drugs, alcoholism, eating disorders and absent parents - but it’s balanced with humour and nostalgia that leaves a bittersweet feeling when finishing it.
For fans of Trainspotting, Shuggie Bain and Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels.
October 2, 2024
A future coming of age classic? I think so, yeah.
‘We Pretty Pieces of Flesh’ follows three friends, Shaz, Rach and Kel, at different points throughout their lives from their pre-teen years to their early thirties. We see them form their trio for the first time, and follow through the eyes of each in turn as they grapple with adolescent jealousies, queerness, eating disorders, sexual assault and drifting apart. The novel explores class and living in poverty in post-Brexit England through incredibly powerful and moving prose, while simultaneously being a genuinely funny and relatable story of growing up. It’s perfectly balanced, and a really brilliant debut novel.
I can see this being a massive hit and when it’s released in February and completely deservedly so.
‘We Pretty Pieces of Flesh’ follows three friends, Shaz, Rach and Kel, at different points throughout their lives from their pre-teen years to their early thirties. We see them form their trio for the first time, and follow through the eyes of each in turn as they grapple with adolescent jealousies, queerness, eating disorders, sexual assault and drifting apart. The novel explores class and living in poverty in post-Brexit England through incredibly powerful and moving prose, while simultaneously being a genuinely funny and relatable story of growing up. It’s perfectly balanced, and a really brilliant debut novel.
I can see this being a massive hit and when it’s released in February and completely deservedly so.
July 17, 2024
I had a bit of trouble getting into this one as the dialect isn't one I'm familiar with so it took some getting used to. It revolves around three teens, Rach, Kel, and Shaz who are typical rebellious girls, determined to get the most out of life. Armed with Ecstasy, they frequent nightclubs that will let them in, almost get kicked off a train, and just generally look for trouble and excitement. And of course they keep secrets from anyone who tries to curb their rebellious behavior. So if you want to look back at your teen years and live vicariously through others, this is the book for you!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!
Read
November 17, 2024I won this book through a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for choosing me.
I can't give this book a rating. It sounded like a great book, I attempted to get into it until about page 100, but I couldn't get the dialect. I'm sure that the right audience will absolutely love it. Sadly, it just wasn't for me.
I can't give this book a rating. It sounded like a great book, I attempted to get into it until about page 100, but I couldn't get the dialect. I'm sure that the right audience will absolutely love it. Sadly, it just wasn't for me.
Read
February 11, 2025I can't improve on Blair's review of this, but I can add my voice to the praise. Told throughout in South Yorkshire dialect, which is rendered so sensitively that it poses no particular problems for a non-speaker to read it, this is the resonant story of three young women who become friends at secondary school. Moving backwards and forwards in time to cover both some primary school days and their later lives, their rivalries, fault lines and secrets come clear, leading eventually to a moment of truth-telling and a genuine reckoning. Imagine the intensity and ferocity and precise capturing of the love girls have for their friends in Tana French's The Secret Place, then cross it with the pop-cultural nous and the enraging revelation of personal vulnerability in Eliza Clark's Penance. This is a great book—well-written, very funny, entirely engrossing, and moving—but it's also an important one, one dealing with moments in time that have either been memory-holed or not narrated in mainstream publishing from this perspective before: those '90s-'00s years when everyone thought they didn't need feminism anymore; the post-crash implosion of the high street that ruined already-decimated communities; the post-Brexit crumbling of what trust in the social fabric remained. (There are surprises here meant to rebuke London-centric readerly assumptions: Shaz, the most working-class and stereotypically "chavvy" of the three girls—promiscuous, hard-drinking, prone to scrapping on nights out—votes Remain, because she understands perfectly well that her communities are kept on life support by EU funds; Rach, the one who gets out and goes to university, is suspected to have voted Leave, to have turned credulous when faced with slogans.) Effortlessly engaging and full of soul; I absolutely loved it. Source: NetGalley; publishing 20 February, 2025
October 20, 2025
rawmarsh not mentionned 😡
November 26, 2024
I just cannot do We Pretty Pieces of Flesh, and DNF’d it a third of the way through the book. It actually has overall good reviews so far, but the subject matter is far from near and dear to my heart, which is a coming of age of three young women. If the difficulties in their lives had been the product of circumstances out of their control I might have been able to finish this. But I don’t have a desire to read about young women bickering amongst themselves and willfully doing stupid things that will inevitably end badly. The first five chapters are full of girl fights, sex, drugs, stealing and sneaking into bars underage. I didn’t have an interest in any of these things when I was actually that age and twenty five plus years later they hold even less appeal. On top of that the book is told with a Yorkshire dialect, which may make the storytelling more authentic, but makes it even harder to read something that doesn’t hold my interest in the first place. To make things even more confusing the narrator is constantly changing between the three girls, but not in a consistent way. Sometimes a whole chapter is told by one girl; in other places it seems to vary from sentence to sentence. If girls behaving badly is your thing and you want it to feel believable, knock yourself out-this is your book, but it’s a hard pass for me. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
November 28, 2025
Thank you so very kindly to the author, Colwill Brown, and Goodreads for the privilege of winning We Pretty Pieces of Flesh in a giveaway. I was immediately captured by the summary of the book, and was swept away from the first page. The story of the three friends will grab you and hold you until the very last page, and every last sentence is dripping with the most delicious local color that gives the book so much vibrance and realness that it was bumped up to a five-star round up. The story is told through flashbacks and flash forwards, showing how the friends' secrets and motivations unravel in ways you both expect and never would have. As someone not from the UK, I was intrigued by the political themes and cultural dynamics playing out over the years. All the ups and downs of being a girl and how to get through are captured within the story, making it clear that even if the little details are different, we are all experiencing similar lessons. If you loved Skins, you'd enjoy this one.
For Fans of:
Georgia Nicholson <3
Skins
Derry Girls
For Fans of:
Georgia Nicholson <3
Skins
Derry Girls
July 31, 2025
ARC review
3.5 stars
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is a story about girlhood, womanhood and the complicated area in between. Rach, Kel and Shaz were inseperable during childhood, but events in each of their lives keep them from coming together as women. This book made me feel really nostalgic, and it doesn't shy away from all the cringe, angst and pain of being a teenage girl. This book is very British (I can't be more specific than that) but that seems to be very close to Australian youth culture so I'm fine with it, I had fun with a lot of the prose and quirky sayings.
The three main characters are flawed, at times vicious the way only teenage girls can be, and their feeling of being lost is really evident. Apparently it is a universal experience to be ousted by a friend group and never know why. I really empathised with the girls and it took me back to that age in the best and worst ways. This author either has a really good memory of did their homework because the dialogue and pettiness was so accurate I feel like buried memories were unlocked a couple of times.
The only downer for me is how long it took me to get into the story, I considered not finishing after the first 40% or so but the second half was much better. In fact, I actually like how the author ever so subtly made the tone darker and darker as the flashbacks went on.
This book covers a lot of heavy topics - sexual assault, abortion, eating disorders to name a few, so it definitely wouldn't be enjoyable for everyone, but I definitely recommend for lit fic readers who are fans of Slags or The Rachel Incident.
3.5 stars
We Pretty Pieces of Flesh is a story about girlhood, womanhood and the complicated area in between. Rach, Kel and Shaz were inseperable during childhood, but events in each of their lives keep them from coming together as women. This book made me feel really nostalgic, and it doesn't shy away from all the cringe, angst and pain of being a teenage girl. This book is very British (I can't be more specific than that) but that seems to be very close to Australian youth culture so I'm fine with it, I had fun with a lot of the prose and quirky sayings.
The three main characters are flawed, at times vicious the way only teenage girls can be, and their feeling of being lost is really evident. Apparently it is a universal experience to be ousted by a friend group and never know why. I really empathised with the girls and it took me back to that age in the best and worst ways. This author either has a really good memory of did their homework because the dialogue and pettiness was so accurate I feel like buried memories were unlocked a couple of times.
The only downer for me is how long it took me to get into the story, I considered not finishing after the first 40% or so but the second half was much better. In fact, I actually like how the author ever so subtly made the tone darker and darker as the flashbacks went on.
This book covers a lot of heavy topics - sexual assault, abortion, eating disorders to name a few, so it definitely wouldn't be enjoyable for everyone, but I definitely recommend for lit fic readers who are fans of Slags or The Rachel Incident.
January 11, 2025
This is a very specific type of book for a very specific type of person and I loved it. Northern girls living their messy lives. Teenage girls are never ending vessels for drama, angst and thought provoking situations. Those teenagers then turn into problematic, morally grey young women who have no idea what they’re doing in life. The plot of this is very much - life happens, how do we handle it? The book is basically 3 character dissections and I love character driven books the most, so this held up to everything I want from a real world perspective.
I think the author choosing to use a northern dialect through the whole book was a bold decision. Thankfully it worked for me. The girls are from the Doncaster area and I live about an hour away so understood everything well. However I imagine if you’re not familiar with the accent and dialect then it could be a difficult book to sync up with. Worth giving it a try though!
With the location in mind and my own growing up being not too far away, I related SO MUCH. I myself get on the train that goes through Scunthorpe to Doncaster fairly regularly, when this was mentioned I sat up so quick. So many familiar places and clubs mentioned. The 90s aspect was something very nostalgic too, although I was born in the 90s it was still a very familiar feeling.
I want to say this is a coming of age story of 3 girls but it’s not simple. It’s problematic and raw and covers topics like drugs, sex, assault, sexuality, grief, class, eating disorders and so much more. Everything is real and the prose moved me a lot. The characters aren’t always likeable but also are brilliant and funny - it’s such a dynamic story.
I am very aware this won’t be for everyone but it’s one of those books where I sat reading and thought that it was made for me, like the author had lived parts of my life. The fact this is debut novel is insane! I can’t wait to see more work from Colwill Brown.
5/5 ⭐️
Release Date: 20th February 2025
[ Thankyou @vintagebooks and @_colwill_ for sending me this proof ]
I think the author choosing to use a northern dialect through the whole book was a bold decision. Thankfully it worked for me. The girls are from the Doncaster area and I live about an hour away so understood everything well. However I imagine if you’re not familiar with the accent and dialect then it could be a difficult book to sync up with. Worth giving it a try though!
With the location in mind and my own growing up being not too far away, I related SO MUCH. I myself get on the train that goes through Scunthorpe to Doncaster fairly regularly, when this was mentioned I sat up so quick. So many familiar places and clubs mentioned. The 90s aspect was something very nostalgic too, although I was born in the 90s it was still a very familiar feeling.
I want to say this is a coming of age story of 3 girls but it’s not simple. It’s problematic and raw and covers topics like drugs, sex, assault, sexuality, grief, class, eating disorders and so much more. Everything is real and the prose moved me a lot. The characters aren’t always likeable but also are brilliant and funny - it’s such a dynamic story.
I am very aware this won’t be for everyone but it’s one of those books where I sat reading and thought that it was made for me, like the author had lived parts of my life. The fact this is debut novel is insane! I can’t wait to see more work from Colwill Brown.
5/5 ⭐️
Release Date: 20th February 2025
[ Thankyou @vintagebooks and @_colwill_ for sending me this proof ]
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