What do you think?
The Lost Soldier / Arnie Eats an Ice Cream
702 pages, Paperback
Published June 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 11, 2026
You Could tell Stephen was a disturbed child reading about the fights and the killing room and you kind of get a sense of where it was going because of the alcoholism and constant need to protect people and violence.
Even though he acts as a vigilante, you do feel sorry for Stephen, he has to deal with so much loss and is then hospitalised before the inevitable happens. I found this quite a hard read in the beginning as I felt it was more of a biography rather than fiction but that may be down to being written by a psychologist. About a third of the way through part 1 I did find it got easier especially as Stephen got older and left school.
Arnie Eats Ice-cream - part 2
In my opinion start with part 1 - this story picks up where part 1 leaves off and in my opinion makes more sense. This part is not written from the doctors point of view so feels a lot more personal. You get to know Stephen as a a person rather than a subject and the added twist at the end was a good finale to the story.
Even though he acts as a vigilante, you do feel sorry for Stephen, he has to deal with so much loss and is then hospitalised before the inevitable happens. I found this quite a hard read in the beginning as I felt it was more of a biography rather than fiction but that may be down to being written by a psychologist. About a third of the way through part 1 I did find it got easier especially as Stephen got older and left school.
Arnie Eats Ice-cream - part 2
In my opinion start with part 1 - this story picks up where part 1 leaves off and in my opinion makes more sense. This part is not written from the doctors point of view so feels a lot more personal. You get to know Stephen as a a person rather than a subject and the added twist at the end was a good finale to the story.
September 4, 2026
This book was so good! I did some googling after and didn't realise the rabbit hole I would go down!
I knew nothing of the IRA going into this read, this is Stephen John Cooper's story, written from two sides, Elizabeth's version and Stephen's as such. We meet Claire in part one, and Alyson in part two. Both intertwined and special in their own way but with the flip over being part of the story also, there's a fine line between reality and fiction!
The cover says you can be read from either side but I read part one then two, for me, it made more sense that way. It's such a whirlwind of a story and I'm so glad I got to read it!
I knew nothing of the IRA going into this read, this is Stephen John Cooper's story, written from two sides, Elizabeth's version and Stephen's as such. We meet Claire in part one, and Alyson in part two. Both intertwined and special in their own way but with the flip over being part of the story also, there's a fine line between reality and fiction!
The cover says you can be read from either side but I read part one then two, for me, it made more sense that way. It's such a whirlwind of a story and I'm so glad I got to read it!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews