What do you think?
Rate this book
The Museum of You
Clover Quinn was a surprise. She used to imagine she was the good kind, now she’s not sure. She’d like to ask Dad about it, but growing up in the saddest chapter of someone else’s story is difficult. She tries not to skate on the thin ice of his memories.
Darren has done his best. He's studied his daughter like a seismologist on the lookout for waves and surrounded her with everything she might want - everything he can think of, at least - to be happy.
What Clover wants is answers. This summer, she thinks she can find them in the second bedroom, which is full of her mother's belongings. Volume isn't important, what she is looking for is essence; the undiluted bits: a collection of things that will tell the full story of her mother, her father and who she is going to be.
But what you find depends on what you're searching for.
Darren has done his best. He's studied his daughter like a seismologist on the lookout for waves and surrounded her with everything she might want - everything he can think of, at least - to be happy.
What Clover wants is answers. This summer, she thinks she can find them in the second bedroom, which is full of her mother's belongings. Volume isn't important, what she is looking for is essence; the undiluted bits: a collection of things that will tell the full story of her mother, her father and who she is going to be.
But what you find depends on what you're searching for.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 16, 2016
36 people are currently reading
3519 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 281 reviews
May 1, 2016
Perfection. ❤️
July 8, 2016
This is one of those cozy books that deals with family and will put a smile on your face. More specifically, it deals with a family of a father and his daughter; the mother has died several years previously. The story is told from both persons' perspective, and it's fascinating to see how they live in their own worlds while living under the same roof.
The daughter, Clover, has a fascination for museums, and that's what this story is built around. The father is a bus driver who once had a dream to go to university and get away from this small town, but his parents and having a baby prevented him from doing just that.
While this was a sweet as well as devastating story, I felt like pieces were missing in order to make it more interesting. It was nice enough to read about their peculiar lives and thoughts, but I was wanting more. However, the beginning of the book where we are introduced to Clover and her father had me hooked, and I definitely recommend the book in its entirety if you want a sweet and endearing story about family relations and finding answers to the questions that you might have about yourself and your life.
The daughter, Clover, has a fascination for museums, and that's what this story is built around. The father is a bus driver who once had a dream to go to university and get away from this small town, but his parents and having a baby prevented him from doing just that.
While this was a sweet as well as devastating story, I felt like pieces were missing in order to make it more interesting. It was nice enough to read about their peculiar lives and thoughts, but I was wanting more. However, the beginning of the book where we are introduced to Clover and her father had me hooked, and I definitely recommend the book in its entirety if you want a sweet and endearing story about family relations and finding answers to the questions that you might have about yourself and your life.
September 11, 2020
Several years ago I won an advance reading copy of Carys Bray’s first novel, A Song for Issy Bradley and found it an absorbing and moving work. Bray’s second novel is equally affecting and finely observed. The Museum of You tells the story of twelve-year-old Clover Quinn and her loving but emotionally wounded father, Darren, who live in a cluttered house in Merseyside. It is unclear exactly when Clover’s mother, Becky Brookfield, died, but the girl has no memories of her. Clover’s father is unable to part with any object even tangentially associated with his partner—mind you, this seems to be his relationship with all items: they could come in handy some day, couldn’t they?
This summer Clover does not need to go next door to be cared for by the Dickensian Mrs. Edna Mackerel. The girl is now old enough to be left on her own while her dad, a bus driver, does his regular route to Liverpool. Clover spends her days gardening in the Quinns’ allotment, sometimes accompanied by Dagmar, a Czech immigrant girl, who is a victim of bullying. Clover also occasionally visits her grandfather in his retirement home or her mentally ill Uncle Jim in his bedsit. However, her main project is to unearth artefacts from the second bedroom in which all of her mother Becky’s belongings remain. Clover’s been to several museums, mostly with her school, and she’s even spoken to a curator. Now she wants to create a museum of her own, with exhibits that reveal who her mother was. In the process, she will discard some of the flotsam and jetsam that have accumulated over the years.
Little by little, a picture emerges of how Darren came to be the way he is and who Becky really was. There are a number of surprises. The reader turns the pages to find out how much Clover got right about her mum and also to learn how Darren will respond to the museum. Becky’s story unfolds, but so does Clover’s, Jim’s, and Darren’s own. Bray’s is an emotionally rich, sensitive novel. I’m glad to have finally read it.
This summer Clover does not need to go next door to be cared for by the Dickensian Mrs. Edna Mackerel. The girl is now old enough to be left on her own while her dad, a bus driver, does his regular route to Liverpool. Clover spends her days gardening in the Quinns’ allotment, sometimes accompanied by Dagmar, a Czech immigrant girl, who is a victim of bullying. Clover also occasionally visits her grandfather in his retirement home or her mentally ill Uncle Jim in his bedsit. However, her main project is to unearth artefacts from the second bedroom in which all of her mother Becky’s belongings remain. Clover’s been to several museums, mostly with her school, and she’s even spoken to a curator. Now she wants to create a museum of her own, with exhibits that reveal who her mother was. In the process, she will discard some of the flotsam and jetsam that have accumulated over the years.
Little by little, a picture emerges of how Darren came to be the way he is and who Becky really was. There are a number of surprises. The reader turns the pages to find out how much Clover got right about her mum and also to learn how Darren will respond to the museum. Becky’s story unfolds, but so does Clover’s, Jim’s, and Darren’s own. Bray’s is an emotionally rich, sensitive novel. I’m glad to have finally read it.
July 9, 2016
The Museum of You is a touching tale of grief and an interesting way of dealing with it.
I’m finding it hard to explain why I only gave this book 3 stars, as it is well written, emotional, funny, and Clover is a great character, but for some reason I just didn’t fully connect with it. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right mood to read it at the time I did.
I’m certain lots of people are going to fall in love this book, so definitely well worth considering if you like the sound of the blurb.
I would like to thank the publisher, Random House UK, Cornerstone for allowing me a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’m finding it hard to explain why I only gave this book 3 stars, as it is well written, emotional, funny, and Clover is a great character, but for some reason I just didn’t fully connect with it. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right mood to read it at the time I did.
I’m certain lots of people are going to fall in love this book, so definitely well worth considering if you like the sound of the blurb.
I would like to thank the publisher, Random House UK, Cornerstone for allowing me a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
April 26, 2018
A quiet, beautiful explosion of a book. So evocative, with stunning prose. A book that burrows into your soul. Loved it.
June 24, 2016
2016 has been a very very good year for books. I look back over the past six months and see so many wonderful stories, such a wealth of amazing writing. I'm not sure how on earth I will ever pick out a list of Top Books of 2016.
The Museum of You by Carys Bray is another incredible addition to the treasures of 2016. I was totally bewitched by the writing, the story and the absolutely wonderfully created characters. The story consumed me, the depth astounded me, and best of all, it also made me laugh ... out loud.
It's the long summer holidays and this year, Clover Quinn is old enough to look after herself when her bus-driver dad, Darren is out at work. She spends her days pottering around the house and tending to the family allotment. She collects fresh vegetables for her Grandad and her Uncle Jim, although she knows that Uncle Jim won't eat them ... sometimes he doesn't eat anything for days, when he's 'not himself'.
Darren Quinn drives his bus around the neighbourhood, thinking about his daughter. He's always
done everything he can to make Clover happy, he wonders if he's done enough. He thinks about how he could have gone to University, if Clover's mother hadn't left her handbag on his bus, all those years ago. He worries about Jim, he's not too sure what to think about his mate Kelly, and he spars and jokes with long-time best pal Colin.
Meanwhile, Clover has an idea. After a visit to the Maritime Museum in Liverpool, she decides to create the life of Becky, her mum. She'll be the curator of the exhibition, she'll go into the second bedroom that's full of bags and boxes of 'stuff' that belonged to her mother, and she'll use the stuff to tell Becky's story.
The problem is that nobody has ever told Clover the real story about her mum. Mrs Mackerel next door often refers to Becky as A BIG GIRL and always finishes any sentence about her with BLESS HER. Her Dad doesn't have many photographs, and she's a little bit frightened of asking too many questions.
So Clover takes the stuff, and imagines her own story, and tries to make her imaginings into Becky's story,
Carys Bray's writing is so gentle but oh so powerful, her words pack a punch that touches the heart and her characters seem so alive.
Clover is an extraordinary character, she's wise and witty and kind and caring. She's also missing a mother, and despite her desperate love for her father, she yearns to know everything there is to know about Becky.
Darren is a great bloke. He's kind, he's sometimes impatient and grumpy, he knows his faults, but he loves Clover so much. He's spent her lifetime protecting her from the truth, and by doing so, he finds it harder and harder to move on. He can't throw anything away, he can't speak honestly to Clover, he's struggling.
I love this book so much. I adore Mrs Mackerel, the old lady next door whose mixed up words and shouty language had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion. These characters are so well rounded and their story is so moving. The setting and the era are perfect.
Beautifully imagined and expertly told The Museum of You is a complete triumph. I continued to think about the characters long after I finished the story. Beautiful
http://randomthingsthroughmyletterbox...
December 27, 2020
5/5 stars, all-time favourite
"When you grow up in the saddest chapter of someone else's life, you're forever skating on the thin ice of their memories."
By far my favourite read of this month (and probably the year for that matter) was The Museum of You by Carys Bray: one of those hidden gems of which I had never heard before Jen Campbell mentioned it in one of her videos. Not for the first time, one of her recommendations has become a strong candidate to be one of my all-time favourite novels.
As someone who lost their mother at a young age, this novel hit me with an extra gut punch in terms of relatability. We follow Clover Quinn, a 12-year old girl with a fascination for museums and a deep desire to know her mother, who passed away when she was very young. Her father took his wife’s death hard, and has locked his grief away (literally) by keeping all his wife’s possessions in a dedicated room and sealing the door. Unable to talk to her dad about her mother, Clover takes to the locked room to find her own answers about her mom’s life. Piecing together the bits, Clover curates her own museum filled with mundane objects of a woman she wish she’d got to know.
This novel is very near to perfection in my opinion. When growing towards adulthood almost all of us go through a phase of subconsciously studying or even mirroring our same-sex parent. When that parent’s deceased, or no longer in your life, that leaves a hole that screams to be filled. Carys Bray portrayed that feeling perfectly. I related to Clover in almost every way: her search for answers, the almost idealised picture she creates, the way she treats these meaningless items as museum pieces, for no other reason than that her mum once handled them… I also loved the relationship between Clover and her father, especially how nuanced it was. Objectively, Darren probably isn’t the best father out there, and as Clover grows older she starts to see some of that. She also sees that he tries everything in his power to do the best he can considering the circumstances and loves him even more for it.
The same nuance can be found in other aspects of this novel as well. It strikes a perfect balance of telling a story for adult readers, from the perspective of a young child. Every single character is lovable but flawed (including the dead ones!) and perhaps most importantly: it hit the exact right emotional spot for me. Although the story is bleak at times, it’s at always bittersweet, rather than depressing. Grief is balanced out with small moments of joy, loneliness with family-love. It left me with a feeling between nostalgia and homesickness, combined to a perfect cocktail that hurts but also warms and comforts going down.
I feel like this is the kind of book that I will cherish for years to come, not just because of its skill and quality, but also because it touched something personal to me, and made me feel just a little more understood. To me, that’s the highest compliment I have to offer to any book.
"When you grow up in the saddest chapter of someone else's life, you're forever skating on the thin ice of their memories."
By far my favourite read of this month (and probably the year for that matter) was The Museum of You by Carys Bray: one of those hidden gems of which I had never heard before Jen Campbell mentioned it in one of her videos. Not for the first time, one of her recommendations has become a strong candidate to be one of my all-time favourite novels.
As someone who lost their mother at a young age, this novel hit me with an extra gut punch in terms of relatability. We follow Clover Quinn, a 12-year old girl with a fascination for museums and a deep desire to know her mother, who passed away when she was very young. Her father took his wife’s death hard, and has locked his grief away (literally) by keeping all his wife’s possessions in a dedicated room and sealing the door. Unable to talk to her dad about her mother, Clover takes to the locked room to find her own answers about her mom’s life. Piecing together the bits, Clover curates her own museum filled with mundane objects of a woman she wish she’d got to know.
This novel is very near to perfection in my opinion. When growing towards adulthood almost all of us go through a phase of subconsciously studying or even mirroring our same-sex parent. When that parent’s deceased, or no longer in your life, that leaves a hole that screams to be filled. Carys Bray portrayed that feeling perfectly. I related to Clover in almost every way: her search for answers, the almost idealised picture she creates, the way she treats these meaningless items as museum pieces, for no other reason than that her mum once handled them… I also loved the relationship between Clover and her father, especially how nuanced it was. Objectively, Darren probably isn’t the best father out there, and as Clover grows older she starts to see some of that. She also sees that he tries everything in his power to do the best he can considering the circumstances and loves him even more for it.
The same nuance can be found in other aspects of this novel as well. It strikes a perfect balance of telling a story for adult readers, from the perspective of a young child. Every single character is lovable but flawed (including the dead ones!) and perhaps most importantly: it hit the exact right emotional spot for me. Although the story is bleak at times, it’s at always bittersweet, rather than depressing. Grief is balanced out with small moments of joy, loneliness with family-love. It left me with a feeling between nostalgia and homesickness, combined to a perfect cocktail that hurts but also warms and comforts going down.
I feel like this is the kind of book that I will cherish for years to come, not just because of its skill and quality, but also because it touched something personal to me, and made me feel just a little more understood. To me, that’s the highest compliment I have to offer to any book.
March 27, 2016
‘Grief never goes away. And that’s no bad thing – it’s only the other side of love, after all.’
Becky was Clover’s mother; she died when Clover was only a few weeks old. All Clover knows about Becky is what those around her have told her, and that’s precious little. Clover’s father Darren has been the best of parents to the daughter who arrived out of the blue, when no one, not even Becky herself, knew she was pregnant. Clover and her father have an unusually close, loving, trustful relationship, but Clover is growing up, twelve years old now, on the verge of adulthood. The span of Clover’s life is just the blink of an eye to Darren; he’s still mourning the lost love of his life, still not dealing with Becky’s death; not ready to talk to anyone about her, least of all his daughter. Clover is beginning to suspect he wishes it was she who had died and not her mother. Full of curiosity and unanswered questions, Clover decides to devote her summer to the task of sorting though her mother’s scant possessions, trying to decipher what her mother was like, creating a museum to Becky’s memory.
This is a touching tale of a broken family – so many problems; not least a child growing up without a mother and a much-loved uncle with severe mental health issues. It’s no wonder Darren feels overwhelmed, with his garden full of junk and a bedroom filled with his wife’s things; a life packed with regret and broken dreams.
This tale of one important summer in a young girl’s life is told by Clover and Darren, but encompass other stories too – like that of lonely immigrant Dagmar, crazy Uncle Jim, Darren’s recently ‘out’ friend Colin, old-flame, good friend and girly-girl Kelly, who loves her noisy boys but clearly yearns for a daughter, and elderly Mrs. Mackerel, his nosy, supportive, worried, helpful, loveable neighbour who is keeping a worried eye on Clover - and Darren too.
As clover works through bags of accumulated junk, the scant evidence of her mother’s life, trying to find out what Becky was like, Darren gives us the truth of it, in memory and conversation and so Carys Bray cleverly weaves an intricate tale of warmth and love and friendship, peppered with regret and sadness, and so cleverly written; in particular, a novel-long metaphor of gardens and the seasons that is subtle and beautiful.
‘…she is used to waiting. At the beginning of every year, she and dad wait for the soil to soften and warm; for the planted seeds to show their heads; for flowers and fruit.’
The writing is so simple - very readable on the surface, immensely rich and complex underneath. This is a story about love in all its many colours, and tragically, beautifully real – and there’s a proper joyous, hopeful, happy ending too.
‘…Sometimes it’s the wait that’s the best bit isn’t it? Knowing something's coming and enjoying the feeling of it about to happen – like Christmas Eve, which is always better than Christmas Day.’
Becky was Clover’s mother; she died when Clover was only a few weeks old. All Clover knows about Becky is what those around her have told her, and that’s precious little. Clover’s father Darren has been the best of parents to the daughter who arrived out of the blue, when no one, not even Becky herself, knew she was pregnant. Clover and her father have an unusually close, loving, trustful relationship, but Clover is growing up, twelve years old now, on the verge of adulthood. The span of Clover’s life is just the blink of an eye to Darren; he’s still mourning the lost love of his life, still not dealing with Becky’s death; not ready to talk to anyone about her, least of all his daughter. Clover is beginning to suspect he wishes it was she who had died and not her mother. Full of curiosity and unanswered questions, Clover decides to devote her summer to the task of sorting though her mother’s scant possessions, trying to decipher what her mother was like, creating a museum to Becky’s memory.
This is a touching tale of a broken family – so many problems; not least a child growing up without a mother and a much-loved uncle with severe mental health issues. It’s no wonder Darren feels overwhelmed, with his garden full of junk and a bedroom filled with his wife’s things; a life packed with regret and broken dreams.
This tale of one important summer in a young girl’s life is told by Clover and Darren, but encompass other stories too – like that of lonely immigrant Dagmar, crazy Uncle Jim, Darren’s recently ‘out’ friend Colin, old-flame, good friend and girly-girl Kelly, who loves her noisy boys but clearly yearns for a daughter, and elderly Mrs. Mackerel, his nosy, supportive, worried, helpful, loveable neighbour who is keeping a worried eye on Clover - and Darren too.
As clover works through bags of accumulated junk, the scant evidence of her mother’s life, trying to find out what Becky was like, Darren gives us the truth of it, in memory and conversation and so Carys Bray cleverly weaves an intricate tale of warmth and love and friendship, peppered with regret and sadness, and so cleverly written; in particular, a novel-long metaphor of gardens and the seasons that is subtle and beautiful.
‘…she is used to waiting. At the beginning of every year, she and dad wait for the soil to soften and warm; for the planted seeds to show their heads; for flowers and fruit.’
The writing is so simple - very readable on the surface, immensely rich and complex underneath. This is a story about love in all its many colours, and tragically, beautifully real – and there’s a proper joyous, hopeful, happy ending too.
‘…Sometimes it’s the wait that’s the best bit isn’t it? Knowing something's coming and enjoying the feeling of it about to happen – like Christmas Eve, which is always better than Christmas Day.’
June 30, 2019
i wanted to enjoy this book but sadly it just wasn’t my thing.
the writing didn’t work for me with its stilted sentences and descriptions and while i did enjoy the characters there was just nothing gripping, interesting or anything memorable about this book to/for me.
i did like the different family story and it certainly had its real moments and i loved that throughout a summer a 12 year old learns to understand that she should make friends because of who a person is instead of trying to be popular.
but all in all this book was quite boring to me and i didn’t overly enjoy it.
it’s fine not every book is for everyone and not every writing style fits erst reader.
i am sure that there are a lot of people that will love the quiet stilted writing style and the quiet plot and normal people characters in this book!
if you are interested give it a try and see if it works for you!
the writing didn’t work for me with its stilted sentences and descriptions and while i did enjoy the characters there was just nothing gripping, interesting or anything memorable about this book to/for me.
i did like the different family story and it certainly had its real moments and i loved that throughout a summer a 12 year old learns to understand that she should make friends because of who a person is instead of trying to be popular.
but all in all this book was quite boring to me and i didn’t overly enjoy it.
it’s fine not every book is for everyone and not every writing style fits erst reader.
i am sure that there are a lot of people that will love the quiet stilted writing style and the quiet plot and normal people characters in this book!
if you are interested give it a try and see if it works for you!
June 17, 2016
I received a copy of this via NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review. And I'll now be buying my own copy in hardback! ;)
Wow! Going to be very difficult to put into words the love I currently have for this book! A really simple tale of Clover and her father, Darren, and how they are both dealing in their own separate ways with the loss of Becky, Clovers mother and the sadness and issues that life without her are bringing their way.
The attention to detail is stunning and there are moments of humour and great sadness but they mix so well that you just lose yourself in the innocence of life and the trivialites of daily routines. Clover is an absolute sweetheart at 12 years old, and as her mother died when Clover was so young she remembers nothing of her, and makes up stories of what she thinks she was like as she still doesn't like to ask her Dad as it still upsets him - he has 'that' look on his face when she mentions her name.
This is a story about family, relationships, grieving, memories, moving on, posessions, allotments, letting go, growing up, mental health, depression, museums and more ... and it is completely wonderful!
Seeing how Clover and her Dad are coping was so insightful and the cast of family and friends around them also added an extra quality to the depth of the story. Finding out the truth about the mother was so touching and heartbreaking that I had tears in my eyes.
It is the first book of the authors that I've read, but I will be reading more from now!
Wow! Going to be very difficult to put into words the love I currently have for this book! A really simple tale of Clover and her father, Darren, and how they are both dealing in their own separate ways with the loss of Becky, Clovers mother and the sadness and issues that life without her are bringing their way.
The attention to detail is stunning and there are moments of humour and great sadness but they mix so well that you just lose yourself in the innocence of life and the trivialites of daily routines. Clover is an absolute sweetheart at 12 years old, and as her mother died when Clover was so young she remembers nothing of her, and makes up stories of what she thinks she was like as she still doesn't like to ask her Dad as it still upsets him - he has 'that' look on his face when she mentions her name.
This is a story about family, relationships, grieving, memories, moving on, posessions, allotments, letting go, growing up, mental health, depression, museums and more ... and it is completely wonderful!
Seeing how Clover and her Dad are coping was so insightful and the cast of family and friends around them also added an extra quality to the depth of the story. Finding out the truth about the mother was so touching and heartbreaking that I had tears in my eyes.
It is the first book of the authors that I've read, but I will be reading more from now!
June 2, 2020
„Das Zimmer der verlorenen Träume“ von Carys Bray – ein optisch unheimlich wundervolles Buch wie ich finde, mit einer Thematik, die mich direkt neugierig machte und einen lieben Dank an dieser Stelle an HarperCollins für das Rezensionsexemplar! So schön der äußere Schein auch ist, ich muss ehrlich sagen letztlich hatten das Buch und ich irgendwie keinen richtigen Draht zueinander. Der Schreibstil ist absolut in Ordnung, die Geschichte folgt einem roten Faden und man kommt den Charakteren und ihrer Geschichte sehr nah. Für mich persönlich zog es sich teilweise durch den Detailreichtum etwas und mein größtes Problem, ich habe die Geschichte einfach nicht gefühlt. Das ist denke ich einfach eine persönliche Sache und ich bin mir sicher, dass das Buch viele Leser sehr berühren und auch begeistern wird! Mich leider in diesem Fall nicht so wie ich es mir erhofft hatte...
June 24, 2016
I was attracted to this book from the description and that fact that so many people had recommended it after they had read Carys Brays previous book, A Song for Issy Bradley. I haven't read that but after finishing The Museum of You, it will certainly be added to my wishlist as I just adore the way this author writes! She is a natural storyteller and her words flow so beautifully that sometimes I just had to read as slow as I possibly could just to make sure I got every single ounce of pleasure from them.
This story of Clover Quinn, who lost her mother when she was only six weeks old, is a stunning insight into love, loss and grief but also family and the many forms that takes. Twelve year old Clover and her father Darren take the main roles, taking us through the journeys of their lives without Becky and it felt rather like a coming of age drama for both of them and not just Clover. Having not had a mother around Clover has become very self sufficient but rather lonely too. She has also become rather interested in museums after visiting local ones in her home city of Liverpool (great descriptions of the Titanic exhibition) so she decides, after discovering her mother's belongings in the spare bedroom, to create exhibits in her own museum as a tribute to her mother.
This book could have become a melting pot of sentimentality and drama but with Carys Brays clever use of prose it never became saccharine sweet or over emotional. In fact, I found it incredibly down to earth especially with its little realistic family foibles. I started to write down all the little phrases that tickled me but stopped when I realised that I just loved ALL of them (the way the mother's were described as Russian dolls was one of my favourites though). There were a couple of times I did tear up a little bit and those were times that the author touched on my own feelings of being a parent. When Darren was asked the question about the last time he picked his daughter up my heart just skipped a beat as I had never thought about that before-that one day it's the last time you will ever carry your child but you just don't know it at the time. I certainly had a lump in my throat after that. I thought that the character creations are just so amazing, my favourite being Mrs Mackerel (I can see the older me in her which is probably not as scary as that sounds!) Her little sayings had me constantly chuckling away to myself throughout. And anyone who feeds their visitors up on Tunnocks teacakes is alright by me (although I just wanted to add that there is no jam in that make of teacake!)
It was the little things that brought this story together because that is life and it isn't until you look back that you realise the little things were really the big things, as they say! This book has probably been one of my highlights of the year so far as I enjoyed it far more than I was expecting- I didn't read it, I experienced it! And a wonderful experience it was too.
I received a copy of this book via netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
This story of Clover Quinn, who lost her mother when she was only six weeks old, is a stunning insight into love, loss and grief but also family and the many forms that takes. Twelve year old Clover and her father Darren take the main roles, taking us through the journeys of their lives without Becky and it felt rather like a coming of age drama for both of them and not just Clover. Having not had a mother around Clover has become very self sufficient but rather lonely too. She has also become rather interested in museums after visiting local ones in her home city of Liverpool (great descriptions of the Titanic exhibition) so she decides, after discovering her mother's belongings in the spare bedroom, to create exhibits in her own museum as a tribute to her mother.
This book could have become a melting pot of sentimentality and drama but with Carys Brays clever use of prose it never became saccharine sweet or over emotional. In fact, I found it incredibly down to earth especially with its little realistic family foibles. I started to write down all the little phrases that tickled me but stopped when I realised that I just loved ALL of them (the way the mother's were described as Russian dolls was one of my favourites though). There were a couple of times I did tear up a little bit and those were times that the author touched on my own feelings of being a parent. When Darren was asked the question about the last time he picked his daughter up my heart just skipped a beat as I had never thought about that before-that one day it's the last time you will ever carry your child but you just don't know it at the time. I certainly had a lump in my throat after that. I thought that the character creations are just so amazing, my favourite being Mrs Mackerel (I can see the older me in her which is probably not as scary as that sounds!) Her little sayings had me constantly chuckling away to myself throughout. And anyone who feeds their visitors up on Tunnocks teacakes is alright by me (although I just wanted to add that there is no jam in that make of teacake!)
It was the little things that brought this story together because that is life and it isn't until you look back that you realise the little things were really the big things, as they say! This book has probably been one of my highlights of the year so far as I enjoyed it far more than I was expecting- I didn't read it, I experienced it! And a wonderful experience it was too.
I received a copy of this book via netgalley in return for an unbiased review.
February 4, 2017
2.5 stars
-It was alright, a bit boring but also kind of cosy and sweet at times.
-Clover/Darren were nice enough but that's about it, they might have been more engrossing if they hand't been so repetitive. I know the story was about their day to day life and all the small things in it, but Clover/Darren doing the same things over and over again got rather tiresome.
-I never thought Clover acted all that much like a 12 year old, all she was interested in was an allotment and making a museum of her dead mum's things. She spent all her time hanging with an obnoxious elderly woman and digging vegetables. There was no internet or hanging with friends or playing games. It's not like she was living in the olden days. Also, don't think I've ever heard a British twelve year old use the word epic so frequently and sincerely.
-What was with Dagmar's poor English? She'd been in England for years yet spoke in some cliched fresh off the boat way. It was mildly offensive.
-One thing I really, really hated was how Darren and his friends/family were so unsympathetic and disgusting about Becky's struggle with motherhood. There was no understanding or compassion, they talked about her as as if she was an evil villain.
-It was alright, a bit boring but also kind of cosy and sweet at times.
-Clover/Darren were nice enough but that's about it, they might have been more engrossing if they hand't been so repetitive. I know the story was about their day to day life and all the small things in it, but Clover/Darren doing the same things over and over again got rather tiresome.
-I never thought Clover acted all that much like a 12 year old, all she was interested in was an allotment and making a museum of her dead mum's things. She spent all her time hanging with an obnoxious elderly woman and digging vegetables. There was no internet or hanging with friends or playing games. It's not like she was living in the olden days. Also, don't think I've ever heard a British twelve year old use the word epic so frequently and sincerely.
-What was with Dagmar's poor English? She'd been in England for years yet spoke in some cliched fresh off the boat way. It was mildly offensive.
-One thing I really, really hated was how Darren and his friends/family were so unsympathetic and disgusting about Becky's struggle with motherhood. There was no understanding or compassion, they talked about her as as if she was an evil villain.
July 12, 2021
I picked this up as a book club read and it was a slow start, but a satisfying ending. The story is told in two parts through the eyes of Clover and her dad Darren. Clover is 12 and she never knew her mother who died just 6 weeks after her birth. Her father has done his best to raise her, but she was a surprise and it was a learning curve he's still experiencing.
What I enjoyed about this was the small objects Clover finds and the stories she invents around them. Ultimately we find out the truth (which I think is clearly buried there even before Clover hears it) but her versions were child-like and charming all the same.
The character of the next door neighbour is wild. She never gets her words right, is elderly, and deaf, and she was quite a comedic relief.
Uncle Jim also has some comedy moments although he's struggling with his own demons of substance abuse.
Darren's story of his life with Becky and then with Clover is a sad but strong one. He's always tried to be a good dad, but some things are beyond him and some things he needs help with. Accepting that and learning that is a big part of his story.
The main plot is of Clover trying to uncover her mother's past which her father hasn't shared with her, and trying to find out where she fits in the world. She tries to befriend a girl called Dagmer in her class, and she makes an exhibition throughout her mum's room, and yet the real truth is still hidden until later in the tale.
I think it's a meandering story with some fascinating bits and also some good comedy moments, but it's also a slower plot and something that takes the right mood to read. I enjoyed it on cool summer days as it took my mind into the simple world of the allotment and the day to day struggles of this father and daughter relationship, but there's some graphic bits in places and it doesn't steer away from showing some hard hitting things. 3.5*s from me.
What I enjoyed about this was the small objects Clover finds and the stories she invents around them. Ultimately we find out the truth (which I think is clearly buried there even before Clover hears it) but her versions were child-like and charming all the same.
The character of the next door neighbour is wild. She never gets her words right, is elderly, and deaf, and she was quite a comedic relief.
Uncle Jim also has some comedy moments although he's struggling with his own demons of substance abuse.
Darren's story of his life with Becky and then with Clover is a sad but strong one. He's always tried to be a good dad, but some things are beyond him and some things he needs help with. Accepting that and learning that is a big part of his story.
The main plot is of Clover trying to uncover her mother's past which her father hasn't shared with her, and trying to find out where she fits in the world. She tries to befriend a girl called Dagmer in her class, and she makes an exhibition throughout her mum's room, and yet the real truth is still hidden until later in the tale.
I think it's a meandering story with some fascinating bits and also some good comedy moments, but it's also a slower plot and something that takes the right mood to read. I enjoyed it on cool summer days as it took my mind into the simple world of the allotment and the day to day struggles of this father and daughter relationship, but there's some graphic bits in places and it doesn't steer away from showing some hard hitting things. 3.5*s from me.
June 20, 2016
It’s easy to be drawn into the lives of the characters in Carys Bray’s novel “The Museum of You”. Twelve-year-old Clover is filled with joy as it’s the beginning of the summer holidays so she has time to work in an allotment garden. She lives in North West England with her single father Darren who is a bus driver and next door to Mrs Mackerel, a comical older woman who is a bit deaf: “She has two settings: loud, for normal words, and extra loud, for the words she wants to be certain have been heard.” They have endearing routines where time in front of the television watching a baking show or a movie (rather than isolating them as individuals) creates opportunities when these characters can connect in genuine and realistic ways. Clover herself has a unique perspective of the world as well as a nerdish interest in museums. But there is a striking absence in Clover’s house where her mother Becky’s former room is filled with objects from her life which are understood to be off limits. This is a woman Clover has never known so in secret she goes about collecting and curating an exhibit about her mother’s life as a form of dedication and an act of discovery to understand what happened to her. It’s difficult to find a strategy to write about absence and grief in a way which isn’t maudlin. Yet Bray has created a story which fills your imagination with simple objects that become laden with an enormous amount of emotional meaning. It leads the reader on a path of discovery as Darren must confront painful memories and adjust how he relates to his growing daughter.
Read my full review of The Museum of You by Carys Bray on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of The Museum of You by Carys Bray on LonesomeReader
August 11, 2016
Not quite everything I’d hoped. 3.5/5 stars.
This review was originally posted on my book blog.
I’m saddened that I didn’t enjoy this book more. The writing is good: clear and evocative. The idea of the “museum of you” is great and had a lot of potential. I liked Clover – the 12-year old protagonist – very much. The story is told in alternating third-person point-of-view between Clover and her Dad, Ben, and I looked forward to every one of Clover’s sections.
However, I didn’t really connected with any of the characters other than Clover. Getting through the sections told from her father’s viewpoint felt like a chore. I started to skim through his sections to get to The End faster.
The neighbour’s SHOUTING (yes, in ALL CAPS) and continued malapropisms were quite funny at first. Unfortunately, they quickly became irritating. I understand this sort of comic relief is a good idea when the backstory which is slowly being revealed is very sad, but less would have been more in this specific case.
As I say, I’m quite sad about not having liked The Museum of You more. The story is touching, the characters are all drawn as decent (if damaged) people, and I can see why so many people have loved this book and been deeply moved by it. Perhaps if I read it at another time, I’d feel differently.
Overall: a moving story and the idea of the ‘museum of you’ is terrific. I just didn’t feel enough sympathy for any of the characters other than Clover for this story to truly “land” with me. Other opinions are available!
This review was originally posted on my book blog.
I’m saddened that I didn’t enjoy this book more. The writing is good: clear and evocative. The idea of the “museum of you” is great and had a lot of potential. I liked Clover – the 12-year old protagonist – very much. The story is told in alternating third-person point-of-view between Clover and her Dad, Ben, and I looked forward to every one of Clover’s sections.
However, I didn’t really connected with any of the characters other than Clover. Getting through the sections told from her father’s viewpoint felt like a chore. I started to skim through his sections to get to The End faster.
The neighbour’s SHOUTING (yes, in ALL CAPS) and continued malapropisms were quite funny at first. Unfortunately, they quickly became irritating. I understand this sort of comic relief is a good idea when the backstory which is slowly being revealed is very sad, but less would have been more in this specific case.
As I say, I’m quite sad about not having liked The Museum of You more. The story is touching, the characters are all drawn as decent (if damaged) people, and I can see why so many people have loved this book and been deeply moved by it. Perhaps if I read it at another time, I’d feel differently.
Overall: a moving story and the idea of the ‘museum of you’ is terrific. I just didn’t feel enough sympathy for any of the characters other than Clover for this story to truly “land” with me. Other opinions are available!
November 7, 2016
What a delightful read with a vein of honesty running through Clover Quinn and her father, Darren’s story.
Clover has just completed her first year at secondary school and Darren has conceded that she no longer needs to spend her days with their elderly neighbour Mrs Mackerel and so with the long summer holiday stretching before her Clover decides on a project. Inspired by a trip to Liverpool’s Maritime Museum and having a conversation with one of the curators, she is going to sort through all her Mum’s belongings and find out all about her. Then she is going to display her findings in the second bedroom, complete with cards explaining each item in the display.
Carys Bray has perfectly captured the mind, and voice, of a twelve year old who is just realised that friendship at secondary schools are more judgemental than those at primary, that her father who is trying his best, doesn’t get everything right and that other’s around her have challenges of their own, and just sometimes Clover can help. Clover also knows that there is a mother shaped hole in her life, and all Clover has is a couple of blurry photos, the tale of how she was born on the kitchen floor with dear Mrs Mackeral in attendance, and then… nothing.
So the project starts, interrupted by the necessary job of going to the allotment, delivering the produce to her Grandfather and Mrs Mackeral who checks up on the progress of the scarf that Clover is knitting for her father. Mrs Mackeral is the comedic element to what is an emotional tale, no matter how up-beat the presentation, and whose malapropisms had me chuckling as they are flung about with abandon always at high volume.
Clover’s first job is to sort through the jumble of items that have been flung into what was her mother’s bedroom, although the hoarding spreads throughout the house, this is the worst area. Having inched her way through envelopes containing promotions for holidays, towels and bed linen it is a while before Clover finds any real essence of her mother but she’s determined to do so.
The brilliance of this book is that all the elements come together in such a beautiful package; the writing is evocative, it was as easy to roll back the years to engage with Clover as it was to sympathise with Darren over the enormous responsibility of caring for Clover since she was just six weeks old. His determination to both love and protect her comes shining through and yet of course we know that placing Clover at the centre of his world has had a knock-on effect on the rest of his life. The author hasn’t however given us a saint, Darren gets irritated, particularly by Uncle Jim who suffers from depression, with his Dad who no longer leaves his home happy to research all sorts of things on his computer and with the occasional passenger on his job as a bus driver, unsurprising as this wasn’t Darren’s plan for his life – long ago he was going to be living a different life entirely, but things change. Added to that we have the wonderful characters, all of them from Mrs Mackeral who I initially disliked, maybe a throw-back to my own childhood which seemed over-run with characters like this, to Uncle Jim and Dagmar who is lost in her own way but teams up with Clover on her trips to the allotment. But what I loved most of all were the truisms that turn up in the most unlikely places throughout this book:
One of the surprising things about adulthood is how few people accompany you there and what a relief it is to occasionally talk to someone who knew the child you and the teenage you , someone who had seen all your versions, every update and stuck with you through all of it. That’s really something.
I was worried that this book may be too saccharine for my tastes, but evidently not, this isn’t one of those that obviously makes a play for your emotions but creeps up over you until you can’t help but want the best for each and every one of the people that grace the pages, even those whose stories can’t be changed. It is a very rare book indeed that makes me shed real tears – this book was one of them!
Clover has just completed her first year at secondary school and Darren has conceded that she no longer needs to spend her days with their elderly neighbour Mrs Mackerel and so with the long summer holiday stretching before her Clover decides on a project. Inspired by a trip to Liverpool’s Maritime Museum and having a conversation with one of the curators, she is going to sort through all her Mum’s belongings and find out all about her. Then she is going to display her findings in the second bedroom, complete with cards explaining each item in the display.
Carys Bray has perfectly captured the mind, and voice, of a twelve year old who is just realised that friendship at secondary schools are more judgemental than those at primary, that her father who is trying his best, doesn’t get everything right and that other’s around her have challenges of their own, and just sometimes Clover can help. Clover also knows that there is a mother shaped hole in her life, and all Clover has is a couple of blurry photos, the tale of how she was born on the kitchen floor with dear Mrs Mackeral in attendance, and then… nothing.
So the project starts, interrupted by the necessary job of going to the allotment, delivering the produce to her Grandfather and Mrs Mackeral who checks up on the progress of the scarf that Clover is knitting for her father. Mrs Mackeral is the comedic element to what is an emotional tale, no matter how up-beat the presentation, and whose malapropisms had me chuckling as they are flung about with abandon always at high volume.
Clover’s first job is to sort through the jumble of items that have been flung into what was her mother’s bedroom, although the hoarding spreads throughout the house, this is the worst area. Having inched her way through envelopes containing promotions for holidays, towels and bed linen it is a while before Clover finds any real essence of her mother but she’s determined to do so.
The brilliance of this book is that all the elements come together in such a beautiful package; the writing is evocative, it was as easy to roll back the years to engage with Clover as it was to sympathise with Darren over the enormous responsibility of caring for Clover since she was just six weeks old. His determination to both love and protect her comes shining through and yet of course we know that placing Clover at the centre of his world has had a knock-on effect on the rest of his life. The author hasn’t however given us a saint, Darren gets irritated, particularly by Uncle Jim who suffers from depression, with his Dad who no longer leaves his home happy to research all sorts of things on his computer and with the occasional passenger on his job as a bus driver, unsurprising as this wasn’t Darren’s plan for his life – long ago he was going to be living a different life entirely, but things change. Added to that we have the wonderful characters, all of them from Mrs Mackeral who I initially disliked, maybe a throw-back to my own childhood which seemed over-run with characters like this, to Uncle Jim and Dagmar who is lost in her own way but teams up with Clover on her trips to the allotment. But what I loved most of all were the truisms that turn up in the most unlikely places throughout this book:
One of the surprising things about adulthood is how few people accompany you there and what a relief it is to occasionally talk to someone who knew the child you and the teenage you , someone who had seen all your versions, every update and stuck with you through all of it. That’s really something.
I was worried that this book may be too saccharine for my tastes, but evidently not, this isn’t one of those that obviously makes a play for your emotions but creeps up over you until you can’t help but want the best for each and every one of the people that grace the pages, even those whose stories can’t be changed. It is a very rare book indeed that makes me shed real tears – this book was one of them!
July 3, 2016
What a gorgeous book! The cover is stunning and the story within has melted my heart.
Clover Quinn knows she was a surprise, but she's always liked to think she was a good one. She's twelve now and isn't so sure any more. Clover and her Dad (Darren) are close. He has done his best, raising her as a single Dad. They lead a simple, day-to-day life. I particularly loved the scenes where they are watching Bake Off together! Clover just wishes he would talk about her mother more.
Clover is roughly aware of what happened to her mother, Becky, when she was just a baby, but she would like to know more. She doesn't want to upset her Dad by asking too many questions though. Instead, she finds herself amongst her mothers things in the second bedroom and decides to catalogue what she sees as significant, as a sort of tribute to Becky. Her way of piecing together a story about who her mother was. The mother she never got to know.
Darren hasn't thrown a single thing away since Becky died. Clover knows their home is different, more cluttered than other people's homes, but she knows her Dad will get around to sorting it out one day. He's been busy with work and helping Colin.
This summer is the first time he's allowed her to stay in the house on her own whilst he's at work. She is obviously a sensible girl. She's happy to potter around and tend to their allotment. Darren still worries though, understandably (I have two teenagers!). Their neighbour, Mrs Mackerel, is close by to keep an eye on her though. Mrs Mackerel is HILARIOUS! She reminds me of my late Step-Dad's late mother, Mrs Christey. She always used to say things wrong which made us giggle. ANTON DECK! Lol! If you've read this already you will understand. Otherwise you will know what I mean when you do. :-)
The Museum of You is an easy five stars for me. It is a beautifully written story about love, loss, parenthood, friendship, family and growing up. I fell in love with Clover and her Dad along with the other wonderful characters in this story, all equally important in their own way. It might be a simple story on the surface, but it is just amazing. I'm sure many will relate in one way or another. These characters feel like very real people with very real (and still quite raw) emotions. Their story has been written with love and affection. The ending full of hope.
I'd love to catch up with the Quinn's again sometime to see how they're getting on.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for my Kindle copy of this wonderful book, via Netgalley. I will be recommending it to anyone and everyone. I'm off to add Carys Bray's other books to my TBR list now!
Blog post - https://chataboutbooks.wordpress.com/...
Clover Quinn knows she was a surprise, but she's always liked to think she was a good one. She's twelve now and isn't so sure any more. Clover and her Dad (Darren) are close. He has done his best, raising her as a single Dad. They lead a simple, day-to-day life. I particularly loved the scenes where they are watching Bake Off together! Clover just wishes he would talk about her mother more.
Clover is roughly aware of what happened to her mother, Becky, when she was just a baby, but she would like to know more. She doesn't want to upset her Dad by asking too many questions though. Instead, she finds herself amongst her mothers things in the second bedroom and decides to catalogue what she sees as significant, as a sort of tribute to Becky. Her way of piecing together a story about who her mother was. The mother she never got to know.
Darren hasn't thrown a single thing away since Becky died. Clover knows their home is different, more cluttered than other people's homes, but she knows her Dad will get around to sorting it out one day. He's been busy with work and helping Colin.
This summer is the first time he's allowed her to stay in the house on her own whilst he's at work. She is obviously a sensible girl. She's happy to potter around and tend to their allotment. Darren still worries though, understandably (I have two teenagers!). Their neighbour, Mrs Mackerel, is close by to keep an eye on her though. Mrs Mackerel is HILARIOUS! She reminds me of my late Step-Dad's late mother, Mrs Christey. She always used to say things wrong which made us giggle. ANTON DECK! Lol! If you've read this already you will understand. Otherwise you will know what I mean when you do. :-)
The Museum of You is an easy five stars for me. It is a beautifully written story about love, loss, parenthood, friendship, family and growing up. I fell in love with Clover and her Dad along with the other wonderful characters in this story, all equally important in their own way. It might be a simple story on the surface, but it is just amazing. I'm sure many will relate in one way or another. These characters feel like very real people with very real (and still quite raw) emotions. Their story has been written with love and affection. The ending full of hope.
I'd love to catch up with the Quinn's again sometime to see how they're getting on.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for my Kindle copy of this wonderful book, via Netgalley. I will be recommending it to anyone and everyone. I'm off to add Carys Bray's other books to my TBR list now!
Blog post - https://chataboutbooks.wordpress.com/...
June 15, 2016
From reading the blurb for this book I wasn't quite sure whether or not it would it would be something that I'd really enjoy. A number of years ago it probably would have been but my reading preferences have changed a lot in recent years. However, after reading just a few sentences, I knew that at the very least I was going to like The Museum of You. The writing was beautiful. It's very descriptive and the words look lovely on the page and sound wonderful in my head when I read them. It might be too descriptive and flowery for some people but it's the kind of writing that I really like.
There's not a lot of plot but there is some wonderful characterisation. All the characters were well fleshed out and felt very real, and most importantly they were all recognisable as different characters. You've got Clover, a twelve year old girl who has grown up without her mother, only knowing a few basic facts and stories about her and wants to know more, Darren, Clover's father who is trying to bring her up as best he can while trying to live with his grief, Uncle Jim, Clover's uncle who is suffering from mental health issues, Mrs Mackerel, a mostly well-meaning neighbour who can be quite rude and is prone to SHOUTING every OTHER word or SENTENCE and often getting well-known sayings WRONG, and that's just a small collection of characters.
Clover has been brought up by her father following the death of her mother when she was just six weeks old. She knows a bit about her mother, very basic stories with not a lot of detail, and wants to know more. She gets the idea to turn her mother's old room, which is full of her mother's things that have not been touched since she died, into a museum about her. It's a summer holiday project. Half of the chapters are told through Clover's point of view as she discovers different items and puts her own story to them. The other half of the chapters are from Darren's point of view and through these chapters we get another side of the story and we get to see another side to Becky (Clover's mother) through his memories.
It's slow moving but very touching and full of emotion. I am really glad I decided to give this a go.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
There's not a lot of plot but there is some wonderful characterisation. All the characters were well fleshed out and felt very real, and most importantly they were all recognisable as different characters. You've got Clover, a twelve year old girl who has grown up without her mother, only knowing a few basic facts and stories about her and wants to know more, Darren, Clover's father who is trying to bring her up as best he can while trying to live with his grief, Uncle Jim, Clover's uncle who is suffering from mental health issues, Mrs Mackerel, a mostly well-meaning neighbour who can be quite rude and is prone to SHOUTING every OTHER word or SENTENCE and often getting well-known sayings WRONG, and that's just a small collection of characters.
Clover has been brought up by her father following the death of her mother when she was just six weeks old. She knows a bit about her mother, very basic stories with not a lot of detail, and wants to know more. She gets the idea to turn her mother's old room, which is full of her mother's things that have not been touched since she died, into a museum about her. It's a summer holiday project. Half of the chapters are told through Clover's point of view as she discovers different items and puts her own story to them. The other half of the chapters are from Darren's point of view and through these chapters we get another side of the story and we get to see another side to Becky (Clover's mother) through his memories.
It's slow moving but very touching and full of emotion. I am really glad I decided to give this a go.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
March 19, 2017
Review originally posted on my blog: https://rathertoofondofbooks.com
I’m a huge fan of Carys Bray – I adored her first novel A Song of Issy Bradley so was beyond excited when Carys offered me the chance to read and review The Museum of You.
The Museum of You is a quiet novel but it is so beautifully moving. It’s told in alternating chapters between Clover and her dad, Darren, and then between the chapter breaks there is a page about an item that Clover is planning to show in her museum. These pages, and her innocence, were some of the most stunning moments in the novel. Things like the way Clover envisages her mum collection holiday brochures because she must have loved holidays broke me because reading this through adult eyes, it seemed that really Clover’s mum probably was just desperate for escape. It’s a cleverly written novel because we don’t know at the beginning what happened to Clover’s mum but as the novel goes on we learn bits and pieces and a picture emerges but Clover, as a child, fits the pieces together in a much more naive way. It’s so beautiful and is a real tear jerker.
I adored Clover throughout this novel. She’s such a big-hearted and intelligent girl. She loves museums and finding out about things and so when she discovers that all of her mum’s things are still stashed in her bedroom Clover forms an idea to make a museum of her mum. It’s such a gorgeous idea and so heartbreaking at the same time. I cried so much as Clover carefully put on gloves and started to carefully, and strategically work through her mum’s belongings – all done when her dad was out so that he wouldn’t know about it and get upset. I know it’s a slightly different thing but I remember having to sort out my mum’s possessions after she died and having the longing to keep everything as it was left but knowing I had to let most of it go, and I was an adult at the time. For a child to not really know about her mum, or really understand what happened to her, to then approach her mum’s things on her own is really sad. I loved how pr0-active Clover was though, she knew that she couldn’t ask anyone about her mum as the best she got was a slow drip feed of information from her neighbour Mrs Mackerel and so she decided to become an archivist and figure it all out herself. I love how matter of fact Clover is – she’s a real thinker but she gets on with things. She doesn’t dwell on how her life has ended up, she just keeps moving forward. I think we all need a Clover in our lives!
I cried quite a few times whilst reading as there are sentences in this novel that just make your heart break for Clover. A line that got me, which is in the excerpt below was ‘When you grow up in the saddest chapter of someone else’s story you’re forever skating on the thin ice of their memories.’ – I had to pause for a few minutes after reading that because it is just utterly heartbreaking. For a young child to know that their childhood is so linked in with the saddest part of her mum and dad’s life together is just so hard to think about, but also it made my heart break for her dad who has had to live with the happiest and saddest times in his life overlapping in such a tough way.
Darren is doing the absolute best he can to raise his daughter, it’s so evident that he loves her more than anything and is trying to give her a good life but it feels that as Clover is growing up, he is burying his head in the sand a little. It must be so hard for men to deal with raising a daughter alone, especially as they reach puberty and there is no female role model in their life. He knows there are things Clover will want to know beyond the basic lessons he can teach her and he’s really floundering as to how he will get her through the teenage years and beyond. He knows Clover needs her mum, and needs to know about her mum but you can feel his hesitation and his need to skate around it for his own wellbeing. He seems like such a lovely man who is simply left so lost after his partner died. I felt the longing that he had to not let his partner’s memory go but also his desire to form a stable home life for Clover. It is apparent very early on in the novel that Darren is something of a hoarder – it really felt like he was someone who was just desperately trying to cling on, to keep things right for Clover and to be a good dad. It felt to me like Clover was very much like her dad in wanting to keep things but Clover is much more organised, hence her museum idea. Reading about when Darren was younger and seeing how simple his life was, with two parents who were still together and who obviously loved him very much and did their best by him, it is obvious that he is badly wanting this for his daughter too – ‘life [back then] was ordinary, unremarkable and occasionally boring. It was, looking back, wonderful’.
This novel builds as it goes along – the more you read the more you put the pieces together and the more you get a sense of heartbreak for what this family have been through. I had such sympathy with just about all of the characters in this novel, they had all had tough times in their lives and were all muddling through as best they can. It is apparent that the thing that defined them all and kept them connected was their love for Clover, and as the novel headed towards the end, I was hoping there would be some sort of happy ending for them all. Life isn’t perfect and bad things happen to lovely people but this novel gives us such a great reminder that life goes on and things will get better with time and openness.
It’s such a wonderfully profound novel. I rated it 5 out of 5 and can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s one of those quiet novels that packs such a punch emotionally; it’s so beautiful and is one that will stay with me for a long time to come. Simply wonderful!
I’m a huge fan of Carys Bray – I adored her first novel A Song of Issy Bradley so was beyond excited when Carys offered me the chance to read and review The Museum of You.
The Museum of You is a quiet novel but it is so beautifully moving. It’s told in alternating chapters between Clover and her dad, Darren, and then between the chapter breaks there is a page about an item that Clover is planning to show in her museum. These pages, and her innocence, were some of the most stunning moments in the novel. Things like the way Clover envisages her mum collection holiday brochures because she must have loved holidays broke me because reading this through adult eyes, it seemed that really Clover’s mum probably was just desperate for escape. It’s a cleverly written novel because we don’t know at the beginning what happened to Clover’s mum but as the novel goes on we learn bits and pieces and a picture emerges but Clover, as a child, fits the pieces together in a much more naive way. It’s so beautiful and is a real tear jerker.
I adored Clover throughout this novel. She’s such a big-hearted and intelligent girl. She loves museums and finding out about things and so when she discovers that all of her mum’s things are still stashed in her bedroom Clover forms an idea to make a museum of her mum. It’s such a gorgeous idea and so heartbreaking at the same time. I cried so much as Clover carefully put on gloves and started to carefully, and strategically work through her mum’s belongings – all done when her dad was out so that he wouldn’t know about it and get upset. I know it’s a slightly different thing but I remember having to sort out my mum’s possessions after she died and having the longing to keep everything as it was left but knowing I had to let most of it go, and I was an adult at the time. For a child to not really know about her mum, or really understand what happened to her, to then approach her mum’s things on her own is really sad. I loved how pr0-active Clover was though, she knew that she couldn’t ask anyone about her mum as the best she got was a slow drip feed of information from her neighbour Mrs Mackerel and so she decided to become an archivist and figure it all out herself. I love how matter of fact Clover is – she’s a real thinker but she gets on with things. She doesn’t dwell on how her life has ended up, she just keeps moving forward. I think we all need a Clover in our lives!
I cried quite a few times whilst reading as there are sentences in this novel that just make your heart break for Clover. A line that got me, which is in the excerpt below was ‘When you grow up in the saddest chapter of someone else’s story you’re forever skating on the thin ice of their memories.’ – I had to pause for a few minutes after reading that because it is just utterly heartbreaking. For a young child to know that their childhood is so linked in with the saddest part of her mum and dad’s life together is just so hard to think about, but also it made my heart break for her dad who has had to live with the happiest and saddest times in his life overlapping in such a tough way.
Darren is doing the absolute best he can to raise his daughter, it’s so evident that he loves her more than anything and is trying to give her a good life but it feels that as Clover is growing up, he is burying his head in the sand a little. It must be so hard for men to deal with raising a daughter alone, especially as they reach puberty and there is no female role model in their life. He knows there are things Clover will want to know beyond the basic lessons he can teach her and he’s really floundering as to how he will get her through the teenage years and beyond. He knows Clover needs her mum, and needs to know about her mum but you can feel his hesitation and his need to skate around it for his own wellbeing. He seems like such a lovely man who is simply left so lost after his partner died. I felt the longing that he had to not let his partner’s memory go but also his desire to form a stable home life for Clover. It is apparent very early on in the novel that Darren is something of a hoarder – it really felt like he was someone who was just desperately trying to cling on, to keep things right for Clover and to be a good dad. It felt to me like Clover was very much like her dad in wanting to keep things but Clover is much more organised, hence her museum idea. Reading about when Darren was younger and seeing how simple his life was, with two parents who were still together and who obviously loved him very much and did their best by him, it is obvious that he is badly wanting this for his daughter too – ‘life [back then] was ordinary, unremarkable and occasionally boring. It was, looking back, wonderful’.
This novel builds as it goes along – the more you read the more you put the pieces together and the more you get a sense of heartbreak for what this family have been through. I had such sympathy with just about all of the characters in this novel, they had all had tough times in their lives and were all muddling through as best they can. It is apparent that the thing that defined them all and kept them connected was their love for Clover, and as the novel headed towards the end, I was hoping there would be some sort of happy ending for them all. Life isn’t perfect and bad things happen to lovely people but this novel gives us such a great reminder that life goes on and things will get better with time and openness.
It’s such a wonderfully profound novel. I rated it 5 out of 5 and can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s one of those quiet novels that packs such a punch emotionally; it’s so beautiful and is one that will stay with me for a long time to come. Simply wonderful!
April 3, 2017
What a lovely book.
June 16, 2016
Having enjoyed Carys Bray’s short stories and her first novel, A Song for Issy Bradley, I was excited to read this, her second novel. And she very quickly had me wrapped up in the lives of Clover and her dad, Darren. Both Clover and Darren miss Clover’s mother who died when Clover was still a baby. It’s such a painful memory for Darren that Clover doesn’t know how to ask her Dad about the one person she’d love to know more about in order to understand herself better. She can’t know herself when she only knows half of her story. Meanwhile, Darren is doing the best job he can bringing up Clover as a single parent and ensuring that she is growing up a happy child. As Darren won’t tell her anything, she decides to make it a project of her summer holiday to play detective and piece together for herself what her mother was like from the belongings Darren has kept in the second bedroom.
Carys Bray is a wonderful storyteller who lets her story unfold at just the right pace. She writes with such warmth and feeling for her characters that you can’t help but warm to them yourself; this is especially true of Clover and Darren, but it also applies to the wider circle of family, friends and neighbour. Even when those characters are at times a drain on Darren’s energies, like Uncle Jim, or try his or Clover’s patience, as in the case of the neighbour.
Carys Bray’s descriptions conjure up the world Clover and her Dad move in so well that I felt as if I were there with them; she takes you through their house, walks you around the allotment, and creates their world with layer upon layer of wonderful detail, deceptively simple but beautiful description and telling observations. If only Clover and her dad, Darren, could read each other as well as Carys Bray knows and understands people, and her characters, their lives up to this summer might have been smoother. It’s fascinating to see the way in which the father and daughter misread each other, and the way in which Clover comes up with her own history behind the objects she collects for her Museum, so often at odds with reality.
I loved this and can highly recommend paying the entrance fee for The Museum of You. It’s another wonderfully warm, heartfelt story from Carys Bray.
Carys Bray is a wonderful storyteller who lets her story unfold at just the right pace. She writes with such warmth and feeling for her characters that you can’t help but warm to them yourself; this is especially true of Clover and Darren, but it also applies to the wider circle of family, friends and neighbour. Even when those characters are at times a drain on Darren’s energies, like Uncle Jim, or try his or Clover’s patience, as in the case of the neighbour.
Carys Bray’s descriptions conjure up the world Clover and her Dad move in so well that I felt as if I were there with them; she takes you through their house, walks you around the allotment, and creates their world with layer upon layer of wonderful detail, deceptively simple but beautiful description and telling observations. If only Clover and her dad, Darren, could read each other as well as Carys Bray knows and understands people, and her characters, their lives up to this summer might have been smoother. It’s fascinating to see the way in which the father and daughter misread each other, and the way in which Clover comes up with her own history behind the objects she collects for her Museum, so often at odds with reality.
I loved this and can highly recommend paying the entrance fee for The Museum of You. It’s another wonderfully warm, heartfelt story from Carys Bray.
March 20, 2016
I thought this was an excellent book. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be very well written, engaging and with some important things to say.
The Museum Of You is a novel of character, told in the third person from the point of view of two characters: Clover Quinn, a twelve-year-old girl who lives with her father Darren in a small town outside Liverpool, and Darren himself, an ordinary, flawed but thoroughly decent man who is a bus driver and tries his very best to bring Clover up well. Clover's mother, Becky, died soon after she was born, and we get very penetrating insights into their characters as Clover spends a summer holiday at home sorting through the unsorted mementos and detritus of her mother's life and creating the museum of the title to try to understand who she was.
That's it, really. There isn’t a lot of action, but there is a very involving story as the truth about her mother's death slowly emerges. It's beautifully done, with excellently painted, utterly believable characters with their flaws and foibles, and a very shrewd understanding of how people deal with (or fail to deal with) loss and grief. It is gentle and compassionate but also very acute in its observations, and deals mainly with kindness in its different, sometimes misplaced forms. I also found it full of quiet but rather brilliant insights, like Darren recalling the happy year after he and Becky first moved into their house: "He wishes he could remember more of the year that followed. But contentment lacks specifics, it's easily swallowed and effortlessly stomached."
The writing is unfussy and very readable, and it creates an excellent atmosphere both of Clover's growing up and of Darren's struggle and anxiety to do the right thing by her. Her ear for dialogue is spot-on and other characters are well drawn and often amusing - like Mrs Mackerel, the neighbour with her constant malapropisms - and I found the book piercingly touching in places, too.
In short, this is a very good book which is a pleasure to read, which I found very involving and which will stay with me for a long time. Warmly recommended.
The Museum Of You is a novel of character, told in the third person from the point of view of two characters: Clover Quinn, a twelve-year-old girl who lives with her father Darren in a small town outside Liverpool, and Darren himself, an ordinary, flawed but thoroughly decent man who is a bus driver and tries his very best to bring Clover up well. Clover's mother, Becky, died soon after she was born, and we get very penetrating insights into their characters as Clover spends a summer holiday at home sorting through the unsorted mementos and detritus of her mother's life and creating the museum of the title to try to understand who she was.
That's it, really. There isn’t a lot of action, but there is a very involving story as the truth about her mother's death slowly emerges. It's beautifully done, with excellently painted, utterly believable characters with their flaws and foibles, and a very shrewd understanding of how people deal with (or fail to deal with) loss and grief. It is gentle and compassionate but also very acute in its observations, and deals mainly with kindness in its different, sometimes misplaced forms. I also found it full of quiet but rather brilliant insights, like Darren recalling the happy year after he and Becky first moved into their house: "He wishes he could remember more of the year that followed. But contentment lacks specifics, it's easily swallowed and effortlessly stomached."
The writing is unfussy and very readable, and it creates an excellent atmosphere both of Clover's growing up and of Darren's struggle and anxiety to do the right thing by her. Her ear for dialogue is spot-on and other characters are well drawn and often amusing - like Mrs Mackerel, the neighbour with her constant malapropisms - and I found the book piercingly touching in places, too.
In short, this is a very good book which is a pleasure to read, which I found very involving and which will stay with me for a long time. Warmly recommended.
June 21, 2016
Thank you to Netgalley and publisher for this review copy.
As soon as I saw this book advertised I wanted to read it. I really enjoyed her previous novel A Song for Issy Bradley because of the storyline and local setting. I think I liked this novel even more.
At the heart of this book is a daughter and her father, both trying to deal with the death of their mother and wife. The daughter, Clover, is sensitive like her Father, and at age 12 wants to understand more about the death of her mother, Becky, who died when Clover was weeks old. After a visit to a museum she decides to build her own, mostly misguided and misunderstood and fantasised, image of her mother with mementoes her father has kept. He has struggled to deal with the death of his wife and has hoarded her possessions. It is these possessions that Clover uses to build what she thinks will be an exhibition to her mother's life.
Clover has a happy life and her father and family / friends love her and that was comforting. It was through her father's flashback memories that we begin to learn a little more about Becky and how she died. I think this was pieced together really well and the slow reveals made for an interesting story.
Again this book was set in Southport (old Lancashire, now Merseyside). A town I know very well and I was easily able and enjoyed piecing the locations together. For me the setting and even some of the side notes like putting the plastic charity bag out for collection, which for some might seem too colloquial, really added to the appeal of the novel.
Overall a fabulous read I'd recommend.
As soon as I saw this book advertised I wanted to read it. I really enjoyed her previous novel A Song for Issy Bradley because of the storyline and local setting. I think I liked this novel even more.
At the heart of this book is a daughter and her father, both trying to deal with the death of their mother and wife. The daughter, Clover, is sensitive like her Father, and at age 12 wants to understand more about the death of her mother, Becky, who died when Clover was weeks old. After a visit to a museum she decides to build her own, mostly misguided and misunderstood and fantasised, image of her mother with mementoes her father has kept. He has struggled to deal with the death of his wife and has hoarded her possessions. It is these possessions that Clover uses to build what she thinks will be an exhibition to her mother's life.
Clover has a happy life and her father and family / friends love her and that was comforting. It was through her father's flashback memories that we begin to learn a little more about Becky and how she died. I think this was pieced together really well and the slow reveals made for an interesting story.
Again this book was set in Southport (old Lancashire, now Merseyside). A town I know very well and I was easily able and enjoyed piecing the locations together. For me the setting and even some of the side notes like putting the plastic charity bag out for collection, which for some might seem too colloquial, really added to the appeal of the novel.
Overall a fabulous read I'd recommend.
February 24, 2016
I approached this book with trepidation. I loved "A Song For Issy Bradley", but I knew the author drew on her Mormon background to write it, so I was worried that she wouldn't be able to spin the same magic again with a completely different story. I needn't have feared.
Bray's writing is, quite simply, simply beautiful. Plain and rich at the same time, never pretentious or slow when it lingers over tiny details. She strings words together in the most inventive, brilliant ways ("Colin, who approached silences like swimming pools, dive-bombed the conversation with jokes"). I wouldn't mind a dull storyline with writing like this.
But the story is not dull. The story is sweet, tense, tragic, and bittersweet. An adult novel with a child inside it. An emotional core like a slow-motion punch (look what Bray is doing to me with this review!). You can see further ahead than Clover can, pick up the little clues that point to the truth about her mother. But the story's also funny. Grinning-silently-on-the-tube funny (I already miss Mrs Mackerel...). In short, it's alive.
I teared up a bit towards the end, and books very rarely make me do that. And I can't wait to read Carys Bray's next one.
Bray's writing is, quite simply, simply beautiful. Plain and rich at the same time, never pretentious or slow when it lingers over tiny details. She strings words together in the most inventive, brilliant ways ("Colin, who approached silences like swimming pools, dive-bombed the conversation with jokes"). I wouldn't mind a dull storyline with writing like this.
But the story is not dull. The story is sweet, tense, tragic, and bittersweet. An adult novel with a child inside it. An emotional core like a slow-motion punch (look what Bray is doing to me with this review!). You can see further ahead than Clover can, pick up the little clues that point to the truth about her mother. But the story's also funny. Grinning-silently-on-the-tube funny (I already miss Mrs Mackerel...). In short, it's alive.
I teared up a bit towards the end, and books very rarely make me do that. And I can't wait to read Carys Bray's next one.
August 16, 2017
I've always been a sucker for platonic family relationships where everything feels pure and wholesome. This book had that good "family" feel.
I'm giving this book 3 (three) stars because:
1. The first few chapters confused me
2. The writing felt a bit jumbled???
3. Some parts of the story were "unnecessary"
4. That predictable ending(I wanted something else, OOPS)
I actually enjoyed the story and adored the characters. The story felt real, if you ask me. It's like something that would happen in real life. I'll give it credits for making me emotional; it didn't make me cry, just that feeling you get when you feel bad(?). I was especially fond of Clover because, honestly, I saw myself in her. Her story was relatable to a personal level - I would go over why I said that, but sharing some bits of too personal things isn't good, so I'll just leave that there.
ps: all Clover ever wanted was to know her mother more and I hope she will, in the future.
I'm giving this book 3 (three) stars because:
1. The first few chapters confused me
2. The writing felt a bit jumbled???
3. Some parts of the story were "unnecessary"
4. That predictable ending
I actually enjoyed the story and adored the characters. The story felt real, if you ask me. It's like something that would happen in real life. I'll give it credits for making me emotional; it didn't make me cry, just that feeling you get when you feel bad(?). I was especially fond of Clover because, honestly, I saw myself in her. Her story was relatable to a personal level - I would go over why I said that, but sharing some bits of too personal things isn't good, so I'll just leave that there.
ps: all Clover ever wanted was to know her mother more and I hope she will, in the future.
April 22, 2016
This started a bit slow and with so much detailed description that I wasn't sure I would like it. As it progressed I was drawn in by the characters and I grew to love it. The central character of Clover, with love hidden in her name, will surely touch the hearts of all readers. The characters really came alive in the pages and I thought the mixed up common sayings by the neighbour Mrs Mackerel added a needed touch of humour. I thought the idea of Clover setting up the museum as a way to find out more about her mother was really original and different. This is a great read which is in parts heartbreaking but also tender and heartwarming.
I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.
I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.
October 31, 2016
Quite a sweet story about dealing with grief and families but it just didn't move quick enough at the start and I took a couple of weeks off to read other books. I did like the characters and ultimately that made me finish it but it felt a bit young adult and was fairly predictable. Imagine this will be pretty popular as an easy bookshop chart type read.
April 20, 2017
It's 12 year old Clover's first unsupervised summer while her bus driver dad is out at work. Alone in the house, inspired by a meeting with a curator at a museum, she investigates the contents of the spare bedroom. The bedroom contains a treasure trove of items, many of them belonging to Clover's mother. Due to the constant grief that Darren, Clover's dad, feels, the two of them don't talk much about Becky...Clover decides to create a museum in the room and the story of her history gradually begins to unfold.
This is a charming, wise and captivating book. I loved Clover, and I like the side characters, particularly Mrs Mackerel WHO SHOUTS A LOT and has a habit of MIXING HER WORMS UP and GETTING PHRASES WRONG. It's a coming of age story, and a story of discovery - both physical and emotional, and of the nature of grief, and the search for happiness and the acceptance of growth and moving on. Loved it!
This is a charming, wise and captivating book. I loved Clover, and I like the side characters, particularly Mrs Mackerel WHO SHOUTS A LOT and has a habit of MIXING HER WORMS UP and GETTING PHRASES WRONG. It's a coming of age story, and a story of discovery - both physical and emotional, and of the nature of grief, and the search for happiness and the acceptance of growth and moving on. Loved it!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 281 reviews