The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

All The Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow

Any intel on this one? It seems the most obscure of the lot.

This one wasn't on my radar, but it has attracted some positive reviews here and Amy Sackville supplied the blurb quote, so I am keen to find out more.

"beautifully crafted characters" and "this book stole my heart" - sounds like a book I might wait on to see the consensus among this group.

David wrote: ""beautifully crafted characters" and "this book stole my heart" - sounds like a book I might wait on to see the consensus among this group."

I definitely prefer weird & dense as a teaser!

You like books inspired by Thomas Bernhard. This blurb is more giving me St Bernard vibes.

David wrote: ""beautifully crafted characters" and "this book stole my heart" - sounds like a book I might wait on to see the consensus among this group."

The title is so twee it's vomit-inducing, so can see your point!

This one wasn’t even listed on Amazon in the U.S. at the time of the announcement. I see that they’ve now created a page for it, but it’s unavailable, of course.

I initially got a macabre vibe from the title, but now I can see how it could be twee. I’ll continue to await reviews here.

It may be more tweet than twee

Surely the judges should switch this out and replace it with the Biography of X.

Why Biography of X - I am being slow (it’s too early for my brain to make the link)

Sorry I just made the link!!

This is one of only 4 longlisted books available at my local library....picking it up tomorrow. I am surprised that it is published here in Australia but not in the US. It is usually the other way around.

I am starting to fear 'twee' may be the defining term of this entire longlist...

I've only read the first chapter (twice!) and it's completely failed both times to interest me. 25 pages and, effectively, someone has just turned up on the doorstep. Obviously that's not just it, as the mind wanders all over the place talking about routines and interpreting the world, and being a parent, but that's pretty much it.

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "It may be more tweet than twee"

🙄
I ordered this from one store on abebooks, and they cancelled on me. First time that’s happened. Thank goodness for Blackwell’s. Now no car trips for a month to make up for the sooty carbon footprint!

Having just finished this I'm finding it quite hard to say too much without giving away any of the plot.
I was interested to read this as I have a relative who is severely autistic and thought this aspect of the novel, a narration by an autistic character would be interesting. Sadly I didn't find it so.

In many ways it is a novel about mother-daughter relationships. A subject surely treated with a great deal more skill and interest than within these pages. The mother/daughter relationship I found the most interesting in the book is that between Sunday and her mother which, unfortunately, isn't really that well developed. When it is, the scene is both powerful and moving.

And, in a way, this sort of epitomises my feelings towards this novel. At times the writing is actually really good but at times it is merely ok at others rather clumsy. The pace of the novel could politely be described as slow. It plods along for page after page where nothing of much interest occurs and then suddenly springs to life.
Personally I had trouble with the characters, nearly all of whom, I found to be dislikeable or even worse just very dull.
Though I didn't really enjoy it I can see it making quite a good TV mini drama where the pace could be quickened and the dull bits left out.
I hope I'm not giving away too much when you can clearly see where the novel's plot will end up. The actual ending however, I found to be a complete cop-out and in general I think the novel tries to be too many types of novel without really succeeding at any of them with any conviction.

It is a book that for me was very uneven. There are really good bits in it but these were not enough to win me over ultimately. Safe to say that there will be others who will get a lot more from this than I did but it just felt like it was trying to hard to be good if that makes any sense.
I'm very surprised to see this on the longlist. It doesn't feel at all like a literary novel. For me a 4 or 5 out of ten. Not terrible just not very memorable.
Just my opinion but I really do feel that there really are 13 better novels published this year which should have been longlisted in preference.
It appears from the acknowledgements that Amy Sackville was her thesis supervisor.

Thanks for that? And also for keeping it free of spoilers. I’m almost halfway through now and its pace truly is glacial. I have suspicions that Sunday’s interpretation of things will be very unreliable somehow due to the way she interprets the world. The character Vita seems to suggest vitality, an injection of life into Sunday’s otherwise humdrum days. But since, among all the meandering, we’ve effectively had a few doorsteppings and a meal, I’m none the wiser where it’s going yet, other than perhaps reserving suspicion around the neighbours.

I surprised myself by liking this although it’s definitely not without flaws - the author really dies not know I think where to go with the excellent narrator and interesting set up

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I surprised myself by liking this although it’s definitely not without flaws - the author really dies not know I think where to go with the excellent narrator and interesting set up

https://www.go..."

We clearly read different books. The narrator in my copy was called Sunday, not Summer. :)

Whoops. I never really think of names in books - very commonly get them wrong or have to check them when I am writing reviews.

Just read the whole thing now. Great review. Glad you were able to appreciate it more than I have. I think, ultimately, its slowness is what got to me as I can see (and have noted several) great lines and can see the interpersonal at play, and how set pieces or throwaway mentions lean into the wider themes, but it's, as you say, not without its flaws, one of which is its ending and, in getting there, the lack of variety.

Thanks and yes I agree on both. I think the author had already won my goodwill though - this was a book that genuinely opened my eyes to a different way of experiencing the world.

Throwing in my own post.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer wrote: "I think the author had already won my goodwill though - this was a book that genuinely opened my eyes to a different way of experiencing the world."

Wow. That sound intriguing!

This one mostly worked for me. I really dug Sunday's voice. It was fascinating, winning, and seemingly quite authentic. In fact, I found many of the characters compelling, from twisted Vita and Rollo to kind and no-nonsense David and even the stuck-up grandparents. The use of the etiquette book and the Sicilian proverbs was clever and I enjoyed the sense of mystery that all the foreshadowing created.

What didn't work for me was the ending, especially Dolly's role in all of it. I just didn't buy how it unfolded given how that character was presented earlier in the book. I'll stop there to avoid giving too much away.

I’m about half-way through this one. I love the voice and the humor, and there are some startlingly good lines. Sometimes the writing really shines here. But. The. Really. Really. Slow. Pace. Is. Killing. Me. Is anything ever going to happen? Every now and then, there’s a sentence or two foreshadowing some unpleasantness to come, but I’m worried it will only show up in the final pages.

I’ve finished this one, and I ended up really liking it. It was slow-paced, but Sunday’s voice completely won me over. I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing her life from her perspective.

As for the ending, (view spoiler)[ I generally think epilogues are lazy—relied on by authors when they can’t manage to end their book in a satisfying way. In this case, however, I thought the Epilogue was nearly perfect. It was a satisfying ending without being treacly. Just the right balance, I thought, and I came to like Dolly a lot more. (hide spoiler)]

Well, this book really surprised me. For the most part, I find books with internal monologue / introspection dull and tedious. Ever since my experience of being inside the mind of a lovesick teenage girl - Bella Swan - agonising over whether the vampire or the werewolf fancied her (New Moon), I avoid such books like I avoid wearing fashions the second time around. I would never have read this book had it not been for the long-list but I found myself thoroughly engrossed. I even laughed out loud a couple of times! (view spoiler)[Perhaps it would have been even better without the epilogue but I guess everyone likes a happy ending. (hide spoiler)]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxN-liAob...

This just won the Authors Club First Novel award beating Pearl, Fire Rush, The New Life and Close to Home