McEvoy > Recent Status Updates

I struggle reading this sometimes, not because it's bad but because it's too familiar a story. I can't blame Lucy for her desperate and self-preserving decisions when choosing to be authentic means actively getting disowned and neglected by her own family. The author is excellent at making me cringe at and along with Lucy's actions while I fully understand why she's committing them. If only her mam loved her for her

The romance in this book is so authentic and idealistic it almost makes me forget that it's a queer love story set in 1990s rural Catholic Ulster. I anxiously see the, at this point, irreconcilable viewpoints of the two partners and fear the growing tension and frustration when there is not a clear reconciliation. The author is adept at disarming this anxiety only to double the tension one sentence later. Loving it

Being stuck in the protagonist's head is frustrating and relatable when you're simmering with her doubts and insecurities and denials while also being able to see through them to the truth. The flipside is the immense catharsis you get alongside the protagonist as she has her moment of realization and accepts that her dreams can be reality. Chloe Howarth writes with a subtle vividness, I am enthralled.

I am endlessly grateful for Stephanie Foo's foreword because I'm unsure how bearable this book would be without it. Page 67 commences Part II, and I'm anxiously ready to see what comes next in this memoir. I read with dread and anguish but, most of all, a trust that it will have been worth it to read. Stephanie Foo says "This book has a happy ending.", and I can't wait to see it myself.