Welcome to Litsy!

Well I will be looking for something light hearted on my shelves to read next because this was just so hard on my heart. An autistic mother with a teenaged daughter when new neighbors move in next door and insert themselves into their lives. It drags a bit in the middle but I was still ready to jump into the pages and fight everyone for being so cruel and dismissive of Sunday.

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All the Little Bird-Hearts, by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow

Premise: An autistic mother and her daughter become swept up in the life of their glamourous new neighbours.

Review: This was long-listed for the 2023 Booker Prize and it certainly has the literary heft you‘d expect with that. It‘s well-written and has a strong point-of-view that provides good representation for autistic persons. Cont.

If the author is Irish, chances are I will love the book. This is no exception. Everything feels so real, so slice of life. Sure it may be a story about some criminals kidnapping a young man and forcing another to allow them in his house, but the story is so well told.

For an upcoming week-long trip, I'm limiting myself to one physical book plus my Kobo. These two are the current front-runners---Wild Houses and Horror Movie.

Which should I bring? Or should I bring something else entirely?

Other options:

Darkly by Marisha Pessl
Baby X by Kira Peikoff
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Elaine Feeney is now an automatic buy for me. I loved her first novel, As You Were, and I loved this one, too. (I'm not sure how to preorder her new book, since I can only find info on a UK edition?) I felt equally invested in Jamie, Tess, and Tadhg. I found myself rooting for each of them in different ways. I can see myself rereading this one at some point.

My February reads. It was another fantastic reading month. Now, on to March!

It was interesting to get into the heads of the young female competitive boxers featured in this novel. I liked how the author conveyed the intensity of the moment while also shifting to times in the girls' pasts and futures.

#ToB25
#gottacatchemall (Marshadow: fight or fighter) @PuddleJumper