Awake Awake

by Fiona Mozley

Mary is struggling with her memory. She does not have too few recollections but too many. Events from the past keep resurfacing, and she even has memories that don't relate to reality. She recounts the lives of her and her friends growing up in York during The Blair Years. Tensions rise over the Iraq War, and they find themselves out of their depth in the protest movement. As they grow up, they follow very different paths, coming into conflict with each other and the changing fortunes of the nation. All the while, Mary questions what she understands to be real, both in history and in her own life. What is she if not the sum of her memories? But what if she can no longer trust them?

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 4, 2026

About the author

Fiona Mozley grew up in York and went to King's College, Cambridge, after which she lived in Buenos Aires and London. She is studying for a PhD in medieval history. Her first novel Elmet was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017.

Reviews

[Caz (Underlined) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️ Awake Awake by Fiona Mosley is a quiet, emotional literary fiction novel that explores memory, identity, family, and the lingering effects of the past. The story centers around Mary, a woman struggling with her memory and trying to navigate both her present reality and the fragmented pieces of her past. As the novel unfolds, it becomes a deeply reflective story about loss, confusion, and the way memories shape who we are.



Fiona Mosley’s writing was one of the strongest parts of the book for me. Her prose is atmospheric, thoughtful, and beautifully detailed. She writes emotions in such a subtle and realistic way, allowing the reader to slowly sink into Mary’s world and mindset. There’s a dreamlike quality to parts of the novel that really matched the themes of fading memories and uncertainty. Even during slower moments, the writing itself kept me interested because it was so carefully crafted.



Mary was an especially compelling character because of how vulnerable and human she felt. Her struggle with memory added an emotional depth to the story and created a sense of tension throughout the novel. I also appreciated the complexity of the relationships in the book. The interactions between characters felt layered and authentic, with unspoken emotions and histories simmering beneath the surface.



The pacing was a little mixed for me overall. Some sections felt quite slow, and there were moments where I found myself losing momentum and wanting the story to move forward more quickly. However, other parts completely drew me in, especially when more details about Mary’s memories and emotional state started coming together. Those moments made me feel genuinely invested in the story and the characters.



What really stood out to me was the way the novel explored memory not only as recollection, but as something fragile and unreliable. Fiona Mosley captures the uncertainty and emotional weight of forgetting in such an intimate way. The book feels more focused on atmosphere, emotion, and character reflection than on plot-driven action, which gave it a haunting and thoughtful tone that stayed with me after finishing it.



Overall, Awake Awake is a beautifully written and emotionally layered novel that will appeal to readers who enjoy introspective literary fiction and character-driven stories. While the pacing didn’t always fully work for me, the writing, themes, and emotional depth made it a worthwhile and memorable read.



Thank you NetGalley, Algonquin Books, and the author Fiona Mosley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.



Publishing date: June 4th, 2026

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review for this book was published by Library Journal in July 2026:

Booker-nominated Mozley (Elmet and Hot Stew) returns with a disorienting third novel, narrated by a protagonist who readily admits she cannot be trusted. Mary Mooney is a writer in her 30s, prone to torrents of memories that feel in her bones capital-T True, even in defiance of the factual record. With her therapist, she revisits her childhood and adolescence in York, England, spent mainly with her friends Amelia, Eve, and American-born Eric, as the quartet navigates dramatic episodes of life in the Blair-era UK: school trauma, antiwar protests, budding love, and jealousy. Mary recounts these scenes in vivid detail, confident in the role they have played in the constructed reality of her life’s history, yet she compares those close to her to actors performing in a play for her benefit. She has also come to believe, despite protestations from her friends, that her grandfather was responsible for Adolf Hitler’s death. Are these invented memories delusions of grandeur, evidence of psychosis, or, in Freud’s view, the fulfillment of a wish? VERDICT A slow-burn novel that hums with disquieting energy and likely needs a second read to be fully absorbed.

Copyright ©2026 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure whether it is advisable to pay too much attention to the history of a place; whether the contemporary drive to memorialise serves to prohibit repetition – as we are often told – or whether it mimics the procession of intrusive thoughts that harass a troubled mind. It is possible these repetitive utterances plough deep furrows in our collective unconscious; that they draw out the poison from the ground and scatter it across the land. And does this truly inoculate us? Or do we walk through a toxic landscape with a righteous but ultimately false certainty we are protected? Deep furrows allow the flood to spill through the same channels, making these channels deeper and then, when the flood waters abate, we arrive confidently with our spades and hoes and make the ditches deeper still, or we line them with stone and we say, ‘This is where the river has always flowed; this is where the river will always flow.’

 
Fiona Mozley’s debut novel “Elmet” – a rurally based (South West of her York birthplace) Northern-England Gothic tale of a small family and which examined abandoned communities, property ownership, gender roles and inequality, bought her to immediate prominence in 2017 when it was included on the Booker Longlist.  That year was probably the most predictable and strongest Booker longlist of all time – as seen both before the list (no less than 8 books were in the top 10 of the Goodreads Listopia and 11 in the top 20) and after the list (with longlisted books winning pretty well every other major English-language novel literary prizes on both sides of the Atlantic).  Alongside those 11 though were two debuts of which “Elmet” was one – and not just in Elmet’s case a debut but a previously unheralded one.  My review of Elmet (which I managed to pick up due to a I think erroneous early Kindle availability) was I believe the first (other than by a friend of the author) anywhere online or in print.  The other notable feature of the 2017 year was that the judges then proceeded to drop almost all the really well known books at shortlist stage and include both debuts – although in my view deservedly in this case.  “Elmet” went on to win the Polari Prize, be shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and longslitged for both the Women’s and Dylan Thomas Prizes.
 
Her second novel “Hot Stew” was also Dylan Thomas Prize longlisted but otherwise did not match her debut’s success.  Very different in setting (a sprawling Soho building) and cast (a Dickensian ensemble) it shared themes of property ownership and gentrification.
 
This her third novel is a return to York (the City itself) and in many ways is very different again although I was reminded of a description she gave of the aims of “Elmet”: “I wanted to capture the ambiguity of local historical recollections; to say something about their double-edged thrall … very particular relationship with their history; in which the cultural memory is almost haunted by certain eras or events”.
 
The novel is told in first person by Mary – a York born and based novelist successful by literary standards (her debut is shortlisted for a reasonably prestigious prize, she has a US book tour) but not economically (she shares a small house and works in a Cinema bar); her father based a priest based at York Minister, looking back across her memories of her life (personal, familial, friends and world events) and  sifting through them for a sense of truth.
 
The first chapter recalls the last of a series of memorably exuberant birthday parties (held on the farm of the foster parents of two twin classmates) and which introduces us to some important characters : Billy Fletcher – one of the twins and already known as something of a “nutter”, and Mary’s two closest friends – the quiet Amelia (daughter of a property developer) and fiercely brave Eve (bought up by her divorced mother, herself a close friend to Mary), as well as by future reference to Eric (a son of two New York based writers who later move for a short period to York with Eric joining the friendship group).
 
The second chapter though starts with the opening sentences which sum up much of the novel ”All is recollection save for the slender membrane of now. Every present thought, every present feeling, collides with a league of their familial ghosts. And if our lives in this moment seem flimsy, that is because they are. We dwell on that slim edge of experience while the waters of all that has been foam and swell”.
 
From there, and partly if not largely we realise due to her sessions with a psychiatrist Sita, these memories are unpacked in a series of interrelated strands.
 
The interactions between the four friends (and with their parents) and how these develop through childhood and afterwards – with complexities being introduced by an unacknowledged attraction between Amelia and Eric, by differences in worldviews between Amelia and Mary’s parents, and later by Eve’s much more activist worldviews.  We sense early on that there is a story of loss also associated with Eve.
 
World events – initially 9-11 and the Anti-Iraq war protests (and a peace camp/squat that Eve joins unbeknownst to her mother) but later and ultimately much more consequentially the Syrian civil war – Eve who studies at the SOAS becoming increasingly drawn to the Kurdish cause.
 
Recurring memories of appearances of Billy Fletcher
 
And then – much more distinctively a series of seemingly false memories (at least in the view of both common sense and others testimonies) but which to Mary are as real as her more shared memories – in which at a series of three literary events in London she gets to know two writers who realise that she plays a crucial part in a historically suppressed event they are uncovering ……. Her Jewish Doctor grandfather present at a successful British mission to assassinate Hitler in his Berlin bunker. 

And with her brother (a musical prodigy as a child) still living with her parents (her father having struggled with his Anglo-Catholic faith in light of the evil in the world and quitting his Church role to take up a form of Gnosticism) already suffering psychotic episodes involving Nazis we and she (and those around her) question what is happening in her mind.
 
There is some really beautiful literary writing in this novel particularly around the idea of memories, some really nostalgia filled writing about the girl’s childhood and also some really interesting examinations of how the childhood friends drift both apart and together as they grow up and become more or less politically aware in a post 9-11 world.
 
If I had a criticism I wonder if the novel would have had a better balance and consistency if Mary’s memories while seemingly false (or at least falsifiable by others) were more plausible ones – particularly when connected to her brother’s episodes they felt so implausible as to make this part of the novel, while thematically vital to its ideas of memory rather disconnected narratively. 

And I almost wondered if the author felt the same, or at least wanted to de-emphasise the actual memories (rather than the idea of unreliable memory) by towards the novel’s end refusing to resolve this part and instead to reforeground the story of Billy in an episode which neatly links to the opening birthday party chapter and, in my reading, causes the other friends to live up a little to Eve’s more fearless attitude to the issues of the present rather than the past.
 
Mozley is a talented writer – young enough for a third Dylan Thomas listing I think (which would be deserved), and I would not rule out other prize success for this book (which of course is an automatic Booker entry).
 
My thanks to John Murray for an Arc via NetGalley

[Simon S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awake Awake is the curious, somnambulant tale of Mary, a pathologically passive young woman suffering from false — but utterly convincing — memories.

We learn this quite early in the story and, of course, it makes us immediately suspicious of our narrator.

Mozley drizzles Mary’s memories across and through one another, with various parties — including Mary herself — denying any recollection of certain key events. The three unlikely memories Mary believes to be false, though they feel as real to her as any other, concern an outlandish claim regarding her grandfather’s actions towards the end of World War II, something she cannot accept as true. She does not quite recall all three events directly, but instead remembers being reminded of each previous event during the one that followed.

Though this sounds like the plot of a feverish paranoid thriller, Mozley takes us somewhere more psychologically disturbing and perplexing. Some of Mary’s memories — the ones she believes to be wholly real — conflict directly with statements she makes elsewhere, while at other times her recollections are improbably detailed, even regarding events in which she played no direct part. Everything feels subtly but persistently out of kilter.

As Mary recounts the events of her younger life — her family’s struggles, the bonds and rivalries within her friendship group — we begin to detect the currents of unrest that have shaped her character. What emerges, and what Mary herself ultimately admits, is that she is a passive presence within her own life. Though she can intellectually comprehend injustice and horror on a global scale, she feels little emotional connection to it. It takes horrors much closer to home to touch her heart.

Mozley deftly illuminates Mary’s unsettled state of mind as well as her complacency and emotional distance, and her bafflement as one of life’s observers unable to trust her memory.

[Gainze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Algonquin for the gifted early copy!

⏳Awake Awake will be out 08/04! ⏳

“A writer in her 30s struggling to make rent, Mary has moved back to her childhood town to bartend and save money, when she starts remembering absurd events, clear and visceral as if they'd really happened to her. But she knows they're too wild to be possible. Flashing back to her school years, she searches the past for what could have caused this split in her reality. The lives of their close group of school friends have since diverged, as life choices and politics, partners and children, have taken them to different places and placed them into other stories. But Mary must reconnect with them to find solid ground again.”

Mary is an intriguing narrator because she has false memories that are completely real to her. As the story moves between past and present, memories start to blur together, making it hard to know what actually happened. I enjoyed the uncertainty because it elevated what could have been a simple mystery into something much more psychological. I also really enjoyed the coming-of-age aspects of the story. Mary's relationships with her family and childhood friends are at the heart of this novel, and the detailed memories she has with them are so realistic that it is both satisfying and conflicting because they are so enjoyable while also making you wonder, is this real?

Mozley's writing is thoughtful and often beautiful, particularly when dealing with nostalgia, loss, and the lingering effects of the past.

Awake Awake is one of those books that slowly pulls you in. It starts out feeling like a story about family, friendship, and growing up, but it gradually becomes something much stranger as it explores memory, identity, and what happens when you can't fully trust your own mind. This one will stay in my mind for a long time. 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one, even though it left me with more questions than answers. Honestly, that might be the whole point.

The novel follows Mary, a writer in her 30s who moves back to her childhood home in York and starts experiencing vivid memories of events that couldn’t possibly have happened. They feel completely real, which makes them even more unsettling, and sends her searching back through her past for something to hold onto.

What stood out to me most is how the book explores identity and the idea of “awakening.” The phrase “awake, awake” has biblical roots as a call to rise up and become spiritual aware and empowered. In this novel, the idea of awakening is complex and layered. Mary’s grip on her own story begins to slip, not knowing which memories are true or false. Meanwhile, the lives of her friends play out the idea of awakening in vastly different ways, shaped by politics, belief, and personal choices.

The writing is subtle and atmospheric. It moves between past and present in a way that mirrors Mary’s disorientation. My favorite part was the interactions between the friends throughout the years, which serve an anchoring point for all of them, especially as the wider political landscape shifts around them.

The book shies away from wrapping everything up neatly, and instead leaves you sitting with uncertainty. I finished it feeling a little confused, but I also can’t stop thinking about it.

If you like books that focus on mood, identity, and open-ended questions, this one is definitely worth picking up. #awakeawake #fionamozley #newrreleases #newbooks

[g.m.]

> *“All is recollection save for the slender membrane of now. Every present thought, every present feeling, collides with a league of their familial ghosts. And if our lives in this moment seem flimsy, that is because they are. We dwell on that slim edge of experience while the waters of all that has been foam and swell”*
>

Mozley's novel pulses in and out of past and present. The past is deeply rooted in British history and politics; the present is Mary's ongoing psychoanalysis sessions. The first two hundred pages were disorienting, but the final hundred pulled everything together with a quiet potency, centred on friendship and the ways people show up for each other when it matters.

Mozley's writing is sharp and poignant. Each line feels underline worthy, the kind of prose that makes you slow down because you do not want to miss anything. The novel is also meticulously researched, steeped in the detail of the Blair era and the Iraq war protests. These historical moments sit inside the narrative unevenly, sometimes feeling slightly out of place, other times illuminating exactly why a character made the choices they did.

What grounded the novel for me, more than anything else, was place. York. The city that all the characters are eventually drawn back to, no matter how far they have wandered or how many countries the novel passes through. York is stability here, and care, a place that holds these people even when they cannot hold themselves. It is also, as Mozley seems quietly aware, a city that rarely gets to be the centre of anything in fiction. It deserves to be.

[Chris L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women’s Prize-longlisted and Booker Prize-shortlisted author Fiona Mozley returns with her latest book, ‘Awake Awake’. Mozley’s novel is all about memory and how childhood memory can have a major effect on someone’s adult life. Mozley’s protagonist, Mary, often has difficulty with her memory, and it’s this troublesome relationship to the past that prevents her from truly being able to live in the moment. She’s constantly attempting to put together fragments of her past.

I found Mozley’s writing highly evocative of someone grasping for meaning at a time of chaos. When Mary is unsure of the past or if her own memories are tricking her into believing something contradictory, Mozley’s book hinges on something deeper—how we often have to live in the unknown. We live in families that tell stories, and those stories can be based in truths and lies at the same time. Mozley captures beautifully that contradiction in how we often live in delusions to get through the day.

In a way, I was reminded of the classic novel, Sue Kaufman’s ‘Diary of a Mad Housewife’ where Tina also starts to question her life and past. She looks for answers in trying to piece together who she is as a person, and this is what Mary does in Mozley’s work. Mozley’s writing is inviting and confrontational at times, as we learn the full nature of Mary’s situation. How do we assess Mary’s character? How reliable can Mary be in the circumstances? Readers must ask themselves those questions. The rewards are well worth it, as Fiona Mozley’s ‘Awake Awake’ is a challenging and psychological portrait of a woman in search of answers.

[meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the reading experience of Awake Awake and, as a non-linear narrative, unreliable narrator, lit fic enjoyer this definitely scratched the itch I hoped it would.

Plot wise, this was really interesting. It was far more invested in world history and politics than I anticipated, and most of the time, this was well executed. There were interesting themes throughout about political polarization, the value of taking of moral stance, and the question of what we pay attention to, remember, and value. That being said, I do think this bit off just a little bit more than it could chew. There were so many through lines and pieces that, while I'm sure were meant to put the reader into a similar headspace as the protagonist Mary who is trying to sort through her own memories (which is a really clever framing and device), did mean that a lot of elements were unresolved in a way that was less than satisfying. In particular, I think that a little more clarity around the intersections or overlaps of Mary and her brother Jos' experiences would have taken this to the next level. This is where the book lost a star for me.

That being said, this is beautifully written and the actual experience of engaging the writing was deeply positive. It's lush, descriptive, and lyrical without feeling flowery which I think is a deeply difficult line to walk. The characters are all flawed and interesting and read in ways that feel accurate to the teenage into early adolescence years. Because of this, I really felt for them and was invested in their growth, happiness, and connections. The way that friendship is portrayed in this also felt realistic. The main three characters that we follow through Mary's point of view and the ways that the take care of, lie to, and navigate conflict with each other—at times disagreeing vehemently—but still loving each other because while their approaches may differ their values are ultimately aligned was really lovely. On a final note, I loved the way that this book dealt with religion and the implications of morality embedded (or not) in different variations of Christianity.

Ultimately, I loved this and will be picking up a physical copy when it's available in bookstores!

Thank you to the publisher, Algonquin Books, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

*Read the e-book ARC on e-reader*

[Barbara Scott-Emmett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this novel compelling from the start and intriguing throughout. I very much enjoyed reading it but found the ending a little strange, though also inevitable. Though the writing is superb, and as I've said, gripping, I am not entirely sure what to make of the book. It's about memory and forgetting and the tricks memory can play, and also about mental health and the impossibility of helping those who cannot or will not be helped. I got a sense of the futility of well-meaning attempts to help the unhelpable.

It's thought-provoking and puzzling and doesn't do what books usually do - all of which is wonderful. I did get a bit confused by the name of one of the characters (Jonathan Miller) as I kept thinking it referred to the former actor and theatre director. This was distracting but maybe that's just my problem.

[whatzoreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

…but I was asleep

Unreliable memory, fractured reality, identity slipping – on paper, this is exactly my type of read, but in reality, I just never felt emotionally invited into this super clever, super ambitious book.

Mary’s mind is maxxing – too many memories, too many versions of the truth, some plausible, some completely unhinged. My problem was I just didn’t care. There was a distance that never closed. I didn’t feel anchored. I was always observing. For a book that lives and dies on interiority, this was a problem. It circles big ideas but because it didn’t land (for me) emotionally, it always felt like a concept rather than an experience.

I think this is going to divide readers, what didn’t land for me will light up someone else but I appreciate the opportunity I was given by NetGalley and John Murray Press to read an advance copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

[Steve Angelkov]

I first stumbled across Fiona Mozley through Elmet, her debut, and thought it was truly exceptional — all the more remarkable for reportedly being written on an iPhone during her daily bus commute to Waterstones.

That led me to Hot Stew, a complete contrast in environment, swapping West Yorkshire moorland for the working folk of Soho. Then I walked into a Waterstones myself on one of my regular jaunts into town, and there was Awake Awake — her third novel, and one I'd been quietly waiting for without quite knowing it.

Elmet remains the benchmark for me: a novel that doesn't just describe a landscape but is one, with prose rooted in the same dark soil as its setting. Mozley writes gentleness under threat with rare precision, and the result is quietly devastating. If you haven't started with her, start there.

[Megan Magee · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Mary is back home, she is faced with memories that feel so startingly real to her that she can't decipher where they end and she begins. When she begins searching her childhood memories to unravel the vestiges from her past that may have been possible, she is lead back to her friends from elementary school to start. This is one of those books that follows people observing things, and while the premise was fun, the lean in this one is political/ world events in a way that really took me out of this story. I think this one will be great for someone looking to do a deep dive into religion and politics alongside characters who are trying to find their future. Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the eARC. All opinions are entirely my own.

[Xiibalba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary is in her thirties, broke and back in her old York town pulling pints, when she starts remembering things that cannot possibly have happened. From there the book slips back into her school days during the Blair years and the Iraq War protests, and into the slow drift of childhood friends becoming different people.
I really liked it. The writing is warm, the friendships feel real, and that wobbly memory thing landed for me. It loses half a star because the central mystery does not punch as hard as I wanted, but the coming of age side of it is lovely. A solid four stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC

[Jamad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awake Awake is one of those novels where the atmosphere matters as much as the plot. The story moves through memory, history and friendship in a way that constantly leaves the reader slightly off balance, never quite sure how much of Mary’s recollections can be trusted. The strange memory sequences could easily have become too much, but Fiona Mozley keeps the book grounded in ordinary lives and relationships.

The York setting during the Blair and Iraq War years was particularly well done. It captured that period without turning into a nostalgia exercise, and some of the strongest parts of the novel were simply the changing dynamics within friendships as people grew older and drifted in different directions.

[Rebecca Queay · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read in style and subject. Mary is our narrator and walks us through her current life and memories of what has passed. Have her early experiences shaped her memories with truth or fiction.

I was heartened that she has a loving family and close bonds with school friends, but felt that their experiences had shaped her own struggles.

For me it ended with too many questions and unfinished business. Although life rarely ties up all those loose ends I felt it could have ended differently.

[Sam Whittaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what I've just read even though I enjoyed it very much. The sections in York centring around her teenage years are brilliantly written and engaging. However it didn't really hang together with the sections on memory and the 3 incidents. It almost seemed like two books and I feel like I've missed the point, fascinating though it was.
I don't think I could describe it to another person, it seemed so disjointed, but so beautifully written and always interesting.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually an ebook.
As ever, I enjoyed reading about the main character’s childhood. Unfortunately, Mary’s psychosis, her unreliable memory, her therapy sessions, and the storyline about her grandfather left me cold and I admit I skim read these.
I’m sure others would enjoy this, especially if the vagaries of the mind interest them.


Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC.

[Salty Swift · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary is a writer based in the UK. In her 30s, she's meticulously piecing together memories from her teen years that may be real but in fact are a mishmash of falsehoods. Well written examination of growth, friendship, loss and often challenging examination of your inner self.

[Sherry Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is about family, friends past situations, relationships, and bringing it all together. Good!!!

[Tiffany]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/po...

[Ben Dutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiona Mozley's third novel, Awake Awake, follows her Booker shortlisted debut Elmet and her Dylan Thomas longlisted second novel Hot Stew. Her first two novels were extremely different to each other tonally, and both extremely well written, that it makes anticipation for her third all the more heightened. Awake Awake then is an interior piece, more akin to Elmet than Hot Stew (and given how much I loved Elmet this is a good thing).

Our focus here is Mary, a young woman struggling with her memory and perhaps her grip on personal history. Was her grandfather really involved in the death of Adolf Hitler? Is there some other repression moving inside her? Mary becomes an intriguing and engaging narrator, and Mozley paints her world very clearly on the page in sentences of pure poetry. Mozley really is a talented writer and it wouldn't suprise me at all to see Awake Awake nominated for various literary awards upon publication.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

[Amie Mak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Awake Awake is a descriptive journey that begins with a vivid recounting of Mary’s childhood and the cast of characters she remembers fondly. The author is clearly talented, using a lush writing style to capture these memories and create sensory experiences for the reader.

However, the story’s pace was too slow to maintain momentum. I found myself setting the book aside for days at a time, and upon picking it back up, I struggled to feel invested in Mary and her storyline. While I truly enjoyed the author's writing style, the narrative fell short of capturing my interest.

Thank you Algonquin Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Rating ⭐️⭐️
Genre Literary Fiction
Buy/Skip/Borrow
Skip. While the writing is vivid, the slow-burn nature of the plot may not satisfy readers looking for a more engaging, character-driven hook.
Read if you like descriptive narratives that feel like real memories

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was incredibly nostalgic for me to read and highly relatable. I was born around the same time as the characters so it was fascinating to read about how they experienced and felt with current events that happened in the 2000s. I loved the coming of age aspect of this book but what really touched me was the look at mental health struggles. The reader gets to know Mary before knowing Mary’s mental struggles fully so this book helps to give a more personalized look at how mental health affects the people who we do know so we can’t just write them off as “crazy”. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.