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Ranking:
Title: Himself
Author: Jess Kidd
Expected publication: October 27th 2016
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When Mahony returns to Mulderrig, a speck of a place on Ireland’s west coast, he brings only a photograph of his long-lost mother and a determination to do battle with the village’s lies.
His arrival causes cheeks to flush and arms to fold in disapproval. No one in the village - living or dead - will tell what happened to the teenage mother who abandoned him as a baby, despite Mahony's certainty that more than one of them has answers.
Between Mulderrig’s sly priest, its pitiless nurse and the caustic elderly actress throwing herself into her final village play, this beautiful and darkly comic debut novel creates an unforgettable world of mystery, bloody violence and buried secrets.
‘Himself is a sort of Under Milk Wood meets The Third Policeman meets Agatha Christie. It’s a highly unusual tale set in a highly unusual Irish village full of dark secrets and engaging characters (not all of them still alive). Lushly imagined, delightfully original and very, very funny, it hurtles along from the very first page. A hugely enjoyable read.’ ML Steadman, author of The Light Between Oceans
‘Jess Kidd is a genius. Her prose sparkles with wit, savagery and startling originality. I loved it’ Tasha Kavanagh, author of Things We Have In Common
Honestly, I have a mixed feeling about this book. Part of me is confused and a little bit caught up with the style of writing the author has. The start has been good, mysterious and exciting. But as a few chapters go on, it started to get slow and confusing. It took me half of the book to actually enjoy it again. The mystery and the eagerness to know who is the murderer is what kept me from not finishing this book. Because honestly, I am really not that equipt to the style of writing the author has. So yeah, maybe it was also the factor why I finished this book, but I haven't understand the half of it.
Overall, it was a good book, not super good but enough that it would make you finish it because of the mystery part.
