Scenes of a Graphic Nature - Caroline O'Donoghue

Genre: Literary Fiction | Adult Fiction

Release Date: Expected 1st July 2021

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group UK / Virago

CW: Death, Illness, Swearing, Sexual Content, Mentions of IRA/Terrorist Acts.

Aspiring filmmaker Charlie finally found a story worth writing - the history of her own dying father and his former life in Ireland. With her best friend and partner Laura, they finally created something they were proud of ... until it was over. Laura has gone on to do amazing things, their former bohemian lifestyle forgotten while Charlie is stuck in one place and dabbling in amateur porn to make things meet while her Mother berates her for not doing something with her life.

But when she and Laura are invited to a film festival in her familial home of Clipim, she gets to leave things behind for just a moment and learn more about the place of her families history - but soon enough she's learning more than she ever wanted to know and it's too late to back out.

Scenes of a Graphic Nature was a beautifully charming, viscerally real and uniquely absorbing. It definitely took me a while to get into as the first few chapters felt a little stiff for me but a little while in I managed to find a rhythm with the writing style and was locked in. The characters came to life on the pages and I felt a warm kinship with Charlie and felt every single part of her journey as a lost twenty-something woman who has no idea who or what she wants to be.

"It's a strange thing, being attracted to women while simultaneously being conditioned to compare your own body to every other female in the world."

With amazing insights into friendship, obsession, and longing - this is a story about desperately trying to find out where you belong and it felt like home. It was so much more than I expected - the mystery of uncovering the real secrets of the school fire that started the story Charlie gave everything to tell, the obsession in her friendships, the search for love and the journey of absolute self-discovery and self-love.

"That's what it comes down to, I suppose. I was obsessed with what I was, because I had no idea who I was."

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Caroline O'Donoghue, Little Brown Book Group UK and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

Comments

REVIEW: This Could Be Us by Clare McGowan

Genre: Fiction | Literary Fiction Release Date: Expected 1st June 2023 Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group | Corsair Kate has done the unthinkable. She'd worked hard to build a perfect life for herself, while ignoring her growing unhappiness. But when her second child was born profoundly disabled, reality hit. Unable to cope, Kate left - disappearing without a trace. She ends up in LA, with a glittering career and a new family of sorts, but the guilt is still suffocating. Husband Andrew was left to pick up the pieces and care for their disabled daughter and angry, confused son. Bereft and broken, he leaned on Olivia, Kate's best friend. She's been by his side ever since, ignoring her own needs to meet his. Years later, Andrew has written a memoir about his daughter learning to communicate against all odds. But when Kate's new producer husband decides he wants to make a film of it, their worlds collide once again. Now, Kate must return to the life she abandoned and reck...

REVIEW: Live, Laugh, Lesbian by Helen Scott

Genre: Non-Fiction | Memoir | LGTBQ+ Release Date: 19th October 2023 Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Part memoir, part guide, part conversation and all queer joy — Live, Laugh, Lesbian is a brilliantly warm and friendly journey into the queer experience, not only from the author but from plenty of other lesbian, queer, bisexual and pansexual contributors who bring a unique viewpoint and voice and also show a beautiful diverse, intersectional scope of the queer spectrum and welcomes in queer people and allies of any kind to come feel the love. The book is very conversational, talking to the reader in a fun, friendly way — at times I rolled my eyes as the use of “famalam” but as a previous patron of Colours and Chicagos I’m not in a position to judge the Essex-isms. It’s full of anecdotes and observations that were witty and relatable as well as talking is through the more difficult side of queerness like dealing with workplace discrimination, religious trauma and coming out to family...

BOOK TOUR STOP x RANDOM THINGS TOURS: Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen

" This town has secrets that are best left alone." Author Hannah is a success, on paper at least. She's receiving critical acclaim and praise worldwide and her work is regarded as some of the best. She writes literature, not just books. But the reality is, outside of the literary circles nobody actually reads her work. But when she finally snaps at a book event and publicly criticises the genre fiction books that outsell hers, claiming they're easy and mindless she's challenged to write her own crime fiction novel in just thirty days by an author she loathes. Desperate not to lose to him, her editor arranges for her to spend a month in a quiet, cold village in Iceland hoping that the solitude will spark inspiration. But instead of writing a murder story - she's in one . Just before she arrives, the body of a young man is pulled from the icy waters and her search for ideas soon becomes a search for a killer. And if she's not careful, she might end up the...

On Bee's Bookshelf

Search This Blog