"Enjoyed" isn't really the right word for this book as a lot of the content is bleak and sad and I hoped that Beth's crime wasn't what it turned out to be. However I felt the author managed to achieve a well balanced and ultimately optimistic tale of fractured young lives. The simplicity of some of the Good Things such as "friends you can be weird with" and a"soft ear in hard times" serve as good platforms for Beth's reflections and to remind the reader we should celebrate and enjoy the little things in life.

When we first meet Bethany (Beth) she's a young vulnerable woman who is in prison therapy session with a counsellor and has been asked to write a list of good things, but in her mind there is nothing good and neither is she..

What follows is an insight to the relationships that Beth has had in her young life that has brought her to this point. From the early days with her mother, to the various foster homes she lived in, the 'friends' she made along the way and those who took advantage of her. All of this has shaped her into the person she is today and led her to the path she took regarding the crime she committed. It's clear that Beth thinks little of herself, she feels that she's unlovable as everyone she has ever gotten close to has left her.

Whilst compiling her list, Beth recalls the things that she used to make her happy such as running as it gave her the freedom to go wherever she wanted, and reading as it opened up a whole new world to her. And it's through her love of reading that we can see that she is extremely intelligent, despite her lack of education, and I loved how it was through reading that she was able to help one of her fellow prisoners.

All the Good Things made for bleak. uncomfortable reading at times but was also strangely compelling at the time, showing the bleak realities of the foster system and how people can become lost. Through Beth's narration we're able to see just how fragile life can be and that not everything is black and white, the colours/lines can be blurred at times to create shades of grey. And that for a different path in our own lives, it could just as easily be any one of us in her shoes.

An emotionally-charged debut from Clare Fisher and I look forward to seeing what comes next from her.

All The Good Things follows Beth, a young girl who has been completely failed by the system. The story starts in prison, with Beth's case worker trying to help her understand that although she did a bad thing, there are still good things in her life. The reader isn't aware of the bad thing, but Beth feels that she doesn't deserve any good things, any happiness.

I found All The Good Things to be both completely heartbreaking and life-affirming. I found it to be a really difficult and excruciating read, by the end I was beside myself and wasn't sure if I could continue reading. I'm glad I did, and I would honestly recommend this book to everybody. Life isn't black or white. It made me think about bad things - zero hour contracts, pay day loans and (some) antenatal care. It made me think about the good things in my life, the small things that wouldn't matter to anybody else. A good book doesn't do that, but a really great one does.

All the good things by Clare Fisher.
Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve ever to feel good again. But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life.

So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head. But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.
This was a emotional and moving read. I really felt for Beth. Lovely moving sad read. Made me cry. 5*. Netgalley and penguin books UK.

This is a wonderful serious book.

Fisher creates a wonderful believable world , a main character who is 3 dimensional , full of emotion and a fantastic narrator.

It works in all ways , the story rolls on evolving and constantly engaging with the reader.

The end is revealed and is an emotional smash in the face.

I loved this and hope everyone else who reads it would too

This book is wonderfully written. As Beth lists the good things in her life we find out that her life has been far from easy. She has been in care for most of her childhood and has still to learn a lot about looking after herself. Beth does not tell us her horrific crime until near the end of the book. Beth tells how unstable she had become up to this point. Her crime is heartbreaking. It is so sad. There is a lot of sadness in this book. There has clearly been a lot of thought put into it and it is well worth reading.

Really really good book, so heartfelt and affecting. I could feel the narrator's struggle and was with her the whole way through her journey and it was written in such a tactful way that really had an impact

This book is filled with suspense. It makes you think and appreciate the effect childhood has on an adult. A gripping read which makes you turn each page quicker than the previous one.

When I read a book that deals with a poor childhood and depression I usually come away feeling that I've learnt a little about what it must be like to deal with that situation. After reading All the Good Things I feel like I've lived through it. The sheer horror of being totally on your own, poor and prone to making bad decisions was terrifying. Beth has done a terrible thing but by the end of the book I imagine a lot of readers would be asking themselves if they would have coped any better, I know I did.
This is harrowing and difficult to read but I found it compelling and excellent.

I really enjoyed this book, and read it very quickly. The narrator, Bethany, is both engaging and sympathetic while being the typical unreliable narrator. The author has carefully constructed her character, backstory and current story, enabling these strands to weave in and out of one another in a very artful way.

The only reason I gave this book 4 instead of 5 stars is because I felt that the central conflict was a little contrived: Bethany is in prison and we don't know what she did to get there. She knows, but she doesn't tell the reader despite the first person confession-style narrative. I understand that this is compelling, and I kept reading to find out - but the author should be more confident in her writing style and plotting ability. The plot is great, and doesn't necessarily need the 'what did she do?' question to keep the reader engaged.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book as an arc. Beth is in prison, after doing a 'bad thing', which we don't find out about until near the end. She is convinced she is worthless and 'bad' so her therapist gives her the task of writing about the good things in her life. She does this and uses it as a way to speak to her baby. When we read her backstory, we find out what had led her to her current situation. She has been in and out of care, she is very intelligent but not been well educated, it is actually a really sad read. People she cared about have been taken away from her and her vulnerable situations have led her to being taken advantage of. She has mental health issues which weren't addressed and has been left to fend for herself, which was really heartbreaking.
I did enjoy the book but found it a bit depressing as I can imagine it is quite true to life.

This book is heart breaking. From the first page, this young woman is the picture of innocence and at no point did my opinion change. This book is so well written that more than once I had to reach for the tissues from such descriptive tragedy. A real gripper

Started off really good I was hooked .... Beth's childhood and her life now and what did she do to be in prison .... However the end got quite confusing and left me a little disappointed

I found All the Good Things a compelling read. Beth's story is a variation on too many stories of kids who fall through the cracks of society through no fault of their own. It is not a happy story and there is no happy ending; more of a reconciliation with devastation.

Without a permanent family, Beth's life is left at the whim of foster parents whose priorities change and social workers who may move jobs or retire. I felt Clare Fisher painted well the precarious situation faced by low-wage earners who have no ability to save, no social safety net for when things go wrong, and nobody to turn to for advice on basic practical life skills.

Most of the story is told by Beth herself, as a long letter to her baby. I enjoyed this a lot more than the last section of the narrative, which is told largely through official reports of social workers and related professionals. I found it a little jarring and missed Beth's voice, but it was a valuable to gain a different point of view.

Beth is, ultimately, a mildly unreliable narrator of her own story. Some thoughts she expresses in her diaries are clearly delusional, which made me question some of her other assertions as well. Given her obvious guilt at her undisclosed crime, she has ample motive to bend the truth of her past.

This is an excellent debut novel by Clare Fisher. This is such a sad and harrowing tale of Beth who goes through life of the care system. But no one seem to care. They thinking she is acting 'out'. After been sent to foster home to foster home after her mother abandoning her due to mental illness. She ends up in prison at the age of 21. Her therapist asks her to write down the good things in her life.

I enjoyed this book very much it was gripping throughout. It was beautifully written and I thought the author did an excellent job of emphasizing in a sensitive way of the subject of mental illness. Well done.

4.5/5 stars.
I really loved this book - I read it in one sitting and couldn't put it down. It wasn't that it was a usual 'page-turner', but I found myself really connecting with the main character, Beth. The story begins with her in prison, so it's clear she's done something wrong. Still, she's incredibly likeable, and even when I did find out the details of her crime, they were presented in such a way that I just wanted to reach out and hug her. This is Clare Fisher's debut novel and I'll be eagerly awaiting future novels from her - I'm definitely adding her short stories to my list of things to read over the rest of 2017 - highly recommend.

Will be published on 12th May:

So many different thoughts about this book! Considering that it’s Clare Fisher’s debut novel, All The Good Things is a remarkably accomplished work. Although the novel is overshadowed by ‘the very bad thing’, it shows that even in the darkest of situations, there can be good things.

Beth is a complicated character, dealing at a young age with a mother with mental health problems, and being taken into care. Beth’s experiences in care show what a precarious position children in the system can be in – this is by no means a criticism as I don’t know enough about it to criticise – but Beth works her way through several foster homes, with no real support for her own mental health, and that voice in her head telling her not to try to be good, as she’s a bad person. End of.

As each chapter unfolds, we see the stages of a young life unravelling, until ‘the very bad thing’ is revealed and although we know that it was wrong, and we know that Beth is in prison for it, it’s very hard to make a black and white judgement on whether Beth herself is so very bad, or if her circumstances, leading right back to her mother’s difficulties make ‘the very bad thing’ somewhat inevitable.

I said at the time I finished the book that it left me sad and unsettled, and it did, but I’m so glad I read it. It’s a brilliant book and from the perspective of an older person, reading about such a young girl it will make you weep.

It's been a few days since I finished All The Good Things and I'm still struggling to put my thoughts together. Because the truth is: I've been having mixed thoughts about this story and its main character ever since I first started reading it. I can't deny Clare Fisher has written a powerful story with a very interesting character and I can see why so many people seem to love All The Good Things. That said, I personally struggled to get a clear picture of Beth or at least couldn't properly connect to her character. That might be one of the reasons it took me a while to make sense of the story and unfortunately I didn't enjoy this story as much as I thought I would. But while this sounds negative, I also found myself fascinated by Beth's character, history and development. I understand why the complete picture of Beth isn't revealed until the end, but I also do think I would have actually enjoyed this story better with a little more background information in the beginning. The use of the diary entries is a nice touch, I like the reference to the title and it does create a great opportunity to learn more about Beth, but in the end I just wasn't fully convinced. Apparently All The Good Things is a book that can go both ways though, so definitely give it a try if you like intriguing and unique characters.

The central character, Beth, is in prison for doing something terrible. As part of her rehabilitation she is encouraged by her therapist to keep a book in which she writes down all the good things that have happened to her. This is the device by which the reader learns about Beth's life and what has led her to the situation she is now in.
It is a tough read that encompasses mental health issues, the social care system, the care system and what happens to children when they leave care. It is heartbreaking to read Beth's story, but at no point did I really become properly invested in her, and the book started to feel more like a social commentary than anything else.
I did guess what the "terrible thing" was before the reveal. It was still shocking, and made me angry that the situation had come about. But again, it felt like an article I was reading in a newspaper.
Despite Beth's task to write about good things, I found the book to be relentless in its depiction of poverty and neglect. I didn't feel any hope at the end of the book,( just shame that such situations are real and that in todays society Beth is as much a victim of injustice as she is a criminal), and to be honest, was very glad that I had finished it.

This is a very difficult review for me to write. Beth is in prison after committing a terrible crime. This is the story of Beth's life, from a young child living with a mother with some serious mental health issues, going through the care system and struggling with her own issues as a young woman trying to find her way in the world, until she does the awful thing that lands her in prison.

I cannot, in all honesty, say that I enjoyed reading this book at all, in fact I am glad to be finished with it. The relentless awfulness of Beth's situation made me extremely sad, mad and angry. Even the brief bright moments did not take away from the overall grim tone of the story. That is not to say this is a bad book, and I guess that the fact that I felt such strong emotions reading it means that it is well written and, yes, it is for the most part. My rating of only 3 out of 5 stars may seem harsh, but I simply did not 'like' it much. Sadly there are still too many real life stories like this in our world.