Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen is the story of 27 year-old Majella who lives in Northern Ireland. The book description makes it clear that this is Majella's story. At the same time, there is a hint that this book touches upon the "troubles" in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, the history remains very much at the periphery. Many articles on this book indicate that Majella's character is on the autism spectrum. I am delighted to see books start to emerge that focus on differently abled characters. Unfortunately, this connection is never made clear in the book itself and does not compensate for the other off-putting aspects of this story. Sadly, I was completely not the reader for this book.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/12/big-girl-small-town.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher's blog tour.

While some American reads may be thrown off by some of the dialect spoken, that shouldn't deter you from reading this charming tale of a woman's struggle to survive in an Irish small town. I loved that the protagonist was neurodiverse. Her perspective was refreshing in its blunt honesty and I appreciated that viewpoint.

I really wanted to love this book but I didn't. I felt for the main character, she was dealing with a lot but I didn't really like the writing style at all. I felt like i was reading the diary of a young child at parts. It was very plodding.

Big Girl Small Town is a slice of life novel about Majella who lives in a fictional town. She's autistic or at least on the spectrum, but undiagnosed so to the entire town she's the strange daughter of an alcoholic mother and father who disappeared during The Troubles.
This is one of those books where nothing really happens because it isn't really about anything specific except for the character around whom it revolves. You get a glimpse into one week of Majella's life, the people with whom she interacts, and the way she feels about her life. It's one of those stare through a window as you walk by to figure out what's going on inside type of books which are always really endearing. I love the crass humour and description throughout the book. It ties in really well with the very aggressively Irish dialogue. Takes a moment to sort through the colloquialism but once you catch the flow of speech it's supremely enjoyable. I had the time of my life because my brain is wired to imitate accents I come across. The fact that I'm so easily able to hear the entire town talk in my head is a testament to the way Michelle Gallen is able to weave an incredibly realistic setting and characters.
Majella has a really cut and dry way of looking at the world and as is typical with girls and AFAB people, she's learnt to mask her neurodivergent mannerisms to not stick out like a sore thumb, or at least not more so than she already does. Here's a girl who has had to push and prod herself to adjust into a town that really doesn't care to see her past her family history, using her as the butt of a joke, and running with the rumors of how her grandmother passed. It's painfully realistic of a small town with nothing better to do than gossip and authentic to the experiences of so many women and AFAB people who have to fit a certain mould of femininity from a young age.
Her grandmother's death and the investigation attached to it throw her back into the pile of town gossip which really throws her routine for a loop as more people try to talk to her and also talk about her. The book is a slow evolution of Majella as she readjusts to this weird new normal. The story is limited to a week long timeline with more or less hourly installments that are tied to her list of things she likes and dislikes (heavily skewed towards the dislikes). Despite this story spanning just a week, you see her transform in a really major. It's not specifically for better or for worse but just to address how massive life events tend to shape someone's identity in a really short amount of time.
You've got multiples plots of sort unfolding themselves. The aftermath of The Troubles are still rolling out in a personal way for Majella and in a sociopolitical way for the town itself, Majella's grandmother's passing and the investigation brings up new information through the gossip overheard, and Majella herself goes through her own timeline of transformation. While the book is simple in its narrative, these three ~plots~ (I really don't know what else to call them there's another word but I CANNOT find it rip) layer themselves really well to tell a dynamic story within the span of a week.

Every time I’m done reading a book, I check out the Goodreads reviews to see what other people thought. Most of the time, my feelings about a book are about the same as the other posted reviews. However, for “Big Girl, Small Town,” this was not the case. So, I think it might be an example of being the totally wrong reader for this book.

The book follows the protagonist, an Irish woman in her late 20s named Majella. She lives in a small town (the same place she grew up) in Ireland where virtually every day is the same for her (which is the way she likes it). Her dad disappeared when she was young and her grandmother has just been murdered. She lives with her addict mother and tries to scrape by with her job at the local fish and chips shop.

Each section begins with a list of things Majella hates. To me, this gave a false tone of more of a YA novel, even though there’s nothing else that lends itself to that genre. The story is told over the course of just a few days, but because Majella likes routine, it felt to me like I was reading about the same day of her life over and over again. The Irish dialect is a little tough to read, which felt a little frustrating and definitely slowed down my reading pace. But my main complaint is that it felt like there was no plot. It is stated that the grandmother was murdered but there’s virtually no information about this during the entire book. There’s no climax, no resolution – the ending of the book just kind of trails off. There are also descriptions of Majella’s romantic encounters (where there is absolutely no romance) – this element of the book just made her story feel a little sordid instead of authentic.

Above all, I just found no joy in reading anything about Majella’s story. I’m not someone who needs their protagonist to be likeable but I couldn’t even find a tiny bit of her character to relate to.
Now, after reading other reviews, many readers stated that Majella was on the autism spectrum and this is why she has some idiosyncrasies in her behavior. I must be dense because I didn’t pick up on this at all. Even knowing this information, my opinion of the character isn’t really altered because I never felt like I truly understood where Majella was coming from.

So, maybe this book just wasn’t meant for me. I would have loved more information about the family dynamics in Majella’s life (especially her relationship with her grandmother) and it would have felt so gratifying to have some events take place to shake up Majella’s routine or her journey. Instead, I just felt like I was reading a one-note description of a day in a young woman’s life who actually hates pretty much every element of her existence. Not sure why other readers fell in love with this one, but it just completely missed the mark for me.

3.5⭐

Thank you to Algonquin and Libro.fm for my advanced reader copy.

Big Girl, Small Town is a character driven novel that highlights a week in the life of 27 year-old, Majella O'Neill. Majella lives in the tiny town of Aghybogey in Northern Ireland. Her life revolves around working at A Salt and Battered (love the name of this restaurant), taking care of her alcoholic mother, and her weekly trips to the pub. At first glance Majella's life is pretty boring. She is a creature of habit and doesn't like to stray from her routine.
Majella's father disappeared when she was 11 years old and her life has been overshadowed by the turmoil between the Catholics and Protestants. Between her mother's alcoholism and her grandmother's sudden death, Majella is just trying to keep her routine going.
I started Big Girl, Small Town by listening to the audiobook. I switched back and forth between the audio and physical. I am really glad I went that route. The audio put the accent in my head for reading. Reading the physical copy really helped to bring the dialogue to life. The third person narration is written in Irish English (Hiberno-English) with the dialogue being slang and more phonetic. There were quite a few slang terms that I had to figure out and look up.

Majella is a gem of a main character. I feel a little lost and empty now that I’ve had to leave her world. I never thought I would be proud of someone for going out and buying a new duvet or bag for the vacuum, but these small victories in Majella’s life rang so true for me.

This is very much a slice-of-life story— we are dropped into a week in Majella’s life, and we see that week play out day by day, hour by hour. It could be said that nothing really happens in this book, so if you require high action and drama, this won’t be for you.

However, I loved the little peek we had into Majella’s routines and interactions with the regulars down at the chipper. The endless stream of customers at the chip shop and the predictable conversations she has with each one really point to the monotony of Majella’s life, but at the same time, I totally get how that predictability and routine is a comfort for her.

I also loved how this novel contained so much humor and witty banter, despite a lot of things in it being very sad. Is depressing and funny at the same time my favorite genre? Possibly.

I would highly recommend this book to those who are looking for a slow-paced, character-driven story that faces the harsh realities of life with a bit of heart and humor.

"...It was people who made up rules that said you were cool or not because of what you wore. It was people who judged one half of the human race for not wearing make up, and the other half for wearing it. It was people who switched on lights, made noise, sweated and fought, wept and shouted. Majella knew when she came down to it, she wasn't keen on Other People."

I am in love with this debut novel, Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen. Her story of the small life of big girl Majella living in the small Northern Irish town Aghybogey is as mesmerizing and compelling a literary fiction novel as I have ever read.

Majella is in her twenties, lives with her alcoholic mom, works at the local fish and chips, watches reruns of Dallas every night, has no idea where her father disappeared to ten years ago, and talks to no one if she can help it. Her comfortable routine is interrupted by the shocking murder of her grandmother.

We follow her for one week as she tries to deal with all the gossip, gawkers, and interlopers interfering with the quiet life she has settled into for now. Her insights into the people surrounding her are hilarious and yet often heartbreaking at the same time.

This author wrote a book that made me feel compassion, sadness, happiness, annoyance and great reluctance to have it all end by reading the last page.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen is an entertaining and earnest novel about Majella O’Neill, an autistic woman of 27 who works in a chip shop in a town on the border in Northern Ireland. The novel spans a week in Majella’s life after the murder of her grandmother.

Gallen wrote the story in vernacular, which definitely takes several chapters to get used to and some of the slang (“cleastered” comes to mind, which is still, even after a Google search, undefined) can only be guessed at. But the language defines the story.

I would love to say that I found the story to be as amazingly “hilarious” as many reviews indicate, but I didn’t. Certainly naming chip shops “The Cod Father” and “A Salt and Battered!” are amusing, although the latter is not quite as funny when one discovers that Majella’s gran was beaten and left to die. Comparisons to what I consider to be the hugely funny Derry Girls fall flat to me, perhaps because much of the Derry Girls is physical humor while the humor in Big Girl, Small Town is based on observations.

I found some parts of the novel to be disturbing and have tried to determine why it was necessary to include them. What does a detailed description of drowning tiny kittens accomplish as part of the narrative? A lesson that the weak don’t survive? That life is not under your control? Or, is it meant to impart nothing at all, except to leave this particular reader upset.

Where Big Girl, Small Town excels is in its character study of Majella. She is far more intelligent and intuitive than people give her credit for and she is an interesting combination of naïve and insightful. At the end of the novel, the reader knows/hopes that Majella will surprise all of the people who’ve underestimated her and taunted her over the years. I also hope that Majella finds an ally now that her beloved grandmother is gone.

While I began reading Big Girl, Small Town expecting a different type of novel, I did ultimately enjoy it. And, I suspect a second reading would definitely enhance my experience because between the use of vernacular and with so much occurring within the novel–deceptively–since, while the action is all within a week’s time, it also encompasses the unique life in Northern Ireland with the history being very much the present, just less so, I know I missed and would appreciate many scenes more. There are so many unanswered questions: what happened to Majella’s father? Who killed her grandmother? The answers are hinted at, indicating deeper levels than what the reader assumes from the surface. Perhaps I’ll even appreciate the funny bits more .

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Debut novels of 2020 have been blowing my mind, and 'Big Girl Small Town' is no exception.

This book is about Majella, who lives in a small town in Ireland with her alcoholic mother. She works at a fast food restaurant and is considered a spinster because she is 27 and unmarried. She has a list of things that she loves and a list of things that she hates, and each ‘chapter’ starts off with one thing from either of these numbered lists.

I really liked how the book was setup. Even though it gives you the normal regular day for Majella with her routines, while getting used to it you notice the subtle nuances of her life. She is not considered to be important by most of the small town residents, and she likes it that way. When she is unwittingly put into a spotlight, you see her grow. You get to experience a small Irish town through Majella’s eyes: the prejudices of Protestants and Catholics, wariness of the residents for people who are not from Ireland, how everyone perceives her because she is a ‘big’ girl. The book has flashbacks to her happier times with her dad, and you root for Majella for the entire book.

I loved the tone of this book, with the author trying to establish hopefulness in the monotony of life. It is written in Irish dialect, which helped me form Majella’s voice in my head. Then I got the audiobook from Libro.fm and it enhanced my experience a lot. Ireland is one of the places that I have always wanted to visit, and given my recent Peaky Blinders obsession I wanted more of Ireland in my life. Big Girl Small Town definitely did the trick.

Big Girl, Small Town is the story of Majella O'Neill, the titular big girl, who keeps a running list of things she likes and doesn't like in her head (spoiler alert - there's a lot less she likes). She lives in the economically-challenged small town of Aghybogey in Northern Island where she grew up on the tail end of The Great Troubles and works in the local fish and chips shop, A Salt and Battered!, while also taking care of her alcoholic mother. Majella is on the spectrum but undiagnosed and while she finds comfort in her simple routine, she has a hard time understanding people. The book is laser-focused on Majella and her regimented life over the course of a week but her interactions and observations paint a very vivid picture of this town at this specific time.

Michelle Gallen has written a marvelous oddball character in Majella. The author herself is not neurotypical (a brain injury in her 20s left her with many of the same sensory issues that her protagonist faces) and Majella's reactions to everything going on in her world feel all the more real because of it.

Big Girl, Small Town is written in Northern Irish patois and phonetic vernacular, and it took me a bit to get into the rhythm of the writing and to understand some of the words but once I did, the magic of Gallen's prose took over. This isn't a book for everyone but Big Girl, Small Town has been compared to the TV series Derry Girls and I can see why. It's a darkly funny, sometimes vulgar but poignant story and a really amazing debut.

Thanks to Algonquin Books, NetGalley and the author for an advanced copy to review.

“Life in a Northern Town” do you remember that song? Well, this book reminded me of that song in some ways, because in a nutshell, it is about Majella O’Neill’s life for a week in the cold Northern Ireland town of Aghybogey.

Twenty-seven-year old Majella lives with her ma, an alcoholic. Majella works at the chip shop, A Salt and Battered! (think fast food restaurant). She knows the regulars who come in and they know her. Each day is much like the one before. Majella isn’t a big fan of small talk, make-up, fashion, and well, really other people. Majella likes watching reruns of Dallas, eating, a good shag, lying in her warm bed, and her granny. So it’s surprising that she isn’t hit harder when the news comes that her granny has been murdered.

This book is a keen, introspective look into a young woman’s life. We walk with Majella as she rises each day, cares for her ma, tends to herself, and goes to work. There are mundane details, changing a tampon, making the tea; and there are repetitive events, the continuous orders of a sausage supper and a bag of chips. But after a while, I found that each time the bell buzzed above the door of the chip shop, I wanted to know who it was this time, and what was going on with them.

Although not specifically stated, Gallen has written Majella to have characteristics on the autism spectrum. Yet she is the independent one, caring for her mother. Gallen also brings in a bit of history as Majalla’s family has been devastated by the Troubles (Northern Ireland Conflict), her uncle having been killed and her father has disappeared.

The thick Irish dialect took a bit to settle into, but then it gave the story a very authentic feel. Majella will surely win you over as a big girl who is living life in a small northern town.


** Note: There is one scene of animal cruelty to kittens you may want to pass over, also quite a bit of swearing too.

Thank you to @algonquinbooks and @michellegallenauthour for an invitation to this tour and a #gifted copy. Pick up your copy today!

🍟 𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕕𝕠 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕕𝕚𝕡 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕗𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕟? 𝕄𝕒𝕪𝕠, 𝕜𝕖𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕦𝕡, 𝔹𝔹ℚ 𝕤𝕒𝕦𝕔𝕖, 𝕧𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕣? 𝕀 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕜𝕖𝕥𝕔𝕙𝕦𝕡!

Majella is a 20 something year old young lady who lives in a small Irish town. She lives with her alcoholic mother. Her father has been absent from the better part of her life, and unfortunately she just found out that her grandmother was murdered. You can't help but feel bad for her right off the bat. Majella is also autistic but has no idea that she is. She is set to a routine everyday. She's not keen on change, loud noises, bright lights and other things which she has categorized. Some of her favorite things however are: reruns of her fave show Dallas, taking pain pills, eating, and sex. Majella also works at the local fish and chips store.

To some this story may not be one of those stories that have that "it" factor, but I promise you it's amazing. Majella is such a unique character and I mean that in a good way. You just have to root for her because she never gives up. She learns to cope with everything around her, and tries very hard to try to communicate with people even though it's difficult for her. Thank you to Algonquin and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

A singular, comedic novel about a 20-something woman on the spectrum with a lot of things she doesn't like that could probably be summarized as: Other People.

Plot/Pacing: ★★★★
Characters: ★★★★★
Dialogue/Formatting: ★★ Not for me
Enjoyment: ★★★★

Big Girl, Small Town is a very unique read. For one, it's extremely funny if you like your humor with some bite and darker edges. For another, it is an extremely compelling character study. While I personally had some issues with the formatting, I think this is a stunning debut by an Irish author to watch.

Majella is a 20-something young woman living in a small Northern Ireland border town with her alcoholic mother. She has a job, she has strong likes and dislikes, and most importantly she has a lot of opinions about the world around her.

Told over the span of one week's time, almost down to the minute-to-minute experience, we live Majella's structured existence with her and discover a few things along the way. It's a quirky, over-the-top yet poignant slice of life read with a LOT crammed into its pages.

What will Majella's week bring her? And will she like it?

My thoughts:
Majella is a character that will stay with me for a long, long time—and that's a good thing. The author's ability to bring Majella to stunning, technicolor life is something to be admired these days in fiction. I look forward to this author's future works almost solely because of this. Characters are the backbone of every story, and this one's backbone is STRONG.

Besides the glowing positives, I will say that I, as a personal reader, struggled with the formatting and structure of the book. For one, it uses dashes for dialogue instead of quote marks. Yes, I know that seems super minor, but it's not to my preference and therefore it took a while to get into the novel... and I want to highlight it for other readers who may also need the warning. The structural issue I had was in relation to the plot's pacing—living the one week in extreme detail with Majella was a bit tiring for me. I'm used to more breaks from my main characters, and used to more time progressing. Again, complete personal preference!

However, personal notes aside, this is a stunning debut and I would encourage other general fiction readers to give this one a try!

Thank you to Algonquin Books for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Magella is a twenty-something woman living in Northern Ireland. She lives with her Alcoholic Mum and her father is no where to be found. She goes to work every day where she sells fish and chips to the same customers just about every day, and comes home after work and a night of drinking to watch her favorite TV Show Dallas. All in all she lives a pretty mundane life.

There is a life changing moment for Magella, when her Grandmother dies, when she starts to have an epiphany that there is much more to this life that she is leading.

I personally did not like Magella for the most part. There were things I was definitely in awe of, her work ethic, and the ability to save money the way she did. However, after that it goes all downhill for me. The major problem might be how this book is written, broken up by days of the week and different points of the day. However some of the sections went on and on like when Magella purchases a Duvet cover. I thought it would never end.

I believe this author wanted our heroine’s personality to really shine, especially as this book progresses, however I never saw it. It dragged for me a lot.

One thing is that is billed as hilarious, but I never felt that all. It just felt more like an underlying sadness than anything.

Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Algonquin Books and Michelle Gallen for allowing me to be a part of the blog tour for this book!

Big Girl, Small Town follows Majella, a girl in her late 20-somethings that lives in a small town in Northern Ireland with her alcoholic mother. Her dad disappeared during the Troubles, so she takes care of her mom while working at a local fish-and-chips shop. She has a set routine that she follows every day until her grandmother dies. While Majella has this safe + predictable life, this tragedy may be the wake up call she needs for her to realize that there’s more to life.

i loved reading this book! i’m a sucker for character-driven novels, so the way Majella was characterized was fascinating to me. Majella is autistic so she has the same daily + weekly routine—up to having the same exact dinner every single night.

it did take a while for this Canadian gal to get into the dialogue because of the Irish dialect, but after I did, it was smooth sailing. i also did like the fact that this novel didn’t have a conclusive end, as this was just a snapshot in one week of her life.

this book also made me crave fish and chips + read more about the Troubles. if you want a book with a similar vibe to normal people and derry girls, this is the book for you!

TRIGGER WARNING: SOME SEXUAL REFERENCES SOME READERS MAY FIND STRONG

Growing up in England but with some of my family in Dublin, I had heard about the Troubles of northern Ireland. Later in life I saw a few movies based on them and they always made a strong impact on me as I don't like violence at all.

In Big Girl Small Town, Majella has a simple life. It is one of the routine of her days working at a local fish and chip shop and of caring for her mother who is an alcoholic. It is an atmospheric novel, quite dark in parts but very realistic. Used to seeing soldiers in the streets and having recently lost her grandmother, Majella has a lot to cope with.

I was hooked by this deeply emotional, honest and very raw debut and it is one of the best debuts I have come across this year.

The fact that the author Michelle Gallon also grew up during the Troubles made this even more real and her writing just flows off the page. It shows the chip shop as a social place which it is, and I loved how Michelle Gallon used the comings and goings of the characters in the shop to show the community in the area. Another place was school, but Majella feels most comfortable with her routine.

The relationship between her and her mum is at times strained and at times tender, such as when she makes toast for her or a warming cup of tea. It is these simple routines that fill the day.

Majella is also into love, but is wary of it. She is more into the sexual side of things but wears the same type of outfit every day.

Themes in Big Girl Small Town are how Majella tries to make it however she can. It's about weight issues and self-image. It's about caring for those we love and duty to others.

Majella is in her comfort zone of home and the chip shop. But can she fight for a better life for herself and her mother in small-town northern Ireland, or is there not much hope?

I was engrossed in this novel. Majella was laid-back yet vulnerable. Her attention to keeping the chip shop clean and how meticulous she was in her work there was inspiring to witness. I liked the way she knew exactly what people were going to order and was conscious of keeping the food as hot as possible even for a large family. I could taste the food through the vivid descriptions.

The way she worked showed how much she cared about people and it was humbling how she took care of her mother.

I was rooting for her and was touched at how grateful her mother was when she wanted to be. I was wishing for better things for Majella though.

Majella is a straight-talker and is funny and honest but caring and always has time for people.

There is a real sense of community in this novel. Big Girl Small Town will help you appreciate what you have. It made me grateful for the fact that I did not grow up in an area with conflict.

It is a shout out to identity, inequality and overcoming obstacles and the fight to keep living despite adversity. It is about making the best of what you have and embracing your reality.

Thanks to Michelle Gallen and Algonquin for my ARC in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

5 stars.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for Michelle Gallen's irreverent, funny, poignant debut novel Big Girl, Small Town, set in a fictional border town in Northern Ireland in the early 2000s.

Majella O'Neill seems like she has a monotonous, somewhat unhappy existence. She works in the local fish and chips shop, hears the same tiresome jokes from customers, watches endless reruns of '80s soap opera Dallas, and takes care of her alcoholic, pill-popping ma since the disappearance of Majella's father some 15 years earlier. As the story opens, Majella is grieving her grandmother's recent, yet unsolved homicide.

Majella is fierce, quirky, and socially awkward. She finger flicks and rocks and struggles at times to understand conversations and jokes. The author never gives her a label, but I imagine her to be somewhere on the autism spectrum. Throughout the book are her mental lists of things she doesn't like (small talk, other people in general) and shorter lists of what she does (food, the TV show Dallas, cleaning).

The book is written almost entirely in an Irish dialect, using lots of vocabulary that was new to me but that I could figure out through context. Gallen does an excellent job depicting not only Majella's daily life in a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business, but her growing awareness that there is a bigger world out there and the possibility of a bigger life. I'm giving this book 5/5 stars and I highly recommend it.

Read this book! Majella is a 27 year old woman who works in a chipper and lives with her alcoholic mother on the Catholic side of a small town in Northern Ireland. Her father disappeared years ago, an uncle was blown up, a godfather was "lifted" and not returned by the British. And now her granny, who lived alone in a caravan on 10 acres outside town, has been killed. She's got her quirks- a lot of them- but she's also one of the most observant and thoughtful heroines you'll meet in a while. The mini-portraits of the clients of the chipper, her trip to A&E with her mother, all of it combines to make a novel that's more character than plot driven but which holds some delightful surprises. Know that its written in a sort of Northern Ireland dialect - and it flows beautifully. How Majella copes with all of it is a wonder and she's a terrific protagonist. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I adored this and highly recommend.

When we come into Majella's story, a culmination of new and old grief has been raked up in such an ugly way. She has lost her grandmother brutally and unexpectedly, her father has been missing for years and, she is left holding her life together while her mother drinks herself into oblivion. As far as plots go, Big Girl Small Town doesn't really have one. This is a completely character driven novel that follows Majella through the familiar rhythm of her life at the Chipper-- a little fast food joint who specializes in everything fried and delicious-- The strength of this novel comes in the steadiness of Majella's character. Her life is maybe the worst it has ever been, but she keeps going to work, serving the regulars in her small town.
Despite the events surrounding the sorted parts of her life, I felt a detached numb feeling when details of her past began to unfold. The numbness was so subtle. As a reader I relaxed into the pattern of her nights, taking comfort in the way it unfolded with little to no change. When the bits and pieces began to come together, I felt myself wanting to reject them in favor of the comfort Majella has found in her predictable schedule. This was such an interesting way to allow readers into the pain of Majella's existence without unleashing it unnecessarily.
Big Girl Small town had a very strong sense of place. The Town Majella occupies is so much apart of Majella. Getting a glimpse of what it is like to live in the town helps us understand her even more.
There were parts of this novel that felt like sort of a slog to get through. The redundancy of her schedule is a necessary part of telling this story, but it becomes kind of a chore at times. If you enjoy a novel with a clean resolution and lots of interesting plot details to keep the story moving, this may not be for you. As far as character driven novels go, this is one was certainly unique!

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

Content Warning: Alcoholism, animal abuse, murder,

Thank you to Algonquin Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.