I wasn't able to finish this book. I knew what it was going to be about, but as a mom, the content upset me more than I thought it would and I just couldn't read it.

A seriously heart wrenching and thought inducing novel about grief. Raw and splinter have gained a place in my heart forever. This story is about the survival of a 10 year old after her mother is gone and surviving by herself.
The only issue I had is Rae just seems too smart.

As a warning if you are a dog lover please skip day 48 unless you have super powers to somehow read that and not be seriously affected.

A Million Things is a heartbreaking but funny and emotional story about a 10 year old girl named Rae. The story follows Rae during her time of grief and growing up. I loved Rae's nosy old neighbour, Lettie, and enjoyed seeing their relationship slowly develop. I loved this book and highly recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

The only thing I had a hard time with in this book was the maturity of Rae, a ten year old girl. Unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if a child around that age had to be the one to keep a household together. I do think that's possible, and in doing so would make them mature beyond their years; I just have a hard time imagining a child being able to do it so well. I really felt like I got to know each one of the characters well. It was easy to feel what they were experiencing. It's going to be hard to find another book that I enjoy this much anytime soon.

I struggled to get into this book. The writing is based in a first person narrative of a young girl, who is mature beyond her years. It just wasn't realistic to me so I didn't finish.

While on the surface the writing was good, I struggled with the first-person narration of the nine-year-old main character who was so mature beyond her years that it became distracting from the story. Ultimately, I knew this was going to keep the book from being a hit for me, so I did not finish.

This was a wonderful title, and difficult at times -- in the best way. It's a gut-wrenching read, one that readers will definitely not forget. There is a great balance of hurt and hope, one that kept me invested. I do think this book could have used some trigger warnings, which is something the publisher should consider including in the future.

This author is one I'll be looking for in the future, and i'm grateful I was able to receive this title.

This book is definitely worth all the stars and more… it was just amazing, an utterly breathtaking debut novel!

This book broke my heart, but I couldn’t have loved more if I tried.

Written from the perspective of Rae, told of a 55 day period, Rae is 10, she is strong, she is surviving on her own with her dog Splinter while her Mum is gone, Rae has a secret.

The lady next door, Lettie, too has a secret, these two will become allies and help each other negotiate their troubles.

You can’t help but adore these two and the bond they form.

Thank you for gifting me the e-ARC to read and review, but after reading it I knew I need to have a physical copy to add to my book shelf of absolute favourites.

EXCERPT: I swallow the acid and keep yelling. 'A squashed, leathery, manky-furred cat with a paper plate on top of it.' My shouting's getting higher and squeaky in a way I don't recognize. 'That's not what you keep in a house. That's crazy!'

'A cat?'

'A dead cat!' My breathing sounds funny. 'Dead. A dead thing. Dead.' I can't stop saying the word. I need to stop saying that. 'Dead.' I push past her shaking, biting my tongue to stop my mouth betraying me further. I need to sit down.

'You found my cat?'

I'm sitting with my head in my hands. Not thinking about the shed. Not thinking about the leathery cat body. This was a mistake. I've been working all day and all I've managed to do is clean a hallway. And the crazy old cat-smothering goat isn't even thankful. As soon as I can get to my feet I'm going home. She can deal with the council and get kicked out of her house and I'm going to stay the hell away from it all. They'll be so preoccupied with this pile of shit they probably won't even look at my yard. It's not like you can smell anything else when you're inside her house. I shouldn't have got involved in the first place. She's nothing to me. I don't need her or her stinking house and definitely not all the trouble she's about to bring with her.

'You found my cat?' She drops a plastic bag - it looks like it's got banh mi in it - on the chest and sits on the porch in front of me. I glance at her face. Her eyes are huge. Her face is so pale the little red veins near her nose look like they've been drawn on with pen. 'You've found Sylvester?'

'Who?'

'My cat. I thought he ran away.' She looks horrified. 'He was-'

I don't know what to say. I glance over to our yard, at the bin where I dumped the stiff, leathery, hole-filled carcass. I remember the sparkle I focused on as I shovelled the body off the floor. 'Did he have a collar with jewels on it?'

She puts her head in her hands. 'Oh God.'

I hover my hand near her head, then pull it back and slip it into my pocket. There are tissues in there. I kneel in front of her and offer her one. She takes it, holds it in her hand, nods. And we sit there like that, the two of us and a yard full of rubbish bags.

ABOUT 'A MILLION THINGS': Rae is ten years old, and she’s tough. She’s had to be: life with her mother has taught her the world is not her friend. Now suddenly her mum is gone and Rae is alone, except for her dog Splinter.

Rae can do a lot of things pretty well for a kid. She can shop and cook a little and take care of Splints and keep the front yard neat enough that the neighbours won’t get curious. But she is gnawed at by fear and sadness; haunted by the shadow of a terrible secret.

Lettie, the old woman who lives next door, might know more about Rae than she lets on—but she has her own reasons for keeping the world at arm’s length. When Rae finds out what they are, it seems like she and Lettie could help each other.

But how long can a friendship based on secrets last?

MY THOUGHTS: Funny. Sad. Heartbreaking. A Million Things will have your emotions all over the place. I laughed. I cried. A lot.

Rae is a resourceful ten-year-old. She's had to be. Even more so now. But in reality, how's she going to hold it together now that her mother's not there? How long can she make the meager amount of money in the bank account last? How long before someone notices that her mother is no longer there, and calls in the authorities? Someone like the nosy old goat next door.

Lettie is the nosy old goat next door. She thinks Rae's rude. But she watches out for her all the same. She doesn't want the authorities poking their noses in either, for reasons of her own.

When someone down the street reports Lettie, these two form a mutual protection society and slowly, a friendship. But, even together, they can't hold off the authorities forever.

A Million Things is one of those rare, beautifully written books that is both heartbreaking and uplifting. It is a story of resilience, grief and friendship. The characters are so very real, they could have stepped off the page and into my lounge. I simply couldn't get enough of this book.

The story takes place over 55 days, and is told from Rae's point of view. Her dog, Master Splinter, is another important character in this book. He is all Rae has left from 'before'.

This is a moving read. A very emotional one. A beautiful one. One that I am going to be recommending to everyone.

Yet another new, extremely talented, Australian writer for me to follow. Please put me down for her next book now.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#AMillionThings #NetGalley

I: @spurr.emily @text_publishing

T: @SpurrEmily @text_publishing

#fivestarread #contemporaryfiction #australianfiction #familydrama #sliceoflife

THE AUTHOR: Originally from Tasmania, Emily lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her partner, their twins and a deaf, geriatric cat.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Text Publishing via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of A Million Things by Emily Spurr. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page.

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

In A Million Things, ten-year-old Rae is trying to make it after she wakes one morning to find her mother gone. This book is incredibly sad, but it was moving to follow Rae and the development of her friendship with her neighbor Lettie.

4★
“At first, before I moved to the couch, I tried sleeping in your bed: wrapped in your doona, one of your T-shirts pressed to my nose. Each breath in taking a little more of you, till all your scents were gone. Till only the warm, swampy smell of dog and the nothing smell of me were left and your pillow held only the shape of my head.”

Rae’s a ten-year-old girl, talking to, and badly missing, her absent mother. The book is written this way, with Rae telling us her story over 55 days, something like a journal, but it isn’t written. We're just hearing her thoughts. She’s resourceful and smart, loves their dog, Splinters, and loves school.

What she doesn’t love is the old goat who lives next door, the sticky-beak neighbour, Lettie, who seems to sit on her front porch just so she can spy on Rae’s house. Rae is being very careful not to call attention to herself so nobody will realise she’s home alone. She’s one of those kids who’s watched how her mother does things and has filled in for her in the past when her mother obviously needed help.

She is distressed but has found ways to cope.

“It’s 342 footsteps till home, depending on which way I cross the road. I didn’t used to be a counter, not like Quentin at school, but I’ve found it helps when I’ve got a head full of bees. I look at my feet and count the steps and the bees get less loud. Or maybe they like numbers.”

Oscar is another boy she finds strange, a boy down the street who really just needs a friend, but Rae thinks he’s spying on her so rebuffs him regularly. Splinters she trusts. Anyone else, not so much. It’s the dog who’s keeping her sane, making her stick to a routine. But nights are bad. She often imagines her stomach pains as a rat, gnawing inside her chest.

“I wake as usual to the cold pinching my face. The TV is muted but the screen lights the room, chasing away the shadows from my sleep, with their pointy teeth that rip and bite and eyes that shine in the dark. Now it’s TV light and the sound of my tight frosted breaths. My heart settles.

The house is cold and all the quiet things are loud. The fridge, the clock, my breathing, Splinter’s. He sleeps on the couch with me. I don’t put him out at night.”

She’s started making her own rules (the dog's on the couch all night), but she kind of apologises or explains to her mother as she does it.

She notices how some houses look cheerful and happy because they have chairs with cushions on the front porch and plants in pots. So while she’s out and about with Splints (as she calls him), she pinches some to brighten up their house. She’s also a little light-fingered in other places, but she’s quick and clever about it.

It’s not a spoiler to say that she gets to know the old goat next door, Lettie, who has serious problems, but Rae is torn between being friendly and helpful or keeping as private as possible – not calling attention to herself.

Lettie and Rae share hot chocolate and a pizza on Lettie’s front porch, which is lovely - until Lettie asks an awkward question.

“The rat jerks awake from its pizza and chocolate coma and stabs its claws into my chest. I swallow.”

Rae is very descriptive and frequently refers to the rat, but there are times when her language is far more adult and literary than sounds right for her, which immediately made her unbelievable to me. I suspect that’s just me, and I imagine most readers overlook that in favour of the mood and the spell of the story. I just wish those excellent phrases could have been added by a third-person narrator instead of Rae.

This will find a lot of fans, I’m sure, and end up on many lists of favourite books. I can imagine the film already.

Thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for the preview copy from which I've quoted.

Best book I have read in such a long time!!! But punching, beautiful and even funny.
Oh Rae you melt me and give me strength all at one!!
New favourite author and also fellow Tasmanian! Win Win!!

Emily Spurr's A Million Things is a tragic, tender, devastating and heartwarming tale of survival, love, fear and understanding. It is full of beautifully drawn characters who the reader comes to love - a resourceful and stoic little girl and a cranky, lonely old lady. A million tiny details go into making this book profound and eminently memorable. This has to be up there for my favourite book of the year, in April no less! Suffice to say there were tears involved and I am trying to work out how to get myself a. neighbour like Lettie, and come to think of it a dog like Splints! Highly recommended!

I absolutely loved this book. I didn't realise how sucked in I was until it was breaking my heart apart into a million tiny pieces. Those millions things ... shards of each readers soul torn apart by Emily's exquisite writing and beautiful storytelling. I knew this book was a tear jerker but I wasn't prepared for this. It was actually a very strange and beautiful thing to know about the loss from the very first pages but to not grieve with the character until the end. It was honest, and captured the range of emotions and coping strategies that we use in difficult and confusing moments.
Rae gripped me all the way through. I normally don't find myself drawn to young characters in adult fiction but Rae was something completely different. I followed her through the book with a tightening of my muscles and a growing tension that, much like my emotions, I hadn't recognised was there until it all snapped and gave way. Emily is a master of tension and built it so naturally and steadily that I felt it was impossible not to be swept up.
The relationships were slowly and naturally built. I loved Lettie and getting to follow her story parallel with Rae's. It was a really nice touch and a clever way to get more depth and complexity weaved into the narrative. They felt so real, like people who could live down the street from me or who I might walk past in my own neighbourhood. Emily also showed amazing skill in building together the small details and idiosyncrasies that come together to create a full and complex person.
Can't wait for whatever Emily's next book is! I'm already dying to read it!

I am a little uncomfortable with the contents of this story. I am not I am a little uncomfortable with some of the content of this story. I am not sure I condone the action of the lead protagonist, even if she is a child. The images it throws up was a little weird; since I am not an expert on mental health issues I will leave it at that. That did not deter me from enjoying the book or shedding tears at certain choice moments.
The story moves very slowly along, but given the emotional fortitude that Rae shows while letting herself be a kid once in a while, it makes up the bulk of the narrative. There is a lot of heart within the pages, with no one coming off looking either one-dimensional or unrealistic. Everyone has layers, and when the situations call for it, behave accordingly. It was a pretty heavy read but a rich one. I would recommend it to anyone who found the plotline outlined here even remotely interesting. Also, it was based in Australia, which is different from the usual locations that I read books from.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers; the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

I tried to read this, but gave up about 1/4 of the way through. It was definitely a DNF for me. I would still read more by the author. However, I just didn't connect with this story.

2/5 Stars

#AMillionThings #NetGalley

I really enjoyed A Million Things. I tend to deviate from heartbreaking fiction (way too close to real life) and prefer escapism through sci-fi/fantasy, but on occasion books like A Million Things refuses to let me go. Ten-year old Rae and her dog Splinter are fending for themselves the best they can. Rae attends school, keeps up her grades, cleans and gardens, all to maintain a normal front. Her next door neighbor Lettie has problems of her own but doesn't stop her from noticing the oddness of Rae's life. This healing relationship between neighbors helps them both cope with the problems they face. It was such a sweet --and yes, heartbreaking -- story, with beautifully flawed characters that I couldn't help but finish it in one read. I would definitely read other books by Emily Spurr and am grateful to have read A Million Things.

** spoiler alert ** This one is going to be on my list of recommendations for a long time. I was very moved by the relationship between the narrator, Rae, and her older neighbor, Lettie.

If you’re a fan of ugly crying with some occasional cute dialogue between a 10 yr old and a cantankerous older woman, this is for you. I’m glad I’ve spent some time in Australia because some of the dialogue would have been beyond me, but it’s minimal.

***Very grateful to NetGalley for this advanced copy!***Loved it.

Rae, a fiercely mature and capable 10 year old girl befriends her "old goat" neighbor Lettie and a friendship forms that both of them need immensely. Lettie has lost touch with her family due to her extreme hoarding situation and Rae is bearing the burden of a crushing secret. Their unusual relationship forms on Lettie's front porch over cookies, hot cocoa, a shared sense of sarcasm, and the human desire to feel connected to and needed by other humans. I fell deeply in love with both of these characters as well as with Splinter, Rea's loyal and loveable black dog.

Forgive me while I take a second to pull myself together after finishing this one. I laughed, I cried (okay, UGLY CRIED), swooned, and ached all throughout this book. I saw so much of myself in little Rae and felt deeply connected to her. Without too many spoilers I will just leave it with saying that my Momma heart was intensely enamored with her and wanted so badly to hug out all her hurt. What she was going through was bigger than anything a child should have to face.

If you are looking for a quick but mighty read that gives you all the feels, this is one you should pick up. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to meet Rae, Lettie, and Splinter. I won't soon forget them. ❤

I initially found it a difficult book to get into, but I'm glad I perservered and gave the characters a chance to win me over. It turned out to be a memorable reading experience.