Sally is very “different”. A bit of a loner, reclusive and not at all a people person, she is viewed as decidedly odd by her fellow villagers. Never is this more apparent than when dealing with what she believes are her adoptive father’s last wishes when he dies!

What a brilliantly told story. I was captivated right from the start and loved it. Although Sally is the main event, all the other characters are wonderfully written.

At times a dark and disturbing tale, with some very sinister themes, but also full of light and love, sadness and joy shared throughout. All well written and handled superbly.

Every now and then a book comes along that is so worthy of much more than 5* and this is one of those true gems. A beautiful, heartbreaking story, a guaranteed best seller.

Thank you NetGalley.

I loved this book, I could not put this down and read it in two days! Liz Nugent has a unique writing style and could see this book being made into a film. The main character Sally Diamond is so well portrayed and the story was just gripping. I would highly receommend this book and definately one the best books I have read in a while. Thanks to netgalley for sending me this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Liz Nugent does it again!

Strange Sally Diamond..... I couldn’t put it down! A dark, spine chilling, suspenseful and shocking psychological thriller of a book.

Liz Nugent is one of my favourite Irish authors and I was eagerly awaiting her new book and absolutely delighted to be given early access to it... I couldn't wait to get stuck in!

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died.

Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also a sinister voice from a past she has no memory of. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don't always mean what they say.

But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally's life will be thrown into chaos once again . . .

A thrilling, exciting, riveting page turner of a book and with a great protagonist in Sally this novel kept me intrigued and fascinated right to the end. A book that will stay with me for a long time - and perhaps Liz' best book to date!

Wow! I loved this book! I am new to this author but will definitely be looking out for more of her work now.

Sally is a wonderful character. There are links to Eleanor oliphant in terms of personality etc. Sally Diamond was adopted and has no memories before the age of 7.

The book follows Sally’s adulthood, as she deals with her father’s death (not very well!) which brings with it an unraveling of her past. Sally learns more about her adoptive parents, her birth parents and finds some other relations along the way.

The book covers some horrific themes but somehow manages to also be uplifting. Sally learns about herself, makes friends and starts to find her way in life. There are many twists and turns, but Sally is somehow very relatable despite her horrific and traumatic past.

A gripping must read book.

I really enjoyed this book. 40 something year old Sally Diamond is socially inept. She keeps to herself and doesn't like interacting with other people. Then her Dad dies and leaves her a series of letters explaining her early childhood. Sally knew she was adopted but had no memories before the age of 7. The story is then told in 2 time frames. In the now, Sally starts to learn how to relate to other people. The other part of the story is told from the perspective of Peter, a boy growing up in the most bizarre and horrendous circumstances. Gradually their stories intertwine. This is a sad but uplifting book, though I have to say I didn't like the ending - it seemed that all Sally's progress had been in vain! Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

I could not put this book down!

Young Peter is home schooled by his father. He hears noises through his bedroom wall, his father tells him not to worry, it’s just the ghost.
Sally Diamond thinks she is strange, she has been told she has social inexperience, she’s awkward around people.

Sally Diamond is the main character in the book. The story is told with her on a journey of finding out about her past. This is thrust upon her after she makes a serious faux pas, and she finds herself the talk of the Town.
I literally couldn’t put this book down, considering it covers some very dark, sensitive issues.
There are many hidden secrets.
It explores what some people could do to satisfy what others would see as most terrible choices in life. Even how they could brainwash another person.
This is the first book I have read by the author Liz Nugent, and I would like to read more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for an advanced e-book copy. Opinions of the book are entirely my own.

I have just finished this amazing book and am desperately trying to put into words how absolutely awesome it is it has completely taken my breath away I lived and breathed every page I ignored things I should be doing and just read until I finished it I couldn’t put it down.
The book has everything you would want in a perfect read it’s heartbreakingly sad, very disturbing and at times funny, it brought out so many emotions in me whilst I was reading and I am in total awe at the quality of the words and storyline from Liz Nugent.
I’m not going to try and describe the story its just to difficult for me to do it justice what I can say is this is a book that I will always treasure, I loved Sally the main character I wanted to be her friend, I wanted to help and protect her she felt so real to me and I so so didn’t want this read to end.
So please, please don’t miss this book it deserves more than 5 stars it’s going to be a huge hit and also it’s SUPERB !! Massive thanks to Liz Nugent for a read I will never forget.
My thanks also to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Perfectly dark and funny book.

The characters are deep and thoughtfully written, Liz Nugent has managed to write another gripping psychological thriller that I imagine will be well loved.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the opportunity to read and review this book. This author is a genius when it comes to creating complicated and intriguing characters, some of whom are not always likeable! With great characters, writing and sympathy Sally Diamond’s dark and tragic story unfolds in the book and it’s literally unputdownable!! Loved it and highly recommend pre-ordering it for March!

Once again Liz Nugent offers us a dark tale of the human condition, with a divisive, oddly likeable main character, a twisted darkly observant storyline and an ending that will keep nagging at you in those early sleepless hours.

Honestly the quality of this writing is second to none. The plotting is always superbly realistic, eminently readable and hugely thought provoking.

Bravo.

What a good read this is! I found this book refreshingly different to others that are out there at the moment. Sally is a woman is her fourties’ she lives with her adoptive father and has always been a little strange. The story starts with her dad dying and she literally “puts him out with the rubbish” This turn of events brings closer inspection to Sally and she begins to learn the truth about what happened to her as a child that made her the way she is. Although this is quite a dark story and touches on some pretty sinister subjects I also found it heart warming and sometimes even humorous, this is definitely one I will remember and recommend.

Liz Nugent is an automatic buy author for me. So I was delighted when I was approved for this eARC!

Sally Diamond is dark, sad, moving and occasionally funny... it has all the hallmarks of a bestseller. I will be very surprised if this is not one of the most popular books of the year!

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died. Now at the centre of media attention, she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood and learn about a past she can't remember.

Spanning dual timelines and told from two perspectives, this one had me hooked from the beginning. It's a dark and heavy read but completely gripping. I stayed up far too late each night, desperate to find out how things were going to pan out. As is often the case with Nugent, her characters are unique and complex - I was never sure how I was meant to feel about each of them as the story was unfolding. Ultimately, Sally stole a piece of my heart. A wonderfully written protagonist who will stay with me.

‘Strange Sally Diamond’ is how she in known in the small Irish community she lives in. She is socially awkward and has trouble recognising sarcasm, so when her father dies, she assumes she is doing nothing wrong by following his wishes and ‘putting him out with the bins’ as he told her to. However, once her actions are discovered, her quiet, monotonous life is turned on it’s head.

I have enjoyed all of Liz Nugent’s previous books, but none as much as this one. Imagine a book that is half ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue and half ‘Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine’ by Gail Honeyman. It’s hard to imagine, but I’m going to quote Marian Keyes here “It transcends genre...it defies categorisation”.

You will sympathise, empathise, gasp, laugh and possibly even cry.

I don’t have any doubt that this will be one of the biggest books of 2023.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow what a way to start the year. Ive loved Liz Nugents previous books so grabbed this one without even reading the blurb.

Sally Diamond is somewhat strange. Adopted when she was 7 with no memory before that, she has led a totally sheltered life in the midlands in Ireland. In her 40s, she lives with her father(her mother is deceased)and rarely leaves the house. She is socially awkward and has no filter at all when she talks and she takes everything she is told at face value.

When her father dies in his bed she does what she thinks is fulfilling his last wishes when he said "sure when I die you can throw me out with the rubbish", so thats exactly what she does. She brings him out to where they put the rubbish in their incinerator and tries to burn him. This of course leads to the police being involved and soon it becomes national news.

This series of events leads to stories surfacing about Sallys past and when she starts receiving stuff in the post from the other side of the world she knows it is related to her early years but can she remember what happened to her and why her early memory is gone?

This was an utterly captivating read. Told from different perspectives, this is a heartbreaking tale of abuse and the minefield of damage it leaves in its wake.

Sally is a real curiosity but you will be rooting for her all the way. Although the subject matter is grim, very grim in fact, there are also many laugh out loud moments. The cast of characters are beautifully realized. from "villain" to "hero" and everything in between, you will be engrossed in their world from the first chapter.

There is something about Nugents writing that just sits right with me and makes it imminently readable. The story feels both other worldly and as real as it gets at the same time. A strange combination of both that make this book a gem.

An easy 5 stars from me. Get your hands on this as soon as you can and enter the world of Strange Sally Diamond.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

This was everything you need for a thriller and crime story. It is not as black and white as you first think and like most typical thrillers, is full of twists.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Sally Diamond is far from neuro-typical and takes things literally. So when her father requests that she should put him out with the bins after he dies, being a dutiful daughter, she does just that. She can't understand what she has done wrong, but not altogether surprisingly suddenly becomes a person of interest to the local police - and subsequently, the press.

Sally has no memory of life before her seventh birthday, but has never realised that this is unusual. She has always known that she was adopted: her adoptive mother a GP, her father a psychiatrist. But no-one ever told her about her birth parents and she didn't think to ask about them. Letters left by her adoptive father bring to light the shocking existence Sally, then known as Mary, and her birth mother, Denise, endured before being rescued from the clutches of the monstrous Conor Geary. Sally's true identity, as the child of Denise Norton, a high-profile child victim of kidnap many years earlier, thrusts her into the public eye. There are those who are sympathetic to Sally's plight, but many are not so kind. The arrival of a teddy bear, sent by the mysterious 'S' from New Zealand, triggers a long-buried memory in Sally. Could the sender be Conor Geary - and could she be in danger? As the reader is introduced to Peter as narrator and more background about Sally and her mother's grim past experiences, all begins to fall into place.

Sally is an endearing, quirky character and the story is fast-flowing and compelling. I read on for far longer than I should have into the night to find out how things would pan out for her. Whilst dealing with some very unpleasant and disturbing issues, there is humour and warmth woven throughout. Sally undergoes therapy to help her deal with the outside world from which she has been sheltered for so long and finds a supportive group of friends who accept and guide her. But when she eventually meets Peter, things take a dark and unexpected twist.

The ending was not what I would have hoped for Sally and I felt sad for her. I won’t elaborate further but hints of what may have been yet to come were undeniably chilling and left me with a sense of deep unease.
Overall, I found Strange Sally Diamond to be an incredibly moving and thought-provoking novel which will stay with me for a very long time. A well-deserved 5 stars from me. Highly recommended.

This was a fantastic book to read! I loved the character of Sally, her thought processing and dialogue. It was great to read the other perspective as well. Love love love it, strong 2023 book.

If you read anything this year make sure this is the book!! I couldn’t put this book down. The dark humour, found family and small town setting drew me in and didn’t let me go. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

The first Liz Nugent's book I have read and I'm really impressed with her work. Definitely it was one of the best books of the same genre I had a chance to read so far. Each story line and each character atracts you and doesn't let you go until you finished.