This was an incredibly emotional debut novel. It was devastating in parts through the characters representation of trauma (both familial and through the legacy of The Troubles) as well as the never-ending cycle of poverty and lack of opportunities – trying to escape this fate whilst clinging on to that small element of hope for a brighter future. The writing felt so real and filled with typical dark Belfast humour, with characters dealing with life in the best way that they could, even when it seemed like there was no hope for better days ahead.
I couldn’t put this book down and had it finished within the day. It will be hard to find a better book for me this year and I am excited to read more from this author. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this proof.

This is a Belfast novel more specifically a west Belfast novel, and it’s clear the author knows the place intimately. It’s about Sean, who comes home from uni with an english lit degree to find there are no jobs. At all. His older brother Anthony goes on benders constantly & tries to rope him in all the time.

One night Sean punches a bloke at a party & faces an assault charge and it threatens to completely derail his life.

I loved this so much, it's such an intimate look at what it's like to be a young working class man trying to make a life in the shadow of the troubles. You can't help but root for Sean even when he's making questionable decisions.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hamish Hamilton for the opportunity to review this book!

This novel is all raw edges as abysmal opportunities and toxic masculinity disallow any romanticism of life in Belfast after the Good Friday agreement. I think it probably (to be qualified in a moment) does a very good job at representing what it is to be a young working class male living under the constant pressure of drugs, poverty, crime and trauma, and where personal dreams and ambitions never really stand a chance. The probably is because this is not a perspective I have and so I found I couldn't connect with this narrative. I hope though it resonates with other readers as there is great depth and realism to this story.

I really wanted to love this as I was drawn in by the synopsis and cover. Toxic masculinity, Ireland, it sounded right up my street. But it was a bit slow for me and took until about 40% in until I started caring about the characters. Sean has been away at university in Liverpool but is forced back home to Belfast where the only jobs he can get are in bars or coffee shops. Even though he dreams of a different life, his friends and family keep pulling him down.
It's bleak and filled with drug taking and violence, but I really appreciated part 3 the most and was willing Sean onto a brighter future and I enjoyed the ending.

Michael Magee’s debut, Close to Home follows Sean from his squalid Belfast flat the night after a bender has seen him assault a guy at a party he’s gate-crashed, through his two hundred-hour-community service sentence.

Sean wakes up the morning after yet another spree with his flatmate Ryan. He and Ryan have known each other since they were children in working-class Twinbrook but while Ryan has stayed put, Sean left for three years at university in Liverpool, which is what saves him from prison. Things go from bad to worse as Sean loses his job, the flat is about to be repossessed and he’s forced to move in with his mother.

Magee’s novel follows a redemptive narrative arc as Sean tells us his story with deadpan humour beginning with the assault the details of which he can barely remember or admit to himself. He knows he needs to sort himself out but temptation is constant, jobs are few and the future looks hopeless. Always in the background is the legacy of the Troubles either in the form of murals on his grandma’s estate or in the damage done to those who went through it which has trickled down through generations. Bleak at times, it’s a novel which offers hope as Sean finds his way to the possibility of a future.

I'm afraid this didn't work for me. I was seduced by the cover and description but neither the writing nor the plot drew me in. It feels like this is trying to be a 'Who They Was' for Belfast but without the style or ferocious energy of Gabriel Krauze. There's a lot of competition in this space of working class white masculinity, and Northern Ireland, but this didn't have an impact on me - sorry.