3.5 STARS!!!

I was SO intrigued by the book description and was so pleased to have been approved to read/review.

The book starts off so strong. I knew from the first few pages that I was going to enjoy this book and I found myself always looking forward to getting back to reading it.

It’s an emotional, dark but satiric book told from multiple perspectives. I enjoyed the plot and the writing style of the author, however my main complaint is the ending. It just felt so rushed, like there were several chapters missing and other character perspectives (Bianca too). I also wish we had read more from Cat’s perspective, I didn’t understand her actions completely and I think we needed more from her perspective with more info on her mental state to explain her actions - otherwise it just felt a bit random.

Overall though, I did enjoy this book and would definitely recommend

Whitlock's writing is raw and unflinching, with a style that is both poetic and honest. He does an excellent job of capturing the emotional turmoil that Lump experiences, as well as the complexities of his relationships with his family members.

I initially wanted to read this after reading the summary. It had me smiling and in my head, it reminded me of a style of a couple of books I’d read by other authors. So I was hoping for something similar. That the humour would continue in this book and I’d get to know the main character,Cat, and follow her journey through a life fraught with testing situations and characters and see her overcome them.
This isn’t what I got unfortunately. I found none of the characters relatable and as the story went on the situations became more ludicrous and the reactions of the characters to them worse.
I really wanted to like this one but in the end it just wasn’t for me.

This book was not for me, that's the only thing I'm sure about by now.

I was expecting to read Cat's story told from different points of view. Instead, I only had the beginning of her story, and then bits and parts of other people's stories, none of which are fully explained.

We know that Cat is married, has two kids and a sister who only cares about her own daughter. By the end of the book, her sister spends more time with Cat's kids and husband, almost leaving her own family.
Why Cat acts the way she did, I don't understand and is not explained. Why Donovan, her husband, act the way he does, is never explained, only that his parents have money.
Characters seem to be important, but then vanish, they are only mentioned as a foot note at the most.

Maybe I missed something, or maybe it was just not the right book or the right time...

Thanks NetGalley and the author for this ARC.

This is a light hearted and well written book which I enjoyed from the outset but I found hard to believe in the storyline as it developed. The reactions of the main character to her situation whilst initially felt believable and were well portrayed just didn't continue to feel valid as the story developed at least in her relations with her family and children and the outcome was handled in an almost throw away manner.
It felt as though the book was trying to tackle several socially challenging themes but didn't seem to delve into these in enough detail to feel substantial.
I didn't dislike the book but also didn't hugely enjoy it for these reasons.

Note: I received a free ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback.

I will start by saying that I have never read a book by this author, but was compelled by the cover and author's note. Overall, this book was not for me. Maybe it was because the subject matter is a little too prescient for me, but mostly I think I just never understood why the characters were motivated to behave as they did.

I thought Cat would be the main character, but I feel like we knew the least about her, and ultimately heard from her even less. Although people may act rash in crisis, her decision to behave as she did seemed extremely out of character for her and did not make sense to me.

As the book went on, I felt the same about Donovan -- his gross behavior and lack of remorse was never explained. He must have been a "good guy" at some point to have held a prestigious job and engaged in a lengthy marriage, but we never saw why.

I continued to want to know more about the main characters, but the book continued introducing chapters from the perspectives of side characters, and therefore left me with even more questions than before.

Maybe someone else will enjoy these deeply unlikeable and mysterious characters, but it just wasn't for me. If you want to read about marital turmoil but want to actually know why the characters behave as they do, just read "Fleishman is in Trouble."

*Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of Lump in exchange for a fair and honest review*

*Potential Spoilers*
This book is so many things. I am struggling to find the right words to express my feelings on this book, which are all over the place. Much like this book. This book is like that annoying friend that takes forever to get to the point of the story. That friend that gets side-tracked and ends up discussing so many unrelated tangents to a story. That friend that by the time they are done talking, you have NO idea what their point even was.

I was expecting a dark, satirical novel. This was definitely much heavier on the dark side and less satirical than I had hoped for. Based on the description, I was not surprised that this book was depressing but had anticipated a little more satire to keep it a little on the lighter side. I was disappointed. Once the hits started, they just kept coming.

Pros of this book: Easy to read. Hard to put down. Went relatively quickly. Interesting writing style. Appreciated the multiple POVs. Enjoyed the little bits of irony. Good character development.

Cons: Stilted. Unevenly paced. Choppy. Went quickly, too quickly. The start of the book read like bullet points almost with 5-8 word sentences. The beginning was overly descriptive, using whole chapters to describe a few days. All of the sudden, months are passing between pages without any real explanation, just our inference. The ending was so abrupt, sad, and depressing but without the proper space to feel and process the emotions. I did not appreciate the psych-out at the beginning of the last chapter and the nonchalance of the actual event mid-chapter. Mentioned as a side note. Like it wasn't important. Like we hadn't invested this whole book to get to this point!

3 stars for an interesting concept, an enjoyable writing style, and I liked the multiple POVs. 3 stars because the pacing was so off-kilter it was hard to wrap my head around. 3 stars because I am flat out angry with the end of this story. I did not expect a happy ending but I expected better than this.

Lump opens on Cat, a stay-at-home-mum to two kids, finding out that she's pregnant, has breast cancer, and that her husband is a scumbag, all in quick succession. This leads her to run away from her marriage and her life, to go live in a cottage owned by a kooky yoga guru, whilst she battles through her troubles.

I found the way this book was written interesting; there were chapters from a whole host of characters whose lives all interlink with Cat and Donovan's, even that of Louis the dog. It was done in such a way that I didn't get lost with who was speaking, and found everyone's input helpful at carrying the story forward.

I found most of the characters unlikeable, but I think that is what the author intended. Lena was my favourite character; I found her quite relatable and enjoyed even her flaws. Louis the dog was also a favourite of mine, I found his chapter particularly enjoyable.

Overall, this was an f-ed up read, reminding me a lot of Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata, and was one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I gave this 3.5🌟 and would recommend it to people in need of a dark, satirical read.

I wanted to love this book but it was so difficult to get through, I didn't enjoy the comedy and the characters fell flat for me, Donovan was creepy (which he was meant to be but I found it a bit off putting) and I didn't agree with Cat running off and she also had unrealistic reactions to a lot of things and I found she lacked depth. I did find the premise really interesting and the twists and turns but I feel like the execution just didn't work.

I wanted to love this book but it was so difficult to get through that by the time I was finished I felt as if I had wasted my time. It is poorly written with one dimensional characters.

The premise of this story was intriguing and had massive potential. However, despite a few brief moments of comedic relief, this book was unfortunately disappointing. I generally enjoyed the multiple POV throughout, but eventually there were too many POV, which detracted from the story and made it confusing to understand the point. Overall, the plot was very disjointed and I don't entirely know what the plot even was. Many many storylines were left entirely unresolved and many storylines seemed irrelevant to the overall story. In all, the characters were nearly all unlikable, the plot was all over the place, and I don't understand what the "point" of the story was. I'm bummed this fell short for me, as it really sounded like it would be great!

So many complex characters and some really funny moments. I loved the first half of the book, but the second half fell a bit flat for me. It's marketed as a dark comedy but honestly, it feels like more of a drama, with some humour.

I'm giving this one 3.5 stars. It had it points where I was engaged in the story but there where times when I wasn't. I feel for Cat. Her life is definitely a "trainwreck" with one thing happening after the other. I did enjoy the many points of view from the characters even Louis, that was probably one of my favorites and one of the saddest chapters.

Thank you Netgalley and the author for the opportunity to read and review.

I can definitely see how the dark humour lies with these characters, and how they're almost caricatures of what's supposed to be a well-off, middle-class family. Such a fun book!

Cat's story is a well-trodden one - a woman who is struggling to manage the mental and physical burdens of motherhood, baffled by the way her life has been transformed since having children and trying to carve out an identity for herself outside of the roles of wife and mother. She is the proverbial swan, gliding serenely across the surface of her life whilst fighting to stay afloat, until she finds out that she's pregnant. And has breast cancer. And her husband is even more disappointing than she realised. The novel follows Cat as she tries to come to terms with her life falling apart, with the narrative shared between Cat, her husband Donovan and various other characters.

I was dubious when I started reading Lump, primarily because it was billed as being a story about motherhood but is written by a man, someone who presumably has never, and will never, be a mother. Some of the acerbic, mocking observations about mothers ('Though she says breast, not boob, believing they all ought to be past the point when anything to do with their bodies can be seen as shameful') would feel tongue-in-cheek from a female writer, but feel rather mean-spirited here.

However, overall I enjoyed the first half of the book. Many of the observations about how parenthood changes your life ring true with my own experience, and I thought the split narrative was a useful device for giving the reader an insight into Cat and Donovan's very different perspectives on their marriage and highlighting their dwindling connection; both perspectives reinforce Donovan's being utterly insufferable though.

Some of the other character viewpoints felt less vital, and this was especially true of the second half of the novel. Having become very invested in Cat from the outset, it was frustrating not to have more page time to explore her motivation and thought processes. I reached the end of the story not really understanding why she made some of the choices she did and it would have been good to have more of her perspective to really unpack why she behaves as she does.

Lump is billed as a dark comedy, and does have some very funny lines, but on the whole I found it more sad than satirical.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This seems destined to receive a wide range of ratings, probably because humor is very difficult to pull off. The writing here is good, and humor often works. It's worth a go overall.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

This book serves as a great reminder that people’s lives are not always as care-free and simple as they may appear to outsiders. I really enjoyed this book as it took me through a roller-coaster of emotions - empathy, sadness, laughter, surprise, all whilst dealing with the delicate subject of cancer and its effect on everyone around the bearer. I loved the fact that there were many characters in this book, but i did feel that at times the protagonist’s character development was a little lost to the reader. Nevertheless, i really enjoyed this book.

Terrible book. Poorly written, no interesting characters. No purpose. I gave up after 100 pages. I don't see the purpose of this book and I would not recommend it to anyone I know.

5 Stars!!! The book centers around Cat and oh boy is she TIRED. She has a lot to be tired about too! After discovering her husband is a walking red flag, a lump on her breast.... and she is pregnant. I laughed. I cried. I adored this book.

Cat finds out in one day that she is pregnant, her breast lump is a major problem, and her husband was a creep to the cleaning woman. This started out good, but by the end, I hated everyone. I mean, everyone has their own reaction to trauma but I just didn't find Cat's running away from her kids to be very realistic. I really didn't like this. 2 stars.