This one unfortunately just wasn't for me. I am so glad it's getting great reviews. I struggled a lot with the pacing and it was too much of a slow burn for me. I'll be recommending it to people who are looking for this kind of story.

The six of them were an entire world and they didn't need anyone else. The girls were Kala, Helen and Aoife. Kala and Aoife have been friends since kindergarten. Helen moves to town as they are all fifteen and slowly the other girls take her into their tight friendship. The guys are Joe, Mush and Aidan. Joe is the golden boy, top of his class and sports teams, good-looking. Aidan is the wise guy with relatives who are on the shady side. Mush is everyone's best friend, a chill guy who likes everyone. Together they are invincible and take on the world, adventuring every day. Kala and Joe are a couple but the rest are just friends.

But teenage friendships tend to fall away when adult lives intervene. Joe became a rock star and has been living abroad in Hollywood. He is also an alcoholic but that's a secret. Aoife grew up, married and moved away. Helen is living in Canada working as a free-lance journalist. Aidan is no longer alive. Mush was injured in an accident that left his face disfigured and these days just runs the cafe with his mom. And Kala. Kala disappeared at the end of that magic summer when they were all fifteen and no one knows what happened.

But now the gang is back together. Helen's father is marrying Mush's aunt and Joe is also back in town. They tentatively reunite but there's news no one expected. Human remains have been found and soon they are identified as Kala's. She was murdered. Who would have done that and is the killer now looking for one of them?

This is a debut novel and Colin Walsh gets it right. His recreation of teenage years when one is just finding their way and friends are everything is spot on. The tension builds until I had to put the book down periodically and walk around a bit before reading more. This is a debut novel from an Irish author noted as one of the best rising authors of his country. The revelation about what really happened is a page-turner and the reader will remember the characters long after the book is finished. This book is recommended for thriller readers.

I was really looking forward to this book but was ultimately disappointed and I struggled to finish it. I didn't particularly like any of the characters and felt that the book was very slow. The Irish phrases were also sometimes difficult to understand. I am in the minority on this because other readers have really liked it but this book sadly wasn't for me.

KALA ended up not being for me. My opinion is obviously in the minority considering it has a 4.13 rating on Goodreads, but I don’t really have any specific criticisms other than I just couldn’t get into this one.

Early reviews described it as an atmospheric literary mystery with a coming of age element, which is literary catnip for me! Some of my favorite books are in this niche genre so I was highly anticipating the release of KALA. However, I did not find the writing to be particularly atmospheric or literary and the ending was a bit wild, so this just felt like a slow thriller? I enjoyed the coming of age portions, but the pace overall needed to be faster.

Thank you netgalley for approving this read for me!! It has everything in obsessed with. Great characters, a storyline that gripped me even after the book was over, dual timeline, a great mystery and writing so powerful that it grips you in every emotion possible...I loved it!

"Grief is like falling in love; it is always narcissistic. Some catastrophe cuts through your life and immediately you reshape the world to make this disaster the secret heartbeat of all things, the buried truth of the universe."

This is an excellent debut novel that is part coming of age and part thriller, written in a literary style. Kala disappeared in 2003, leaving her close group of friends reeling. Now, in 2018, two teens are missing and remains of a body have been found in Kinlough (a fictional Irish town). The story is told from the perspective of 3 of the friends, Helen, Mush and Joe. Walsh creates the perfect atmosphere filled with tension, nostalgia and teenage angst.

The plot is very well constructed and the weaving of the past and present is done pretty seamlessly. I found myself immersed in the town of Kinlough and its inhabitants. There are so many mysteries that unfold in addition to the disappearance of Kala that kept me turning the pages. The characters themselves were well developed and interesting. Can’t wait to read what Walsh writes next!

I have a secret....

and I can't keep it...

Kala, WILL be a top contender for book of the year, and you heard it here first, folks!

Colin Walsh has to proved that a debut novel can knock the socks right off your feet and leave you begging for more! Walsh has hit the ground running and I am here for it.

Kala is told through 3 alternating points of view which gives this book dimension and perspective. There were no loose ends, the entire book is executed with perfection. There are stories within stories and character driven, everything felt so real and I found myself thinking of Helen, Joe and Mush long after concluding.

Kala is one of the best books I have read all summer and I am so excited to see what Walsh will come out with next. This is a must read for all .

Teaser :

In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland’s west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They—Helen, Joe, and Mush—were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003,withmotherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their group’s white-hot center. Soon after that summer’s peak, Kala disappeared without a trace.

Now it’s fifteen years later: Helen has reluctantly returned to Ireland for her father’s wedding; Joe is a world-famous musician, newly back in town; and Mush has never left, too scared to venture beyond the counter of his mother’s café.

But human remains have been discovered in the woods. Two more girls have gone missing. And as past and present begin to collide, the estranged friends are forced to confront their own complicity in the events that led to Kala’s disappearance.

Against the backdrop of a town suffocating on its own secrets, in a story that builds from a smolder to a stunning climax, Kala brilliantly examines the sometimes brutal costs of belonging, as well as the battle in the human heart between vengeance and forgiveness, despair and redemption.

Walsh’s debut novel wasn’t perfect, but I saw a lot of potential that has me looking forward to his future work. The first 100 pages were too slow and it took far too long for me to start caring about any of the characters, as well as understand why the friend group revered their friend Kala so much prior to her disappearance. I’m glad I stuck with it though, because the story ultimately picked up and completely sucked me in. I was not expecting the various twists throughout at all. Aside from the pacing issues, this was a solid mystery and exploration of how childhood trauma can come to define your life.

We all look back at our youth with rose colored glasses- things seemed larger then, others seemed invisible- it's all a point of view. But what happens when what you thought you knew wasn't really the truth, and that together a group of people has been told what happened, and no one challenged that view? In this book, we find out how the secrets of the past can always come back to haunt the living and cause harm. Part analogistic Irish fiction, part gothic story, part nostalgia, this is a story that keeps you entranced and rapidly turning pages, hoping to discover the truth about Kala and the lives of the missing girls. Don't miss this one!

Walsh does an excellent job of capturing the dynamics of teenage friendship, with all its attendant drama, loyalty, and betrayal. The characters are well-developed and believable, and the reader can't help but root for them as they try to piece together the mystery of Kala's disappearance.

The novel also explores some darker themes, such as violence, misogyny, and the dark side of human nature. Walsh doesn't shy away from these difficult topics, and he handles them with sensitivity and insight.

Overall, Kala is a well-written and engrossing mystery with complex characters and a thought-provoking story. It's a debut novel that is sure to leave a lasting impression.

Praise:
Strong characterization
Gripping plot
Thought-provoking themes
Beautiful prose

Criticism:
Some pacing issues
A few plot holes
The ending could be more satisfying

Overall, I would highly recommend Kala to fans of mystery, coming-of-age stories, and literary fiction. It's a beautifully written and thought-provoking novel that will stay with you long after you finish reading it.

This new to me, author has a different style of writing, but the story was very interesting. This is a debut story, but it’s hard to tell that. It was a story that pulled you in from the very first and kept you to the very end. I could not stop reading it, and the ending was very surprising. I would love to read more of this author’s writing.


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

3.5⭐

Katherine ‘Kala’ Lanann was 15 years years old when she disappeared in November 2003, leaving her friends Joe, Aoife, Helen, Mush, and Aiden and the whole town of Kinlough in shock. The once tight-knit group of friends eventually go their own ways, their friendship fractured in the aftermath of Kala’s disappearance. Fifteen years later Helen, Joe and Mush reunite in their hometown. Joe is a famous rockstar who is back in town due to personal reasons and Mush never left and helps run his mother's café. Helen is a freelance journalist who settled in Canada and is back in town to attend a wedding. Past events come back to haunt them when Kala’s remains are discovered in the woods by the lake, evidence confirming that Kala was murdered. Who killed Kala and why?

The subsequent disappearance of Mush’s twin teenage cousins sends shockwaves through the small town. Could their disappearance be in any way related to the events from fifteen years ago? The narrative follows the three friends as they cope with their past trauma and try to get to the truth behind Kala’s murder while also searching for the two missing girls.

The strength of Kala by Colin Walsh lies in its characterizations and the author’s powerful writing. Part coming-of-age story and part literary thriller this is a dark and immersive novel. The narrative is presented from the perspectives of Mush and Helen in the first-person, and Joe in the second–person, in alternating chapters. The plot is well structured, though I did find the pacing a tad uneven. Past and present timelines are seamlessly woven into an intense, cohesive narrative that traces how the events from the past have cast a shadow on the lives of Kala’s friends – their grief, confusion, guilt and personal struggles that have followed them into their adulthood. I loved how the author built up Kala’s character giving us a vivid look into who she was and her dynamic with each of those in her circle of friends. Initially, I found it a bit difficult to keep track of the large cast of characters, especially how they were related to one another but as the narrative progresses, it becomes much clearer. To be honest, the mystery behind Kala’s disappearance and subsequent murder became a tad long-drawn and as the narrative progresses there are enough breadcrumbs to get an idea of what might have happened, but the author’s writing, the characters and the description of the dynamics within a small town riddled with corruption and secrets had me captivated till the very end.

I could not believe this is the author’s debut novel and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. Many thanks to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Whoa! This book took me on an absolute ride. It left my mind swirling, twirling, twisting, as I surged down the drain and came out on the other side. This is a slow burn read, that made my fingertips tingle as I turned each page. It is told through multiple points of view, which makes it even more chaotic and intense. I had no idea what was going on and who was behind what. I will be working on what happened in this book for a long time.

Kala, Joe, Helen, and Mush were friends in high school. They were together constantly, leaning and depending on one another. When Kala vanishes one night and is never heard from again, these three friends are left wondering what happened. They each scattered after they graduated. Joe becoming a famous musician, Helen moves to Canada, and Mush is still working at his mother's coffee shop. When Helen makes the trip back to Kinlough for her father's wedding. Old wounds open back up and begin to fester. All of them still needing to know what happened that night.

This is one intense read. Colin Walsh brings you inside each character's head. You can hear their deepest thoughts, their mixed-up emotions, what no one is able to hear. Thank you to Colin Walsh and Doubleday for this slow burn thriller.

3.75 stars

Kala is a solid mystery but there's also depth which elevates it from your typical run of the mill book in this genre. Quite a few different themes floating around throughout the story.

Back in 2003, in a seaside village in Ireland, 6 teenagers were inseparable until one of them, Kala Lanann, went missing. Helen, Joe, and Mush were a part of her group of friends. Now 20 years later, and two other people in the village have disappeared. So what exactly is going on?

The story alternates between the 3 friends and shows how Kala impacted their lives. Along the way you get bits of everything leading up to her going missing as well as what's happening in the present day. It's a depressing story but the desire to get answers is what drove my interest. The Irish small town setting brought a lot to the table.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the gifted early review copy.

I wanted to love this book, but it did not hit the mark for me. I think that the writing was excellent and the story was compelling, but I found myself lost more often than not.
This might be the ARC issue, but the jumps between past and present were not defined so it took me a long time to figure out what timeline we are in, which took away from my enjoyment. I enjoyed the character's portrayal in their teenage years, but felt like they all sounded the same. I kept confusing them and usually the more characters we have in a book, the better for me.
Overall, I know this book would find its audience; if you enjoy quiet, slow mysteries this would be a pick for you.

This book was good. Quite hard to follow at some points and a little slow to start at coming in over 400 pages it took me a little bit to finish. The Irish town backdrop was perfect and the story line once picked up was really good. There’s a solid well developed friendship between the three main characters that’s still there even though so much time has passed, but when their past comes to haunt them is their friendship strong enough?

Kala, a debut novel, has a slow start, but it quickly develops into a very good murder mystery. The story is well-written with a fully developed plot and interesting characters.

A group of friends from a small Irish town get together again after twenty years. One of them has been killed, but the murder was never solved. A wedding reunites them back just when new evidence is uncovered, and the case is active again. I love the format, with the story unfolding through the voices of three of the friends. The language is lyrical and beautiful.

I really enjoyed this one though I did find myself confused and having to reread pages. I thought the storyline was original and captivating. I read this book in 2 sittings. I found the atmosphere and the prose to be excellent as well. It got really intense and at times I FORGOT TO BREATHE

I was very intrigued by the premise of this story but I did not connect to the characters. I did power through the story. It is a very atmospheric slow burn. It touches on grief in touching ways.
I would recommend it to mystery lovers. Thank You NetGalley and Doubleday for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
3 star

Thank you to Doubleday Books for the arc a week before release.


When a book is being promoted as "The Most Anticipated of the Year." I grow a little intrigued. let me tell you after finishing Kala that holds true. We follow this childhood group of friends who over the years have grown apart after one of their own goes missing, told in multiple perspectives we follow each character as they recall their memories with Kala up until the moment she goes missing. The story touches on grief in many different ways and friendship in such a heartbreaking way I had to stop many times and put this book down. it was that overwhelmingly fantastic.

Do yourself a favor and go add this to your TBR.