I have reviewed The House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams for book recommendation and selling site LoveReading.co.uk. I’ve chosen the title as both a LoveReading Star Book and Liz Pick of the Month. Please see the link for the full review.

The vivid descriptions of the scenery really drew me into this book and the characters were diverse and interesting. Difficult to describe my feelings about this book without spoiling the latter part of it.
A compelling read.

This novel is, first and foremost, a fictional story about loss. Or to be more precise, about the loss of a much-loved twin boy. Yet follow the threads of fractured family life and you discover all the other themes that Fiona Williams weaves together here: remote ruralness, covert and open racism and local stereotypes, gender roles, sibling constellations, depression and the difficulties in keeping a marriage alive join the all-consuming theme of parental grief. The bereaved parent is Tess, who is mother to deceased Sonny and his twin brother Max. Told from the viewpoints of each family member, including the deceased Sonny who watches his parents and brother navigate their grief from afar, this is a story in the best of the magic realism genre that will leave you thinking long after you have devoured the last page. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this unique, moving book that allowed me to produce this unbiased book review.

The House of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams

This is the story of a broken family, what they see and what they cannot say laid bare in their overlapping perspectives. It is a tale of life in the cracks, because in the space for acceptance, of passing and of laying to rest, the possibilities of new energy, light and love, are seeded.

A different read for me as I usually go for Heart warming , happy ending books that would could curl up with , or those that give you a warm glow before you go to sleep.
The book is at times brutally honest at How life is for some families , and these days , sadly not and more.

Not a book you can say you enjoyed reading , but none the less , one that stays with you once you have finished it . So I guess a good read.

I found this book quite despondent and dark. I appreciate that it wasn’t supposed to be a joyous read but it seemed quite hard to get into and although the writing was descriptive and actually quite spectacular in places, this book wasn’t my thing.

This is a beautifully written novel. The story is set in an old tumbledown house in a small village in rural Devon, and the author writes beautiful descriptions of nature and wildlife in the surrounding countryside. She pays close attention to detail, highlighting the poetry of specific plant and flower names, the different sounds of birdsong, the way the house creaks and breathes with changing seasons and how connected each of the characters are to the natural world.

This is a character driven novel which I love, and told from multiple points of view: Tess, her husband Richard and their twin boys Max and Sonny. Each voice is strong in its own right, and I also had a soft spot for neighbours Marge and Cyril as part of the secondary cast of characters in the village.

In terms of plot, the novel centres around a family tragedy and focuses on relationships within the family, but with several unexpected twists and turns to the storyline. It also explores much wider issues such as race and belonging, unpicking the micro-aggressions of daily life that Tess and her sons experience living in an almost entirely white rural community.

This is a great book club choice - there are convincing characters and themes to prompt serious discussion, whilst remaining not-too-heavy going and ultimately being an uplifting read.

A slow read and quite depressing. There seems to be a pall of misery hanging over every page. The writing is lyrical but I just didn’t find this book engaging. Sorry - not for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book ahead of its release!

The synopsis for this one really sounded right up my street but i'm afraid I struggled to get into this book and ended up DNF'ing it. I tried numerous times to get invested in the story but it just was not for me. I think that maybe at a different time perhaps I would be able to enjoy it, as I found the writing beautiful and the story itself was one that I was interested in but the book was very long-winded and felt like it was taking ages to get to the point if that makes sense. I got to the point where I was not looking forward to picking it back up so decided to stop reading for now and maybe later on at some point I will pick it back up.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this wonderful book!

It took me a little while to really get into it and it did feel a little slower to me than usual (though I think this is because of se of the books I’ve read recently being a bit more upbeat)!

The book was written so beautifully, almost like poetry and as I dived a bit deeper in I started to really find myself resonating with the author’s ability to portray horrible things so beautifully.

Really liked this - if I could have given 3.5 stars I would!

This one pulled at the heartstrings. There comes to a point where you find out what has happened (although there are hints of this throughout the book so I had already guessed), and it makes you realise what a heartbreaking story is really is. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my eARC of this one!

The writing was quite lovely but I’m afraid I just found the storytelling long winded. I struggled to really invest in the characters .