Gritty, abrasive, painful, real.

Following a murder on an estate of a young girl, the suspect, Lucy (another young girl) is taken for questioning. Lucy's family are forced to stay in a hotel and the story follows this 24 hour period where a reporter speaks to each of the family members for their insight

The family is poverty stricken, each with a unique idiosyncrosy. The young mother, the alcoholic uncle, the grandfather who is detached from the whole family, old school

The book is reiniscent of the news stories we see every day, but goes behind the scenes, to what we don't see. The insights, opinions, background and current circumstances. This gives more of a picture than just a news snippet

Megan Nolan is a passionate, powerful writer. Her rhetoric is deep, unrelenting, honest, yet highly insightful and illustrative, not shying away from the brutal realities of soceity and how it affects families, their relationships and how they live in a very very difficult world

Thank you to NetGalley, the Author Megan Nolan and Hatchette Audio for this illuminating ALC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

Unfortunately, this audiobook wasn’t for me. I didn’t enjoy the narrator and I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. I’m sure that other people might find it more interesting, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. I will give it two stars because of its interesting premise, but I didn’t enjoy it.

This book takes place in 1990 London, a 10 year old child is suspected of killing a younger child. The focus is on the family dynamics of a lower class family of Irish immigrants and the events that lead up to them moving to London. I felt for this family and the trials they had to face in the past, and present.

The narrator, Jessica Regan, performed incredibly. She was able to switch between Irish and English accents flawlessly. She put everything into the emotional and dark scenes. A few of these scenes brought tears to my eyes, just solely based on her performance alone.

The prose was beautiful and I appreciated how deeply flawed each character is. "Ordinary Human Failings" is an apt title. Although, I think Tom is the biggest villain of all.

This book was split into various parts/time periods, but it was easy to follow and added context to the overall plot. This is not a thriller, who-dunnit book. It reads more like literacy fiction.

The narration of the audiobook was superb! One of the best I've ever heard. The narrated did such a good job differentiating between the various characters. Her emotion was also spot on.

This read similarly to a Sally Rooney novel, which was a huge appeal. I look forward to reading more from Megan Nolan.

3.5 When a 10-year-old is a prime suspect in a murder, hidden truths of the family’s past are forced out. Less of a murder mystery and more of an examination of class and trauma, ‘Ordinary Human Failings’ is a story about an underprivileged Irish family attempting to start over in London, leaving their past behind.

Megan Nolan has an impeccable ability to get into the deepest crevices of a character’s brain, pulling out the most honest and raw aspects of the human condition. It’s hard not to see yourself in each character’s isolation and fear. She has cemented herself as an auto-buy author with this one.

Three stars for me because as much as I did enjoy it, it wasn’t a story that particularly stuck with me. But I recommend this to readers who enjoyed ‘Before We Were Innocent’ and ‘Penance.’

I listened to this on audio, and it was a great production, thank you for the advanced listeners’ copy.

Never have I read book with ea h individual in the family suffering their own trauma.
I found it disturbing but thought it portrays today’s society more than accurately!
From the reporter willing to do whatever to get the story even though he know it’s sleazy, to the father who feels let down by life because it didn’t turn out the way he wanted.
Characters felt real, thanks to the narrator who did a fantastic job, and horrific as the death of a child was it seemed secondary to the life of the child who gets to go on living but has always been an unwanted burden on all her family.

Good thought provoking read

3.5 ⭐️ When a 10-year-old named Lucy is arrested for allegedly murdering a toddler, a reporter sees this as an opportunity to get the inside scoop on an outcast Irish family that mysteriously moved to London around the time Lucy was born. “Ordinary Human Failings” explores the traumas, complexities, and secrets of the Green family, centering around Carmel (who had Lucy when she was in her teens), Carmel’s older brother Ritchie (a struggling alcoholic), and their father John (a recent widower consumed with grief), as well as focusing on Tom Hargreaves (the reporter).

“Ordinary Human Failings” is excellently written, but abundantly sad. It’s certainly not a light read, but is told in such a raw manner that I think it could resonate with a wide audience. I would caution readers to look up potential trigger warnings prior to reading (alcoholism, attempted abortion, PPD, depression).

I listened to the audiobook version and thought the narrator (Jessica Regan) did a wonderful job—it was probably one of the best narrations of an audiobook I’ve listened to!

Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown & Company, and Megan Nolan for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

i loved megan nolan's acts of desperation, a book that dissected a toxic relationship in a way that i felt seen. ordinary human failings feels like a departure from such an introspective tale - instead of living a story through the lens of one person, we're treated to an irish family, their history, and how the choices that they each make leads up to a terrible crime.

it's the 90's and the greens are a family with a reputation for being bad. there's carmel - the mother who gave birth as a teen, let her mother raise her child for her, and now that her mother has passed regularly escapes the prison of her life by slipping off for days to look for men in pubs. her older brother ritchie is an alcoholic and a bad one at that. and john, their father, is completely unglued from his life in the wake of his wife's death. so when a small girl is murdered, it's not long before people start pointing their fingers at carmel's daughter, lucy, because the apple must not fall far from this rotting family tree.

the most interesting perspective for me was that of tom, a sleazy reporter who isn't afraid to lie to grow closer to the greens, accumulating bits and pieces of their lives and their story so that he can break the news. it was interesting to see the dichotomy between how the greens were treated and talked about versus how tom was treated, though he was by far the most pleased and unapologetic with his own bad behaviors.

i do think a lot of people will like this one. it's a really complex analysis of a family and its failings and how society and poverty can both direct the trajectory of people's lives and how some people are treated differently based on social status compared to others. megan nolan really excels with writing intricately about characters - it's one of her biggest strengths.

for me, though, this was just okay. and i think that was a me thing, really. if you, like me, go into this one expecting more information about the crime and how and why it happened, you're not going to find that here. the crime itself is discussed, but took a huge backseat to living through the perspectives and history of each character. all in all, these sorts of family stories aren't for me. but there's no doubt this was a well-written work and megan nolan's writing is compulsively easy to read.

Wow. Just wow. This is honest and sad and hopeful (somehow).
I can't even express how much I love this. It is brutal. The narration was perfect too!

Very nuanced take on class, trauma and immigration in the mix of an unspeakable tragedy. While this was not an easy story to get through, the characters felt really and I connected with them all emotionally. Heavy read but very worthwhile.

Told from the perspectives of a family in crisis and a reporter looking for a juicy story, this book centers around a controversial family of Irish immigrants in 1990s London and the possibility that their youngest committed a heinous crime. While interviewing each family member, their secrets and past failings shed light on what got them here today. The writing is next level and full of unbelievably perceptive observations about humanity.

As much as I read, it’s hard for me to be blown away by a novel. This one did just that. The story is dark, disturbing and all consuming. It’s a character study of a flawed and damaged family who have all experienced trauma. The writing is brilliant. I listened to the audiobook and the production of this performance is simply outstanding. The narration by Jessica Regan is perfection. I highly recommend this novel and it’s an easy five star read/listen from me due to the brilliance of the writing, the originality of the story and the audiobook performance.

Thank you to @hachetteaudio @netgalley @mmegannolan for an advance listening copy of Ordinary Human Failings.

Man. This is a bummer. I was really looking forward to this one, but I couldn't focus or get past part two on this one. I am very thankful to the author, publisher, and ALC distributor for granting me advanced access, but it just wasn't for me.