The book follows four women, all part of the same Irish family. Let's call them "the mother", "the sister", "the daughter", and "the grand-daughter". Their story spans several decades and moves between the Irish countryside and New York, as these women grow up, and learn about themselves. It also packs a few punches - parental loss, abortion, teenage pregnancy, suicide, mental illness, obsessive love, religion, etc. There is even a reference to 9/11 and the impact of the losses it caused at a micro-level (family).

I really liked the writing. It was compelling and fluid - the book was hard to put down, and the story read almost like a thriller, where one knows there is something to uncover, but it's not always clear what that thing is. The voices of the protagonists were also vivid and vibrant - they came across as real people and it was easy to believe such people exist, and think the way they do.

Upon reflection, though, I'm not sure I felt there was enough newness in the story. I recalled Amy Tan, Min Jin Lee, Rajasree Variyar, Isabel Allende, and found it difficult to get truly excited about this book, which came across like mix of all the above with Salley Rooney and Naoise Dolan. Nothing wrong in that per se, but it just felt a bit lazy storytellin-wise. I also struggled with the themes being treated in the same way as many other books that came prior, and the accumulation of terrible things in one family or blood-line.

It's a solid book nonetheless, and I think I would have enjoyed it much more had I not read so many similar books prior to this. So, if you're looking for an emotionally captivating and well written book about three generations of women struggling with being women in Ireland and the US, suffering from some men around them, the society that boxes them in, and their own resulting twisted psychology, this book is great for you.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

A really compelling read, if somewhat disjointed in places. It moves around between characters and time which meant I had to pause and work out who is who and how the characters are connected.

'Confessions' explores a number of important themes: abortion rights, drug use, family secrets, the impact of 9/11, gaming, art and exploitation. There is so much to discuss.

I imagine this novel is going to be widely discussed and end up being one of the big sellers of 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

For a debut novel Confessions is a surprising well written book.
As you read through the story you can understand the meaning of the title.
The story unfolds and reveals hidden secrets long buried with regards to the three generations of he family, starting with Cora in New York and of her mother Maine, aunt Roisin and her father Michael. The story switches between New York and Ireland.
A wonderful, gripping and emotional journey.

I loved this multi-layered story which felt very accomplished for a debut. It traces the arc of three generations of women as they experience in their own time the intense gravity of the past. The characters are so well-realised and the strands between the perspectives offers a very satisfying payoff. Highly recommend!

Ok, let’s talk about the book that everyone’s talking about! Confessions by Catherine Airey is one of the major debuts of early 2025, and understandably so - this is a big book, both in length and in all of its themes and storyline’s. Nonetheless it remains entirely readable, which is why I think it will have broad appeal.

It’s about three generations of Irish women moving through their lives - they fall in love, they form friendships, they fight for rights they don’t have, they have children. It starts with Cora in New York just after 9/11, in which her father has died. Her mother is also dead - now orphaned, she moves to Ireland into the care of her estranged Aunt Róisín. From there, the story blooms - we go back in time and hear from Róisín herself as a young woman, as well as her sister Máire (Cora’s mother), and eventually, leaping forward, we hear from Cora’s own daughter.

Airey is obviously a promising young writer, and the book is ambitious because of its many plot points and narrative styles. She moves through these with confidence: each narrator’s voice is tonally distinct and clear, and the book for me never felt superfluous in the way it addressed many of its big themes - mental illness, rape, unplanned pregnancy, abortion rights and more.

But I will say that at times I was taken out of the story by the coincidences and recurring plot lines (which I don’t want to spoil). I was invested though - I was so keen to see how it would all come together. There was just a lot going on and it felt busy at times.

This has been compared to other big, literary books - The Goldfinch, for example - and I can completely understand why from a narrative perspective. I didn’t find myself moved by the writing stylistically - there’s an elegance to Tartt’s writing that feels lush, for example. Rather, I would say this is a VERY engaging story, VERY well told and I can see why it’s SO loved already. She’s a writer to watch, and I really enjoyed it!!

Big thanks to netgalley and penguinuk for the early copy!

“She herself is a haunted house.”

My first advance reader copy (ARC)! The minute I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I needed to get my hands on it ASAP.

Confessions opens with Cora, a teenager in New York left orphaned by 9/11. After the attacks, she receives a letter from an estranged relative - her Aunt Róisín, the sister of Cora’s late mother Máire - who never left her home of Burtonport, County Donegal.

The plot then switches to Róisín’s childhood, growing up in Burtonport with Maire and neighbour Michael, before following Máire to New York. We are eventually introduced to Cora’s daughter Lyca, who delves into her complicated family history and realises the full extent of who her mother and great aunt really are.

Although we are filled in on Máire’s time studying and living in New York, Confessions primarily follows Cora, Róisín and Lyca - three generations of women connected by more than just blood. It’s a very detailed story, but is well sectioned out. You finish it feeling like you know all three women - and their stories as individuals - really well.

I was really engaged with this book, and found myself reading snippets whenever I could grab a spare minute. Though I wish there was a family tree so I could keep track of everyone - I nearly grabbed a pen and paper on more than one occasion.

This book is fantastic. Something original and fresh right at the beginning of the year.

Wonderful in passages, but overall the storyline was fragmentary and lacking flow. Despite some beautiful writing the pacing was slow and the novel eventually just seemed too long. The structure did not hold the book together well enough. Special thank you to Viking/Penguin Books and NetGalley for a no obligation advance digital review copy.

Confessions is a family saga that takes place in New York and rural Ireland, set over three decades. Mairie and Roisin are two Irish sisters who lead very different lives: Mairie emigrates to America while Roisin stays behind in County Donegal. The book jumps backwards and forwards in time telling their stories and that of Cora, Mairie's daughter, and finally of Lyca, her own daughter. It is a revealing portrait of mother/daughter relationships as well as the secrets that pass down the generations. Secondary characters are as well defined as the primary ones, in particular, Michael, and his relationship with both sisters. The descriptions of the devastation of the Twin Towers atrocity and contrasting life in rural Ireland were so well depicted. Confessions will rank as one of my favourite reads of 2025. It was an engrossing and powerful debut and it deserves to be very successful. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK for the opportunity to read and review this excellent novel.

A sweet and thoughtful book and impressive debut. As a multi-generational saga set between New York and rural Ireland, the plot and themes were ambitious and Airey handled the multiple voices, viewpoints and eras in the book with aplomb. I do think however that the contemporary character Lyca was the one whose story really shone and who Airey really seemed to believe in. This is not so much a criticism as an observation, but to me it felt as if the book was driven very much by the needs of the plot and this sometimes meant a lack of authenticity (a huge coincidence at the end leading to a revelation for the characters, and a section of discovered letters explaining the viewpoint of a character who had died so couldn't tell their own story). The themes of religion, family bonds and growing up female were well handled and the secrets and betrayals came thick and fast. The slight gothic element worked well too.
Personally I found the heightened drama a bit unbelievable but that is an individual preference and I think a lot of people will be captivated by this. As a debut novel it is very accomplished and I think that Airey is set for a stellar career.

This is a story that tells the story of three generations of women from one family. Set in New York and Donegal, Ireland we learn the fates of sisters Maire and Róisín, Maire’s daughter Cora and Cora’s daughter Lyra. Told in multiple timelines, which move back and forth, and from multiple POV’s, this is an evocative and compelling read. If like me you are a bit confused at the beginning, by the video game references, it will become clear later in the book!

Briefly, 2001 and following the terrorist attacks on the twin towers 16 year old Cora Brady is orphaned. She receives a letter from her Aunt Róisín in Ireland and leaves New York for a very different life, with a family she knows little about. Cora’s mother Maire died when she was just 8 years old.

This is quite a sad book, none of the women ever seem truly happy and they all have traumatic experiences, of which the family did seem to have more than their fair share. A family saga full of secrets makes for an interesting and engaging read, complex relationships and some distressing themes tug at the heartstrings. A competent debut.

An interesting and ambitious debut novel spanning three generations and 2 countries . It roves to and fro in place and time tackling some serious issues

Beginning in New York September 2001, we meet Cora whose father is among the many thousands missing after the horrors of 9/11, leaving her an orphan. The city is full of photos of the missing attached to walls and bridges, Cora adds posters of her father to them. She receives a letter from an aunt she never knew about, offering her the opportunity to go and live with her in Ireland. This sparks memories of an old computer game Cora used to play, where two sisters have to try and save pupils of a boarding school from being murdered. Cora accepts the invitation and flies to Ireland where she meets her Aunt Roisin. The book then jumps back in time to 1974 when Roisin is still a young girl. We are introduced to her older sister Maire and Michael, the boy from next door.

The tale switches back and forth from the 1970s to the present day, telling the saga of three generations of an Irish family; Roisin and Maire, Cora and Cora's daughter Lyca. Many topics are covered including rape, abortion, mental health, women artists in the 1970s, suicide and family secrets. All are well researched and authentically described. The portrayal of each main character is well thought out, my favourite being Roisin. The saga of love and loss sensitively written.

I was so engaged at the beginning, I expected to finish in a couple of days however this wasn't the case. In my opinion the story is told in quite a chaotic manner, not quite finishing one strand before moving on to another. I got a bit lost a few times, not being too sure who I was reading about which did spoil my enjoyment of a well thought out storyline. For this reason I rate the book 3.5 rounded up to 4.

With thanks to NetGalley and Viking for my advanced reader copy in return for my honest and unbiased review.

An intriguing story starting with a girl seeing a picture in the paper of her father leaping from one of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Very realistic descriptions and characters. However, I did need all my concentration to keep track of the different generations and the relationship between various characters.
Nevertheless, a compulsive read.

What a great start to my 2025 reading.
Confessions is primarily the story of two sisters, Maire and Roisin from County Donegal whose lives change dramatically after the sudden death of their father but the story starts with Cora, Maires daughter and unfolds from there.
I loved the family dynamics, the twists of their lives and that Catherine Airey doesn't shy away from including painful and uncomfortable details within these imperfect lives.

Really worth adding to your reading list.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read Confessions.

Multi-generational narratives are my jam so I knew I was going to love this.
Taking place over half a century, Confessions is about two sisters, Roisin and Maire.

I really loved the range of narratives in this. The opening of Cora on the day of 9/11 was one of my favourites, along with Maire’s time at art school.

Usually these multigenerational narratives are chronological but I enjoyed the novelty that this wasn’t. However it did mean particular in the Lyca narrative towards the end I had to keep reminding myself which sister was which.

I’ve seen some reviews compare this to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow due to the references to the game which is peppered throughout and I think that’s very misleading. The game is barely in it at all and though I like it as a concept, I don’t think it’s strong enough and could have been taken out without being missed.

I really liked all the characters and I really liked the later themes of reproductive rights, particularly being set in Ireland. I really liked the juxtaposition of the sisters’ experiences and how it affected their lives.

This is a story about secrets and there is one that I worried would never come out and when the reveal happened I was truly shocked and satisfied.

This isn’t for everyone. It’s a family drama where not much happens, but these stories are some of my favourites.

4.5 stars

4.5 stars

This was an absolutely stunning debut (seriously. I cannot believe this is her first book). It explores the lives of 3 generations of women in Donegal + NYC and is seriously heavy at times (unsurprisingly, considering it starts off with 9/11), dealing with immigration, rape, addiction, mental illness + grief. I really liked the disjointed narrative - although I love multiple pov, I find sometimes it can feel formulaic so I loved how this format made the story unfold more naturally.

I had only minor qualms with this book - I didn’t care as much about the final pov + would’ve liked more from cora's pov in ireland because her character development occurred almost entirely off the page and she seemed like a completely different person when we saw her again. But that aside, this was brilliant

I was asked to review by NetGalley

Wow this is a debut! - this story explores love, and loss from various perspectives and different points in time.An emotive read exploring love and loss from different perspectives,and points in time which really grips the reader.

This is three generations of women- starts around 2001 - although we as readers get to know what happended before this time. The tory continues on till 2018.

What an absolute gripping read. So recommended and due for publication 23 January 2025.

For all the buzz this book is getting, I was never really invested in the story. It's a surprisingly conventional tale of three generations of women dealing with love, sex, pregnancy, childbirth, sibling rivalry and family secrets. There's more than a touch of melodrama, and while Airey's prose is smooth and competent, it's not distinctive or stylish.

With fractured timelines, switching from the 1970s to 2020s, changing focalisations of the various women, and movements from Ireland to New York, it all feels a bit busy and sacrifices depth of characterisation to plot.

There are interesting gestures towards women as artists but the motif of the computer game feels clumsy and the theme of family secrets is overblown and overused in so-called 'women's fiction'. It's as if the connections between the various stories are missing even though some of the early scenes, especially, are vivid.

It feels to me like this loses its way and the emotional authenticity of the start dissipates so that it becomes a bit mechanical and formulaic in getting to the end - plot trumps organic development.

A promising debut but this kind of family saga built on secrets would need some kind of additional energy to hold my attention: I felt I'd read this story many times before.

Confessions by Catherine Airey

I think I may have found a favourite of 2025 already and it’s a Debut!!

A Debut… I can’t quite believe that this is Airey’s debut Novel. Her writing, and what she has accomplished with these characters is exceptional.

“We are only as sick as our secrets”

I had the most amazing weekend with these characters and I don’t think I will be forgetting them for a long long time. I’ve released recently that there is something about intergenerational novels that hit for me and this one did not disappoint.

We first meet 16 year old Cora in 2001, her father has just died in 9/11 and her mother died a few years prior. She is now orphaned and alone. We follow her while she try’s to navigate her life on her own, when she receives a letter from her estranged Aunt Roisin in Ireland.

We then learn the stories and perspectives of Aunt Roisin, Cora’s mother Marie and finally Luca Cora’s daughter.
This is a deep, dark, messy book with complex characters and subjects but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I could start this book again tomorrow and enjoy it just as much as I did yesterday.

I am very interested to see whether this book flys off the shelves as quick as I am predicting it will.
Well done Catherine this is such a remarkable novel I can’t wait to see what you write next.
Thank you to @netgalley and @vikingbooks for my free Digital ARC

I have pre ordered my Hardback copy, make sure you do too, you won’t regret it. Release date 23/01

I felt so transported to a nostalgic time with this book, whilst my life growing up differed in many ways to the young women in this book, the periods set and the small details given evoked so many memories and emotions. Set between the vastness of city life in New York and the quiet rural landscape of County Donegal, Ireland, the stories unfold in the most amazing and captivating voices, Cora's memories, Roisins diaries and Lyca's curiosity that brings all of the secrets of the past to the present. The generational links in this story, how trauma and patterns are repeated, and the raw experiences of women in particular that trickle down and stain each recipient , different eras but the same underlying issues and oppressions.
It is a fascinating and beautiful book that is a stunning debut for this author.