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All the Little Bird-Hearts, by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow

Premise: An autistic mother and her daughter become swept up in the life of their glamourous new neighbours.

Review: This was long-listed for the 2023 Booker Prize and it certainly has the literary heft you‘d expect with that. It‘s well-written and has a strong point-of-view that provides good representation for autistic persons. Cont.

Not an easy read. I'd not seen the experience of social interaction from an autistic woman's point of view so recognisably depicted: oh, the relief!... until it started to feel all exposing and nasty.
I couldn't bear how casually cruel almost everyone was to Sunday.
I was intrigued by her fluency in sign language.
It did get rather repetitive (a saggy middle caused by all those horrendous dinners?)
I thought the ending hit the right note.

This one wrecked me. It‘s small in scope, but the ache it planted in my chest was big & deep & lingering. Mother/daughter relationships can be hard. So can those with ex-in-laws or new friends. But for Sunday, the novel‘s neurodivergent protagonist, they‘re further complicated by the canyon between who she is & who others want/expect her to be. The hurts & hardships caused by this gully - some accidental, some not - were enough to break my heart.

There is a palpable tension and anxiety that builds in this novel because the MC Sunday seems so vulnerable, though there isn‘t anything explicitly threatening in it. I could feel how Sunday‘s rich inner emotional life conflicted with the flat affect of autism she presented. It was a relief when she quit struggling to conform to social expectations and allowed herself to just be. Worth a reread!

This book. 💔 An exquisitely written, heart wrenching story of motherhood, cruelty and betrayal. The narcissistic Vita and cowardly Rolls. Beautiful Sunday. And young Dolly in the middle of it all. A powerful start to my reading year.

Thus far 2024 has been the year of reading emotionally devastating books. I don‘t know if it was the title that had me expecting something else, but this is one that will stay with me for a very long time. Just exquisite.

This book reminded me of how in nature when there is a bird who is different or injured, so then all the other birds gang up on it and peck it to death. That‘s how I felt poor Sunday was treated by everyone around her, including her daughter Dolly. I had a sense of dread throughout waiting for Sundays heart to be smashed to pieces and mine with it. The hospital scene with her mother made me sob it was so brutal and cruel. It was refreshing to ⬇️

This is why I read the entire Booker longlist. Otherwise I never pick this gem up. A novel narrated by an autistic mother trying to navigate her daughter‘s teen years. The whole perspective is quirky and works elegantly. We learn about ourselves as our narrator tries to understand the people around her. But her emotions are a mother‘s and we feel them too. There‘s a lot of interesting stuff going in here. I found it terrific and rewarding.

Some of the summaries of this book say it‘s funny! I know my sense of humour is out of kilter with the general public, but I found this one of the saddest, melancholy books I‘ve ever read.
Poor Sunday 🥲💔

This book reads very different to what I‘m used to and I welcomed the challenge. It was such an interesting story and I found myself really caring and becoming protective of the protagonist, Sunday.

The author is autistic and that adds more depth to the story. I am a fast reader and I found myself slowing down and re-reading paragraphs because I felt my reading needed to match the narration.

Enjoyed this one!

4⭐️ #NetGalley

Trying to work out if I actually liked this book 🤔
It was certainly riveting, at times as tense and horrific as any domestic thriller or horror novel. But I came to really dislike most of the characters, and in the end I was just a bit 🤨😯😑 ..really?
Might need to let this one settle a bit and see if it's really 'unforgettable' like it says on the cover.

I reserved this book based on your review @TrishB ! Thank you as it was so good! The portrayal of Sunday, a single mum who is (presumably) on the spectrum, and the way she perceives the world, really affected me. I found this more authenticate and compassionate than a book like Eleanor Oliphant. It physically hurt when people misunderstood or manipulated or sidelined Sunday. And ill say one other thing under a spoiler comment!

An autistic mom meets an eccentric couple who move in next door. She and her daughter are captivated by this couple. Over time you begin to wonder what is really going on underneath this couple's jolly lifestyle and how will it ultimately impact this mom. It's a quiet book and one in which you begin to understand living with autism. More than that, you want to give her a hug as you watch how her daughter and family members treat her.

I started this book and read and read and then came to a point at which I didn‘t know I was still reading because I liked it or because I was feeling sorry for it. (this months #bookspin)

Our protagonist is a woman who doesn‘t seem to get the social norms and says things she shouldn‘t say, prefer to eat white foods and likes being on her own. One day, a new neighbor arrives, Vita, and she doesn‘t seem to care about this and is so sparkling. Before she knows it, she and her daughter hangs out with Vita and her husband all the time. And things might take a turn that our protagonist didn‘t see.

It was only three years ago that I saw Vita for the first time.

#FirstLineFridays

This book just broke me 😭😭

Seriously!??! That‘s a lot of $$$$ for little bird hearts!!! Damn, I miss BOOK DEPOSITORY ☹️😫😠Of course it will end up winning the Booker!

The magpie in the Larsen trap, too, must have shone as the birds considered him from the sky. It was only afterwards, when pressed close against him in the confines of his little cage, that they could realise that what they had mistaken for brilliance was simply the undisturbed grease of his flightless wings.

This isn't going to go well, is it?

Two very contrasting #bookerlonglist reviews…I adored this one!

Sunday is neurodiverse and we see what happens when her life and her routines are upended by new neighbours. The author herself is ND so this felt very sensitively done, and I loved the setting of the late 80s / early 90s when, of course, neurodiversity was even less understood than it is now.

It‘s up at the top of my own Booker shortlist. Book 8 of 13.

As a neurotypical reader, this felt like one of the most genuinely voiced, honest, and authentic stories about neurodiversity which I have read. It‘s a novel about the contrast between quiet and loud lives. It does an excellent job of conveying the complexities of neurodiverse life in a way that doesn‘t sensationalise quirkiness. What I thought was done best was the exploration of how the unfamiliar can be both enticing and threatening.

#BookReport 32/23

I absolutely loved the tagged book. It is this week‘s favorite. The Memory of Animals was disappointing. Lazily written with a poor, boring result. The Persephone was just okay for me. I feel like the dementia subject might not be the most comfortable to me right now, with my mother possibly going there.

#Booker23 3/13

Oh Sunday! She is a character that‘ll stick with me for a long time. Damaged by her past she manages to control her life by sticking to some rules: eating only white foods, follow her etiquette handbook and escape in Sicilian folklore tales. There is however her 16-year old daughter who wants more of life. And just then new neighbors arrive.
I can‘t say too much without spoiling things but it is a book that touched me deeply.

Intriguing list! Lots for me to read here...

https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2023

#Booker
#Booker2023
#BookerLonglist