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Ireland is falling apart. The government is turning against its people and Eilish's husband has disappeared. As a mother of four, with a father slowly losing his memories, Eilish is in full survival mode.

This book is raw, intense and made my heart pound. Every scene here we've seen on the news. We know this story, but we're aren't used to reading about it affecting Westerners. Affecting white people.

And that's the point.

I read this book for #FoodandLit. I found it hard to read because it felt like one long paragraph after another because of no quotes when the characters were speaking. It was hard for me to get used to. I found it hard to understand what was going on. And still the ending left me with so many questions. I wanted to yell at the main character a few times as well. Overall, I thought the book was ok. #Read2025 @Texreader @Catsandbooks @DieAReader

It looks like I wanted to get away from this book so fast, that I brought it back to the library before I took a picture… oh, this was heavy and made me feel aggrieved. But it‘s not a bad book at all. I gave it five stars exactly because of how it was able to make me feel. But it was a hard read. Especially in times like these.

I am picking myself up off the floor, a mess of emotions and holding my baby tighter after finishing this. This is a masterpiece and a totally justifiable Booker prize winner. Marketed as dystopian but in reality it is close to home for many, it follows an Irish family living under an ever worsening regime and tackles the horrifying reality of “it won‘t happen here until it does”. I can not recommend this more. #prophetsong #bookerprize #paullynch

Read in January 2025...
16 Books
Three 5-Star reads this month:
• Prophet Song
• Hell Bent (Alex Stern 2)
• The Little Liar

#Goodreads #Bookstagram #OUABC #Litsy #Libby #Everand #Audible #Kindle #Bookish

#JumpStart2025 #Read2025

I got behind in posting reviews for January so, I‘ll try to get them all in today.

From the #AuldLangSpine list of @JacqMac this book kind of wrecked me. I wasn‘t planning on reading it this month but my library e-book hold came in & so it jumped the line. I think my mistake was reading it the weekend before the inauguration & the dystopian story of the effects of totalitarianism & civil war on a family in Ireland, ⬇️

5 Stars • Dystopian, Political, Speculative Fiction, Ireland ??

"Prophet Song" by Paul Lynch is a dystopian novel set in a near-future Ireland turning totalitarian. It follows Eilish Stack as her life unravels with her husband's arrest. Themes include authoritarianism and family. Lynch's intense style won the 2023 Booker Prize.

#ProphetSong #PaulLynch #Bookish

The 2023 Booker winner and my favorite read in February. This one stayed with me for a long time.
#12BooksOf2024 @Andrew65

https://youtu.be/OHxpC4S6fY8?si=8MCGN7agbhpkULVj

Introduction

Mystery guest

Weekly highlights

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

This is a story of grief, horror, trauma and madness. I could not stop thinking through this book that we could slide down the slippery slope of denial that nothing will ever get that bad. That we have people and laws and blah, blah, blah that would never let this happen to us in the real world. But so much has happened in 2024 that I never thought I would be watching. That I‘m constantly shaking my head at in disbelief.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Radical empathy. What a book. Exceptionally propulsive, brilliant and devastating. Bravo 👏🥹🙏

Goodness this one hits hard. Dystopian fiction that feels not many miles from our reality. I‘ve always enjoyed dystopian fiction but this is bleak; watching Eilish‘s normal life unravel, the decisions made too late, her desperate attempts to protect her children from the state. The questioning as to how you would respond to these circumstances. An extremely powerful way to tell a terrifying story💔

#ProphetSong by #PaulLynch is a fantastic read that smacks your head every other page. It depicts an Ireland that is slowly descending into fascism and civil war, being told by a mother of four who struggles to save her children. Very moving and an ending that will not let you go.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

BorrowBox was definitely the way to go with this: I wouldn't have wanted to invite it into my house in physical form. I know that's superstitious, but it's a testament to how it scared the feckin' bejesus out of me. 😱
I wanted to shake Eilish, but can I honestly say I would behave differently? Unlikely. I hope to God I never have to find out.

Wow. This book is…..interesting and bleak…powerful and wretched. I enjoyed the construction on the book but I didn‘t enjoy reading it, really. Not sure what else to say 😊

Ireland‘s descent into a totalitarian state hunting down its political opponents &waging war against a resistance army is told through the eyes of a family. Eilish is the mother of 4,happily married with Larry,successful in her job. First Larry is arrested, then we witness how slowly the world Eilish tries to protect &hold together falls apart.I felt the characters‘ despair, a noose tightening around their necks until the knockout ending.

July Reads

5🌟
Prophet Song: Paul Lynch 📖
4🌟
Soldier Sailor: Claire Kilroy 🎧
3.5🌟
Good Material: Dolly Alderton 🎧
The Midnight News: Jo Baker 📖
The Coast Road: Alan Morrin 🎧
3🌟
Happy Place: Emily Henry 📖
2🌟
The Book of Love: Kelly Link 🎧

One of the best books I have ever read. All the stars. This is a brilliant book about a community's decent into war. The author is able to make the reader believe it will all be OK as the world erupts around this family. I lost sleep to race to the end of this novel. #bookerwinner2023 If you only read one novel this year, read this! 5 🌟

Yikes. Dread-filled slide into autocratic regime in Ireland. Language often overripe, nature metaphors heavy. What to tell the children when norms are upended? Even Winston & Julia got a picnic break, but not the Stacks. Worse to worser. Booker prize winner. 2023

40 “the man has been trained for the rules of the game but the game has been changed so what now is the man?”

103 “history is a silent record of people who did not know when to leave”

Wandering through Target and saw this for $8. Not on my TBR list but seeing it was winner decided to give it a go. Dystopian the reviews say. Well for me it was too much of what I‘m seeing now on my TV screen , especially towards the end which I had to speed read . Writing and descriptions well done. It did make me feel uncomfortable.To think that what he wrote about could easily happen and that some of it is.Right now.

Loved Prophet Song but don‘t think it will beat out Brotherless Night for best of the year.

Tagged was best of the week.

I read six books, three of my May #ReadYourKindle numbers, one of my #SeriesLove24 authors and May‘s #BookedinTime #BiblicalFiction choice. A good reading week for me.

#WeekkyFavorites

@Read4life

This book has shown me I like my dystopian fiction to have an element of the impossible to it. Prophet Song is dystopian fiction that feels just a few votes away from possible. Riveting and harrowing. 4.5 🌟

Grateful for the beautiful day to offset the despair created by the book.

#WeekendReads

Started Prophet Song this morning. Will finish Buried in a Bog tomorrow on my drive to Portland and back. I‘m 40% into Thorns and will likely bail and move onto Swans.

@rachelsbrittain

This book is powerful, scary, devastating but also compassionate and tender. So deserving of its Booker Prize winning status. The reviews were right, I doubt I will ever not be able to recall the details of this book no matter how long has passed.
Comparisons to handmaids tale and 1984 cannot be denied but this book is a masterpiece in its own right and deserves its own status as a literary classic.

Out for a drive and all roads lead to book stores. 😊

Discovered a cute & well curated shop in Menomonie, WI, Dragon Tale Books. Had a super chat with the owner.

The tagged book is for me, husband got the other two, but I can guarantee I‘ll be the one rereading Wind-up Bird Chronicles.

This book is amazing. I'm glad it won the Booker. And beat all of the other Pauls. We read the Booker winner every year in IRL book club and I think this might be slightly less depressing than the previous 2 years. Jk. 😂

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

So thoroughly horrifying only because it all seems entirely possible as we watch through our screens as the governments swing far right & implement emergency measures to change laws & rape the earth & drop bombs mercilessly on innocent souls ~ so who are we in our safe white suburbs to think we are exempt? The writing is poetic & flows across you like a dark ocean that won‘t stop rolling in & you may drown but the water sparkles nonetheless.

#SpringSkies Day 21 #AwardWinner

@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

19 Mar-15 Apr 24
I cannot recall being as frightened by a book since ‘In Cold Blood‘, which aroused a similar feeling that this could just as easily happen to me. As the book begins, Eilish‘s life seems so normal.
Lynch‘s depiction of a totalitarian Ireland is literally gut-wrenching, particularly the final 100 pages which depict the fear and desperation that lead to millions fleeing for a place of refuge. The ending has left me absolutely shaken.

I am still trying to calm down after reading this. Frightening. Excellent book.

I disliked almost everything about this book. I disliked the writing style, the narrative choices, the audio narration, and most especially the main character.
I should have bailed.

#UnpopularOpinion

Am stuck for words.
I read a lot of speculative dystopia style fiction but this is one of those that is set now but is becoming dystopia because it's seemingly an end to a society we inhabit.
But it's on the brink of possibility. And it's happening in other countries.
The balance of beautiful lyrical prose against the immense terror is incredible. And the greyness throughout, the realms of knowing and speculated fear.
Such talent.

“… history is a silent record of people who did not know when to leave…” Wow. That was a dark ride. The Booker winner never disappoints me. I also tend to have a thing for Irish authors. A dystopian nightmare, set in Ireland, with a toleration government, though it could have been anywhere. And anywhere today. The main character made me so very angry I might never recover. It‘s phenomenal!

This one felt like all those around the world, who feel their worlds ending, were whispering their shared pain into your heart. This one is heavy and carries a message that should not be ignored.

Wow, I'm out of words. This book just left me breathless. It broke my heart over and over and over again. At first I wanted to wait until the German translation would be available, but I'm glad I didn't. This books captures the danger of this time we're living in all too well. This is how it started back then, and this is where we seem to be headed to. This story is a huge warning signal. And shows that it can happen anywhere, everywhere.

A bit of bleak read but quite profound. Situations across the world could really happen anywhere and that's a scary thought

This book was chilling, because it seems so plausible. Tyranny has overtaken the government of Ireland, and “enemies of the state” are disappearing. When Eilish‘s husband is arrested, she struggles to keep her family safe while trying to locate him. Nightmarish and beautifully written. I want to read more by Paul Lynch. This one will make my #bookerdozen for sure, still putting together that list, the idea of which I stole from @vivastory .

It‘s hard to call this book dystopian since (as @TrishB said) this could happen anywhere in the world next week. And in reality people in some places are experiencing things along these lines right now. I loved this book even though it is painful to read. Lynch artfully crafted a story of a life moving from the mundane day to day to a fever dream of disbelief, to a nightmare. 💔

Bleak and brilliant.
Dystopian- sort of, because given the current status of the world I can see this happening anywhere next week.

I read this because it won the Booker Prize, and I had been expecting The Bee Sting, which I loved, to win. I also love this. It deserves the award. Prophet Song is devastating, heart-wrenching, and terrifying. The language conveys the relentless claustrophobia of the situation. In a near-future Ireland an autocratic regime is challenged, and civil war erupts. A woman with four children and an elderly father has to survive the violence. Brilliant.

Next up . . . Leaving Australia for Ireland

(Nothing better for reading than a 🐈‍⬛ warmer)

I just finished and I thought this was fantastic. It took me a while to sink in. But the second half was all a dream. I‘m happy with the book, devastated by it, a little exhausted, and thinking over the paragraph with the title in it near the end, and the opening line.

Just, you know, still here. Reading Prophet Song in quarantine. Happy Festivus 😉

Next book I‘ll start

Pre Christmas Summer Holidays Reading (and travel) all planned
Destination 1 - Prophet Song (Ireland)
Destination 2 - Tiger Work (Nigeria)
Destination 3 - Helena Rubinstein - The Australian Years
Destination 4 - Roman Stories (Rome)
Destination 5 - Those who Saw the Sun (North Carolina)
Destination 6 - Mobility (Azerbaijan)
Destination 7 - The Premonition (Japan)