Snowflake – Louise Nealon

Synopsis:

Eighteen-year-old Debbie White lives on a dairy farm with her mother, Maeve, and her uncle, Billy. Billy sleeps out in a caravan in the garden with a bottle of whiskey and the stars overhead for company. Maeve spends her days recording her dreams, which she believes to be prophecies.

This world is Debbie’s normal, but she is about to step into life as a student at Trinity College in Dublin. As she navigates between sophisticated new friends and the family bubble, things begin to unravel. Maeve’s eccentricity tilts into something darker, while Billy’s drinking gets worse. Debbie struggles to cope with the weirdest, most difficult parts of herself, her family and her small life. But the fierce love of the White family is never in doubt, and Debbie discovers that even the oddest of families are places of safety.

Review:

I enjoyed this book. I was easily submersed in it and ended up finishing it fairly quickly. It touches on some tough topics of mental health, substance abuse etc but was done carefully.

It’s not my usual cup of tea but I did really connect with the main character (of which the book is a 1st person narrative), which is what I think kept me interested in it.

I’m left a little disappointed in the ending and how it was or wasn’t wrapped up but then again I’m not really sure what I expected.