This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration.

Little Cruelties

Summary: This story begins with a funeral. One of three brothers is dead, mourned by his siblings. But which one? And how? And, most importantly: why?

William, Brian, and Luke are each born a year apart in a lower middle class Catholic family in 1960s Dublin. William, the eldest, rises to the top of the heap in the film industry as a successful movie producer. Luke, the baby of the family, surprises everyone by morphing into a worldwide pop star. Brian, the compliant middle son, is the eternal adult in the room: the helpful, steady one, the manager of finances and careers.

But none of them is actually quite what he seems. Wounded by childhood, they have betrayed one another in myriad ways, hiding behind little lies that have developed into full blown treachery. With an unnerving eye for the complexities of families, Nugent delves into the secret life of a deeply troubled household and provides stunning insights into the many forces that shape us from childhood.

Hailed by #1 New York Times bestselling author A.J. Finn as “a dark jewel of a novel,” Liz Nugent’s new work of fiction follows three working class Irish brothers, and delves into the many ways families can wreak emotional havoc across generations.

Traveling With T’s Thoughts:

Ya’ll this book was nuts. It was like this family was a train wreck and sometimes I wanted to avert my eyes and yet I couldn’t. Because I had to see what twisted and deplorable thing they did next to one another.

If you thought your family was dysfunctional, meet the Drumm family. They are DYSFUNCTIONAL.

 

 

What I liked:

I can’t say I was overly wowed by the cover- but it fits in with the whole book, so it’s good.

I have to say that I like books with a prologue or a first chapter that hints at what will happen later in the book- and this one starts off with a funeral- but we don’t know who has died. I kept a running tally of which brother I thought it was and evidence to support my claim- but I didn’t really completely guess till the writing was almost on the damn wall.

Sometimes I did get a bit weary of reading basically the same events- just from different viewpoints- BUT you really gotta do it to understand the total dysfunction of the Drumm family.

 

Bottom line: You like your characters with a tall order of dysfunction and some personality issues that you might need to consult with a therapist to get to the bottom of? Then Little Cruelties is for you.

 

*This book was sent to Traveling With T for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are mine alone.*

 

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Happy Reading and Bookishly Yours,

T @ Traveling With T