I was regularly reading the author’s Substack before reading this, her first novel.

Some things I liked about it:

It wasn’t written by AI.

The realistic descriptions of drinking.

The realistic descriptions of sexual encounters: "He says the things everyone says, which they all learned from porn, which I know because I did too" "The terrible, unsexy insight into a near-stranger’s grooming habits" "I feel very conscious of how much space he occupies in the bed"

The main character Erin's thoughts during her solo visits to an empty church. Her visits made me picture the final scene in Lady Bird, and excerpts such as these stood out (some to the Catholic in me): "when we would turn around to the people in the pews beside us, and behind us, and shake hands and nod and say, Peace be with you" "The feeling of peace is always the same, in any church" "That’s what it’s all about, this place: the idea that there might be something outside time, or some way to get around things ending, or somewhere beyond the end of things." "here you don’t have to be religious to go to church the odd time and light a candle. It means something different. Or maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know how to explain it properly" "Maybe I mean it’s hard to explain, I say. It’s the ritual of it. Space to think." "maybe I feel some kind of lapsed, but still god-fearing, Catholic loyalty, or guilt." "And there is a feeling I used to get, sometimes, when I was young and religion seemed more real, as if there was something more. Something joining the things that happen together, or something more between us; I can’t explain it any better than that." "You find out nobody believes in anything. You’re not supposed to believe in anything."

Some things I didn’t like as much:

Erin's fixation on Matt the American’s white teeth.

Her judgmental descriptions of what people were wearing.

It uses italics instead of quotation marks for dialogue, and at the risk of being a persnickety bore, I prefer traditional punctuation marks.

Mikey often came across as an inarticulate ape only capable of uttering monosyllabic replies even though I believe he was well educated--there are mentions of his "placement at a hospital" but I can't remember if he was becoming a doctor. But then again maybe his man-of-few-words, strong-silent-type aloofness is what drew Erin to him? (“he seems to be holding the core of himself slightly out of reach; that’s part of his appeal. Aloofness always holds power, even if you're not sure whether it's justified.") Besides other things she thought about like his square jaw and ability to look good while squinting.

A common refrain in reviews I've seen is that "not much happens." Although plot is less important to me than other elements -- I would rather watch a movie with two hours of people talking in a bar than one with superheroes superheroing or car chases -- it's a fair observation, at least in the sense I'm not sure how much of it will remain in my memory, but only time will tell, right? I think these two lines will stay with me: "I want to make the most of everything but I don’t know what that means" and "not everyone ends up doing what they love."

Aside: The book is set in Belfast ("A lazy city, as well as a small one") and when I read "He was thinking of going to see some graffiti" it reminded me of this pic of me when I was there: