Set in a small Irish town, Majella O’Neill is an autistic young woman living with her mom. Majella lives her daily life through her comfortable day-to-day routine. We are taken through a tragedy in Majella’s life and now, her comfortable routine is thrown off guard and she must figure out the big changes in her life.

Big Girl, Small Town was something that when I first read the synopsis, I was immediately interested in it. It was different from what I was used to so when I was invited to read this book, I jumped at the chance.

Book: Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen
Series: Standalone
Publication Date: December 1, 2020
(Thank you NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review)
Tags: Adult, contemporary
Links: Goodreads | Ebook | Paperback | Hardback | Audio
Read: November 8, 2020 to November 26, 2020

Welcome to my review for the Big Girl, Small Town blog tour!

Meet Majella O’Neill, a heroine like no other, in this captivating Irish debut that has been called Milkman meets Derry Girls

Majella is happiest out of the spotlight, away from her neighbors’ stares and the gossips of the small town in Northern Ireland where she grew up just after the Troubles. She lives a quiet life caring for her alcoholic mother, working in the local chip shop, watching the regular customers come and go. She wears the same clothes each day (overalls, too small), has the same dinner each night (fish and chips, microwaved at home after her shift ends), and binge-watches old DVDs of the same show (Dallas, best show on TV) from the comfort of her bed. 

But underneath Majella’s seemingly ordinary life are the facts that she doesn’t know where her father is and that every person in her town has been changed by the lingering divide between Protestants and Catholics. When Majella’s predictable existence is upended by the death of her granny, she comes to realize there may be more to life than the gossips of Aghybogey, the pub, and the chip shop. In fact, there just may be a whole big world outside her small town. 

Told in a highly original voice, with a captivating heroine readers will love and root for, Big Girl, Small Town will appeal to fans of Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh, and accessible literary fiction with an edge.

Spoiler Free Review

Set in a small Irish town, Majella O’Neill is an autistic young woman living with her mom. Majella lives her daily life through her comfortable day-to-day routine. We are taken through a tragedy in Majella’s life and now, her comfortable routine is thrown off guard and she must figure out the big changes in her life.

Big Girl, Small Town was something that when I first read the synopsis, I was immediately interested in it. It was different from what I was used to so when I was invited to read this book, I jumped at the chance.

However, when I began to dive into Big Girl, Small Town, my attention faltered. I rated this book 2.5 stars overall. I did not include the language difference in my rating as this was using an Irish dialect and writing and it did leave me to have a little difficulty in reading this.

This was a difficult read to get through and I believe that it was because I was not fully invested in reading this. I had a hard time understanding what was going on with the plot throughout the book and some of the things were rather random and felt unnecessary to the story. It took me quite a while to finish this book and I was nearly tempted to not finishing this book. I pushed through this an finished it but rather reluctantly. It was a quick paced book which did not set me back at all and I think that the overall plot could have been more narrow. It seemed like a big jumble and made me confused here and there when reading this.

I would like to thank Algonquin Young Readers for providing me with a physical ARC and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

I hope you guys have a great day, please like and comment down below if you enjoyed this book as well or if you plan on reading it!

Loves,

Honey Roselea Reads