Title: Bright Burning Things
Author: Lisa Harding
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Parenting & Families
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing; (4 Mar. 2021)
Buy Link: Amazon | Waterstones
Description
Absolutely dazzling’ Marian Keyes
‘Startling, urgent and intimate’ Lisa McInerney
‘I lived every scene as I read’ Donal Ryan
Being Tommy’s mother is too much for Sonya.
Too much love, too much fear, too much longing for the cool wine she gulps from the bottle each night. Because Sonya is burning the fish fingers, and driving too fast, and swimming too far from the shore, and Tommy’s life is in her hands.
Once there was the thrill of a London stage, a glowing acting career, fast cars, handsome men. But now there are blackouts and bare cupboards, and her estranged father showing up uninvited. There is Mrs O’Malley spying from across the road. There is the risk of losing Tommy – forever.
Advance Praise
Absolutely dazzling . . . While the subject matter is dear to my heart, I’d have loved it even if I knew nothing about addiction. It’s instantly engrossing. Sonya’s emotional interiority is fascinating and compelling. I really cared about her and Tommy – they felt very real to me – Marian Keyes
A novel of extraordinary intimacy and vividness, a uniquely disquieting account of a mind sinking into the depths and rising again, full of such powerful love and fear – Megan Hunter, author of ‘The End We Start From’
A tense, unflinching, immersive mapping of a pitted track of addiction and recovery . . . I lived every scene as I read, and I know that these characters will be with me for a long time – Donal Ryan
Startling, urgent and intimate, Bright Burning Things is a meticulous portrait of a life unravelling, and of the painstaking, heartbreaking work to put it all back together – Lisa McInerney
Tender and electric, Bright Burning Things interrogates the raw edges of love and addiction with an honesty that made me ache. It captures the fragility of our fractured minds and illuminates our power to break legacies of hurt – Jessica Andrews, author of ‘Saltwater’
Review
This was a heart-wrenching read. Sonya was once an actress in London but now she is a single mother living back in Ireland she is struggling with daily life looking after Tommy and doing what is best for him although she thinks everything is ok. She’s drinking too much blacking out, spiralling out of control, even Tommy has begun to notice the “bad fairy in the bottle” and eventually her father intervenes and she is sent away to detox at a convent for three months.
She is determined to do this and get her son back, but in the meantime, she learns that Tommy is in foster care as Mrs O’Malley couldn’t cope with him. Will she relapse? Will she get Tommy back?
I really felt for Sonya, although I didn’t like what she was doing her mental health wasn’t good at the time. People around her didn’t offer the support she needed and I can understand why things got too much for her.
It was raw and very real; this happens to more people than you would ever think of.
It was a great book, insightful, emotional and if you don’t shed a tear I’d be surprised!
I found the ending okay, however, I think I would have liked an epilogue or even a second book of what happened to Sonya and Tommy in the future.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ebook from Netgalley, thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for allowing me to review this book.
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