Snowflake by Louise Nealon

[3kidsareenough]

Just wondering if anyone else has read this? Just got it on kindle this morning (it's £1.99 by the way!) was a radio 4 pick for book @ bed time. It's been compared to Sally Rooney's Normal People but I honestly think it's better. The main character is more likable IMO set in Ireland (Dublin) about a young girl starting Trinity Collage. Nice writing style and a first book by this author.

Anyway that's my day planned out ☕️ 📖

I heard parts of it and wanted to read the whole thing. I sent in a library suggestion and they have bought a copy but that may be coincidence, and then I spotted it on offer at £1.99. I add quite a lot of R4 serial books to my Kindle wishlists and/or get them from the library when I can.

I really enjoyed Normal People but had been disappointed by Sally Rooney's first novel, Conversations With Friends. I'm sure every female Irish writer, especially younger ones, will be compared to Rooney for years to come but if it encourages sales and library loans I I suppose it's not a bad thing for female Irish writers.

I thought it had good things, but was almost two separate novels, a coming of age campus novel and an entirely separate (and odder) slightly magic realist family saga, with the alcoholic uncle, magic mother etc. The protagonist’s naïveté was overdrawn, for me — being from the country (close enough to Dublin to commute daily to TCD) doesn’t turn you into a forgetful bumpkin who loses their train ticket and ID every five minutes and doesn’t understand the registration process.

Yes, I found it very enjoyable in a grim sort of way, although I would have liked more of the folk horror/magic element.