Reviews

Excellent family drama set in the 1970s which is perfectly realised. Told mainly from a mother's point of view, as she sits by her estranged dying husband. Tense mother and daughter stuff. Full review on my blog here: https://annabookbel.net/home-is-so-sad-how-it-was-janet-ellis-two-roads

meganclements's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

jasminermelyn's review

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.0

toofondofbooks's review against another edition

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4.0

I read and really enjoyed Janet Ellis’ debut novel The Butcher’s Hook so I was very keen to read her new book. It’s different to her first book but I still very much enjoyed it. It follows Marian, who is sitting in hospital next to her dying husband. She reads him old cards that she’s found and slowly falls into recollections of their lives together. The novel meanders and it can be a little hard to follow at times as you try to work out what point you are at in Marian’s life but I realised that I had to let myself just go where it was taking me and it became easier to follow the timeline then. Marion has had such heartbreak in her life, and the way she had to hide her intense grief for someone earlier in her life was stunningly written. I felt like I was right there with Marion and could feel all of her emotions. Later as she has to deal with her teenage daughter and all the complex emotions that this entails again gave me such empathy for her. She’s a flawed person but it’s impossible not to feel for her. I enjoyed this book but it’s only now that a little time has passed and I find myself still thinking about it that I can see just how good a book it is. I definitely recommend this one!

This review was originally posted on my blog https://rathertoofondofbooks.com

rebecca_hedger's review against another edition

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3.0

This jumped around a lot, and I didn't really like any of the characters. So more of a 2.5 stars for me, but I rounded up.

honestmamreader's review against another edition

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3.0

Marion is a bored housewife. She has a caring, loving husband Michael. A 14 year old daughter, Sarah. And, a seven year old son, Eddie. She seems to have the perfect life but what she decides to do has a knock on detrimental effect on her family.
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I'll be honest I nearly gave up on this book. The narrative was quite hard to follow. It kept jumping from different point of view and timeline, sometimes without any clear indication of who we were hearing from or when. However, this was a proof copy from Netgalley, maybe the confusion will be ironed out.
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Marion was a very unlikeable character, and it took me a fair while to figure her out. But, when it became clear of some of the reasoning behind her actions it gave the character meaning.
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The relationships portrayed in this story were well thought out and moulded the storyline. We had Marion's relationship with her kids and husband, also hints of her childhood. There was the sibling relationship of Marion's children, which was lovely to read as we saw the love and hate within.
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A little annoyance with me was Sarah's diary entries. I would like to have seen it written more in the language of a teen, some of the descriptive writing within the diary entries did not scream teenager.
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Despite my early thoughts of quitting. I am glad I carried on, because this did turn out to be a good story of unraveling lies and home truths.

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