My Earliest Reviews

It is T-minus-9 days until Mslexia announces the winner of its novel prize.

I and eleven other expectant women - and it genuinely is almost as weird as anticipating a child being born - are waiting. At this stage, that might be the only thing we have in common. 

Yesterday, I mentioned that my mood was swinging on this one. This morning, I felt rather negative about it all. Sometimes, despite being very proud of this book, and holding it very dear to my heart, it’s hard to see who could possibly like “Naming Names”. 

As a writer, I am lucky enough to have been able to share my work, and even luckier to have happened upon some wonderful readers. Several of them even commented on my little book. By way of cheering myself up, I unearthed some of the early comments that “Naming Names” earned from its first readers; here are some of the nicest of them.

“It's incredible. I can't breathe. It hurts.
God forgive me, but I like my life in my little bubble where the ugliness of humanity doesn't touch me very often. This is horrible and yet somehow beautiful. I assume that's the perfection of the writing style.
Now I have to try to sleep. What was I thinking trying to read this tonight.”

“It's a harsh, disturbing and deeply upsetting book and I commend it to you wholeheartedly. Because some areas of human behaviour are difficult to accept, our inclination is to put them aside. This book forces the reader to form an opinion.
Read Naming Names. It's a remarkable book.” 

“I really rate this. I haven't stopped thinking about the story. I'll probably be thinking about it tomorrow as well. How many books make you feel like that?”