Snowflake

When Debbie is accepted into Trinity College, Dublin, she's thrilled and envisions a world of like-minded friends and a sense of belonging she never found in her small Irish village, where her mother is both mentally ill and known for sleeping with a number of the village's men. Her bedrock is her uncle, who lives in a trailer behind the house and who runs the dairy farm. But university isn't what she'd dreamt of. It's a lot harder than she thought and she's only managed to make one friend, a well-off girl named Xanthe who finds Debbie to be refreshingly "authentic."

Louise Nealon's debut novel is, on the one hand, another coming-of-age novel by a young Irish woman and, on the other, a refreshing angle on that flooded genre. Debbie is a show more mess, but she's also got better reasons for it than general ennui and despite the huge problems in her family, she has more support than many of the wealthier versions of this character. It was interesting to see how a culchie, someone from rural Ireland, experiences Dublin and the people who live there, and how they, or at least Xanthe, experience rural Ireland. And the writing is far better than one usually finds in a debut novel. Even if you've tired of Sally Rooney, or if you love her and want something similar from a different angle, this book is worth reading. show less

Lyrical story about Deb White, and 18-yr old from a dairy farm in Kildare who goes to Trinity College in Dublin and experiences a bit of a culture shock as she tries to meld the two worlds. Back in Kildare is her Mam (Maeve) and her uncle Billy (the hero of the tale) What Nealon captures so well is the darkness of the drink and the intense creativity and borderline madness that runs through their family and the Irish sensibility. Debbie's dreams often are someone else's dreams or she is able to enter their mind, particularly at an intensely dangerous moment. A couple times this has led to the deaths of the dreamers - not her fault, but she ends of feeling responsible when she cannot prevent them. And this futility causes additional show more problems in her mental health. Her mother is even more unstable, having experienced this same prescience but for twice as long. She, unlike Deb is dramatic and turns it and most of her interactions with the small village into a spectacle. Billy tries to keep the family all together, but is often slogged under booze. It sounds depressing, but Nealon's prose makes it sing and also touches the heart in her portrayal of the path out of mental illness with the aid of a neighbor, Audrey. On Deb's other side is her college life, in which she feels way outclassed. She becomes friends with Xanthe who comes from a whole nother social strata, but they make their friendship work in fits and starts. Xanthe also suffers from depression which Deb cannot comprehend since her life looks so perfect, but the author's point is everyone has 'stuff' and we just need to help each other get through it. show less

Snowflake by Louise Nealon is a highly recommended coming of age story.

Debbie is eighteen and commuting from the family dairy farm in rural Kildare County to attend Trinity college in Dublin where she is overwhelmed, learning how to hide, and depressed. While her life on the farm with her Uncle Billy and her mother, Maeve, hasn't been without drama and problems, they all love and support each other. At college in Dublin, Debbie makes one friend, Xanthe, although the two are seemingly opposites and Xanthe is the one who pursues Debbie's friendship. At home, although Debbie wants to pull away from her family, they offer comfort in their familiarity, although they drink too much and their behavior is often odd. Debbie also begins to drink show more too much in Dublin and is depressed. When a tragic accident shakes up her whole family, they all have to face some harsh realities.

The quality of the writing is excellent. The contrast of Debbie's rural life on the farm versus city life in Dublin is depicted realistically as is her uncomfortable transition between the two contrasting worlds. This contrast is also captured in the differences between the lives of Debbie and Xanthe, who have a connection in spite of their differences. The closeness and relationship between Billy and Debbie is believable and beautifully rendered. There is an element of magic realism in the plot. The growth and depth of the characters is wonderfully captured. Everyone in the family have special gifts - Maeve and Debbie in their dreams and Billy in some special abilities. The frank inclusion of depression and the abuse of alcohol is realistically depicted in how it affects the characters. This is a very good debut novel and it will be interesting to see what Nealon writes next.

At the beginning of this novel I felt like it was more a new adult/young adult novel as the focus felt to was targeting a younger reader versus a mature adult reader. This evaluation did change as the novel progressed and the characters experienced some growth, but it needs to be mentioned. Once we learned more about Debbie's family and their struggles and gifts, it slowly became a better novel. I still feel that the target reading audience skews young, although I appreciated the character growth.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/08/snowflake.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4204976955 show less

And here’s another chaotic family, this time living on a dairy in rural Ireland. Debbie is 18 and headed to college in the city. Taking the bus back and forth from the farm, she struggles with making friends her own age. At home, her flighty mom, who doesn’t know who Debbie’s father is has sunk into alcoholism. Her Uncle Billy lives in a caravan behind the farmhouse. He’s the stable adult in Debbie’s life. Debbie’s life unfolds slowly in the chapters showing how dysfunctional her life is and giving good reasons for Debbie’s challenges in life. She makes a friend in Xanthe, at Trinity College. Luckily, there’s plenty of humor to lighten this sad story.

Like the main character in Snowflake, Debbie, I'm a working-class culchie who went to Trinity (though are people from Kildare really culchies? Kildare's just kind of Greater Dublin at this point), so I went into this book with hopes that it would resonate me because of that shared experience. Sadly, however, I thought this was an even weaker novel than the much-vaunted Normal People, to which it has been compared. There are some passages of nice prose, and Louise Nealon does have a good ear for rural Irish speech patterns, but let's just say that I was unsurprised to get to the acknowledgements and find out that this started out life as an exercise in a creative writing course.

Debbie was 18 years old and living on her family's dairy farm. She lived a sheltered life and looked forward to moving to a big city. When she is accepted to Trinity College in Dublin, she's thrilled but very nervous. She is so shy that she ends up commuting every day from the farm to college and misses out on the college experience.

Debbie lived on the farm with her mother who always seemed to be on the verge of a mental breakdown and her uncle who lives on the farm in a camping trailer and spends much of his time drunk. Both of them are less than perfect but they both love Debbie and want the best for her. Debbie soon finds out that life in the city wasn't what she thought it would be. She finds the anonymity unsetting plus she is show more disappointed by her fellow students. She does make a friend and at first Debbie isn't sure how to be a friend because she has no friends at home. She soon begins to understand how wonderful is to have a friend.

I found this book to be very intriguing. It's character based without a lot of action but seeing Debbie's thought process is an everyday adventure. I ended up loving the book and all of the characters. The book made me laugh and it made me cry but it's a book that I won't soon forget and I look forward to future books from this author.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. show less

A good read and a page-turner, for sure. I'm not a fan of first person narrative, but I liked the narrator, except when it felt like she was unreliable. The Uncle character is great, and since this is supposed to be developed into a series, it will be interesting to see who is cast in the role, and how they might further flesh-out his character. Story felt really honest and the humor was a highlight. Not a fan of the mother character or the dream storyline in general-- the dream thing didn't work the way I think the author wanted it to and for me it detracted from the parts of the story that I was interested in. On the other hand, the Uncle's abilities were believable and left me wanting more. There were a lot of things that felt show more unresolved in the story, and I don't like being left with the sense that the author is holding back for their next book. I'm not sure if that is the case or not. So for me, I like the first 1/2-3/4 of the book better than the ending. show less