This books is less plot than it is the showing of complex relationships. The book is almost meandering in its story with our MC drinking and figuring out her life in slow plodding steps. We see the shine in her connections to other people and also her relationship to self.

Erin is young and dealing with heavy loss which has derailed her university plans. She is working and living as an Au Pair and she struggles with this being her life outside of the drinking and drugs she takes part in. This, plus a tumultuous relationship with her mother and religion all make for a compelling read.

The prose is sharp and humor is dry. I loved Erin's story and I can't wait for more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC!!

My ARC didn’t translate well to Kindle so I’ve given up after becoming frustrated with weird spacing issues. I’m adding this to the TBR since I can just buy it now and read it as it’s meant to be read.

First published in the UK in 2023; published by W.W. Norton & Company/ ‎ Liveright on October 3, 2023

Lazy City is a snapshot of a young woman’s life in modern Belfast. Since it isn’t much more than that and since her life is largely wasted, I have mixed feelings about the novel.

Erin was dating Mikey before she moved away to attend a university. She always felt a distance from other people but felt less distance from her college roommate Kate. She had difficulty processing Kate’s death. After a few weeks, she walked away from her academic life and returned to Belfast. Erin stayed briefly with her violent and unforgiving mother before it became clear that she was not welcome. This is the backstory of a novel that opens with Erin working as Anne Marie’s live-in nanny and cleaner.

Erin is a lonely party girl. She knows her housing situation is temporary and that she’ll need to find a new place to live (and thus a new job) if Anne Marie reconciles with the husband from whom she separated. Erin avoids thinking about her future by getting drunk most nights, sometimes adding coke or ketamine to the party after the bars close. She hangs out with her friend Declan, a gay bartender/artist whose physician father is from Sri Lanka, but otherwise tries to avoid people who know her.

Erin doesn’t know if she wants to reconnect with Mikey although she knows she will. She gets along with Mikey’s brother, who might be the novel’s nicest character (apart from Declan), but he has serious drug and alcohol problems. While she’s pondering what to do about Mikey, she meets a somewhat older American who is teaching English literature at Queens. She has mixed feelings about her drunken decision to sleep with him. She is soon sleeping with Mikey or the American a couple of nights each week.

Both Mikey and the American might have other relationships they are concealing from Erin. Why this should bother Erin baffles me since she isn’t telling either of her sex partners about her other sex partner, but Erin nevertheless feels victimized. Still, she manages to address her concerns with both men without hysteria or other pointless drama, which is to her credit.

Erin is bright and straightforward, not given to pretension. The American uses words like technocapitalism that he can only vaguely define. Erin wonders whether he is posing. She suspects that people like to blame capitalism for problems because it’s easier to repair economic systems than to repair people. She’s glad that the American doesn’t try to talk about the Troubles because he would probably say something that is culturally insensitive, or maybe she would, although she understands the people who survived the Troubles never talk about it.

Erin doesn’t feel she can tell anyone about the pain she associates with Kate’s loss. She isn’t particularly religious but she visits empty churches, lights a candle, and shares her life with Kate’s spirit.

Erin’s internal monologs, including her conversations with Kate, are sometimes insightful. She isn’t sure why she has sex with the American or Mikey. She chalks Mikey up to being a habit. She keeps sleeping with the American because “the loneliness in him means something to the loneliness in me.” Or maybe it’s the “sense that his vulnerability makes mine less obvious? That I have the upper hand?” Only later does it occur to her that he might be asking himself why he wants to have sex with her.

Rachel Connolly creates a sense of intimacy with her unadorned, conversational writing style. She portrays Erin as a likable but troubled woman, the kind of person for whom it is easy to be both sympathetic and impatient. Erin wants to be true to herself, but she seems to think that her true self should be drunk and high most nights. She needs to get her life together. That’s presumably the novel’s point. By the last chapter, as she makes New Year’s resolutions, it’s clear that she understands what she needs to do. It’s less clear that she has the will to do it.

Novels like this one, depicting a few months that aren’t going well in the life of a young woman, seem to attract publishers. I assume they attract readers or publishers wouldn’t buy them. I often feel a bit disappointed when I read them, perhaps because my impatience with the troubled young woman overcomes my sympathy. Erin’s epiphany — that her return to Belfast was an act of running away but also an act of running toward something — is a bit obvious, particularly after Erin spells it out for the reader. So is the last sentence, as Erin leaves a church and starts walking forward, presumably charting the path that will be the rest of her life. (I hope that’s not a spoiler, but I’m not sure how it is possible to spoil a story that has no real ending.)

The novel doesn't amount to much, although the writing is sufficiently sharp that I am hesitant to condemn the story as shallow. I recommend it as a decent slice of life story about yet another troubled young woman, but I can’t recommend it as anything more than that.

RECOMMENDED

𝟯.𝟱 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗦 𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗗 𝗗𝗢𝗪𝗡
This book was literally if ‘Beautiful World, Where Are You’ by Sally Rooney had less of the friendship aspect.

That being said OBVIOUSLY if you loved that book I think you will highly enjoy this one! Great writing, but just fell a bit flat in other areas for me.

Definitely a good addition to the “sad girl” book/aesthetic genre!

After losing her closest friend, Erin leaves London and returns to her hometown of Belfast. There, she takes on an au pair position, seeking solace from her grief and the tumultuous relationship with her mother. Her evenings are spent at a local bar where her old friend Declan is employed, and it's at this bar that she crosses paths with an American academic who, like her, is trying to escape from something. Erin's unconventional and discreet exploration of religion provides her with a unique form of refuge during this trying period in her life.

Lazy City is a debut novel written by the Northern Irish author Rachel Connolly that could be mistaken as another "sad girl" or "messy girl" book, however it brings some depth and empathy to this trope. I loved the prose of the novel which helped shape the cold but intricate landscape of Northern Ireland. At times I did feel there was a lull in the novel because the plot is very light, however I was very interested in the inter-relationships between all the characters. I wish we had delved deeper into Erin's trauma and had more introspection on her relationships. All that being said, it was a brilliant debut and I am excited to read more from Rachel Connolly!

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company, Liveright for the digital arc in return for an honest review!

"Lazy City" excels as a slice-of-life narrative that, quite simply, feels deeply real. It's a story that thrives in its quieter moments, revealing the profound beauty in the everyday. Connolly's portrayal of Irish friendships and dynamics is a vibrant tapestry that adds depth and authenticity to the narrative.

loved this one! Erin felt so painfully relatable. thought it was sweet & humorous while also dealing w/ dark & complex themes. definitely recommend!

Yes this is another version of the sad girl trope but it's also an intriguing slice of life set in Belfast, Erin is back home, having left her graduate studies, she's working as a nanny/housekeeper, and she's spending too much time in bars. And thinking about Catholicism. She's got thing with a visiting American, a renewed relationship of sorts with an ex, and she drinks a lot. And she takes drugs. It's a character driven novel where not a whole lot happens except in Erin's head but the writing is evocative. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

I fast forwarded most of this book as nothing of consequence was happening. Erin’s grief of losing her friend was palpable and her ability to seek comfort in the quietness of church and religious upbringing was commendable. A lot of drinking and lonely sex really did not bring satisfaction for Erin as she struggled with loss, relationships problems and a period in her life that was in upheaval. Declan was a true friend and in the ending I saw an Erin was going to move forward.

<i>...they were sharing a room, she said. I think that's the reason it took so long. Trying to explain it to herself more than me. I said I thought she was probably right. That's what she needed me to say so I said it. Sometimes when your friend is being stupid you just have to go along with it.</i>

Erin's found a sort-of job working as an au pair that gives her a place to live when she returns to Belfast, but she's just spinning her wheels, on hold. She left London and university when her roommate and best friend died suddenly. She knew she couldn't stay, but her hometown is not the refuge she'd hoped it might be. Her relationship with her mother is as fractured as ever and the way her friends spend much of their time just hanging out in bars isn't doing her any good, especially when her closest friend is a bartender. She falls back into an old relationship out of habit and into a new one with an American academic who is clearly in Belfast to get away from something.

This is a perceptive novel about avoiding grief and how sometimes what looks like stasis is moving forward. Erin has a sharp voice and while she may be avoiding her own problems, she can see her own hometown with an understanding of its history and an affectionate clarity about its faults. Here, the boys who never left, the strivers and those who don't know where they are going are observed but not judged. Connolly writes well, although this novel does feel like a debut, with descriptions often going into unnecessary detail. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her next novel.

Loved this book, this will be my recommendation in our newsletter. Such great writing, totally nails the feeling of being a little too old to be lost and directionless. The way Erin deals with grief and loss and break ups and a truly terrible Mother had me riveted, not to mention the most accurate descriptions of various hangovers.

Charming and witty, Lazy City is a novel that has the power to make us all feel a little more human. The main character Erin is hilariously relatable as she navigates complex relationships with her mother, her faith and men, all while grieving the loss of her best friend. The dry humor complimented the gloomy Belfast setting perfectly. I adore this book for highlighting how complex our lives can feel at times, and reminding us we're never alone.

This author captured the main character so beautifully. In fact, I thought she did a wonderful job creating a whole world of characters with full and realistic personalities. I really felt the weight of the characters grief throughout and thought it was a lovely exploration of picking up the pieces after devastation. The ending fell a little flat for me, I didn't care for the monologue at the church as it felt a bit cliche but I understand what the author was trying to do. Overall I really enjoyed this!

Rachel Connolly proves the “messy girl” trope can still shine with some nuance and empathy.

Lazy City follows Erin, an au pair (a title she reluctantly accepts) taking a break from school due to a major loss in her life. Erin drinks, meanders, thinks about her future, and slowly ponders the effects of her loss. She does this with a sobering and often humorless clarity (despite rarely being sober).

I particularly enjoyed how in control she appears to be from the outside, something the messy girl trope often fails to achieve in its own goofiness. Erin binge drinks and does drugs, but there’s nothing particularly cool or out of control about it. She’s simply lost, and it seems her peers are as well in their own different ways. If they recognize her grief, they don’t know how to openly talk about it. When one acquaintance bluntly reveals important information, she squirms, but recognizes the possibility of a deeper friendship. I loved her internal voice and the quiet way she shifts forward. It’s a slice of life story that feels deeply real. I enjoyed it’s quiet moments, but also the vivid portrayal of Irish friendships and dynamics. I think fans of Fleabag and Sally Rooney will find a lot to love here.
Rachel Connolly proves the “messy girl” trope can still shine with some nuance and empathy.

Lazy City follows Erin, an au pair (a title she reluctantly accepts) taking a break from school due to a major loss in her life. Erin drinks, meanders, thinks about her future, and slowly ponders the effects of her loss. She does this with a sobering and often humorless clarity (despite rarely being sober).

I particularly enjoyed how in control she appears to be from the outside, something the messy girl trope often fails to achieve in its own goofiness. Erin binge drinks and does drugs, but there’s nothing particularly cool or out of control about it. She’s simply lost, and it seems her peers are as well in their own different ways. If they recognize her grief, they don’t know how to openly talk about it. When one acquaintance bluntly reveals important information, she squirms, but recognizes the possibility of a deeper friendship. I loved her internal voice and the quiet way she shifts forward. It’s a slice of life story that feels deeply real. I enjoyed it’s quiet moments, but also the vivid portrayal of Irish friendships and dynamics. I think fans of Fleabag and Sally Rooney will find a lot to love here.

I really loved this book. None of the characters were particularly likeable, not many of their choices made sense, but they all felt relatable and real. I think this will fit in well with the "scrambling girl in her 20s" canon.

Continuing my journey of only reading books set in Northern Ireland...

A slice of life character study focusing on a young woman, her grief, and feeling unsure of what direction her life is going in. Rotating days of partying, men, and pushing down of her emotions.

I really enjoyed the meditations on religion and god throughout this novel. I love a good nothing much happens kinda book, but I found Lazy City to be just a little bit too meandering with not enough character development.

The writing was beautiful though.

Thank you so much to the publishers and netgalley for the arc. Expected date of publication is August 2023.

I was lazy reading this book because it didn't keep my attention and I could not identify with the MC. I wanted to like it because I like the idea of the story. Just two stars from me. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I went in really wanting to like this book, but… nothing happened. Genuinely, nothing happened in this book. The main character keeps going through cycles of get drunk/high, have sex, fight with her mother. Get drunk/high, have sex, fight with her mother. There is no character progression, no reckoning, nothing of real substance. She never faces the consequences of her own actions. Every conversation is written out in complete detail, even though most of the conversations are small talk. I’m someone who really enjoys introspective literary fiction, and I was really excited for the exploration of Erin’s character. But she’s numb and cold and closed-off, unwilling to interrogate herself on anything for too long. The writing is good and Erin’s relationships with some of the characters are really interesting, like Matt (not the American one) and Declan, but overall nothing happened and nothing was said. I really like Rachel Connolly as a writer (her journalism is great), but this was disappointing.