Couldn't get into it. Might pick it back up at a later date!

5 Words: Good, bad, family, friendship, government-cuts.

Trying to review this without spoilers is almost impossible. There is so much that I want to talk about.

For all that I had read the blurb, Beth's story still came as a surprise. I loved her voice and the narrative style, it almost felt like Beth was talking to me.

This is a book that will challenge you and your perceptions. It will likely make you angry at the world, at how a vulnerable person can be let down on so many fronts. It will make so smile at the good things and scowl at the bad. It will likely make you feel every emotion under the sun. It will tug on your heart strings, then just straight-out stretch them to breaking point.

Beth came across as both younger and older than she actually was, and it's something to have to read the story to understand. She has such a big heart but she needs help and at each failing my own heart broke a little more. And that ending? I was in tears.

I was reminded a little of Looking For JJ and it is definitely a book that will stay with me.

Beth's story is heartbreaking but all too real and conceivable, and once you finish this book you will need to talk about it, you will need to discuss what's right and wrong, what needs to be done.

All the Good Things is an emotional little read, I use the word 'little' because I read it one sitting and it really didn’t feel as though I’d just read 280 pages – a good sign, I was so engrossed in the story.

The interesting thing about this one is, the blurb doesn’t openly state why Beth is in prison and the reason why isn’t revealed until the end but from quite early in the book, you figure out the reason. Knowing this from so early on, with other books it might cause your interest to wane, but here it compels you to read on. This book is deeper than the crime that was committed, I believe, it seeks to challenge our own views and possible prejudices – because a person did a bad thing, are they a bad person? So often people are quick to judge without know all the facts; is it not in knowing the facts that you allow yourself to feel compassion, to see that everything is not black and white, the grey area in between matters too?

Through sessions with her counsellor, Beth takes us back to the beginning, to her earliest memories, her foster parents, her first job, first boyfriend and other big and little life events, all to ready her to face her truth. You’ll smile at some of her memories, shake your head at others, thinking she should have known better. It’s evident that Beth is a bright girl with emotional scars that haven’t healed, the isolation Beth lives in, both emotionally and physically - through the realistic narration, Fisher takes you on an emotional journey. Narrated in a chatty-tone that shows Beth’s vulnerability; when you see all that she has endured at only twenty-one, never excusing her actions, you can’t help but feel sad for the life she could have lived.

All the Good Things is Beth’s road to redemption, to finding hope, to believing the end is not always the same as the beginning. This book won’t take up too much of your time reading it but it’s thought-provoking nature will claim you for hours afterwards. All the Good Things is Fisher’s debut novel and I look forward to reading what she writes next.

This book was very different from books I normally read. It jumped about a bit going back and forward which was a bit confusing. Beth is in prison and she keeps saying that she's there because she's done a very bad thing but it's not until the end that you find out what she's done. She had a terrible childhood going from foster parent to foster parent without anyone taking the time to really find out what her problem was. It was only when she was in prison and a social worker there, Erika took the time and patience to really help her.

I've just finished this book and I'm really unsure of what to think of it. Having come through the foster system, Beth is in prison after committing a terrible crime. The book starts with her in therapy and told to write down all the good things that have happened to her. Then with a series of flashbacks we go back in time to see exactly what happened.

The book is well written and I read it in a couple of days but I found it just left me empty with no real thoughts about it one way or the other.

Sometimes we can't help but think of the bad. The overwhelming sense of what has gone wrong and what we could have done better. It overtakes our life. Sometimes we cannot see right for doing wrong. Sometimes we can't look past the bad to find the good. This is what All the Good Things is about.

Sometimes we just have to start small to find the good - like making a list of all the good things. It can be surprising sometimes how such a small thing can play such a big part in your life. Little things are often the biggest things in life. This is a highly emotional read that will pull on our heart.

While in prison Beth is asked by her councillor to make a list of the good things in life. Through this list we get a sense of Beth's life and what has led to this moment. Beth talks about her past in a simple and pragmatic way. Through her telling you get a sense that she never saw anything about her life as not normal.

I loved the portrayal of Beth, of her life. She writes expressively and vividly and allows us into her life bit by little bit. Despite everything there is a sense of hope, the promise of a better life.

This is a stunning debut about social exclusion, the vulnerable and the ones who never get a decent chance. And finally and perhaps most importantly it is a bout finding light even in the darkest of times

"Enjoyed" isn't really the right word for this book as a lot of the content is bleak and sad and I hoped that Beth's crime wasn't what it turned out to be. However I felt the author managed to achieve a well balanced and ultimately optimistic tale of  fractured young lives. The simplicity of some of the Good Things such as "friends you can be weird with" and a"soft ear in hard times" serve as good platforms for Beth's reflections and to remind the reader we should celebrate and enjoy the little things in life.

When we first meet Bethany (Beth) she's a young vulnerable woman who is in prison therapy session with a counsellor and has been asked to write a list of good things, but in her mind there is nothing good and neither is she.. 

What follows is an insight to the relationships that Beth has had in her young life that has brought her to this point.  From the early days with her mother, to the various foster homes she lived in, the 'friends' she made along the way and those who took advantage of her.  All of this has shaped her into the person she is today and led her to the path she took regarding the crime she committed. It's clear that Beth thinks little of herself, she feels that she's unlovable as everyone she has ever gotten close to has left her. 

Whilst compiling her list, Beth recalls the things that she used to make her happy such as running as it gave her the freedom to go wherever she wanted, and reading as it opened up a whole new world to her.  And it's through her love of reading that we can see that she is extremely intelligent, despite her lack of education, and I loved how it was through reading that she was able to help one of her fellow prisoners.

All the Good Things made for bleak. uncomfortable reading at times but was also strangely compelling at the time, showing the bleak realities of the foster system and how people can become lost.  Through Beth's narration we're able to see just how fragile life can be and that not everything is black and white, the colours/lines can be blurred at times to create shades of grey.  And that for a different path in our own lives, it could just as easily be any one of us in her shoes. 

An emotionally-charged debut from Clare Fisher and I look forward to seeing what comes next from her.

All The Good Things follows Beth, a young girl who has been completely failed by the system. The story starts in prison, with Beth's case worker trying to help her understand that although she did a bad thing, there are still good things in her life. The reader isn't aware of the bad thing, but Beth feels that she doesn't deserve any good things, any happiness. 

I found All The Good Things to be both completely heartbreaking and life-affirming. I found it to be a really difficult and excruciating read, by the end I was beside myself and wasn't sure if I could continue reading. I'm glad I did, and I would honestly recommend this book to everybody. Life isn't black or white. It made me think about bad things - zero hour contracts, pay day loans and (some) antenatal care. It made me think about the good things in my life, the small things that wouldn't matter to anybody else. A good book doesn't do that, but a really great one does.

All the good things by Clare Fisher. 
Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve ever to feel good again. But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life.

So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head. But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.
This was a emotional and moving read.  I really felt for Beth. Lovely moving sad read. Made me cry. 5*. Netgalley and penguin books UK.

This is a wonderful serious book.

Fisher creates a wonderful believable world , a main character who is 3 dimensional , full of emotion and a fantastic narrator. 

It works in all ways , the story rolls on evolving and constantly engaging with the reader. 

The end is revealed and is an emotional smash in the face. 

I loved this and hope everyone else who reads it would too

This book is wonderfully written. As Beth lists the good things in her life we find out that her life has been far from easy. She has been in care for most of her childhood and has still to learn a lot about looking after herself. Beth does not tell us her horrific crime until near the end of the book. Beth tells how unstable she had become up to this point. Her crime is heartbreaking. It is so sad. There is a lot of sadness in this book. There has clearly been a lot of thought put into it and it is well worth reading.

Really really good book, so heartfelt and affecting. I could feel the narrator's struggle and was with her the whole way through her journey and it was written in such a tactful way that really had an impact

This book is filled with suspense. It makes you think and appreciate the effect childhood has on an adult. A gripping read which makes you turn each page quicker than the previous one.

When I read a book that deals with a poor childhood and depression I usually come away feeling that I've learnt a little about what it must be like to deal with that situation. After reading All the Good Things I feel like I've lived through it. The sheer horror of being totally on your own, poor and prone to making bad decisions was terrifying. Beth has done a terrible thing but by the end of the book I imagine a lot of readers would be asking themselves if they would have coped any better, I know I did.
This is harrowing and difficult to read but I found it compelling and excellent.

I really enjoyed this book, and read it very quickly. The narrator, Bethany, is both engaging and sympathetic while being the typical unreliable narrator. The author has carefully constructed her character, backstory and current story, enabling these strands to weave in and out of one another in a very artful way. 

The only reason I gave this book 4 instead of 5 stars is because I felt that the central conflict was a little contrived: Bethany is in prison and we don't know what she did to get there. She knows, but she doesn't tell the reader despite the first person confession-style narrative. I understand that this is compelling, and I kept reading to find out - but the author should be more confident in her writing style and plotting ability. The plot is great, and doesn't necessarily need the 'what did she do?' question to keep the reader engaged.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book as an arc. Beth is in prison, after doing a 'bad thing', which we don't find out about until near the end. She is convinced she is worthless and 'bad' so her therapist gives her the task of writing about the good things in her life. She does this and uses it as a way to speak to her baby. When we read her backstory, we find out what had led her to her current situation. She has been in and out of care, she is very intelligent but not been well educated, it is actually a really sad read. People she cared about have been taken away from her and her vulnerable situations have led her to being taken advantage of. She has mental health issues which weren't addressed and has been left to fend for herself, which was really heartbreaking.
I did enjoy the book but found it a bit depressing as I can imagine it is quite true to life.

'I like how books let you into another world, but how it's secret. Like, when you read, the world you see is different from the one someone else sees when they read the same words. It's just yours.'

This was a fantastic read. It's about a 21 year old single mum called Beth who is in prison. We don't know why she's there yet, but she feels like what she's done, 'the bad thing', is so bad that she doesn't ever deserve happiness. Erika, her counsellor, asks her to make a list of all the good things in her life, and this list is intertwined with tales of her time in foster care, her job in the Odeon and her child. 

The mystery of why Beth is in prison isn't solved until the very end and it's not particularly surprising once you get there, but I don't feel like that was the point of the book at all. It's not meant to be full of unexpected twists and turns, it's a realistic story about social exclusion and people who are let down by 'the system'.  It's about understanding how a person can come to be in Beth's situation and the many complex factors that have brought them there. Ultimately, it makes you question whether someone who has done 'the bad thing' can simply just be called a bad person who deserves punishment, or whether there is far more to the story.

Despite the frustrating choices she has made, Beth is a very likeable and realistic character; she's kind, intelligent and thoughtful. Everyone she has every loved has left her, but she still strives to make her life better, managing to find joy in reading and running. To reflect the lack of formal education she's had, the story is told in quite simple, plain language, but Beth is a compelling and eloquent narrator and so it remains very readable. 

I also really enjoyed how current the book felt; I'm living not too far from where a lot of the book is based in London and felt that the author's descriptions were spot on. In fact, when I was reading one scene, in which Beth describes a road she is walking down, I was sat on a bus travelling down the exact same road, which was a bit surreal! 

All in all, it's a heartbreaking story and definitely one of the best books I've read in a while. I will definitely be reading more of Clare Fisher's work in the future.

This book is heart breaking. From the first page, this young woman is the picture of innocence and at no point did my opinion change. This book is so well written that more than once I had to reach for the tissues from such descriptive tragedy. A real gripper

Started off really good I was hooked .... Beth's childhood and her life now and what did she do to be in prison .... However the end got quite confusing and left me a little disappointed