All That's Bright and Gone was very different from what I ever read before. The story is narrated by six year old Aoife (pronounced Ee-fah, so like Eva in German I just thought...) trying to solve the murder of her brother Theo to help bring back home her Mom which has a mental breakdown and has to stay in a hospital. Her uncle moves in and takes care of her and together with the girl next door who loves to solve mysteries (and Aoife's imaginary friend Teddy, which she isn't supposed to talk about to other people) the journey to begins.

I just loved this book, it got me hooked from the start and the descriptions how a six year old sees the world were just lovely. Already one of my favorites of this year!

Thanks Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review and to Eliza Nellums for writing this beautiful story!

The story is told through the eyes of 6 year old Aoife as she is left to piece together the story of her family after her mother is sent away after a mental breakdown. The story has you playing guessing games of what happened to her older brother Theo with the help of her imaginary character Teddy. This book was hard to put down, I wanted to keep reading more and more!

I'm having a difficult time reviewing this book. Why?

First, I received an advanced ARC. I realize this was not the edited version, but it was so oddly spaced I had a hard time determining who was speaking. This isn't the fault of the author, but it made it a difficult read, which made it hard for me to be drawn in. I decided to assume I would have been more drawn in with the final version.

Secondly, it was written from the pov of a child. This was truly well done, and I believed the thoughts and actions of the child. On the other hand, it made me have to work harder to read the book.

This was a well written, thought out story. Just not as good as I had hoped.

I. Love. This. Book. I have never read anything like this in my life. It's a book for adults but written from the perspective of a six year old. The way Aoife was thinking the whole time was exactly how I would think of things as a kid. Aoife represents every child who goes through something traumatic and their parent is unable to escape the cycle of trauma so the child is drawn in. You could understand the effects of trauma on Aoife and her way of thinking, interacting, and surviving. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

What a good book! I loved how Eliza wrote this book through a 6 year old point of view. The storyline was heart breaking and I felt for everyone in this book at one point or another.
I look forward to read more from Eliza!

Title: All that’s Bright and Gone

Author: Eliza Nellums

Length: approx 250 pages

Publisher: Crooked Lane Publishers

Publication Date: December 2019

Genre: General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

My rating: 4/5

Summary:

The story is about 6 years old girl named Aoifa pronounced as EE – Fa. The story narrated from her perspective, is her quest to solve the mystery behind her elder Brother’s murder.

My Take:

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for reading and reviewing this wonderful book.

The story transports you to the world of a 6 year old innocent girl who is still grasping things based on the happenings around. It was a welcome change from reading the books from a grown up perspectives. Author has done a fabulous job of describing things the way a little child would. Though sometimes the actions portrayed pertained to the older version of the girl. The same can be ignored though.

The story is a bit slow paced with lots of details given for describing scenes, enabling reader to identify with the surroundings and imaging the scenes right in front of you. The pain of a six year old is beautifully portrayed when she’s away from her mother and missing her. It just takes your heart away.

The characterisation is great but depth is only in the main girls character. Her uncle Donny is an adorable character. The mystery of her friend Teddy whom only she can see is a surprising mystery solved in end.

The revelations towards the climax does leave your jaw dropped but a very satisfactory ending. The climax was totally unexpected and that’s what makes it a great read. The ending leaves you feeling full and happy.

I would recommend this book to everyone who wish to read something new. A great job by the writer.

This was an interesting book. It was reminiscent of Room as it was told through the eyes of a 6 year old girl. It gave a unique perspective of how children view the world and what is important to them and how the world is interpreted. This reminded me as the mother of a six year old that it is important to explain things and not always shield children from reality. I read parts of this book to my daughters as it give a nice explanation of what I do for a living working for “sea pee-ess” and what can be misconstrued and how important children’s safety is.

“Mama says I should ask politely and be gracious about the chance to learn something new.”

I enjoyed, All That’s Bright and Gone, and will be looking forward to reading more by Eliza Nellums. Solid 4 stars!

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for my advanced copy of, All That’s Bright and Gone, in exchange for my honest review.

***Will post to Goodreads a month before publishing and Amazon/B&N on publishing release date.

A truly lovely book. Told from the perspective of a child, it is moving and unexpectedly thrilling. Despite the fact that it is about the death of her brother and her mother's mental illness, there are still moments of lightness and humor, too. I cannot wait to see what Eliza Nellums does next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read it.

What a fantastic read!! It took me totally by surprise; when I read the blurb, I thought it was going to be about a six year old coping with brother’s death. It turned out to be so much more than that! I loved this story, I thought the author did a wonderful job at not only keeping me hooked from start to finish, but writing from a 6 year old’s point of view. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to write a novel about such a heavy subject from a child’s point of view. But I thought it was done very well, it seemed very real and made the story all the more interesting. Aoife does not understand the magnitude of the things & conversations happening around her and the reader is left to read in between the lines and piece things together, which made me feel very much apart of the story.

The characters were great, the writing was great, the plot was full of twists and turns; this book is going straight to my favorites shelf!

I had such a hard time with this one, and I think it was because my copy was unedited, a lot of words didn't have spaces between them, a lot of sentences didn't have spaces between sentences, pages were just run on page after page, a chapter would start in the middle of a sentence. It was just a headache to read it, and that made me have a hard time following a long. I tried redownloading it, but it was the same. I understand ARC's can be undedited and aren't final versions, but it's probably one of the worst copies I have ever gotten from netgalley.

Aside from that, the story itself was good, it was told in the point of view of a little girl who's name I don't even know cause its so weird, effee or something. it's spelled weird, it's pronounced weird, and I already forgot what it actually is because it's not a name that was easy to remember, its a unreliable name for an unreliable character, which only made my headache worse while reading it. The story itself though was good, a lot of details about things are lost, because it's in the point of view of the little girl, through her interpretation of things, as she tries to solve the mystery of her brother, you find out what is going on by reading between the lines and by the explanations of the adults around her, but like I said, my copy sucked, so the reading between the lines was literally really hard.

I think if I had a better edited copy, and the main character's name was different, it would have been an easier read, and I would have liked it way more.

I was pretty excited to read this. From the perspective of a six-year-old, it's different. The beginning hooked me from the way Aoife thinks and talks (she's pretty smart for her age) while interacting with her imaginary friend Teddy, who is a bear.

But as the story went on, I started to get a bit disinterested. It wasn't moving very fast and even though I liked her Uncle Donny who is staying with her while her mom gets help, it was a lot of the same (and I get a six-year-old isn't going to go out every day and do new things.) I wasn't a huge fan of her neighbor friend, Hannah, who wants to solve the mystery of her brother's death.

Overall, I can see many people enjoying this, I did at the start, but it just didn't keep my attention enough.

I had a hard time staying interested in this book. The story was a good one but the writing style got boring from time to time.

I liked this book. I thought the author did a fantastic job with nailing the point of view of a six year old girl who was the main character. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for review.

The story is told by a six year old, so it's interesting to see the author's viewpoint on how a six year old would think and speak. But it does make it more interesting, as the little girl tries to solve the mystery of her missing brother. It's sad in places and also funny in places. A good read.

I’ve recently finished reading the book ‘All that’s bright and gone’ by Eliza Nellums. This book is due to be published on 10th December 2019! This is Eliza Nellum’s debut novel and is written through the eyes of a six year old as the family deal with their issues and mental health. It may give the reader a glance at the possible inner mind workings of how a 6 year old sees the ‘adult’ issues, the conclusions they draw and the way they deal with it.

I know my brother is dead. But sometimes Mama gets confused.
There’s plenty about the grownup world that six-year-old Aoife doesn’t understand. Like what happened to her big brother Theo and why her mama is in the hospital instead of home where she belongs. Uncle Donny says she just needs to be patient, but Aoife’s sure her mama won’t be able to come home until Aoife learns what really happened to her brother. The trouble is no one wants to talk about Theo because he was murdered. But by whom?
With her imaginary friend Teddy by her side and the detecting skills of her nosy next door neighbor, Aoife sets out to uncover the truth about her family. But as her search takes her from the banks of Theo’s secret hideout by the river to the rooftops overlooking Detroit, Aoife will learn that some secrets can’t stay hidden forever and sometimes the pain we bury is the biggest secret of them all.
Driven by Aoife’s childlike sincerity and colored by her vivid imagination, All That’s Bright and Gone illuminates the unshakeable bond between families–and the lengths we’ll go to bring our loved ones home. 

www.averagebooklove.home.blog

This was such a cute, fun read for me. This is told from the POV of six-year-old Aoife (pronounced "EE-fah") who is trying to put back together her very broken family. Aoife's mom is in the middle of what appears to be a mental breakdown, Aoife has a, seemingly imaginary bear named Teddy, and her brother Theo is gone. Her uncle Donny comes to try and put the pieces of Aoife's life back together while supporting his sister as best he can. If you loved any of Fredrik Bachman's novels (especially "My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry"), you will eat this book up. It's a quick read that's charming and heartwarming. I breezed through this book and just adored the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of All That's Bright and Gone, which is set to release December 10, 2019.

This story was different than most that I read. It comes from the perspective of a six-year so at times it made it a bit difficult. But. all in all it had a notable plot so it made it different than the ones I usually read.

This book had me hooked from the very first sentence. I loved that it was told from Aoife's POV, getting into the mind of a 6-year-old with such difficult subjects is fascinating and really <b>made</b> this book.

I loved the journey Aoife's took us on and I'm also proud to say that I can properly pronounce her name without stuttering in my head now. Hallelujah!

I did have a couple of issues with this book, mainly that a) not a lot happened and b) the plot twist was predictable and boring. I had a theory as to what was going on which (if I do say so myself) I think would've been much better than the actual truth.

Other than that it was pretty enjoyable, but nothing revolutionary.

Told through the eyes of a 6 year old, All That is Bright and True is a story about the good, bad, and ugly that is family. There is a lot going on here, but it still rings true, even when it probably shouldn't. I enjoyed this twisty, imaginative story, that takes a unique approach on the family drama genre. Topics touched on include, mental health, sexuality, religion, death, and family stepping up and stepping in when they are most needed. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for an advanced digital copy of this novel.

this book is told from the perspective of a 6 year old girl. This made the story more interesting. Aioffe tries to solve the mystery of her brother's murder. It's a sad story with some funny moments.