I did not finish the book. I enjoy quirky characters and different settings, but the book just didn’t resonate with me at all. A few things turned me off and I decided to move on. Thank you for the ARC.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. I appreciate Gallen's dry writing style, and her protagonist's wry humour sometimes. I also appreciate the sense of community in the book, and the occasional deadpan humour. However, this kind of slice-of-life novel wasn't to my taste. I found my attention wandering throughout the book, and found it especially hard to keep reading.

In a year, when I cannot travel, Michelle Gallen does a fantastic job of setting the scene in the fictional town of Aghybogey in Northern Ireland. I felt transported to the small town, as I had an insider's view into the comings and goings of the residents at the local chipper.

I think the marketing of the book as similar to "Derry Girls" is slightly off; for me, the great thing about Derry girls is the friendship and joy the friends share in the series despite the ongoing Troubles. In Big Girl, Small Town the main character Marjella is more of a loner, so we don't experience the funny shenanigans that makes up Derry Girls. However, the similarity between the two, is the biting, dark humor that runs throughout the novel, and the humor helps to sustain the book.

Majella is a captivating character. I enjoyed the humor within the book but wasn't a fan of the condensed timeline.

I really loved the description of this book, but I found it very hard to read. So hard, in fact, I could not finish it. I have no problem when people use the language of another English dialect, but I really have trouble reading books when the characters also speak in the dialect and it is written within the dialect.

I loved this great little book. Everyone has a story and this was hers. Great for bookclubs. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher!

Thank you so much to #Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

I'm not sure why, but this book just didn't click with me. I wasn't really even sure what the story was about to be honest.

I'm not sure if its because it was written in dialect and I don't really know the dialect so some of it may have been lost on me.

I'm sad though, I saw so many people loved it. I will try to read this again down the line

Really enjoyed this novel. So many clean sentences. The character development was extremely thorough and gave just the right amount of backstory to give context to the plot. I will definitely be recommending Michelle Gallen's novel to my friends! Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy!

If you asked me to tell you what happened in this book, I would have to say, "Not a whole lot." If you asked me to describe the main character Majella, now that's another topic entirely. This book is kind of quirky in the sense that there's not much moving the story forward but you feel Majella's hunger for something, anything different. Day after day, Majella does the same thing, eats the same food, talks to the same people. She's not happy but she seems to be content. And yet, you can sense that she maybe dares to hope that one day things might be different. Majella spends a lot of time dwelling on the past until something happens that allows Majella to feel something new for the first time...a taste of freedom. If you've ever been stuck in a rut, doing the same mundane things every day, then you will absolutely relate to Majella. I hope we get to read more about her in the future.

What a quick, funny little story! I will admit, it took me a second to get use to the story being very Irish, but it just added to the charm. I adored Majella very much! I loved her lists and her growth during this tiny snapshot into her life. I loved the fact that she is on the autism spectrum and was not written as a stereotype, which is so tiring. Majella is such a breath of fresh air! Despite not being a plot-driven story, watching her develop into her own and watching her interact with people in her small town, was enough to keep my attention and entertained.

Things I liked about this story - it's set in a small town in Northern Ireland, it's written in dialect which I think is fun, the main character is likeable, it paints a full picture of the setting and characters of the small town. What's also interesting is that while the main character is described as quirky it becomes obvious from her own description that she's falling somewhere on the autism spectrum - you realize this not because anyone ever says it but because she describes the adaptations and techniques she uses to go about her life without much bother, which rings very true I think, especially for people living in a small community like her town.

The story itself... didn't really go anywhere. It was a fun read but it's more of a slice of life than an actual plot

I could not have loved this book more. Majella will win you over. She is a young woman who works at a dead-end job at a chippy, who wolfs down fish and chips every night for dinner alone in her bed, and whose entire life is constrained by a town that has already decided who she is, and she just may be the heroine you are looking for. This is not a story of an ugly, awkward duckling who turns into a swan. This is the story of a duckling who works within her circumstances, realistically and authentically, and ultimately moves ahead without changing who she is. For fans of Derry Girls, for sure.

If you like "Derry Girls" this book may appeal to you. Thanks to that show I could understand the language well enough and even some of the slang terms. I liked Majella as a character, but felt bad for her lot in life even if she seemed okay with it. What I didn't like about this book is nothing really happened. I kept thinking we would discover more about her father's disappearance or what happened to her Grandma but we didn't get either of those things really. When I finally felt like something really good was going to happen for Majella, the book pretty much just ended. Ms. Gallen has a great attention to details and she was very consistent in her dialect, but I needed more plot. The last half of the book I felt like I really had to push myself to finish.

A quick, engrossing read about a week in the life of a young woman stagnating in North Ireland. Not much happens in terms of conventional plot—the events that formed Majella and inform her actions during this particular week happened offstage, so to speak, and it is our discovery of them that drives the book. Majella is multifaceted and wholly believable, and I enjoyed being immersed in the small border town, post-Troubles, even though the town itself wasn't the sort of cutesy picturesque Irish community one might go into this expecting. And I don't understand why the Guardian described this as "darkly hilarious"—I didn't find it humorous at all. Imo, the book is much less lighthearted than the description leads you to believe. That was fine by me, but it's something to be aware of.

Thank you, NetGalley and Algonquin Books, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was truly fascinating. As an American reader, I have to admit that the accented dialogue was sometimes hard to get into, and some of the slang and cultural references simply didn't translate. That said, I really enjoyed the novel. The writer has an excellent style and voice, and I can't get over how fresh and original the entire thing felt, from characterization to setting to plot.