Wow, this book lived up to its title. What a cruel family. A few times I just wanted to quit this book because of the characters themselves. They were mean, nasty and I'm surprised that so much hatred lived under one roof for so long. I'm from Ireland and not all families are like this one. I guess that was running through my head while I was reading it. I was hoping that no one from outside the country would think we are all like that. So the author did really great from that prospective. She also fleshed out the characters pretty well. I usually feel for some of th characters in a story like this but nope. Ok well perhaps the Dad.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC of Our Cruelties by Liz Nugent. Her other novels Lying in Wait and Unraveling Oliver had me laughing out loud and feeling utterly delightful. You may wonder how that’s possible with a murder in the plot but the characters were brilliantly written and Our Cruelties starts out with that same depth that is so entertaining. Nugent just has a knack for telling a family story, the details melting off the page like butter on hot pancakes! And trust me, you will eat this saga up — it incites curiosity and the appetite to know what’s going to happen next; Nugent’s bluntness is addicting. The “little Cruelties” are like a thousand tiny cuts; your eyes will continue to widen as you read on and you won’t be able to look away! Nugent dedicates the book to her family and claims they are nothing like the characters, but let’s be honest, where did she get all of these quirky and delicious details about people (or her crazy friends)?? I’d love to spend just one day in her imagination and I’m so jealous of her wit. She describes one of the boys’ dates: “her badly bleached hair lay flat on one side like cattle trampled straw, wildly back combed on the other side like a haystack”...hilarious! Last warning: if you’re the type of reader who has several books on the go at once, you won’t be able to do so while consuming Little Cruelties; it’s so thought-provoking and meaty, you’ll only want this wonderful main course — and the after-taste is extremely satisfying!

First off I love this author. This one wasn't on the top of her writing. The chapters and dates where things were happening were all over and hard to follow. It was still an overall good book.


Thanks to the publisher and net galley for an early release of this book.