I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

I was both entertained by this book and strangely bored. It starts strong with a curious beginning. It builds into the first few chapters than you drudge through the middle. The end became a bit higher stakes and faster paced but there's no closure - nothing tying the preface or prologue to the final chapter. I felt a little lost and disappointed. To say I have mixed feelings is a hot of an understatement. I think could have been great but felt a little disjointed.

The writing is captivating and the story and the characters highly engaging. It's the story of a Romani girl that is sold to a boxer. As she grows she runs his pub (or ale house, to be precise), to finally become a fighter herself.
The characters are well crafted and round. At the beginning, the language is a little difficult to assess, but once you enter the logic of it , it flows nicely. A little too slow paced for my taste but very well written.

Featherweight is a historical fiction novel set in the Far West era. We follow Annie, a young Romani who is sold to famous fighter Bill Perry. As she grows, Annie observes the fight, until one day, she enters the boxing world herself, after she has to help Bill with a fight.

I must admit I struggled a bit with this book. Old English is the norm for the writing here, and it was sometimes difficult for me to read, as I'm not used to it. Still, it was understandable, and it probably is necessary to have this type of writing and speech for such a novel. I just need to get more used to it, but for now, it was not my thing.

Still, this did not prevent the book from being extremely entertaining. I really liked the concept of having a woman in a men's world in this era. The same thing had attracted me to another historical fiction " A betting woman " by Jenni Walsh. It is also a pretty fast paced story, with action always happening. I felt it was sometimes a little too much, as I wasn't too sure what was happening for what reason. That being said, I enjoyed reading about the evolution of Annie, her newfound family, and the way fighting is perceived for women throughout the pages.

Annie and the makeshift family she finds in Bill and his companions is definitely one of the highlights of the novel. Although I thought there were A LOT of characters, and I sometimes had trouble remembering who's who, Annie's direct "family" is fabulous.
After being sold, Annie feels abandoned, and keeps wondering what happened to her birth family. However, Bill really takes her in as his daughter, proudly tells everyone about her, etc. Then, throughout the story, the family grows, especially with Jem, a young fistfighter who takes a keen interest in Annie. Their relationships are really well-woven, and my heart warmed a lot when reading Annie/Bill moments. It was a nice balance between action and emotion.

In the end, although I was not the biggest fan of the novel, mostly because of the "old" writing style, it objectively is a fantastic historical fiction that takes you on wild adventures with a perseverant young woman and her unlikely family.

What a beautifully written story this was. The reader is captivated from the start and the story does not waiver or disappoint. Every character was well formed and even the terrible characters were well thought out. Some of them were enraging. I don’t normally enjoy historical type fiction this much, it this story sucked me right in.

This book was enjoyable and I the main characters were all very well written, will certainly recommend to those looking for a historic fiction recommendation!

I love the setup of this story and the narration style. Flipping between Annie in the first person and then the narrative account of the overarching story was really satisfying to read and reminded me of how an old west film would be shot. I loved the historical nature of the novel, the pacing, and how relatable the characters felt even though they're not modern characters by any means. My one qualm is that the epilogue and the prologue didn't seem to do much for the story, and I hate having to read unnecessary epilogues and prologues.

Overall a very enjoyable read that I would recommend!

While at times a bit of a challenge to read, this is an interesting tale of fictionalized history. It's the mid-19th century when Annie is sold by her mother to the prize fighter Bill Perry. She grows to adulthood and, after running his ale house, becomes a fighter herself. The novel is written largely from Annie's POV but others have a say as well- and all of them use dialect which might necessitate some sounding out until you hit the rhythm of the language. She's an indelible character who has, dare I say it, spunk. This is based on Kitson's own family and his affection for them is clear. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. For fans of historical fiction.

Mildly interesting tale of Romani girl sold to a boxer and the life she leads as a result. The story is poorly paced with a very good introduction, a weirdly long middle that seems endless and no final scene to wrap everything up. I kept waiting for the story to come back to the opening scene and tie things up in a meaningful way but…no such luck. I have no idea why the opening scene happened. It was engaging and remains a mystery. As does the book, I’m sorry to say. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

This was another book I contemplated DNF-ing. It had such great promise and then... just fell flat. I think the worst part was how slow it started, I didn't really get excited about anything until maybe 75% of the way through and it was just a push to get there. Not my cup of tea.

Thanks to #NetGalley and publishers for the ARC of #Featherweight in exchange for the honest review.

This is a great historical novel told through the eyes of Annie, the oldest daughter in a Romani family. The dialect will immerse you in the time period and the story will take you on anadventure!

Thank you net galley for the advance reader copy of this novel. I did not finish this novel as I couldn't get into it. Loved the premise but not the writing style.

I am very sorry to say I DNF’ed this book. Although I love the premise of it, the writing is just not working for me. It is taking too much effort to read to make this an enjoyable experience. I might give it another go if it comes out as audiobook though.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Canongate for my copy of Featherweight by Mick Kitson in exchange for an honest review. It publishes June 8, 2021.
I was initially drawn to this book based off of the fact that the main character is Romani. I love learning about Eastern European cultures, and couldn't wait to get into this one. I also thought the fisticuffs detail was unique and interesting!
I liked Annie's journey into learning how to fight, and found it very interesting. However, I feel like this book is just not for me, I think it's the way the book is told/written. It is narrated as if someone is talking to you, and with all the grammar, and pronunciation left as-is. I think this would make a great audiobook, and I look forward to giving that a try some day, but actually reading it was very difficult for me to stay on track and not get distracted by those things. I completely understand that it's a stylistic choice, and definitely not a bad or wrong one, just not for everyone.
Trigger warnings: Racism, strong language, violence and gore (related to fighting)

Sadly, I DNF this book at 21%. I hate it when I do, especially when it’s an ARC but I decided a couple of weeks ago that I want to enjoy reading and don’t want to struggle to finish a book.

The DNF is definitely on me. I shouldn’t have requested this book. I was too eager I think, when I requested it and am regretting it now. I have been pushing it backwards on my TBR for a while now and that’s not the best way to start reading a book. And when I finally started reading I found it too slow.

So, please check out other reviews if you want to read this one!

An interesting take on how, historically speaking, indigenous people were treated by rich families/land owners. Really liked the choice of the language, it made everything more characteristic.

Featherweight was such a breath of fresh air - such a creative storyline with strong and unique characters! We're introduced to Annie Perry (formerly Loveridge), a spirited girl, who is sold by her mother at the age of nine following the death of her father. She's taken in by Bill Perry, a part time fighter and part time boatman who's much gentler than his occupations would indicate. Despite the difficulties in life, Annie is raised with a great amount of love and care and learns to take up fighting in order to support the both of them.

The writing is well done, with alternating perspectives between Annie and a third person narrator, and it's clear the author has done his research for the time period and setting of the novel. The characters have such depth as well, and seeing Annie's growth in strength over the course of the story is rewarding as well.

DNF at 26%

It's not a bad book! If you think about it (and if mid-19th-century fistfighter stuff is your thing), it's probably a pretty book too. I'm sure if you liked Peaky Blinders, you'll like Featherweight.
It just didn't work out for me. For one, while I'm aware that "wench" is an old-timey word for woman, I just couldn't get used to it. Or the entire writing style. This may be completely reliant on me not being an English speaking native, but I had the hardest time with Kitson's style. It's probably very different from his other novel, Sal, since that one's a contemporary one, so I won't judge (much) for the writing.
The book starts in. Honestly, I already forgot. But the first chapter or two were not about the story the synopsis promised. I think it's future Annie telling a servant about her life? Not entirely sure though. After that, we're thrown into the past, where Annie is being sold because her family is starving, and gets bought by bareknuckle fighter Billy/The Slasher, who pronounces her his daughter from second one.

I'm fairly sure this is a "it's me not you"-scenario, so do not let yourself be influenced too much by my review. I didn't yet get to the whole... Well, a whole lot probably, because I feel like this moved very little plot wise, in the first quarter. But please, judge for yourself.


@Canongate and NetGalley: Thank you guys for this ARC!

Every so often a book comes along and takes you away on an adventure. And I mean it doesn’t just tell you it’s going to do it or tell you all about it, it transports you. This is exactly what Mick Kitson accomplished with Featherweight, a novel that, despite its title, possesses a considerable gravity. Not to mention charm. Excitement. Pure joy of readership. Things like that.
And granted, I expected good things of Kitson. Sal, his previous novel, was an excellent tale of wilderness survival featuring a remarkably credible child protagonist. But it was a fairly straight forward and simple story comparing to this one. This is a grand adventure of a much larger scale. It, once again, features an excellent female protagonist, though this time she is slightly older.
Without further ado, meet Annie. Sold at just nine years of age by her destitute family to an aging out bareknuckle boxer named Bill Perry (a terrifically generous spirit who adores both The Queen and booze in seemingly equal measures), Annie’s got her life all figured out, between learning to fight and helping her adoptive father operate his pub, she’s tough enough and smart enough to take on all sorts of challenges. But then one day she steps into the ring to box a handsome young man who on principle won’t hit back and just like that new possibilities present themselves. Romantic ones, financial ones. There might be a promising future somewhere in there but there are just way too many obstacles to contend with, from a local highway bandit to Bill’s profligate ways to new laws and old ways and fiendish fops with too much money and so on.
One just has to put their fists up and not back down. If Stallone was a young woman (ok, that’s admittedly really difficult to imagine) and grey sweats were jerkins and 1970s city of brotherly something was Victorian England…all you’d need is a rousing theme song and you’d be in business.
Similar souls, maybe but this is much more elaborate of a story. And excellent in every way. It works superbly on a historical fiction level, doing a splendid job of bringing the time and place to life, it gets the boxing right, viscerally audibly punchingly so. But most of all, it wins you over with its terrific cast of characters. You gotta love these characters and their relationships, especially the surprisingly warm and loving father/daughter one between Annie and Bill. And yes, there’s romance too, a love at first punch, if you will, between Annie and a young man too good looking to box and too smart to let a good thing get away.
All in all, excellent. A grand gutsy spirited adventure. A pugilistic picaresque to be passionate about. Loved it. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

*special thanks to the Canongate Books Ltd. and NetGalley for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars
This was such an interesting premise to me.
I thought it was a very interesting piece of historical fiction, and unlike any I had read before. I appreciate when authors choose periods of time that aren’t typically written about. It makes it all the more interesting to me.
It also has a sweet romance that was very cute.
It did start off pretty slow, but it got going and picked up the pace.
It was also interesting that we got Annie’s first person perspective, and then a third person narrator. It was a bit jarring, and I did get used to it, but I’m not sure exactly why that was necessary.
It was overall a great and different read!