I enjoyed this book a fair bit. No pun intended, but this book had a few pacing issues! I wanted to connect more to the main characters, but I'm glad I read this. I will be reading more of the author in the future.

The half-life of snails is a story of two sisters.
Helen is a single mother to five year old jack. She lives on a farm near Wylfa, a nuclear power station. She has a lump in her breast, yet undiagnosed. Her mother is dying of cancer and the assumption is that it’s caused by radiation (either contamination from Chernobyl or possibly Wylfa?).
Helen is a serious protestor at Wylfa’s proposed plan for another nuclear site. Not only for the danger, but also because many of the rural homes and farms have been compulsory purchased to make way for the new site. She is also something of a prepper and has prepared her son Jack for any emergency.
Helen’s sister Jennifer works at Wylfa, as does her husband Ioan. She doesn’t share Helen’s views about the new Wylfa site.

Helen decides that she must go on a tour of Chernobyl, leaving Jack with Jennifer while she’s away.
It is not particularly clear to me why she felt the need to leave her son and go to Chernobyl.
She’s obsessed with the protest and is, quite frankly, pretty unhinged. Her parenting is, as her sister thinks, ‘bordering on abuse’. Jack’s school thinks he’s probably on the spectrum, due to his behaviour and lack of social skills. But Helen has prepped him so intensely for survival mode that it’s more likely that he’s been indoctrinated rather than allowed a more ‘normal’ childhood.

Protests in Ukraine lead to Helen being stuck in the containment zone (set during the time of the Crimean annexe) and she is unable to make her way home as planned.
When she finally returns home, her rather obsessive views and lifestyle have come to the attention of the authorities, and suddenly, her and Jack’s survival are threatened by her own actions, rather than what’s happening at Wylfa.
3.5 stars (rounded down) because I couldn’t fathom Helen’s reckless behaviour!

This started well - I really liked the difficult dynamics between the two sisters, with their conflicting values. However, this isn't developed because they are apart for much of the book. Similarly, lots of scenes show potential - eg Jennifer struggling to connect with Jack, Jack acting out at school - but then end abruptly. I also found the Chernobyl side of the story less interesting and the two strands don't fully connect.

I did, really enjoy the descriptions of the farm, and the nuanced way the author dealt with Helen and Jack's way of life, so you could be both sympathetic to and horrified by Helen's choices.

While I love the unique perspective the narrative offers, being partially set in Ukraine, with a protagonist who is immensely conscious of environment, and being haunted by events of Chernobyl, the plot as such wasn't stitched enough to hold on to the ideas. The juxtaposition between the sisters - one visiting the aftermath of nuclear disaster while the other lives on the farm, provides an interesting dichotomy. However this doesn't always work and for the most part is a disjointed look into two sisters lives.

<i>Thank you NetGalley and Parthian Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

The writing style did not appeal to me. The transitions were unusually hard to follow, for my way of reading.

For instance:

“She absently reaches to her side, touches the small lump on the cusp of her breast through her waterproof jacket.

He needs this. Just in case.”

This juxtaposition of sentences left me to wonder, why does he need her small lump?

Anyway. Someone else will like it better. Given that I’m an idiosyncratic reader where I'm hypersensitive to illogical leaps, where I just can't follow this type of writing, I will not forward this review to other sites.

Wow. What a book!
I love books that combine a gripping plot with current issues and seamless integration of scientific knowledge, and The Half-life of Snails does all that.
Helen and jennifer have both grown up on a Welsh farm, but while Helen sees the nuclear power station in their neighbourhood as a threat, Jennifer works there. Helen travels to Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone as part of her reearch, spurred on by the fact that her mother's cancer is in its last stages and knowing that she has a breast lump herself. She leaves her young son Jack with her sister for the few days she thinks the trip will take. It's a gripping book - so while obviously things don't go to plan I won't fill in too many details. Both sisters however are forced to face unwelcome facts.
Part of this book is set in Ukraine and all UK profits will go to the Red Cross Ukraine appeal. Combine that with excellent writing and a great story and everyone should buy this.

Whilst The Half-Life of Snails by Phillipa Holloway was an interesting exploration of sisterly and familiar relationships with the added anxieties surrounding nuclear power stations, I feel that this book had so much potential that it didn't quite live up to.

Unfortunately, I didn't fall in love with either of our main characters nor really like them. Jack was probably my favourite character and I found the psychology of him fascinating. I feel I may have enjoyed this book more if Jack had been the focal character as opposed to his mother and aunt.

Holloway's storytelling style is lovely and I really enjoyed the comparison between different settings and both sisters; however, I did feel that sometimes sentences could feel a bit waffley and at some times, the book was slow. I really would be interested in seeing a follow up novel from Holloway as I feel their writing style does have so much opportunity and her atmospheric descriptions are almost lyrical.

Thank you to NetGalley and Parthian Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I originally picked this book because of the title, it was alright. I unfortunately didn’t really care for Helen, I was more invested in Jennifer’s part of the story so I found myself skimming Helen’s chapters.

I was offered this book as an ARC via NetGalley and found it to be an interesting exploration of family dynamics against the backdrop of the anxieties around nuclear power stations. An unusual read.

NetGalley ARC review
There is so much unmet potential in this novel. Phillipa Holloway's story crafting is beautiful, though the sentences in places are clunky and disjointed.

This book wraps us up in tension and anxiety right from the start. It is a story of motherhood. It is a story of processing trauma. It is a story of division. The duel narrative only strengthens our empathy with Helen’s anxiety. Why do we need to hear her sister, Jennifer’s, thoughts? Is Helen safe, is her lifestyle safe, is her livelihood safe, the choices she makes raising her son safe? You become so empathetic for the sources of Helen’s concerns and her justifications that you, with her, justify her icy exterior and the rock-like strength she instills in her five year old son, Jack. The only room for softness in her life is between her and her son, anywhere else would be vulnerability, weakness.

Sisters, Helen and Jennifer, are mirrors of one another. They are both boisterous, principled, independent and have a strong sense of how they conduct themselves. Only Helen lives under a cloud of anxiety surrounding Nuclear Energy Plants and Jennifer escaped their family farm to build a career in one. They share measured intimacy with one another that is tempered by butting heads on every aspect of their home lives. Helen's sentimental trip to Chernobyl triggers a whole new level of tension.

From then on, the story becomes increasingly dry. It's disappointing since the tension between the two sisters could have be ramped up if they'd remained in contact and they're relationship had stayed central to the story. Information is drip fed to slowly for it to be exciting. The parts of the story told from Helen's perspective drag on slowly while Jennifer's perspective zip by. Jennifer's perspective is heartbreaking, she sees the real time harm that Helen's extreme anxiety causes in her son. More emphasis on these scenes would have made for aore engaging plot.

The Half-life of Snails by Philippa Holloway tells the story of two sisters, Helen and Jennifer. Helen leaves her son, Jack, with Jennifer and travels to the exclusion zone around Chernobyl on the eve of civil unrest in Ukraine. Jennifer, meanwhile, works at Wylfa, the nuclear plant on Anglesey and begins to understand her nephew and his upbringing in a new way, a way Helen has been preparing him for.

It was the title that bought me to this novel first, and it's Welshness my second (I love not far from Anglesey so it is always a pleasure to see a landscape I know well on the page). And I was so glad I read it. This is an extremely well written, and emotional read. I was quickly fascinated by these characters and their lives, and read through the story with great interest. The manner in which nuclear power is played put through the two strands of this novel was interesting.

I really enjoyed this one and recommend it highly.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

The Half-Life of Snails piqued my interest with its lovely artistic cover and intriguing title hinting at a different perspective on the impact of nuclear technologies on the everyperson.

The premise of telling a story from the points of view of two sisters coming from opposing perspectives (one on a crusade against nuclear power, the other working for said industry) had a promising start. Unfortunately the book did not really seem to do much with this as both characters appear to go through half-hearted learning arcs that left me more confused on the lesson/moral/ideas that the author wanted me to take from her work. Rather than exploring the nuances of the topic, the book seems to try to convey a negative stance while muddying this view by the stories played out on the page that seems to unintentionally dismiss or undermine the very points the book seems to try to make.

I also had a very difficult time connecting with the characters, which made their stories that much harder to invest in. Apart from one lovely old lady, I did not like any of the characters in the book including our two POVs. I found this book a frustrating read, following the acerbic unrelatable characters in a dull, meandering plot.

One positive was I did really enjoy the settings of the book and enjoyed the exploration of the comparisons between the sisters’ home and Chernobyl, though I think this constant and rather one-sides comparison led into some of the aforementioned view confusion the book left me with. There was room for a more “grey” discussion, comparing the political, technologic, and sociological features of the two regions beyond “both have nuclear power plants”.

In conclusions, while I did enjoy the premise and settings of this work, I found the book as a whole rather slow and likely would not have finished it had I not wanted to review the book as a whole. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access!

As someone who has had an interest in the nuclear industry since she was small, I was so excited to see a premise that talked about the topic a little closer to home. Set between the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Ynys Môn (Anglesey), The Half-life of Snails focuses on two sister, Helen and Jennifer.

Helen, a self-taught prepper and single mother, leaves her young son Jack with her sister for a few days so she can visit Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone. Helen opposes plans for a new power station on the coast of Ynys Mon that will take over the family’s farmland, and Jennifer works for the nuclear industry and welcomes the plans for the good of the economy. Yet while Helen’s is forced to face up to childhood traumas, and her worst fears regarding nuclear disaster, during a trip that sees her caught up in political violence and trapped in Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone, Jennifer too must discover that even the smallest decision can have catastrophic and long-lasting effects, both within the nuclear industry, and within the home.

This story was beautifully written and atmospheric, with characters that can really draw a reaction out of you. Although I felt there were a few pacing issues in places and I wasn’t entirely sold by the open ending, it was a really interesting and quick read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Parthian Books for the advance reader copy.

The Half-life of Snails has such an interesting premise, but I found the pacing and characters a little hard to deal with at times. I found the first half of the book very slow, then the second half picked up, however, I felt as though I was rushing to get to that point. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Set on the beautiful island of Anglesey (Ynys Mon) on a small family farm threatened with compulsory purchase by the developers of the nuclear power plant, the story looks at complex family relationships put under pressure by a young mother's passionate resistance to the developing of nuclear energy and espousal of an alternative lifestyle. Helen leaves her young son with her sister whilst she travels alone to take part in a three day tour of Chernobyl to better understand the effects of a nuclear accident. She realises soon after arrival that she has put herself in danger so as well ass the trauma of what she documents there is a desperate attempt to flee political the political unrest and get safely home to her son.
Philippa Holloway offers a wide ranging and breathtakingly tense narrative, often ironically described in lyrical beauty of a thought provoking topic with believable and psychologically convincing characters. I was gripped from the first chapter. Highly recommended.

Helen is a farmer, a mother, a prepper. Living in the shadow of the Wylfa nuclear power station, she is anxious about the risk of the plant, and currently battling the expansion of the plant, to replace it. She’s also anxious about a new lump in her breast, worrying it’s cancer, just like her mother. And she’s worried about Jack, her five year old son - she’s been preparing him for his whole life, but is he ready? Is she? What if it is cancer?

She decides she’s going to go on a tour of Chernobyl, facing some of her fears, gaining knowledge for her own activism, and leave Jack with her sister Jennifer, so he can practice being away from her. As Helen’s travels take unexpected twists, Jennifer is left to take care of Jack, a strange and moody child. What unfolds shatters all of them and reveals their different kinds of pain.

This is…odd. It felt unfinished at the end, like there should have been more. I love an inconclusive ending but this just stopped in the middle of a significant event. There’s a lot of anxiety in this book, and I didn’t love the demonization of nuclear power without more fulsome explanation - a reader would need to know about Chernobyl and Fukushima to understand Helen’s fear. As well, most of the characters were compelling but underdeveloped, making it vaguely unsatisfying. Jack, Helen’s son is probably the best portrayal: a child raised in a climate of extreme fear, and reacts accordingly to situations, scaring his more conventional family and school community. The scenes during Helen’s tour of the Exclusion Zone are fascinating, but it falls apart after that.

This is a rather unique book about two nuclear power stations, survivalism, the relationship between two adult sisters and, in the middle of all this, one five-year-old boy. It’s a very atmospheric novel that depicts the physical landscapes perfectly, as well as the emotional landscape as the tension increases. An uncomfortable read, but an important one, with love and humanity at its centre.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Parthian Books for this eARC.

Helen is a prepper, and the mother of Jack, a five-year-old. She lives on a farm in the shadow of a nuclear power plant in Wales. Nearby live her family—her sister, Jennifer, with her husband, and her parents. Her mother is dying of cancer.

Helen’s fixation is the power plant, and the possibility of an accident there. She has tried to raise Jack to be independent and self-sufficient, to be able to cope if the worst happens. As part of a test of his readiness, she decides to go away on a trip to Chernobyl, leaving him in Jennifer’s charge.

The first half of the book was very slow going for me, as I tried to make sense of the story. The author does not make this easy, with everything fragmentary, and with the pacing slow. It makes a little sense if you see it as the influence of Helen, the main protagonist, who was to me a very unlikeable and unreliable character.

The second half of the book picked up, with some interesting (if somewhat bewildering, at times) action. The best part of the book was really when Helen finally came into her own, somewhat redeeming herself. I was, however, left without a real sense of whether to sympathise with her, to believe she was right, or whether to see her mental state as the unfortunate by-product of her circumstances. She was not at all relatable to me, and I never found it in me to care about what happened to her.

Her son, the other focal character, was a very strange boy, believably so. The story should have revolved around him, but he was too abstract a figure in the end. And there was no resolution to Jennifer’s arc, even though served as Helen’s oppositional figure.

All in all, a rather unsatisfying read. I found myself mostly just rushing to finish the book, only really engaging briefly near the end.

Rated: 5/10.

𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬- 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐡𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬- 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡, 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝. 𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐧𝐮𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧; 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐚𝐲.

Helen and Jennifer are sisters living in Anglesey, both on opposite sides of the nuclear industry. Jennifer and her partner work there while Helen has been fighting the new nuclear power station’s development, refusing the very idea of selling her ancestral land, the family farm. A single mother, she is obsessed with raising her son to be able to withstand disaster. The home they live in is spartan, there are no luxuries for Jack, like a television or the distractions average children, “soft” children are spoiled by. It is Helen’s purpose, to assure that her son can stand on his own, feed himself, stay alive when their own Chernobyl or any such disaster occurs. Jack is a strange child, his mother’s anxiety growing like a tumor within his small bones. Fearful of ‘indoctrination’ from the plant, ideas a child so young shouldn’t be thinking about, at least to Jennifer’s thinking, it seems the true indoctrination is his mother’s conspiracies. A boy with no friends, except for his snails in a jar, every interaction is awkward. He doesn’t handle socializing well, but let loose in nature, on the farm, he is like an uncaged animal, happy- free. He is a survivalist in the making, his mother’s son to the core, for better or worse. Helen admires that her boy is capable, so far ahead of his peers in self-care and if he isn’t like other kids, it’s for the best. Jennifer and her husband Ioan’s house sits on the edge of the Anglesey coast, Wylfa Nucear Power Station is barely a mile away, and Helen along with her son Jack, often come to help out with the animals on the farm. Five years of never staying with his aunt, suddenly Helen is leaving him while she travels to Chernobyl’s Exclusion Zone. This part of the novel is interesting and only lends credence to much of Helen’s fears, but there is a trauma that changed her long ago. Jennifer is just as nervous as they are about the plan but she doesn’t understand it is a test. Helen has recently discovered something bad, it is time to prep Jack for the possibility of her permanent absence one day. Her family already knows about illness, their Mam has cancer. She sells his stay at her sister’s as an adventure, a challenge. But she cannot imagine how hard the adjustment will be nor that fate may well prolong her trip. No one can ever predict how people will react to change, or how good intentions can sour and turn dangerous.

Jennifer runs into a wall when it comes to Jack, has a hard time connecting. He is often cold, seeming to lack empathy, but like her sister Helen it’s possible he is just practical, grounded. Jack’s outbursts at school becomes a problem and it is on her shoulders to make decisions that are for her sister Helen to make. It disrupts her own work, but she can’t let Jack down, even if it threatens her job. Helen would never forgive her. She loses contact with her sister and with violence and protests rising in Kiev and trickling into the place Helen is visiting, Jennifer is worried. Helen was warned away while touring Chernobyl, but she didn’t listen, and now she is in the midst of danger she didn’t predict, violent crowds fighting state corruption. She must find a way out, to avoid the worst of clashes, but time is running out. The tour guide who warned her is willing to help, but she knows better than to count on anyone. There is an accident she didn’t predict and she loses all contact with home and her son, unsure of who to trust. If she was looking to cut the cord, to use her trip to prep her son, she has lost all control. Now she is trying to make her way back under the threat of her life. The truth is, you can’t always prep for the unknown.

Back home it is all falling apart. Jack is lost without his mother, but he wants nothing more than to prove his worth. Jennifer and her husband Ioan are having a hard time without Helen’s help on the farm, trying to keep a little lamb alive and to take care of Jack, who despite his many strengths, is still just a little boy. Ioan is much better with their nephew than Jennifer is, and to add more worry her mother is not doing well with her cancer. It’s too much pressure, worse, she is slowly coming to discover how Helen and Jack have been living, deeply concerned for the child’s well-being. With the days stacking up and his mother remaining away, Jack is not obeying his aunt and he believes his mom is gone for good. It is time for him to act! Will he survive his own personal disaster?

This is original, I couldn’t warm to Helen at all. I think her hardness makes sense, after we learn the entire story, but she is extreme. It’s hard to live between two worlds, any child would falter. The best intentions certainly go awry. She feels she is raising her child to be strong in any event, surely the point is in Chernobyl they never imagined such a disaster, so why not in Anglesey? Also, her touring such a place and not really comprehending the country itself and it’s heated political issues highlights her tunnel-vision. Her own beliefs often serve as an erasure of realities she doesn’t want to tackle. It’s a decent read, but I was certainly frustrated by the adults. I think Jack and what he does makes perfect sense, poor little guy.

Publication Date: May 7, 2022

Parthian Books

The Half Life of Snails is a gripping novel about a single mother with a child whose family farm is threatened by the local nuclear power plant. With themes of paranoia, displacement and the threat of nuclear disaster, Philippa Holloway brings us through Wales and the Ukraine as the main character travels to Chernobyl under the threat of war while leaving her survivalist savvy son to fend for himself. This is a page turner that will leave you as paranoid as the main character, with reason.