There’s a possibly gimmicky premise behind this book: an infant boy in London is given his name—three times—and for each of the three possibilities, a different life unfurls over the next 35 years. But this book is so beautifully and movingly written that it far transcends the foundational gimmick, building its worlds deeply, with insight and compassion. I think this one will stick with me for a while.

One of my most anticipated reads of the year, Florence Knapp’s debut The Names is a devastating and radiant work of art.

Beautiful and heart wrenching, through three alternating stories the author explores; can a name determine one’s fate? The Names is a tender and aching portrait of what it means to lose parts of yourself and still find a way to land gently.

Knapp’s writing is poetic, haunting and breathtaking. A brutally resilient and poignant book that will stick with me for a very long time. By far one of the best books I’ve ever read!!

Thank you Viking / Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you net galley for giving me this opportunity to read this book.
The story centre's around a young family.
Cora has given birth to a son and she and her 9 year old daughter set out to the registrars office to register his birth.
When Cora is asked what her son's name is she hesitates.
Cora's husband Gordon wants their son named after him as he was named after his father.
There are three names of possibly naming her son.
Each name has their own story.
Which name will Cora choose for her son? You will have to read the book to find out.
All opinions are my own.

One of the most unique books I’ve read this year. Really enjoyed the three storylines (one for each name the baby boy is given), and the author skillfully layered in just enough overlap between versions to make them all seem plausible and easy to jump between versions with each chapter. I probably would have read this one super quick - as it was always on my mind - but I did find the domestic violence pretty emotionally taxing to read. I basically read 3 chapters (one of each name) a day and that was pretty good pacing. The way that it skips ahead 7 years after each section made it easy to break it up that way.
Highly recommend giving this book a try.

At first I found myself a bit confused keeping up to what was going on but after that it flowed well!

This book def made you think about how a name can change your life.

This book has made me rethink the name I chose for our soon to be baby.

Bear, Julian, and Gordon. Three scenarios spanning a lifetime based on a name. Does what you are named decided how your life will be lived? Does your name define who you are? Will it reflect the choices you make? These are the premises of this beautifully written book with very diverse storylines. The narrative is realistic, wonderfully written with sensitivity and sentiment. I highly recommend The Names.

A unique and incredibly well written debut novel, The Names, is an exploration of identity, fate, and the reverberating impact of one decision. Structured around a pivotal moment in 1987, the narrative unfolds into three parallel timelines, each determined by the name given to Cora Atkin’s newborn son- Bear, Julian, or Gordon.

The novel's premise seems straightforward and simple- a mother, in an abusive marriage, must choose a name for her son. However, Knapp transforms this decision into a lense through which the complexities of family dynamics, trauma, and resilience are magnified. Each name leads to a distinct trajectory for the child and his family, illustrating how a single choice can cascade through time, altering destinies.

Cora's journey is particularly poignant, as she grapples with her abusive husband and the hope for her children's futures. The alternating timelines are expertly interwoven, allowing readers to witness the divergent paths of Bear, Julian, and Gordon, and the profound effects their names have on their identities and relationships. It is definitely ambitious, and for the most part, each character in each timeline feels fully fleshed out and three dimensional, with supporting characters that appear in different capacities across each timeline.

While I commend Knapp for her innovative, beautifully written and emotional novel, it did feel very heavy. While each timeline had its highs and low, I felt quite weighed down while reading and it left me in a state of emotional fog that I just couldn't shake. It made me feel something, which is the hallmark of a good novel, but I just didn't love it. A 3.5 star read for me upgraded to 4 stars. TW for domestic violence.

I just finished The Names by Florence Knapp and here are my thoughts.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet or would it?

Imagine how one subtle change would change the course of your life and it was something as simple as what name you were given…

So the Names had a really interesting premise. It’s 3 consecutive timelines. 3 alternate universes based on what a little baby boy is named. It sounded phenomenal! There were definitely some excellent moments in the book and I was really sucked in. Other points I was bored stiff and almost DNF’d it.

I really do not believe a name could change someone's destiny this drastically so that was already a bit of a stretch but the writing was quite lovely and each section held together really well.

I didn’t like the huge jumps in time… I think that was my biggest beef to be honest. I felt like we just got the flow going and then we missed a big chunk of time.

I thought the ending was clever and I can see what the author was trying to do and they nearly succeeded. There were just a few things that didn’t work for me. Having said that, I often find books like this work better as audio so I will be giving the audiobook a go in the near future.

3.5 stars

Thank you @netgalley and @penguinrandomca for my gifted copy

While this book does have some really difficult content, ending was lovely. It was a really interesting exploration of the power of names, written in a really interesting structure. I highly recommend this one

There’s a lot to like about this book- an intriguing way of delving into family relationships, lyrical descriptions, and realistic scenarios, but I was held back by the sectioning off of the different names and, thus, the different trajectories of the characters, the variant lives they would have lived if the young boy had been given one of three names. Some of the scenarios seemed a bit far fetched for me, unfortunately, not the doctor father in this case. He actually seemed all too believable and common. It’s a brave book, just the structure put me off a bit.

Thanks to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was absolutely fantastic. The story line was engaging and kept me reading. This is a must read!

The Names has a unique storyline and I loved the premise. There were high moments in this book that grabbed a hold of me and then there were moments I felt disengaged even questioning what was happening. Having said that the writing and use of language was beautiful. Overall I enjoyed it but it also fell flat for me.

✨Book Review✨
The Names - Florence Knapp

Thank you to @netgalley and @penguinrandomca for providing an e-copy for review. This one released on May 6, 2025 and I definitely recommend you get your hands on it.

One moment, three names, three different outcomes. When Cora goes to register her baby boy’s birth she is conflicted, she is supposed to register her husbands name but he is not a good man and she doesn’t want her son to turn out like him. We follow her decisions and their consequences for decades.

This book is emotional and probably darker than some might expect. It explored domestic violence and its affect on each and every member of a family, the difficultly and danger of leaving the situation, and the isolation it causes the victim even with their own children. It also did a great job of exploring nature vs. nurture.

I had some fabulous conversations about this book with @chapters.and.charcuterie and @claudiareads and I flew through it once I had the time to read (which hasn’t been often this month lol) as they know my only criticism was the endings which I know a lot of people also loved so that is simply a personal preference.

4.25/5⭐️ for those looking for a strong and emotional debut that will leave you thinking and a story that will touch your heart.

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Names releases May 6, 2025

2.5

The family of Cora’s husband have always upheld the tradition of passing on the name Gordon through their male offspring, but Cora wants her son to have the ability to shape his own life, rather than inheriting the weight of past generations.

Knapp explores a thought-provoking premise of whether a name can change the course of a life (not just of the named person, but of everyone around them), by giving us three alternate versions of one family — one in which Cora’s son is named Gordon, another in which he is named Julian, and one where his sister names him Bear.

This is a character study spanning more than three decades, from 1987 to 2022. While original in its premise and structure, I think staggering the chapters in intervals of seven years hindered the narrative a bit by lacking depth and a true emotional connection to so many characters. I needed more of a conflict.

cw: domestic abuse, depression, SA

Delighted to include this title in the May edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national lifestyle and culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

This novel had an interesting concept - that our name could affect the course of our life. The novel has three scenarios: One for a boy named Bear, one for a boy named Julian and one for a boy named Gordon. For each of these boys, the course of their life took a very different turn.

I enjoyed the book as I got into it, but at first I was a little confused. Aside from the beginning, the quality of the writing and the character development was very good. The story grows on you. I quite enjoyed it….

DNF at 45%. I’m an outlier as I’ve seen so many rave reviews. I couldn’t get into the premise with the sliding doors type of storyline. I kept getting pulled in and out with the alternate stories based on names the person was given at their birth. My attention span just could not do it.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was incredible. The book has a very interesting concept of how a person and a family can develop based off their name. Very heartfelt and also gut wrenching. I loved the characters and was invested in finding out how the various timelines worked out for them. This book does contain domestic abuse, so anyone who is sensitive to that may have a hard time reading this book. However, it is handled in such a way to be both emotionally sad but also informative. I can easily seeing this book being one of the best I will read this year.

I was intrigued by the multiple possible futures awaiting Cora and her two children, resulting from the fateful choice of the naming of her newborn son. Cora felt that a person's name may have influenced the course of a person's life (citing Amelia Earhart and the Lumiere brothers.)

But regardless of the name chosen and the different path taken, in each iteration, Cora's life is one of abuse and violence, suffered (mostly) in silence.

The author expertly sets the scenes in the various timelines and creates unforgettable characters. While doing so, she does not fall into the trap of over describing everything.... and yet we feel the full horror of the father's behaviour and actions in each variation of this "Sliding Doors" style story line.

The repercussions resulting from Cora's naming of the child are what frame the variations in the parallel timelines and characters. I was impressed and very much moved.

I found it interesting that Julian found solace through art and crafstmanship, and that in one version of her story, Maia became a doctor - like her father - despite the fact that she reviled him for his abuse of her mother. Their father's violence indelibly impacted their personalities and lives.

<u>The Names</u> does not come across as a debut novel. This was an incredibly well written, often heartbreaking story that fully deserves a 5 star rating. My thanks to the author, Florence Knapp, her publishers, and NetGalley for an ARC of this must-read novel in exchange for an honest review.

‘What’s in a name?’

According to Florence Knapp, in her brilliant debut novel, The Names, quite a lot. Cora is married to Gordon, an extremely abusive husband. She has just given birth to a boy. She and her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, set out to register the boy’s name which Gordon insists must be the same as his as it is a family tradition. Cora is not sure about this but it is only when she reaches the Registry office that she decides whether to follow tradition or give the boy his own unique name. The story, then, follows three parallel time lines offering three different names, Bear, Julian, and Gordon. Each name carries with it huge and varying consequences, not only for the family but for others the family interacts with across seven-year intervals from 1987 to 2022.

I won’t say this was always an easy or entertaining read. There are some very shocking depictions of domestic abuse as well as sexual assault, something a future reader should be aware of.

However, this is a beautifully written and completely compelling tale of how the dynamics of domestic abuse can affect all members of a family and the consequences one seemingly small decision can have, not just immediately but across years. Knapp has created complex characters who are impossible not to care about both in the family as well as interesting peripheral characters who appear in some or all of the timelines.

This is definitely one of my favourite reads of the year at least so far and I have no doubt it will be very high on, if not top of, most best reads of 2025 lists. That this is Knapp’s debut novel is truly impressive and I can’t wait to see what she does in the future.

I received an eARC of this novel from Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review