johnke.meLike a millennial Little Shop of Horrors set in suburban Dublin. The story is fine, no great shakes but the poetry of Sarah Maria Griffin’s writing is the big draw here.
Also, as an aside: this is entirely a self-inflicted issue but I kept getting tripped up by the specifics of the setting. I grew up in the same area as the author and so much of the book is about the specificity of the area. Except the central location, the “Crown Woodbine Shopping Mall” (ugh, the Americanism! I realise this is probably a concession for an international audience but there isn’t a “shopping mall” (or, indeed, a “food court”) anywhere near North suburban Dublin) is clearly an amalgam of Donaghmede Shopping Centre, Northside Shopping Centre (the great, great shopping centre), Omni and Kilbarrack and I’d have to pause to readjust my mental image of each scene. Like I said, self-inflicted. If this book had been set literally anywhere else, I don’t think I’d have had this problem.