Welcome to Litsy!

3.8/5 🌟

A slow-burning, character-driven mystery set in a quiet seaside village. Three childhood friends reunite after years apart, only to face unsettling questions about a friend‘s long-ago disappearance. As memories resurface, so do buried tensions, forcing them to confront the truth about their past.

In the seaside town of Kinlough, on Ireland's west coast, three old friends are thrown together for the first time in years. They - Helen, Joe, and Mush - were part of an original group of six inseparable teenagers in the summer of 2003, with motherless, reckless Kala Lanann as their groups white hot centre. Soon after that summer's peak, Kala disappeared without a trace.
What happened to her ?

This was the first book I read on my hols and, probably because I had such high hopes after seeing the author speak, I was ever so slightly disappointed that it didn‘t quite live up to my expectations.

I still liked it, but it was very violent and I didn‘t feel particularly connected to either the characters or the setting so it felt like I skimmed along the surface rather than being engrossed in the story.

Content warning below ⬇️

Really enjoyed it.

I did like Kala, Helen and Mush as characters but the different views as you go through this story to find out what happened to Kala did not make me think that something really jaw dropping was going to occur…and it didn‘t. Set in Ireland, this mystery was too uneventful for me and at the end…ok I‘m done. 🫤 I did finish it so three stars it gets. 🫤🫤🫤

Next up . . . Another 99p purchase. I've heard good things.

This one‘s a wild ride! While “Kala” is primarily a rather dark mystery, Walsh also plays with time and the linear structure thereof in a really neat way.

From my building‘s book swap a while back.

Kala is told both in the past - the story of 6 teenagers coming of age when one of them goes missing, and the present the POV of 3 of these friends as they grapple with the past and uncover the secrets of the small Irish town where they grew up. It is intense, very dark, but beautifully written. Slow at first, it then had me on the edge of my seat as the mystery is unraveled. The ending was not entirely satisfying. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 /5 ❤️📚 …more⬇️

A few new acquisitions!

Wow! I‘m about 80% through this audiobook. It‘s very dark, and I‘m on the edge of my seat! Lots of trigger warnings for this one, so make sure you seek those out if you have subjects you don‘t want to come across in your reading. A few are posted in the first comment. They are spoilers, so only look if you have triggers. ❤️📚

Listening to this on audio as I clean today. I‘m embracing audiobooks more this year, in an attempt to get more reading in on my busier days. A group of friends, now in their 30s, grappling with the aftermath of one of their group going missing when they were teens and a town that‘s full of its own secrets. I heard the audio of this book was a good one with 3 narrators, and beautiful Irish brogue and proper place name pronunciation a plus!

Yes!!!! 🙌Perfect, amazing selection @MidnightBookGirl for the #JolabokaflodSwap23 I‘m so happy with this book and the chocolate 🍫 perfect 😋Beautiful card🎄😍

Thank you🥰

Also, thank you to @MaleficentBookDragon for another amazing JolabokaflodSwap
📖 🍫💚❤️💚

Sad and proud at the same time. I usually never bail, but now I‘ve done it twice. Simply could not get into the way the story was written in the tagged one. Decided it‘s not worth reading even though I wanted to know whodunnit. The other one‘s writing style was too pretentious for me. So, I‘ve finally learned to bail!!!!

Really liked this book although it took me forever to finish it. We go back and forth with a group of six Irish teens, finding out who they were at 15 and who they are now. There are a lot of secrets in this small town, with the most important one being who murdered one of the six. By the end of the book, the characters are indelibly etched in your mind.

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I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

Loving Kala , the characters growing up..grown up. We move back and forth through their lives. This thriller , this crime book, I could quote so much of it. I‘ll quote one character whose life is kind of ‘ perfect ‘ now , and yet he is lonely

‘ Lonely for the warmth of human imperfection‘

The humanity , characters voices intermingle , fused , their desire to be one , the gang, at times I have to backtrack unsure who is speaking
Excellent book

I very much enjoyed this novel. The story unfolded beautifully as the story is told by Kalas friends. Each chapter is told by a different character and each voice is unique. At times it got confusing for me and some chapters had those dreaded “Booker prize gimmicky prose” tricks that I detest. Despite that it flowed well and far better than any B prize book that I‘ve read and that was because it had an actual story and characters I cared about

A thriller set in Ireland about a missing girl and the secrets that her friends have kept for 20 years? I wanted to like this book. But it seemed like nothing much happened for the first 175 pages—and then when it finally picked up, the plot lines were unnecessarily convoluted and all over the place. Glad I borrowed this one from the library.

Just started this one and I am already GRIPPED!!

On offer today in the UK 🇬🇧 for kindle at 99p excellent 👌 reviews ready Teddy ….. buy 😆 your welcome 🤗 😆

Beginning in 2003, we meet a group of HS students high on life and each other. Kala the fierce ringleader is the glue that holds the crew together and then one night she simply vanishes leaving the rest of her friends lost & pained. Now 20 years later the group reunites but old resentments & suspicions still remain. A mix of suspense, mystery and coming of age. #BorrowNotBuy #GoodNotGreat