I did not see that ending coming at all! Love the way the stories combined

Another wonderfully woven, highly moving book from Ms Hogan. A story of love, loss and hope, briming with quirky characters and wonderful wit. This an utterly unique, emotional yet uplifting read - very much enjoyed.

I adored ‘The Keeper of OST Things’ so was very excited to read this second novel by Ruth Hogan. I enjoyed this one almost as much. Much like ‘Lost Things’, it was well written with characters you really cared about. However, ‘Sally Red Shoes’ deals with a much more serious subject matter - death and mourning - and this made it a slightly harder read. Sally’s piece of wisdom that runs through the book is very profound though and touched me deeply. All in all, I enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it - I just preferred ‘Lost Things’ more. I will definitely read more from Ruth Hogan in the future.

To begin with I spent too much time wondering what the connection was between Masha and Alice. Eventually we know.
I loved the book, its sadness, its fears over ill health, the friendships between such unlikely people.
All was beautifully written. The gradual re=emergence of Masha, her ponderings at the Cemetery, her interaction with the delightful 'Sally red shoes' all made the story fascinating.
Without adding a Spoiler, I found the ending so very poignant.

This is a perfect read for a quiet night in, I loved it, it’s quite sad in places but overall a beautiful book :) 9/10

Ruth Hogan's experience of cancer informs this meditation on grief, death and sorrow, infused with her trademark eccentric characters, along with joyous wit and humour. This is a darker story than The Keeper of Lost Things, of women experiencing loss, the death of children, hitting rock bottom but finding a way through to initially survive but eventually to live again. Hogan replicates the structure of her debut novel here, with the main strand in the narrative focusing on Masha, and a secondary thread focusing on the lonely Alice, and her beloved son, Mattie. Alice's life begins to unravel with her desperate concern and worries over Mattie, although Mattie struggles to handle his mother's obsessive love, yearning to be part of a different family, and feeling overburdened with no one to support him when life becomes increasingly hard to bear.

Masha, not her real name, but a nod to Chekov's character in The Seagull, whose first words are 'I'm in mourning for my life', lost her toddler son, Gabriel. He drowned in the river and shattered Masha's and her parents lives. Masha bought a wolfhound, Hazium, who has helped her survive in the land of the living, along with her close friends, Edward, and Epiphany. To help her anchor her life further, Masha has constructed and inhabits the sphere of death with her drowned son, haunting the graves in a Victorian cemetery, breathing life into the dead with her imagination, colouring in their lives, features and personalities. She has become so intimately acquainted with them that they are her other family, providing her with much needed succour, and driving her burning ambition to become the cemetery tour guide. Masha swims at the Lido, wishing to experience the feel of drowning, to connect with her dead son further, although thankfully this need eventually begins to diminish as swimming builds up her physique. Masha has developed a sense of comfort in living with the dead, which comes to fray at the edges, becoming undone when she meets the glorious singing woman with bags of gusto, the feeder of crows, that is Sally Red Shoes. Sally embraces and carves a path that is uniquely her own, drawing in and becoming close to Masha. Masha's fate is sealed as her inner urge begins to demand that she learns to live again, not forgetting Gabriel but letting him go, and cemented by her desire to forge a romantic relationship with the Olympian at the Lido. This fire within her begins to blaze ever more fiercely as her relationship with the glamorous and one off powerhouse that is Kitty Muriel becomes ever closer with their attendance of a roller skating disco. Kitty ignites Masha's passion to once again find and perform in the dance of life with all its hopes and troubles.

Hogan has Alice and Masha's storylines connect after giving us some inkling earlier as to how this might happen. The authenticity of this paean to death can feel a little hard to bear, but Hogan lifts the narrative with exquisite moments of joy and humour, such as Epiphany's dinner party attended by the monstrous real estate agent, Hugo, and the unintentionally hilarious production of The Mikado. Death is a subject that is oft papered over, never to be confronted or discussed, but as the poet Thomas Gray puts it 'The paths of glory lead but to the grave'. Amidst death and sorrow, Masha finds hope and the will to choose to live again, rising from the shadows, like Sally and Kitty, to be unafraid of being who she is. An outstanding story of grace and death, and living a life of joy that is true to who you are. Highly recommended and a novel that I can see many readers gifting to those who may be in circumstances that require The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes. Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC.

Another beautiful book from Ruth Hogan. I loved the "words of the day" and the characters who were, at once, believable and eccentric. I empathised with Masha; rejoiced in Kitty Muriel finding Elvis and cried for Alice. I'm looking forward to the next book from Ms Hogan.