I don't think I've ever experienced such a strong, and growing sense of dread for a character in a book, as I did with this. Narrated by Erika, wife of M and mother of two children, toddler E and baby B (we never learn their full names), Little Bandaged Days is about a family who move to Geneva because of M's job. Erika is left on her own for much of the time, in a small rented apartment with her two tiny children. No adult company. Unable to speak the language. Hardly ever knowing where her husband is, or with whom. Constantly at the whim of her children at all hours, day and night. As a reader, I was glued to Erika as she slowly but surely slid down the slippery path from loneliness to madness. I was amazed to learn that this book is a debut novel. The writing is so beautiful and the story is told with such compassion, it really did tug at my heart strings. I will be thinking about it for a while to come.

I struggled.
I hate to give this 3* because it could have been so much better for me in certain ways.

I get the complexity of this, the Mother is on a downward spiral of mental well-being since the birth of her children. That I 150% get. No doubt or room for error and it’s well written and explained.

What irritated me the most was her reference to them. Just referring to them by their initials.
I was so hung up in that it became all consuming whilst I was reading it, just waiting for those initials again and I’d be grrrrrrrr. Was this to show her remoteness? If that’s the case I understand, but it’s too darn irritating for me the reader. I can honestly say it ruined it for me.

You know that big wall painted pure white? Then there’s this itsy weenie little black mark? That mark becomes your focus point now you’ve spotted it! And you tend to ignore the huge surrounding wall painted nicely white. Because your eyes get drawn to that dam black tiny spot.

Well.....that was me each time the authors character refers to those individuals with a dam capital letter!

That’s it really.

A young mother moves to Switzerland with her husband and two young children thanks to his new job. His new job that has him working all manner of hours and is hardly ever home. Leaving the mum home alone with the kids in a different country, with different customs and a different language that she can’t speak or understand. She’s completely isolated and has no support at all. Little Bandaged Days is her story as her mental health declines and her grasp of reality becomes more and more muddled. Leaving the reader confused as you question whether what you have read is fact or her confused view on reality. Written in an unusual manner as there’s no traditional form of speech in the book and the only name mentioned in the book is the made up name she invents for another mum she comes across in her daily travels. Her children and husband are only referred to by their first initial - keeping the reader detached from these characters as you go along with the mum as her health worsens, and it also helps add to the confusion of her story. You really feel for her whilst she was in the middle of the frightening moments. What was also really poignant for me was how her husband, when he did come home (apparently) spotted no change in his wife’s health and (apparently) did little to support her. Added to the confusion was the snippets interspersed in the book where the mum is (apparently) talking to visitors whilst she’s in a hospital. A really good (confusing) story that was just a little too long in parts.

The beginning of the book started well and I could relate. A young couple with two small children relocated to Geneva by the husband’s job.
Erica the young wife find herself alone for much of the time as her husband referred to as M spends many hours away from home. Erica is unable to speak the language and this is even more isolating for her. Erica’s behavior deteriorates and the rest of the book is about the time she spends with the children referred to as E & B she doesn’t want to go out and makes games staying in the apartment with the shutters down. It seems her mother also had mental health issues.
I so wanted to enjoy this book but found it actually had no story to it. The only real character was Erica and her husband and children were just initials which I found odd so you could not connect with them. I know the husband was away for much of the time but there was no mention of him when she was (I quess) sectioned. The book was just her ramblings.
I found it difficult to read and must confess wanted to give up but I really wanted to know what happened in the end. In fact, nothing happened and I am still not sure what the end was.

Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this ARC for which I have given my voluntary and unbiased review

Such a hard read because of how visceral the effects are and a very sensitive subject but we'll written and though not a very uplifting read which I struggled with it was portrayed well

I've just turned the last page on this book and I'm a little unsure how I feel about it. I liked it yet I didn't. The writing style was easy to read, yet I was uncomfortable reading it.

‘Little Bandaged Days’ by Kyra Wilder is a story of a mother descending into madness in an isolated world of motherhood. Erika moves to Geneva with her husband who has started a new and important and well-paying job abroad. Away from their family and friends, Erika’s world is limited to the small apartment where she spends all of her time caring for their two children, E and B.

She desperately tries to create this perfect world for her two children but her grip on reality is slipping away.

The main character Erika wasn't a character that I particularly liked. She refers to her children and husband by their first initial which made it a little difficult for me to connect with them.

It is such an honest and heartbreaking account of the struggles that come with mental illness.

I would've liked more clarity on the second narrative - was Erika sectioned?

Not a comfortable read but it is definitely eye-opening.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced reader copy.

There were bits of this book i really liked but for the most part i found this frustrating and too much of a slow burn with the language used not really being enough to make me want to continue with it. The premise was interesting and i thought the first few chapters were the best but as it progressed somehow the book got worse, instead of better.I disliked the characters being addressed by an initial and wished the author had used actual names for them as this came across as a lazy way to write the other characters that ween't the young mother.

On the one hand, Little Bandaged Days by Kyra Wilder was technically a very well written book, the prose was lyrical and engaging. On the other, it was also very difficult to read and frustrating at times as well.

I try not to put down a book without finishing it if I have been sent it for review, but I nearly did so with this and part of me is annoyed with myself for not just abandoning it when I wanted to. Unfortunately, Little Bandaged Days was written in such a way that I wanted to find out what happened, but I also wanted the book to be over because it was repetitive at times.

A mother and her husband relocate to a new apartment in Geneva for the husband’s new job. The mother wants everything to be just right and perfect, but she finds Swiss life quite isolating. Her husband, known only as M, is away often for work and works long hours so she spends all her time with her two small children E and B. As the book progresses, we see a marked deterioration in the mother’s mental state and are left wondering exactly what will happen with the children.

I found the relationship between M and the mother to be quite unrealistic in terms of the balance of power and this frustrated me endlessly whilst I was reading the book.

“If I was finding everything to be harder than I thought I might find it, well, I told myself, M was working hard too. I knew he was working hard and everything would be easier for him, and more equal really, if everything at home was perfect and dinner was cooked well and ready for him.”

The more their relationship is deteriorating from the reader’s point of view the worse her obsession with keeping house becomes.

The latter part of the book was very hard to read as the mother of a small child.

I can see that some readers will rave about this book but for me it was a bit of a struggle.

A young mothers descent into madness- it all starts so perfectly, the up and coming husband, moving to a new country for work, away from family & friends. The mother is isolated and lonely, and it’s not long before signs that something isn’t right seep in, and there’s possible signs it ran in the family too. A real look at how isolating being a mother can be. I did enjoy this book, and got caught up in the flow, it’s a fast read, but I did feel the ending left questions.

I received a copy of this book from Pan Macmillan via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. At this moment in time having just finished it my mind is just going WOW and wondering how to review the book. I have had some serious blah books lately but this has just washed away all the boredom associated with them.

We never get to know the names of the main character, her husband and children are referred to merely in initials; in fact very few of the characters in the book are named. This give it a a cadence of it own, abrupt and abbreviated narrative just adds to that (can i say here I don't feel as if i am using the right words) Our MC has moved to Switzerland with her husband for his career. As he becomes increasingly busy - with work or maybe not - we see her spiral downwards into what may be post natal depression or some deeper psychosis. Every corner holds some fear for her she is only able to live on the most basic of levels, sometimes not even that. As the book progresses the storyline splits between her home and a place of detention, who is in this place and why is never explicitly stated although this reader made several guesses and indeed changed her mind from time to time.

I think the beauty of this book is not in what it says but in what it holds beneath the surface of those words and what the reader can see through the lines. I felt a creeping fear or dread as I read this almost in one sitting and when the phone rang with just a few pages to go I was more than ruffled to have to put it down.

A very odd book indeed.

The reader is taken in by the strange style of writing, which portrays the mothers descent into madness.

All through the book, I assumed that at the end we would find that the mother was in prison or a mental hospital for a crime, possibly killing one or both of her children due to severe postnatal depression. Sadly, the end of the book just annoyed me, as there was no real conclusion.

I didn't understand how the husband could think that his wife was fine, even if he was barely there. It seems like the children were neglected...or were they? We never know.

To be honest, I didn't get on with this book at all. The style of writing just didn't do it for me and the fact that there was no real storyline made for a disappointing ending.

I loved and didn't love this book! It was a beautiful piece of prose and difficult to believe it's the author's debut novel. It is essentially watching the train crash of Erika's decline into post natal depression/madness. It's also about missing husbands, working overseas, motherhood, not speaking the language, isolation and loneliness. I think this book book will divide readers!

"We can say so many words sometimes and never say a thing"

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan for a free ARC of this book.

While the story started out well enough, it soon proved to be a slow and tedious read. None of the dialogue is within quote marks, which can make for difficult reading at times. Also, we're in the head of the main character all the time who is slowly spiralling into madness. At no point could I say this was a fun or entertaining read, and with the unsatisfactory ending, I now wonder why I ever spent about five hours reading this novel.

While some of the writing was well executed, I don't get the point of the book. It isn't fun. It doesn't entertain. I can see no message or point to it at all. It gets a soft 2 stars from me.
***

NOTE ON RATINGS: I consider a 3-star rating a positive review. Picky about which books I give 5 stars to, I reserve this highest rating for the stories I find stunning and which moved me.

5 STARS: IT WAS AMAZING! I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! — Highly Recommended.
4 STARS: I WOULD PULL AN ALL-NIGHTER — Go read this book.
3 STARS: IT WAS GOOD! — An okay read. Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.
2 STARS: I MAY HAVE LIKED A FEW THINGS —Lacking in some areas: writing, characterisation, and/or problematic plot lines.
1 STAR: NOT MY CUP OF TEA —Lots of issues with this book.

A strange novel into a mothers descent into madness and depression. I did enjoy the story but found it depressing too - not for everyone.

I found this book a little intrusive into the mind of a young mother living in I assumed a strange country with her husband M who is always at work. She is left with two small children E and B
I found the way that everyone was referred to as simply a letter. The mother is obviously sinking into post partum psychosis.
I found it a little too deep and very disturbing
Glad I had an opportunity to read before it’s published, not for me

Now this is a strange one!

There was alot I liked about this book but also alot I didn't. Maybe because some of it hits close to home, I'm really not sure.

An extremely and cleverly written account of a mothers descent into lunacy. Is it madness, depression... I'm not sure!

The author writes the characters in such a way that you cant help but get sucked in to the story, even though alot of the time your not actually sure who those characters really are, apart from an initial. Its honestly a really strange one, one I cant fully grasp or explain even now.

The dialogue is sparse with no real interaction or chatter, you feel like your reading the diary of a mother slowly going crazy in her lonely world.

It's an intense and slightly depressing read that could be uncomfortable for some but also one that is compelling.

Its left me with questions that will never be answered... like why wasnt anyone noticing or helping?

In all honesty I'm not sure if I'd recommend to anyone but I wouldn't dissuade anyone either.

Thanks to netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I felt for the mothers decline, on the other I found the book quite tedious and slow. Also the use of the French language, all those ''Zees ' bothered me!

Wilder’s novel is beautifully written, painfully claustrophobic story about a woman’s descent into madness; unpredictable, frighteningly compelling and brutally honest, it grapples with the harsh conditions of motherhood and mother’s own identity.

Thank you to @netgalley, Kyra Wilder and the publisher for giving me copy of this in exchange for an honest review. For me this book was very cleverly written and I'm surprised that it is a debut novel from a new author. A fantastic insight into the mind of a woman wrought with depression, anxiety and social isolation with the added pressure of 2 young children. The writing style is chaotic yet beautiful and truly allows you to get inside the protagonists train of thought. We see how scattered her mind becomes as the novel progresses and I actually really like the fact she referred to her family members by their initials, it shows us how removed and isolated she feels from the rest of the world, even from her own family. My only issue with this is the second storyline running alongside the main narrative, this alludes to something that is never actually clarified at the end, making that part of the book effectively pointless. The rest of the narrative, although confusing at times, is a representation of the chaos in her mind, the lack of human connection she has and is done brilliantly. I cannot deny the Wilder's skill but the second narrative is really what stopped me from giving this a 5star rating. I'll be looking out for future reads!
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Written lyrically and showing a spiral into mental illness, this novel started well for me, but unfortunately didn’t keep pace and grab me enough. One I will try again at some other point, but difficult to read in the wrong kind of way.