Review The beauty of impossible things


This story, so well written by Rachel Donohue makes the reader reflect and absorb a new world.
It all happens in a summer in the seaside town where fifteen-year-old Natasha Rothwell lives with her mother.
Natasha sees the world with a different perspective through phrofectic dreams, what in some way makes her stay a little apart from everyone. The events of a hot summer day will alter her already disturbed relation with her mother and with the village where they live. The book shows the reader how Natasha decides many years later to confront and revisit those critical events and all that meant afterwards.

The narrative is written in a clear and compelling manner, making it easy to read, with lots of great descriptions and interesting characters.

Thank you to Atlantic books for the review copy.

Well written but too slow a pace for me. I could only read it in small bites. Good to chill back with but not for me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Atlantic Books and Rachel Donohue for this ARC in return for my honest review. The central concept for the book is people who have lost dreams or people they love and so are finding their way to get through it all. It's a tender coming of age story, that moves slowly due to it's beautiful and lyrical writing. I really enjoyed this as I did her previous book, The Temple House Vanishing. I hope it's as big a hit.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book like this. The Beauty of Impossible Things is truly the perfect title for this melancholic yet alluring book that creates a heady atmosphere from the first few pages; I found myself entranced.

Written by Irish author Rachel Donohue, it’s about all those people who have lost dreams or people they love and are just finding a way to try and get through life.

The Beauty of Impossible Things is very much about our narrator Natasha’s personal journey rather than what happens in the plot per se and it really is thoughtful and beautiful, although tinged with sadness.

Told to us in the first person by Natasha, she is recounting the summer she turned 15 to her therapist, years later. So we get to hear what happened, as well as her musings on why things went the way they did and her regrets too.

On the cusp of adulthood, Natasha is finding her own voice and trying to find her authentic self. This involves her exploring her complex relationship with her mother, in fact, The Beauty of Impossible Things really does a brilliant job of shining a light on the fragility of all kinds of relationships. Including Natasha’s changing one with her best friend, Marcus and her more maternal one with her friend Lewis.

Natasha and her mother live in a big house (inherited, they have little money now so take in lodgers to make ends meet) in a charming seaside town. Mr Bowen is their new lodger and takes a shine to Natasha’s mother.

While this is happening, mysterious blue lights appear in the sky and send the town into a spin – What are they? What do they mean? I actually found my mind pinging to random X-Files memories when reading – both in the ‘there’s something out there’ and romantic tension between lead character ways.

The other element of the story is that Natasha has foresight on what will happen in her life and to those around her through premonitions in her dreams. This is is actually the second book I’ve read recently by an Irish author that looks at the idea of predicting the future in dreams (the other was Snowflake).

The Beauty of Impossible Things taps into the need for acceptance and inability to communicate that a lot of people can probably relate to and really struck a chord with me. Stunningly written, I devoured it on a sunny afternoon in the garden, which wonderfully evoked the novel’s sunshine beach setting and definitely helped me dive further into the world of the narrative.

I was really captivated by this evocative read. Suspend your disbelief a little and go with it.

A slow-burning coming of age story with an evocative atmosphere. It's highly descriptive which occasionally slowed the pace but the author's writing skill is high. The slow pace made me lose the thread occasionally.

This is a really beautiful coming of age story about Natasha, a woman who narrates the story of her childhood living with her beautiful, bohemian mother in a seaside town and the events of an impossible summer. Natasha has a gift, or perhaps a curse, that allows her to see certain elements of future events that has often made her life difficult and she is treated as a kind of outcast at times. A very slow burning, quite melancholy mystery with wonderful atmosphere.

Im not sure "enjoyed" is the right word for this book as it invoked a sense of unease and foreboding throughout which, I feel, reflects the skill of the writer. She cleverly drew together a coming of age tale with the difficulty of being an outsider whilst trying to make people listen to your truth. I found the ending a bit disappointing, but would recommend the novel
Thank you to netgalley and Atlantic books for an an advance copy of this book

“It was a transient, once-elegant town, with tall, decaying pastel-coloured houses along the seafront, truly alive for only a few months of the year.”
Natasha Rothwell looks back on the languid summer when she turned 15, her dilapidated house on the cliffs, her beautiful, aloof mother, her two slightly weird friends, her gift. In the night, lights apper at the cliff edge - an optical illusion, a weather phenomenon or is it actually a warning of sorts?
The rumours about the lights draw more and more people to the resort, holday makers, journalists, paranormal investigators. A boy disappears.
An atmospheric portrayal of a histrionic teenager on a hot and sultry summer.

I do like coming of age stories, especially if they take place during one summer. This one started well and I was drawn to the characters of Natasha and her mother, Marcus and Lewis, Mr Bowen and Dr Black. The blue lights, as it turned out, were non-essential to the story, as Natasha would have foreseen the events without them. This just added a bit of mysticism. The fact that Dr Black came in and immediately believed Natasha was a little hard to believe and Natasha's present day therapy intruded on the flow of the story. So a little disappointing as it turned out.

This was a well written story and very atmospheric. Natasha and her mother live in a crumbling pile in a faded seaside town. The house is set above the town and overlooks the beach. The lives of the two of them are very much on the peripheral of the community, and they don’t really belong.
Whilst the writing is clever and charming, there is far too much descriptive narrative, which slows the story down and makes reading it a challenge. The last few chapters did nothing for the story and I was left wanting to know more, and feeling the story was incomplete.
Thank you NetGalley.

A really interesting read. Great story. Ethereal, with a dreamlike quality . I enjoyed this and would recommend.

A slightly random story but quite intriguing as to Natasha and her gift, then the impact this has all around her.

I really liked this book even though I don't usually enjoy books that are very descriptive and there's a lot - a whole lot! - of description here. I loved the seaside setting and the mysterious other worldliness of the story. I loved the teenage protagonist - often I'm drawn to characters who are outsiders like she is. I found this book gripping: the sort of book I look forward to reading when I get into bed at night.

A highly atmospheric, haunting coming-of-age novel. I appreciated the lyrical beauty of the writing and the finely crafted characters, but I didn’t love this book. For me personally there was far too much description and not enough story, for all that I appreciate the emotive language.

Oh wow, I absolutely adored this book!!!!
It is a beautifully written, magical, thought provoking escape from every day life.
I didn’t want it to end!!

This is atmospheric, cleverly crafted and beautifully written. I loved the seaside setting with the 'none ever stays' element. Set during a hot summer, the claustrophobia and intense heat is so well done that it's almost suffocating to read. Despite becoming immersed in all of this, I was expecting more. I felt the last third of the book really let down the book as a whole. It was as if the writer didn't know quite where the story would wind up, so just cobbled an ending together. Such a shame, but I needed more answers.

This was an incredible book that will stay with me forever. I loved it. J loved the writing. I loved the Dark tale. Brilliant. Highly recommended xx

I seem drawn to books set by the sea of late, probably because I can't get to the beach during the lockdown, and so reading about it is my next best option. I also love books that feature characters who find themselves outside of societal norms.

This book is no exception as we follow the story of Natasha. Natasha has the ability to sense future events and premonitions and, after seeing strange blue lights at the Ridge, she decides to speak up about what she believes is coming. The town receives a level of notoriety due to the lights and attracts the media and Dr Black, who has come to investigate further. Natasha finds herself pulled into this world, yet it also isolates her from others who are frightened by her predictions or find it weird. It also puts a wedge in a long-standing friendship she has with Marcus.

Although the plot centres around the lights and a missing teenager, this is also a coming of age story. One in which Natasha has to deal with her feelings for Marcus, her mother falling in love and the impact of this, and it's also about her discovering her voice and coming to understand who she is.

The writing is beautiful yet melancholic. There's so much possibility, yet Natasha's decisions sabotage this and impact her own happiness and others' happiness. I loved how the seaside town and its faded glory are described and the depiction of the house and bohemian lifestyle that Natasha's mother chooses to live. It's not often that I'd like a separate novel about a secondary character in a book, but I'd love to read more of Elizabeth.

This book has really stayed with me, and it left me with lots of questions and what-ifs, and I consider that to be a real positive. It's like I'm not ready to let go of Natasha and what becomes of her just yet.

I also rushed out and bought Rachel Donohue's other book and can't wait to read more of her writing.

Atmospheric coming of age steeped in regret.

Misfit teenager Natasha claims to tell the future, but people look upon her as attention seeking. That is, until strange lights appear over her seaside town, and a boy goes missing. Many years’ later, as she recounts what happened that sultry summer, she remains full of remorse for what she did and didn’t do.

Donohoe’s writing is compelling, atmospheric and supremely confident. She excels at the small observation and the internal world of the character. However, the momentum slows towards the end and fails to deliver the thrilling conclusion of her debut, The Temple House Vanishing. Nonetheless, the author confirms her position as a skilled storyteller.

My thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the ARC.

Set in a faded seaside town, Natasha grows up aware of the transitional nature of the people who come and then leave, never becoming permanent features of life. As a much older woman talking to her therapist, she recalls one particular summer of her childhood which was memorable as a coming of age moment in her life and that of her friends Marcus and Lewis; it was also remarkable as the year the town made the news for strange blue lights, thought by some to be extraterrestrial, others ghosts. The town had a surreal and disturbing element leant to it by these happenings. Natasha has always dreamt of the future and is seen as somewhat of an outcast, and for her the lights are a warning that she must tell others... her failed attempts at warnings culminate in several defining moments for her with her relationships with the people in her life, not least with her mother, who she feels has never paid her any attention, and who is attracted to their new lodger, a beginning which Natasha clearly feels threatens her own relationship with her mother.

Right from the outset of this book I was really absorbed by the lethargic, nostalgic feel of the town and Natasha’s investigation into the lights with her friends. There was something very different about the atmosphere of it which drew me in. I was less enthusiastic about the second half of the book which felt a bit musing and melancholic and didn’t feel tremendously resolving of anything, but I still came away feeling like this was something unusual and good overall.

My thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher, Atlantic Books, for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.