I found the characters very confusing at first, knowing who was who. Especially as they had more than one name! I’ve since found out, after reading the other reviews, that it’s the third of a trilogy….ahh! But I persevered, and rather enjoyed it, at times. I didn’t feel a great deal of sympathy for any of the characters though - a bunch of whingers, the lot of them!

The Glorious Heresies - the first book in the Ryan Cusack series - is one of my all-time favourite books. It takes a special amount of talent to write a book about foul-mouthed characters dealing with murder, coverups, drugs, addiction, and make it so...beautiful? And by that, I don't mean that the author romanticizes any of it. It's just that in the midst of all of this, there are moments of startling tenderness, and it's a testament to Lisa McInerney's writing that those moments never seem out of place in a series like this. I can sing praises for the first book for as long as you'd listen. I struggled with the second book, but I am happy to report that The Rules of Revelation is a solid conclusion to a highly memorable series.

In the The Rules of Revelation, Lisa McInerney's biggest strength is at full display: characters. It's fantastic to see characters grow and evolve from where and who they were when you first encountered them. And I deeply care about these characters. I don't think I've ever rooted for a character's redemption like I've rooted for Ryan's. And McInerney writes about people that hover around the fringes of society.. They're destructive; they hurt each other and themselves. This last book, though, is less about destructiveness and more about introspection and healing. I absolutely love the fact that we got to follow Karine D'Arcy's perspective - that was a great decision on the author's part. Another thing that McInerney does exceedingly well is dialogue. The dialogue and wit in The Glorious Heresies is one of my favourite things about it. This book also has some memorable conversations.

I feel sad saying goodbye to these characters, but this was a satisfying ending. I am genuinely excited to see what McInerney does next.

A satisfying conclusion to the Cork trilogy. At times some of the old magic is there but the plot and characters start to thin out as their best and youngest years pass them by. I honestly believe that the first two books are a must read mash up of Normal People’s infuriating couple and Love/Hates seedy underworld. The author nails the working class antihero vibe throughout the three books and fans of the series will be glad to see the happily ever after

I am a huge fan of McInerney’s first of the trilogy, The Glorious Heresies, although I did not get on too well with the second novel, The Blood Miracles. Nonetheless I was enthusiastic to read this third novel. Sadly I was a bit disappointed and I almost wish she’d just left the first as a stand-alone (sorry!) because the second two unfortunately pale in comparison.

I remain a fan of McInerney (I was lucky enough to attend a talk of hers a few years ago and she was a fabulous speaker) so I’ll give whatever she writes next a go. Alas this just didn’t live up to the first novel for me.

I loved the first two novels by this author, but I struggled to get into this one. Perhaps there were too many characters and names that I had forgotten, although the Cork setting was as usual great fun and impeccably described.

The Rules of Revelation is the third in the trilogy set in Cork. This book ties up all loose ends and the characters from the earlier books make appearances. The characters bare their souls to you as we follow the tumultuous history of Ireland. There is love, obsession, art, patriarchy, new laws that govern the country, and more.

Lisa McInerney is a wonderful writer. I still remember how I was completely mesmerized by The Glorious Heresies. But as is usual in books with sequels, some things that I loved in the first book fall short. I miss that effortless wit. The third book ties up loose ends. But I didn't care or remember some characters (a personal bias), which affected the reading. The character sketches were alright — one of McInerney's strengths — though. This is a book that might speak differently to diff readers. I want to read the three books back to back and see how my enjoyment changes... One day.

The Glorious Heresies remains my absolute favourite. It is such a masterful novel. So would rec you read that 100%. If you love it too, you might be tempted to continue the trilogy.

I was sent a copy of The Rules of Revelation by Lisa McInerney to read and review by NetGalley. I’m afraid I really didn’t get on with this book at all. I found it very disjointed, messy and rather confusing. There seemed to be no delineation between passages concerning the different characters and I am sorry to admit that I gave up after around 27% of the way in. I do not abandon a book lightly, but I wasn’t enjoying reading it and while I hoped to find it easier the further into the novel I went, this was not the case. I have since learnt that this is in fact the third in a trilogy, but I really don’t think that reading the preceding volumes would have made any difference to me.

What a cast of characters - misfits, rebels, infuriating know-it-alls, everyone in life is in these pages and they trip off the page. Riotous, clever fun.

The Rules of revelation explores the lives of a group of young adults as they converge in their hometown of Cork. Central to this group is Ryan Cusack the enigmatic frontman of Lord Urchin who has managed to free himself from the shackles of his past. However, his return fuels a spiral of what ifs amongst his old acquaintances, if he can reinvent himself why are others remaining in the lives chosen during the mistakes of their teenage years. Can transgressions ever be truly forgotten, can you really set yourself a new path? All McInerney’s characters are flawed, obsessed with the minutiae of everyday life, but desperate to be of value. The oddballs wrapped up in the The Rules of revelation aspire to more, exploring their sexuality, their politics, their class and ultimately love. Although this book completes a trilogy it very much stands alone to be enjoyed.

Lively and funny, I enjoyed this . I adored the Cork voices throughout and the gritty humour. Thank you to the publishers and to Netgalley for the opportunity to review an ARC.

Back to the violent and drug-addled Cork estates, and McInerney doesn't miss a step in terms of her now-signature style and tone. There are series of novels which, in the right moment, really sing and speak to a some readers, who find some recognition, relatability or escape in them. For me, this is not one of those trilogies. I just could not find the connective tissue that was tangible enough to care or really engage with the plight of these characters - even three books in. This is not to say that the book is without a skilful and well-rounded community of people who inhabit a world which McInerny has really shaped with plenty of light, shade and emotion. Furthermore, she writes with conviction that is enviable - as was there with The Glorious Heresies, there is urgency and passion running in the veins of this novel, totally giving rise to the pace by which life in Cork is found.
The fragmented narrative from the first in the trilogy is resurrected meaning the connections are even harder to make, if this is a world you are not enamoured to be in. My main sticking point remains Ryan - an attractive and enigmatic hero who seems well-liked by women in the novel and the author herself. Yet I still am waiting to find that redeeming, humanising quality to couple the charisma which will allow a chink for me to see into his deeper dimensions. The third in the trilogy seems somewhat a victim of its own initial denseness, over burdened by the relevance and information it drags with it from book one, and a confusion as to the stories to prioritise and the ones to leave behind. Yes all roads lead to Ryan and the relationships he manifests along the way with the different people he is in contact with, but I'm still uncertain as to where that leaves us... or why we end up where the novel closes...

My lack of connection therefore seemed to somewhat be tethered to the complexity that I didn't feel necessary - the vast amount of characters, an endless stream of twenty-somethings who left me wanting. Each vignette often proved contradictory - both sharply observed but equally fleeting and bearing small impact or purpose to the trajectory of the narrative overall. Denouement was not going to be influenced by each section, thus rendering them questionable and at times purposeless.

The cover blurb suggests this as “an excellent place to start” with McInerney’s trilogy, though the diversity of character voice Rules of Revelation face you with seemed to serve my confusion predominantly. Perhaps a critique embedded in my own doing of unrealistic expectations, i had hoped that this would conclude more succinctly, Or at the very least I wouldn't be left to feel a stranger in a world I had already spent two novels-lengths in.

A wonderfully written novel plunging into the underbelly of Cork. I wish I had known this was the third in a series before I began, as I think I'd have fared far better.

Characters are thrown into the mix without any careful introduction, as though I should have known their names and their histories. Yes, had I read the previous, I'm sure I would've been fully clued up, but I was lost at sea here. It really affected my engagement and connection with the plot and characters, and I ended up feeling pretty confused.

I don't think this works well as a standalone, and would thoroughly recommend starting at the beginning before picking up this one - I plan to in the near future.

The third in Lisa McInerney's "Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll" trilogy set in Cork

I was a big fan of "The Glorious Heresies" with its black humour and its multi-narrator cast of memorable characters whose stories only gradually converged.

I was very disappointed in "The Blood Miracles" with too much of an emphasis on one character (Ryan Cusack) and too much of a straight drug-dealing, gangster novel.

This third is somewhere in the middle - the author I think is a lot more fascinated by Ryan than I am (I saw on Goodreads the book is even subtitled Ryan Cusack #3) but by contrast there is more of a return to a multi-character perspective which I prefer. I did feel that the humour of the first book was still not fully present and here it is replaced slightly awkwardly by some politics.

Everyone should read "The Glorious Heresies" - try "Blood Miracles" and then read this if you enjoy that.

This is the final book in Lisa McInerney's trilogy set in Cork city. We see the return of Ryan Cusack, as well as a lot of the other characters that are first introduced in The Glorious Heresies, book one in the series. Ryan has returned home from South Korea to write and record an album with his band Lord Urchin. All the other characters are connected to Ryan in some way: Karine, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his son Diarmuid. His bandmates. Mel, his old next door neighbour, who's mother Tara has history with Ryan). Jimmy Phelan, crime lord in Cork and Ryan's ex-boss. Maureen, Jimmy's mother. Georgie, a former sex worker who Jimmy instructed Ryan to kill, who he exiled to London instead but who has returned, hellbent to expose Ryan's history and destroy the bands chances at success. Ryan's siblings and his father Tony

Book one had a similar format, most of the these characters being interconnected in different ways, sometimes without them even knowing they had links. Book two was more focused on Ryan as the main character. I feel like this books is like a mixture of the two. We're seeing all the characters but the focal point of the story is Ryan and his interactions with these characters. I liked this format as I didn't like the change in book 2.

McInerney has a gift in immersing you in this grittier world, full of sex, drugs and rock n roll. The Cork accent lilts off the pages and being familiar with Cork, plenty of the locations were known to me which I enjoyed. A lot of the storylines from the previous books are wrapped up, this does a mostly good job at concluding the trilogy. However I did find it slow moving, almost painfully so at times. Which is unfortunate as I did really like book 1 and the overall premise of the series. I felt like the reintroduction of Mel's character and being on of the POV characters weighed things down, I feel like the only reason for this is for the Tara storyline. But this could have been done without Mel being a POV character. Mel's other storyline is to do with gender and sexuality but when compared to the other 2 books, these issues don't fit the puzzle of the storyline properly, it kinda sticks out a bit. The book is very character driven rather than story driven, whereas The Glorious Heresies was very exciting in comparison. This one is an improvement on The Blood Miracles but for me, The Glorious Heresies is the best of the series

Although I'm sure this is a great book I couldn't get into it. Not realising this is the final part of a trilogy I requested this book and you definitely need to have read the first two. I think I will read the previous two books and go back to it.

I’m sorry to say I found it impossible to get into this book, probably because I had not realised it was the third book in a trilogy. The writing was reasonable and the city of Cork, which I have visited many times, was of interest. However this was a DNF for me, sorry.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this title.

I had trouble getting into this one. Perhaps because I haven't read the earlier two books in the series, which I wasn't aware of until I was already into this one. The plot/action was too lacking for my tastes and unfortunately I struggled to finish it.

This book is subtitled “Ryan Cusack #3” and this is because it is part three (of, I assume, a trilogy) that began with The Glorious Heresies and then continued with The Blood Miracles. I really enjoyed the irreverent comedy of The Glorious Heresies and the way it followed a cast of characters whose lives intertwined. When The Blood Miracles changed the focus to a single character (Ryan Cusack himself) I found that worked a lot less well for me. Because of my lack of enjoyment of The Blood Miracles, I made a decision not to re-read the first two parts of the trilogy in preparation for this final part. This turns out to be a mistake and I would very much recommend that anyone reading this book also reads the first two parts beforehand.

The Rules of Revelation reverts to the multi-character approach as several characters from the first two books progress their stories. Once again, these stories overlap, although to my mind they also have more independence to them. The main story follows, as you’d expect, Ryan Cusack as he deals with trauma that we already know about from earlier books. Also, we have always known that Ryan is musically gifted and here he is front man for a band that is getting together to record an album (this is what brings most of the characters back together for this book). The narrative is interspersed with explanations from Ryan, written to Karine, of the origins of the tracks on the album.

What this book lacks, from my perspective, is the energy, drive and comedy that was in The Glorious Heresies but not in The Blood Miracles. It seems to want to make some points about gender, about Ireland, about Brexit that sometimes don’t sit very comfortably with the rest of the book.

Overall, I enjoyed this more than I enjoyed The Blood Miracles but, for my tastes, it fell well short of the The Glorious Heresies.

I really enjoyed The Rules of Revelation - although I started reading it fully prepared to be confused. I wasn’t. This is the third and final part of a trilogy - I do own the first two books, but in true Clare style, I haven’t read them. I like that this stands alone, although I’m sure that I will have missed out on some important parts of the plot - never fear! I’ll just go back and read the first two!

I really like stories set around bands or singers - and this does have something extra to that storyline. The side character really made this novel interesting. I loved Maureen, the mother of the local big drug baron. She really doesn’t care what anyone feels or thinks about her, and isn’t frightened by her son one bit - unlike most of Cork.

Georgie is an ex sex-worker who wants what she thinks is fair - and that’s to make sure that Ryan Cusak’s band, Lord Urchin, get what they deserve. Nothing. I can’t help but think that a lot of her problems come from the fact that she is so easily taken advantage of: in her past as well as by the journalist in her present.

And then there’s the love story of Ryan and Karine. How much more complicated could they make it for one another? On top of that, is Ryan’s battle to make his art accessible to others, to sell an album or play to an audience, but his past is constantly putting a spanner in the works. He wants to improve his life from his poor, deprived upbringing, and put his drug-dealing past firmly behind him.

And all of this set in a time of great change in Ireland. Maureen should see some positives in the new Ireland. She talks about Cork being a city for men, but Ireland has just passed laws for marriage equality and abortion rights.

There’s a lot going on in this novel, I’d never get through all of it here, and I wouldn’t want to. You should just read it. I loved it, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

Unfortunately I found this too complicated and did not finish reading it. I did love the description of Ireland, and Cork though.