Thank you for the opportunity to read 'All My Friends are Invisible'.

This book was not at all what I expected and I was fascinated to read about Jonathan Joly's childhood. and his retreat into a world of invisible friends. From a psychological point of view, this is an interesting phenomena. Like other reviewers, I find it hard to believe that so much could be clearly recalled from such a young age.

I was not expecting an abrupt ending, particularly when the books begins with the return of the author's childhood companions. I wanted to know what has happened since their return but we are left in the dark.

Bravely honest and captivating. A book about a sensitive boy born into an insensitive, harsh world, and how the power of his imagination was the only tool at his disposal to help him survive it.

If you're not sure about it in chapter 1, stick with it a bit. When the story gets to "where it all began" back in the 1980s, that's where the story really gets going.

Anyone who is interested in "how different people live their lives", who likes daily vlogs, is interested in psychological phenomena like imaginary friends, and who enjoys a chatty, easy-to-read style of writing may enjoy this book.

Aside from finding it interesting to hear Jonathan's life story, I also really enjoyed getting a peek into life in Ireland in general. Although I didn't grow up in Ireland, I liked the nostalgia factor it had for me, as a child of the 80s and 90s, reminiscing together with Jonathan as he described memories of video stores and collecting fancy scented stationery.

Jonathan is a talented storyteller. He even does the trick I love of having a small cliffhanger at the end of some chapters to keep you wanting to read on. The whole book is very readable and gripping - you want to know what will happen next, and it's well structured all the way to the satisfying ending. It'd make a good movie!

Although this book isn't a comedy by any means, I loved the gentle touches of humour sprinkled here and there.

All in all, a really enjoyable read.

I've been a fan of the sacconeholys for years since 2014. They were always a fun family to watch on YouTube. The last year though Jonathan has been talking about his true self so inwas curious about the book which is why I asked for an advanced copy.

This was a confusing book. It reads more like fiction then non fiction. Of Jonathan ever wants to write a fantasy book he could probably pull it off

The way be made it sound on YouTube was this big revulation about his true self which I was intrigued by. However all it is is that he had invisible friends at a young age to cope with abuse. This honestly seems completely normal to me for him to have done. Most kids have coping mechanisms when they have been abused and a lot of kids had invisible friends growing up. Maybe it's more mainstream now or maybe it was where I grew up but I was rather confused by the entire thing as what the issue was. He wanted to be a girl that part I could understand why he hide understandable.

The thing that's confused me is he claims in the beginning of the book this all has come back and his invisible friends have returned. Its briefly mentioned but then it goes into his childhood. There is a major opportunity missed here because it should have swung back to present day Jonathan but it doesn't so your left thinking what was the purpose of this? What true self is he now talking about. It would have been better if it was more explained from present Jonathan connecting to past Jonathan. There should have been alternative pov's

In a nutshell we see kid jonthans true self but not adult Jonathan's true self which honestly I would prefer having read. We only see present Jonathan briefly at the beginning to explain his break down.

The structure of the book needs editing honestly it needs more explanation because it just comes across kid hiding from the world with invisible friends due to abuse. There is nothing wrong with that but it just doesn't add up to the narrative on YouTube or instagram we have been getting which left me feeling like I was missing something.

It was an easy read and I felt horrible for Jonathan with the abuse.

I dont know how else to review this because I'm left feeling confused.

This memoir is interesting in many ways. It spans the writer’s childhood, from when he starts primary school up until he is 14. Throughout, we learn of Joly’s life in Irish schools - the way he is bullied and humiliated, both by his peers and at home, particularly by his father.

One of the book’s main premises is Joly’s reliance on his invisible friends, and the imaginary world of Domtie. For anyone who has ever had a made-up friend, especially to help them cope with challenging times, this story will resonate. At times, it reads as if Joly is speaking to the friends throughout - but one has to realise a lot of what is happening is based on the writer’s thoughts: coping mechanisms for the trauma he experiences.

Evidently, there must be significant artistic licence here. It’s hard to know, at times, whether things actually happened. Was Joly treated badly by his father, or was it more in his imagination? I find it hard to believe that things in school were quite so dreadful - particularly comments about the teacher hitting him with a ruler, and the blatant humiliation. However, I think this is part of the story: memories can seem real to us, even if they’re far from he truth. I’m not disputing the story but it does beg the question of what’s real and what’s not.

Joly gets to a stage, in his early teenage years, when things are so much better for him - and then he says goodbye to the ‘friends’ that helped him so much. It’s interesting that this often focuses on Joly’s internal thoughts - and how many of us have imaginary friends to get us through the tough times.

Wow, I was not emotionally prepared for this book. I resonate with this story on such a deep level. I didn’t have the same journey as Jonathan, but if your understand feeling different, like you don’t fit in, and/or you experience emotions on a deeper level than the average person, then you will understand this story. If not, then you will most likely have more questions than answers!

Take this book for the beauty that it is, Jonathan is sharing his story of his experience growing up, what was going on in his external world, along with his internal. Jonathan is very brave to share this story, as it can be hard to understand if you don’t have an open mind, which can lead to judgement. This is a beautiful journey that is only just beginning. A journey that can bring so many into the light, if you are brave enough to let it.

’m so thankful to receive this early copy from NetGalley. I’ve had this book preordered since Jonathan announced it and I’m still excited to receive the physical copy in February!

Having watched The Sacconejoly’s lives for roughly 8 years, I felt a lot more connected to this book than other early reviews I’ve seen. I always knew Jonathan was suffering but the fact he has let us into his world and opened the box for us is incredibly brave and I’m so proud of him for finding that courage.

I will say honestly, as an avid reader though, you can see that Jonathan is not an author. The structure was a bit all over the place and I would’ve liked the book to have been extended just a bit more. It starts with Jonathan at an airport in 2016, then jumps back to the 80s to talk about his childhood. I would’ve been interested to hear more about what happened after the airport situation, even as maybe one extra chapter.

I feel incredibly privileged that I have been allowed to view Jonathan’s world from a window. As someone whose mental health is always up and down I really felt the line, “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep floating, before I drown.”

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in return of an honest review.

I don’t really know where to begin with writing a review for this book. I have been in a reading slump for the last couple of months and have got maybe 2 or 3 chapters in and DNFed a lot of books, but this was different - I couldn’t put it down, and had I not started it late at night, I think I could have read in one sitting. I think this is an extremely good feature of a book, griping it’s reader.

Having said that however, I feel my review needs to reflect that this book is said to be childhood memoir, and I feel it reads very much as a fictional novel.

I do not want to doubt that aspects of the story are true, and that the author had severe mental health issues as a child, but I think the key word here is story. I am not a medical professional, but it does make me wonder if at the time of writing they were experiencing an episode which led to the things written in this book, and I truly hope that they are seeking professional help.

The anecdotes are extremely vivid and detailed - narrating almost minute by minute, word for word of a day that happened to a 4 year old, over 30 years ago. To me, this is wildly unbelievable - maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t be able to describe what happened in my life 2 days ago as detailed as the days in the book are. Aspects come across as a very fabricated story, which makes it hard for me to read and take onboard as being factual. Despite this, the stories told did have my hooked, but as if I was reading the life of a character.

With reference to the writing, I found this very jumbled. The narrator voice seemed to jump with no rhyme or reason and it was hard to know when in time things were. Is this child Jonathan speaking, or adult Jonathan, currently writing the book, reflecting on child Jonathan’s thoughts - a different font or colour perhaps may have helped here.

I also found it hard to follow - we started the book in almost current day (a couple of years ago) at an airport, and then the entirety of the book after this was set 30+ years ago. I was kind of expecting/hoping that at the end we would return to current day, having explained the world of domdie. However now I am left wondering what the purpose of retelling the story was. Where is he now? Is Giselle still around? Does he still visit Domdie? Does he still have a relationship with his family? Has he ever spoken to them about this? What next?

Wow…. What an utter mess of a book, it’d be better to have been written as a fictional story as none of it adds up! The book maybe has hints of the truth but a lot of it doesn’t add up with stories or events retold on the vlogs and videos. For a man so miserable as a child seems odd he would even want this published. Despite the fact he thinks there are lessons here, you can tell they don’t match up, aka the knickers story, I don’t doubt he didn’t enjoy school but boy was that a waste of time