From the age of 7 Alice can see people’s colours surrounding them, telling her of their emotions and feelings, Alice struggles to cope with a hard family life and is sent away to a boarding school for children with behavioural problems. A good book although it jumped around a lot, I’m not sure if this was because the book is a draft but this is the most difficult Cecilia Ahern book I have read, it just didn’t seem to flow well.

PR: Gifted from Harper Collins UK @netgalley.
I’ve a love/hate relationship with Cecelia Ahern’s books. Some I’ve loved, and some I haven’t. She has almost created a writing genre of her own - a little bit of the surreal world, with a little bit of reality. I wasn’t particularly attracted to this book, but it hit me at the right time - just after a heavy read - it was quite uplifting as it considered how humans interact with each other.
The protagonist has the ability to read people’s moods, so we see the good and bad of this, and how it impacts on her life. A simple concept, which you need to suspend your disbelief about to enjoy this book.

This is a very different novel to anything that I have read recently, and I loved it.

Alice Kelly is just 8 years old when she notices that everyone has a colour. She calls an ambulance as she believes her Mother is dead, as she is surrounded in a deathly hue. In reality her Mother is comatose having drunk copious amounts of alcohol and passed out prior to her Daughter's arrival home from school.

She doesn't realise her ability until the ambulance crew departs, and the colours surrounding her Mother turn red. She is livid. Alice realises she is able to see emotions as colours, but doesn't fully understand this until much later in life.

Alice has synaesthesia, which is where a percept or concept (such as words, sounds or touch) automatically triggers an experience in another modality (such as colour, space or taste) (link). Unable to cope with bright lights, Alice starts wearing sunglasses to school. When she refused to take them off in a lesson, and the teacher won't listen to her reasoning, she is labelled a trouble maker.

Alice is sent to a secondary school for those who have behavioural issues. There she makes a good friend who sees her for who she truly is. By the time she finishes school and plans to move away, her Mother has become ill and needs full time care, her older brother has moved overseas and her younger brother is in prison.

Despite their fractured relationship, it is up to Alice to care for her Mother.

When she finally leaves the family home to start her own life in London, Alice could be described as a little 'odd'. She wears a mask, sunglasses and gloves wherever she goes, and won't make physical contact with anyone. In an unknown period in time, (presumably pre-covid) this doesn't go down well when interviewees are wanting to shake her hand, and initially she struggles to find work.

Then one day on the tube, something remarkable happens there is a man sat opposite her who doesn't display any colours at all. Alice doesn't know what this means, but she does know that she must find out who he is, and get to know him.

I can't say too much more, as I don't want to give anything away, but I strongly recommend this novel if you are looking for something beautifully written, and a little bit different...

Cecilia Ahern gets better and better. I loved Freckles, which I’d tried despite hating her early books ( especially P.S. I Love You, a book I hated with a passion and wanted to throw on the fire). This was such a profound book that touched me deeply. I identified with our heroine so strongly, both physically and mentally. To explain, ever since I was diagnosed with MS I get strange crossed wires with my senses, especially around sight and taste. If I see a beautiful display of daffodils, I suddenly taste delightfully sour sherbet lemons and my mouth waters to the point of pain. Every so often, if I’m action, the smell and taste of Mum’s cottage pie drifts in and I can actually experience it as a physical sense. It’s obviously something that’s comforting to me. These experiences are vivid and as real as if it’s directly in front of me. I think this ability to make strange connections and perceive senses in different ways also stretches to other people’s emotions. There are times when someone walks into a room when I can feel their emotion as strongly as my own. It goes beyond a knowledge of body language, I can actually feel their anger, confusion, grief or joy in my own body. As you can imagine this has been incredibly useful in my counselling work, but it’s also completely exhausting. It was no stretch to believe in our heroine Alice and her ability to see people’s emotions as colours. I could also empathise with how difficult it is for her to cope with.

Alice is from a dysfunctional family and we’re thrown directly into their daily life, where elder brother Hugh and Alice are trying to keep their family together. Alice has to get her younger brother up and ready for school, trying desperately not to wake their mother Lily and incur her wrath. Sometimes when they return Lily still hasn’t surfaced, but if she has it’s still best to remain under the radar because she’s usually irritable, lethargic and unable to connect with her children. Other days they may come home and find Lily up, dressed and full of energy. She may be frantically cooking pancakes, multiples of them, while working out the overheads of running a mobile pancake van. This tendency to flit between extremes is spoken of in whispers between the children, quick warnings to brace themselves or expect the worst. One day after school Alice comes home and finds Lily still in bed, even worse there’s an eerie blue mist emanating from the bed and filling the room. Alice fears the worst and rings an ambulance, then runs into her room and hides. It’s only when she hears her mother screaming and swearing at the paramedics that she realises Lily is alive. What’s baffling to Alice is that no one else can see the colours.

I absolutely loved the way the author described Alice’s adjustment to having this vivid colour display wherever there are people. In the school environment it’s a nightmare for her, everyone gives off a different mix of colours, moving and flashing at her eyes until she starts to suffer migraines. Her insistence on wearing sunglasses to school brings her to the teacher’s attention and they think she’s playing up and being insolent. Hugh knows though and seems to realise instinctively that it’s part of Alice’s hyper-sensitivity; the colours are simply a physical manifestation of her ability to feel other’s emotions. Alice is what might be called an empath, she has more empathy than the average person and can pick up on the moods and sensitivities of people in close proximity to her. As a child she sees the negatives in her situation, mainly because she doesn’t have autonomy. If Lily is blue, red, or at worst black, there’s nothing Alice can do to avoid it. She can get out of the house if Lily hasn’t seen her, but that’s not always possible and she’s at the mercy of her mother’s mood. The author brilliantly conveys Alice’s feeling of powerlessness and the fear she feels as she comes home, unsure of what will happen when she goes inside. Scenes where Lily is at her most angry, in one scene towards Hugh and his plans to go to university, the furious and messy black colour Alice can see is really menacing. Yet they go on hiding Lily’s condition, because the alternative is social services and possibly having to split the family up.

I found myself really worried for Alice, because in the swirl of colours and emotions that assail her every hour of the day how can she ever find peace? Between that and the terrible situation at home there’s never a moment for her to develop herself. We only know who Alice is in relation to everyone around her. She becomes subsumed by their emotions, needs and wants to such an extent that her own don’t get a look in. I was devastated by her choice to stay at home after leaving school with Lily and her little brother, who’s rapidly becoming a violent criminal. His antagonism towards Alice comes from being the baby of the family and not yet being able to view his mum objectively. Lily has the ability to threaten and manipulate quietly, deliberately under the radar of her youngest son. So he only sees Alice’s attempts to stick up for herself, which cause such a furore that in his eyes, Alice is the problem. I was worried that she would never be able to leave home, follow a career or get married and have her own children. She has become so emotionally literate though and still worries about her family members, even the ones who treat her badly. I was sure though that she wouldn’t be able to discover her authentic self and develop the life she wants without leaving. One catalyst for change is the man she happens to see on his way to work. He stands out instantly because he isn’t giving off any colours and Alice is so fascinated that she follows him. Andy is a strange mix of both restful and mysterious. Alice has never had to work so hard on getting to know someone, it’s both scary and intoxicating to peel back the layers. However, when they’re just ‘being’ - taking a walk or watching a movie - Alice can relax fully, because she can’t sense all the colours lurking underneath the surface. I was intrigued to know whether this could be Alice’s ‘one’, but also whether there were other colourless people in the world.

From the perspective of this reader with a disability it was so interesting to watch someone negotiate the world with a difference like this. I’d probably call it an ability rather than a disability. I loved discovering whether Alice grows to cope with her colours or moves beyond the difficulties of her childhood. As we moved through her life I forgot she wasn’t a real person, that’s how well-rounded a character she is. I felt like I was having a conversation with one of my counselling clients because of the depth the author goes to and the richness of her inner world. It was a surprise to see how her age and experience changes her relationships with other characters. I found the final sections of the novel, deeply moving and strangely comforting. I felt privileged to have moved through life with this extraordinary woman.

I tried hard to like this book about Alice and her family but I’m sorry to say I didn’t finish it and feel that I just didn’t get it. I’ve enjoyed other books by the author but not this one.

My thanks to the author, the publishers and Netgalley for the chance to read and review the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. This was an excellent read.
Thoroughly recommended

Cecelia Ahern has written a wonderfully moving story about the life of Alice, a woman with an unusual gift. She, however, views it not as a gift but a curse. Alice sees the emotions of others and gets tangled up in their feelings. She spends much of her life trying to deal with the fallout. This is an epic tale, covering Alice’s life from a young child who is eventually banished to a ‘boarding school for freaks’ until late adulthood. We get to know her siblings, one empathetic, the other awful, and her dysfunctional mother, Lily. And we meet her lifelong friend, Gospel, another ‘freak’. Their relationship is special and touching.
I loved the kaleidoscope of colours that runs through this book and which defines Alice. I was swept up in her life, experiencing her ups and downs, triumphs and disappointments as she learns about herself and how to live in this world. It gave me lots to think about, including how we treat people we perceive to be different.

A deeply touching book that deals with what it means to be human - the good, the bad and the ugly. Alice sees people’s moods as colours and spends her life battling to come to terms with her gift and maintain equilibrium. Along the way, she learns a lot about others and, more importantly, herself.

A rich and unusual book that kept my attention throughout, although I did feel that the last part when Alice was married did feel a bit rushed. Definitely worth a read though.

5 colourful emotional stars

From beginning to end, I loved this book. The theme of auras and colours might be woo woo but it was fascinating and poignant to read about.

Alice does not have an easy life, and her gift (or curse depending on how you look at it) make everyday activities like walking down a street overwhelming. Absorbing everyone else’s feelings sounds exhausting.

I flew through the book, and I didn’t even realise how emotionally attached I was until I found my eyes welling up with tears at it’s conclusion.

Highly recommended if you enjoy rooting for an underdog, a little woo woo, and triumph over adversity themes.

I think this is one of the most ‘complete’ stories that I’ve read for a while. What I mean by that … Alice is 8 when the story starts and we get to experience her whole life. And because it’s written in the first person, I felt an attachment to her right away.

There’s always something motivating behaviours (for all of us!) and for Alice, it’s a lot more complex than a dysfunctional family. She sees things differently which exhausts her. This isn’t something made up, it’s real. Although it affects the person I know in a different way. If you’re a person who has this condition, I imagine you would take great comfort from Alice’s experiences.

Older brother Hugh is a mainstay for her throughout her life. Her relationship with her younger brother Ollie and her mum is complicated.

When Hugh leaves for Uni, he tells her she needs to find a way to live with what she sees and feels but she puts her life on hold, giving up everything to be there for her mum. Alice does wonder if she is hiding from life, scared to try or be anything in a world that shreds her sanity! A key event gets her moving and the universe puts someone in her path to help her.

I was rooting for Alice to find how she could have what she wanted from life. There’s a mix of fab characters that build up or make life difficult. Cecelia Ahern clearly has a solid grasp on human nature (played out in all its shades in this story).

In A Thousand Different Ways pulls at your emotions from the beginning. And that connection (for me) got deeper quite quickly. I felt lows and highs, hope and despair!

If you enjoy unique character driven stories with heart that will make you laugh and cry, In A Thousand Different Ways should be on your radar.

Another beautiful novel from the amazing Cecelia Ahern. This did not disappoint. Her writing is just beautiful and sensitive and her characters so well developed I always feel like I know them. I have now bought this book so that i can read it over and over again.

I didn’t finish this one, I just felt uncomfortable reading this. Nit like her other books at all. Very disappointing. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Thanks for arc to netgalley and publishers
I love Cecelia Ahern and all her books but when I started this one I struggled at first to understand Alice and what she was about
I thought she was another struggling child and the colours issue would disappear how wrong could I be, how cecelia gets into Alice’s head to see the world through her eyes I cannot imagine at all but she does with stunning clarity and she brings you as the reader to see how Alice sees the people in her life too from a very early age I can’t forget the paramedics she rings when she sees blue and thinks her mother is dead
It will stay with me for a long long time and I am not sure I will look at people the same again
All the time thinking what colours are you?

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review. Cecelia Ahern is a favourite author of mine so I was excited to read her new book. I certainly wasn’t disappointed. I devoured every page of this beautiful story. I loved the character of Alice and am so happy that things worked out for her. A truly lovely book, highly recommended. 5 stars from me.

This was not what I expected from this author. It has been years since I read one of her books so maybe I've outgrown her books? This book was disappointing. I felt sorry for Alice. She was struggling to cope with being different and seeing aura's. I felt the writing was choppy. The story jumped to much between past and present, which made it hard to follow. The book wasn't for me. It was a struggle to finish it.

I really enjoy Cecelia Ahern’s books and was looking forward to reading this one. Sadly, this wasn’t one of my favourites.

First of all, I did find it quite fascinating to find out about Alice’s synaesthesia. I have heard of it before and come across it in a few other books. In Alice’s case she can see people’s colours which tells her instantly about their moods. She can read danger, fear, love, joy and any other emotion from looking at people. She is also hugely affected by these moods which can rub off on her and so she is reluctant to have much contact with people. In this sense of being different, Alice has much in common with many of Cecelia Ahern’s other often quirky characters.

I had a lot of sympathy for Alice’s family situation. She was brought up with one older and one younger brother by their mother, Lily, who was bipolar. Life was very difficult for the family and Alice’s experiences were hard to read about. She was effectively a carer to her mother and younger brother, Ollie, which was really too much to expect of a young girl. Life didn’t get much easier as she got older and her mother experienced serious illness while her younger brother went off the rails. Thank goodness for the people who brought light and understanding into her life: her brother Hugh, schoolfriend Gospel, neighbour Naomi and another who I won’t mention for fear of giving away spoilers.

What this book lacked for me was what I think of as Cecelia Ahern’s trademark warm humour and the romance which is usually a major feature of most of her other novels. This book was much darker as it explored a dysfunctional family, neurodiversity and mental illness. The romantic element I wasn’t expecting didn’t come until well on in the book and wasn’t as much of a focus as in Ahern’s previous books. I also thought that having spent much time on Alice’s early life and her adulthood until perhaps her thirties, the last couple of chapters seemed to cover all the rest of her life in a rush.

So this book didn’t really hit the mark for me but of course, you might be different. I have certainly read many glowing reviews of the book so why not read it for yourself and see what you think? It won’t put me off reading Cecelia Ahern’s books as I have loved so many of them and I will hope that the next one is a winner for me.

You cannot but help fall in love with the character Alice in this story. It is one of those books that take you on an emotional rollercoaster of a journey as you watch Alice from childhood to adulthood dealing with the overwhelming and all consuming issues that she has to face day in day out. She sees colours around everyone she comes in to contact with, noting their energies and auras and taking it all on board until it overwhelms her leaving her totally drained.

As a child she is seen as odd and weird, and doesn't have the adults around her to help guide her with the issues she's facing. Her mother is an alcoholic and has poor mental health so is not often a use to anyone, whilst her older brother does all he can to care for Alice and her younger brother, but he has his own life to lead. So we watch over Alice and the family as they go through life with various challenges faced at different ages and it is impossible not to feel the angst and fear as she tries to cope in a world that doesn't understand her.

She likes to live 'safely' so always goes for the safe option but she finds herself having to go things alone and finds comfort in taking care of houseplants and a garden and I just adored her attitude and compassion. No matter how she was treated by others she always has that feeling of responsibility and not giving up on others, no matter what she's going through.

She receives wise advice along her journey from people she meets along the way, and I adored how she'd take time to listen and take on board new ways of looking at things and how to approach her 'gifts' and to stop being afraid of it and it's one of those stories that totally consumes you and I'm still thinking about Alice now!! Tears were shed too!! A beautiful book!

This book absolutely broke me

I loved everything about it, it tackles so many taboo subjects in its own little way, it was absolutely magical. The story development, character development with flashbacks when needed this book was beautifully written and an absolute MUST

Thank you so much for letting me read this book!

Alice sees people in colour. Their mood and personality is shown to her in colours energies which she attracts. This can be overwhelming in busy places and cause stress. Add in her family problems, and she has a hard time growing g up. We discover how she copes and harnesses her skill.
I found Alice's story fascinating along with coping being a young carer for a parent with mental illness. Alice and her brothers cope very differently.
Do make time to read

I had to wait a day or so to review this latest release. The last chapter hit me hard emotionally. Ahern's work usually moves me, but this one did so even more deeply. I am going to share my views with no spoilers, so bear with me if things seem vague.

As I progressed through the chapters, I understood the significance of Alice's ability to see people's true colours. The storyline is refreshingly unique, and the characters created by Ahern are captivating. Despite encountering some unpleasant characters, I rooted for Alice throughout the story. Alice's journey drew me in. Although her experiences may not be relatable to everyone, it is the way she responds to them and the impact they have on her that makes her so endearing.

Ahern's writing style is engaging and addictive, making for an effortless read. I expected nothing different from this author, and I was not disappointed.

I highly recommend "In a Thousand Different Ways" to book clubs and fans of the author. This thought-provoking read is a must-read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.