A queasily realistic tale of the messiness of establishing yourself in your 20s in London. Highly recommended.

Great read, very human.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my review.

This was such a perfectly pitched book, I am a similar age to the main character in the story and could see my life experiences reflected in some of her own experiences (though I was never as cool as living with a band in a squat!) The feeling of the late 1990s and early 2000s was spot on, it really took me back.
Excellent writing, highly recommended.

Orla Quinn is 21, and lives for music. It's the turn of the millennium, and Orla has just moved to London with her friend Neema, where they're living with Neema's brother Kesh and his bandmates in a cramped, dirty flat. But they're free - they're independent, they're living life, making their way in the world. As Neema prepares to attend law school, Orla is working in a bar while she tries to get her demos out there - she wants to produce her own dance music but isn't having much luck.

The band, Shiva, begin to get more and more well known - but not always for the right reasons. As the gang indulge in regular partying, drink and drugs, and with nothing back in Ireland for Orla except a mother and sister who are on the beer every night and a Dad in a new relationship Orla doesn't approve of, tensions in the house soon reach boiling point.

I feel like this book is aimed at a very particular person - in theory, I was in a similar position to Orla around the same time, having moved away from home for the first time in 2001. There's where the similarities ended - all the characters seemed to do was take drugs while living in squalor. Their flat sounded disgusting, and they were all struggling to make ends meet yet were out every night getting absolutely mangled. They just all really irritated me (except maybe Neema, who was the only one taking anything seriously) - Orla was in no position to judge her mother or sister for drinking when she was off her head daily. Ditto her father's relationship - she was horrible to his new partner and came off like a bratty teenager instead of a supposed independent woman trying to have a career in music.

I didn't like this at all, unfortunately. There's definitely a group of people out there who will read it and look back fondly at their hedonistic early 20s and feel a sense of nostalgia and warmth towards it, but that's definitely not me. I've seen people say that it'd make a great TV miniseries and I agree (mainly because of the music references, which were top tier), I just don't think it was an enjoyable read.

It took me a while to get into this book and I almost gave up but I am glad I didn't. I still don't k ow how I feel about it but I think that I enjoyed it

"The Mess We're In" by Macmanus captures youthful hedonism with nostalgia. The narrative evokes a sense of time and place, though character depth varies. Macmanus's writing resonates with emotion, though the pacing occasionally falters. The book offers a journey back in time, crafting an immersive experience that celebrates youthful recklessness, but its execution might not fully satisfy all readers seeking a consistently impactful exploration.

The mess we're in is a fantastic book set in London. I immediately connected with the main character as she emigrated from Ireland and tried to make it in the music business in the 90s. The writing is just so raw and I just got completely lost in the story

Sorry to say, but I found The Mess We're In quite dull. The blurb is very much my thing – music industry, early 2000s, young woman trying to make it in London, Irish immigrant story – but I just did not care for any of the characters and I struggled to see what the point of this story was. Three stars because it wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't for me.

2.5 rounded up. I didn't manage to get interested in this novel, set in London in the early 2000s, following narrator Orla who came here from Ireland hoping to work in the music industry. I didn't feel there was much of a plot, which is sometimes fine but in this case it didn't feel calculated and deliberate... It felt like an omission. The narrator is just insufferable, spending her days drinking, doing drugs, working a few shifts at the local pub, embarrassing herself constantly as everyone around her tries to do something. There wasn't a lot of self reflection from Orla, so the events felt somewhat repetitive and as a character she felt empty. The other characters don't have much in them either, and the two Asian characters were cliché and lacked depth. The writing was average at best - I got annoyed with a few verbal tics (so many "grins", everything "deadpan"), the dialogues felt forced. I enjoyed reading about London itself and the memories I have as well of house sharing, meeting new people, the excitement of the city, but ultimately I found it too difficult to like.

I LOVED this book. Raw and unflinching portrayal of life in London at the start of the new millennium. Macmanus manages to capture and bottle all of the emotions, sounds, and sensations of a changing and uncertain world.

The mess we're in by Annie MacManus

Orla moves to London from Ireland to live with her friend Neeva and a band, Shiva. She wants to work in the music industry but supplements this by working in an Irish pub.

This book follows her experience living in London, trying to escape from her life back home where her dad has left home to be with his new girlfriend. It was interesting to read about the housemates relationships and I particularly liked the sections about the regulars in the bar and their experience of London life.

I wasn't totally gripped at the start but once I got in to the story I enjoyed it. I have still to read Mother, mother but hope to soon.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalleyUK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#scottishreader #irishbookstagram #netgalleyuk

I loved it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advance copy, I will definitely be recommending.

It was readable, but I didn’t love it. I think this was largely due to me not liking the characters. It’s a story that did appeal, an Irish girl going to London in the early 2000’s. It is set in the world of music, and my main takeaway was how did the various characters mange to afford to buy so many drugs and still pay their rent. It’s great writing, just a combination of the story and the characters did not appeal. Published today, I read via @netgalley

Orla has left home. Moved from Ireland to live in London with her bestie and a rock band. So what? This is the late 90s, things are different. London is the epicentre to get into music, technology is still at stage of non-smart phones and the internet has survived the millennium bug.

I really like Orla, she knows what she wants but she’s still finding her way in this new world of the Big Smoke. She’s trying to fit in as she stands on her own two feet. She gets a few knocks as she muddles her way through her new life, some longer lasting than others but she doesn’t let them stop her.

Mcmanus’ writing is gritty. She doesn’t glamourise the music industry in the slightest. She shows the life of a rock band as I imagine it can be – drugs, alcohol and all-nighters along with the constant touring and the elation of a crowd’s reaction. She also shows how hard it is to get into the music industry, how cutthroat it can be and how very easy it can turn.

The Mess We’re In is different to Macmanus’ debut Mother Mother but in some ways not so. Her characters are alive in my head, chattering away and going about their business as I read. The stories are very believable but not without their bumps as is real life. I’ll be watching for book 3 if there is one!

Annie Macmanus’s second novel hints at what to expect from the title alone - “The Mess We’re In”. Dubliner Orla has moved to England, hoping her life will finally begin, that she will get her break into music and become the person she assumes she will be. But this is not a Cinderella story, and Orla’s life is a mess when we meet her first (moving with her best friend Neema from Cheltenham to London), and things don’t really change as the narrative progresses.
Macmanus does a good job of giving us the little details so familiar to Irish people living at home and abroad: the chats with the other ex-pats in the local Irish pub; the maudlin ramblings after drink of how difficult life is/was; the phone calls home where guilt is laid on, however inadvertently. Orla gets caught up in a merry-go-round of being glad to be away from home so she can flourish in a way she believes she couldn’t in Ireland, but then not being able to get away from home in a spiritual sense—the elderly gentlemen in the pub reminding her of what it has to move abroad, her family issues haunting her despite the miles and Irish sea between them, and the nagging feeling that her new life isn’t all that different to what it might have been had she stayed at home – she hasn’t had the expected metamorphosis into a young, hip Londoner quite yet.
The main strength of this book is the music references (as is to be expected given the author’s background), and there is a lot to be said for stories that show the drudgery of life and don’t gloss over the badness too much. But when I read a bleak story, ideally, it would be about a character who I can’t get out of my head, who gets under my skin, and Orla is... fine... but not a character who grabbed me in a way I would have preferred.
I’ll be interested to read Macmanus’s debut to see how it compares.

An apt title and a great cover and I was the same age as the protagonist in the early 2000's when this book is set so I was excited to read this one.
Orla is 21 and has moved to London to pursue her dreams of making music, she works two jobs, parties too hard and makes bad choices. I didn't have a lot of empathy for her and failed to connect with her as a character and so this book felt like a bit of a slog. An ok read, I enjoyed the music references and the author captures that point in time well but it mostly made me grateful I am the age I am now and not the age I was then.
The writing was fine, the plot was fine. There is nothing I strongly disliked or liked but overall felt a little let down by this one as I had been looking forward to reading it.

2-2.5 stars

Coming-of-age novel. A young Irish girl moves to London and tries to make it in the music industry; sex drugs and rock'n'roll ensue. Not for me unfortunately.

A gorgeous coming of age romp around London in the early naughties. beautifully written and captures the hope of struggles of being in your early 20's. The characters were beautifully drawn. Really enjoyed the novel.

This was an enjoyable read, a chaotic tale of trying to navigate your way through your early 20s in a new city with an excess of alcohol, drugs and bad decisions. I particularly enjoyed the authenticity of the music industry and how important music was throughout the book – through Orla’s career path, the relationship with her father through music as well as the names of the chapters using key songs from this era.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this advanced reading copy.

This is a coming of age story, a künstlerroman really, of Orla from Ireland who moves to London to pursue her dream of working in music. It’s a pleasant tale but just a little bit slow, and I was always waiting for romance or disaster while things plodded along.