Megan Nolan writes beautiful about seemingly any topic. Ordinary Human Failings is a great title, one that made me want to read this immediately. It will be published in August and I would recommend this to anyone.
Tom is a typically leechy tabloid journalist, who discards women almost as soon as they discard their clothing. In one such tryst, he stumbles upon what may be the scoop of the century and immediately gets to work, trying to coax the story out of the family in question.
At its heart, this is about human relationships and their dysfunctions. In this book, we explore one particularly dysfunctional family and get to see how we're all not really so far from depravity ourselves.

I was a little anxious when I began this novel, as I feared it was going to concentrate on the specifics of the murder of a child, which is central to the story. It didn't take that route, thankfully, and instead focused on the family of the young girl accused of the murder. Specifically on the child's mother, Carmel, whose life has been ruined due to an earlier, traumatic event. I thought it was skilfully written and found it very absorbing. Particularly when we went back in time to the family's life, before, in Ireland. A very interesting and well written story.

A rather sad story of a somewhat dysfunctional Irish family trapped by the anti abortion rules of their country. The role of alcohol in spoiling lives also played a part.

This was quite hard for me to get into and enjoy. Whilst Megan Nolan's writing and ideas are amazing, unlike her debut novel I struggled to engage with Ordinary Human Failings and connect with the characters and stories. This didn't really evoke any emotion from me apart from the particularly disturbing moments. I wish there was less 'stream of consciousness' although I understand this is her writing style. I do think a lot of people will enjoy this it just wasn't a hit for me sadly.

“There is no secret, Tom, or else there are hundreds of them, and none of them interesting enough for you. The secret is that we’re a family, we’re just an ordinary family, with ordinary unhappiness like yours.”

Megan Nolan’s sophomore offering was always going to be a tough one. Her debut novel, Acts of Desperation, captured hearts and minds with its intense depiction of a young woman in a toxic relationship. Ordinary Human Failings, then, represents perhaps the most left-of-field turn publishing will see this year: it’s a literary thriller slash coming-of-age tale about emigration, alcoholism, loneliness and family secrets.


It opens with a shocking story: a young child has been killed in a London estate; a ten-year-old is being held for her murder. Tom Hargreaves, a young journalist, is hoping to find the scoop of his career in the Green family - a beaten-down group of Irish emigrants who find themselves in the middle of this madness. Instead of focusing on the act itself, however - like Eliza Clark’s Penance does, a novel that’s very similar yet very different - Nolan hones in on the Green family, their troubled pasts, and what brought them to a quiet London estate where a young child would be killed.

Ordinary Human Failings is the product of a writer at the top of their game - each character is well-rounded and feels real to the reader; the plot is succinct, well structured and builds to a satisfying conclusion. Nolan’s mastery of language is on full display here; the language is accessible yet flows like water. The ordinary human failings of the title are rendered compelling and painful to read about; the Green family has failed over and over, yet they have paid perhaps outsized for those mistakes and all of this culminates in this terrible case involving the death of a child.

That said, I struggled to fully connect with this novel; it lacks the arresting empathy that made Acts of Desperation so compelling. I think this was partly my mindset (I read it mid-dose), partly the structure of the novel (it’s written in third-person from multiple POVs) and partly because of its striking similarities to another novel I read in March, the aforementioned Penance, which is more focussed on the crime and what it means, as well as the player involves. In Nolan’s novel, the crime is almost incidental - window dressing for the intense deep-dive into family dynamics. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course - it’s just not what I expected.
Ordinary Human Failings is a technically near-flawless novel - compelling, beautifully written and intensely literary - but we didn’t click. A stunning novel nonetheless, and well worth 4 stars despite my feelings.

What I liked most about this book was the dual timeline of “before” the incident as well as what was happening in the present-day aftermath of the incident. The characters suffered a range of poor decisions and unfortunate circumstances, and it was interesting to explore what happened previously in their lives for them to end up in their current tragic situation. Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I preferred this to Megan’s previous novel, I found this book to be more intriguing and the story to be more gripping and well-rounded overall.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the chance to read this advanced copy.

What made this good? This is the story of a story that came to nothing. And yet, there's so much more going on. Nolan explores the depths of ordinary human failings with this tabloid shocker.
Tom is an unsuccessful hack who has never quite made it big, despite the fact that he can lure people into telling him their secrets only for him to expose their truths in shocker style headlines.
A child is killed by another child. The dead child is from a model family, the killer is from a dead beat Irish family. Tom happens upon the scene and can barely contain his excitement at the scoop that will unfold.
We meet all of the killers family and each confession yields another perspective. They've all made bad decisions, they've had bad luck, they are hugely dysfunctional as a family.

In Acts of Desperation, we see a vividly toxic relationship unfold, this one is more subtle.

Ireland, once again is vividly captured although in this one, Richie's alcoholism is more of a sad footnote than the main story.

I particularly loved when Camel met Derek again years later and he had zero inkling of the impact he'd had on her life and it felt fitting that Tom, as that piece of shit journalist, got what was coming to him.

“Instead she suspected that Eloise was in far worse pain than had ever been known, suffering in the recesses of a privacy so total that it was almost evil. She had never fully lost this terror of the private suffering of other people, nor the shame of wanting not to see it.” This calm and heavy view of the world belongs to a character who appears for a few pages, incidentally, never to return to the narrative, and yet sums up so much of what Megan Nolan’s masterful second novel Ordinary Human Failings is about: private suffering, the depths of it, and the shame both of looking away and of desiring not to be looked upon. If Nolan’s debut, Acts of Desperation, was a ‘millennial novel’ (as others have argued), its follow-up resists such blasé categorisation, a stark departure, although still cleverly informed by the same sensibilities. Nolan’s psychological touch and philosophical inclination, however, is not only still intact but so sharply honed as to be, at times, painfully perceptive. She has also succeeded at that rare feat, of writing a clearly contemporary novel that is instantly timeless, one in which the novel form is a vehicle for the journey of the individual(s) moving within wider sociopolitical frameworks, but not overbearingly so — the humanity leads, and carried all of the intellectualisation with it. These are some of the hallmarks of my favourite novels: so too Nolan’s narrative belief in grace and redemption, even in the face of what is truly monstrous, unbearably awful (not just through the resolution, but also the irresolution of one key strand, which fades into unaddressed irrelevance at the end). Herein is what it means to sit with, and to face, all our hardest human failings, ordinary and otherwise.

Ordinary Human Failings is an examination of exactly that within one family. Tragedy visits Carmel, Lucy, John and Richard when they are implicated in a tabloid-worthy death of a child on the London estate where they live. A red top journalist latches on to this and sequesters the family in the hope of prising hidden horror and evil from their lives. But Nolan’s novel is not a police procedural or a whodunnit, and the terrible death of the child serves mostly to expose the fault lines that already existed and formed back in Ireland before the move to London. These fault lines are both heartbreaking and somehow ordinary, and not the broad stroke good and evil stories that Tom, the journalist is after. Megan Nolan explores the lives within this already fractured family with compassion and sensitivity.

Set in the 1990s, ambitious reporter Tom Hargreaves stumbles across a scoop: a dead child on a London estate. At the centre of the suspicions are one reclusive family of Irish immigrants; others on the estate call them ‘degenerates’, ‘bad apples’. But are they even to blame, or is this a modern day witch hunt?

Fiercely ambitious Tom is determined to get to the bottom of the events, but he has a brisk disregard for the ‘peasants,’ i.e. anyone, not a celebrity or journalist; he believes that nothing should get in the way of a good story, particularly none of the ‘ordinary human failings’.

Tom convinces the newspaper to put the family up in a hotel with all expenses paid. In the conversations that follow, the family are forced to confront the secrets, prejudices and silences that have trapped them for generations.

Told in a stream-of-consciousness style from various characters' points of view, this adds intimacy and depth to the narrative that would otherwise be difficult to achieve so well here. The author's exploration of love, desire, and mental health is poignant and beautifully done.

Nolan’s characters are tangible and diverse in their physicality and emotion. There is a grittily true sense of the familial ties of the Green family; Nolan’s observation of their inner and outer emotional lives and the predispositions to why they act as they do are spot on.

Ultimately this is a stunning portrait of what it is to struggle in the face of incomprehensible circumstances, of repression, and its resulting damage.

I expected this book to be more like ‘Acts’ a "messy woman" book which I adored, but this is much more of a thriller/mystery. And I loved it; utterly compelling reading. 4.5 ⭐

Didn't really work for me, I didn't connect to any of the characters and I found their inner monologues and rambling very tiring after a while. This didn't really have much plot, and what plot there was I found boring. It dragged until the end and even then I wasn't sure why I just read this.

"Ordinary People Failings" is a novel by Megan Nolan that explores themes of love, desire, and self-destructive behaviour. The story follows the protagonist, a young woman named Helen, as she navigates her relationships with men and grapples with her own insecurities and anxieties.

The novel is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, which can be challenging to follow at times. However, this style also adds intimacy to the narrative, allowing the reader to feel like they're inside Helen's head, experiencing her thoughts and emotions firsthand.

One of the strengths of the novel is the author's ability to capture the complexities of romantic relationships. She explores the nuances of desire and attraction, as well as the darker side of love, such as jealousy and possessiveness. The relationships depicted in the novel are messy and imperfect, which makes them feel authentic and relatable.

The novel also delves into the protagonist's struggles with mental health, which is a timely and important topic. The author's depiction of depression and anxiety is raw and honest, and she does not shy away from depicting the darker aspects of these conditions.

Overall, "Ordinary People Failings" is a compelling and thought-provoking novel. While the stream-of-consciousness style may be challenging for some readers, it adds intimacy and depth to the narrative that is difficult to achieve through other writing styles. The author's exploration of love, desire, and mental health is poignant and relevant, making this book a worthwhile read for anyone interested in these topics.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words some text written has been typed in red and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Amazing!! I loved Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan so I was frothing at the mouth for more work from her and this did not disappoint

I absolutely Megan Nolan's last book, Acts of Desperation, which was one of my books of the year 2021.

I was really blown away by how completely different this book was!

While Acts was a "messy woman/messy life" book (one of my faves) this was much more of a thriller/mystery.

However, I was utterly hooked.

This was a "won't move from the sofa til I'm done" book and I read it in a day.

Completely compelling - I can't wait to see what Megan Nolan writes next.

4.5 stars

ORDINARY HUMAN FAILINGS is a phenomenal portrayal of Irish shame and the overt misogyny and carelessness for women in late 20th century society, as well as a heartbreaking insight into the sacrifices often necessitated by womanhood,

All of Nolan’s characters - even the most incidental - are tangible and well-rounded, with a diversity of both physicality and emotion. There is a very true sense of the familial ties of the Green family; Nolan’s observation of both their inner and outer emotional lives is grippingly tragic as, together with the author and family, we come to understand the complexities that come with loving somebody flawed.

ORDINARY HUMAN FAILINGS is a stunning portrait of what it is to struggle in the face of incomprehensible circumstances; ultimately, this is a novel of repression and its resulting damage.

I greatly enjoyed this novel, and am eager to see what comes next of Nolan’s rising stardom.

What is it about contemporary authors and / or writing trends not using speech marks, often making it difficult to know whether a character is speaking or merely thinking? Great blocks of text without paragraph breaks is mentally exhausting and tiring on the eyes. I can't imagine that I'm the only reader holding this opinion. I appreciate that the stream-of-consciousness writing style which James Joyce, Emily Holmes Coleman and other writers made fashionable in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in order to better interrogate a character's inner life, appears to have made a comeback in recent years, but it would also be nice to come across newer novels which follow more traditional, easy-to-read writing styles.

In Ordinary Human Failings the yoyo-ing between reporting style and stream-of-consciousness writing is understandable, but I'm unsure if it actually serves the plot well. I suppose the fact that none of the characters are very likeable is deliberate and meant to make the story feel grainy and raw. It is certainly rather disturbing reading at times. This one is less 'finished' and readable than Nolan's debut novel, Acts of Desperation, but despite my somewhat negative impressions, I'm glad to have had the chance to read it.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

I first knew Megan Nolan for her engaging and forthrightly honest New Statesman columns about life and relationships and so was drawn to her debut novel “Acts of Desperation”. That novel I found a difficult and painfully unflinching read in its portrayal of a toxic relationship and what drives a young woman to stay in it.

The book has had a very strong following – and drawn comparisons to among others Sally Rooney and Gwendoline Riley. Now both of those writers for all their strengths do seem to largely rewrite the same book each time – so it s to Nolan’s credit that this book is very different from her debut: more conventional; with the intense first person voice replaced by a series of third party point of view chapters. I would also say that where I struggled to really understand what drove the protagonist of the first novel to stay in her toxic relationship, I felt I gained a greater understanding here of the generational issues which lead to the “ordinary human failings

The author herself gave an excellent description of the book (as well as its genesis) on her Instagram feed when the book was first announced

“I started this book thinking it would be about a seismic crime and the tabloid investigation into it which would lead to a sprawling, state of the nation type of novel. But as I began to write I remembered that I have always wanted to write a family novel, and it became clear that the trish family- living in London by the time of the book's present tense- who are implicated and being hounded by the tabloid journalist were the heart of what I wanted to write.”

The novel is set in a 1990 London estate and features a tabloid journalist Tom Hargreaves and a notorious family of Irish immigrants – the Greens. Tom we come to know via his chapters is not so much conventionally ambitious as motivated by a desire for non-sexual male approval which currently is focused on his boss at the paper.

The members of the Green family are: the father John; his alcoholic son from his first marriage Richie; his daughter from his second marriage; the flighty Carmel whose young pregnancy to an unknown father caused the family to move from Ireland; Carmel’s daughter Lucy the result of that pregnancy – an almost feral child whose only real upbringing was by Richie’s second wife and Carmel’s mother Rose; Rose just about kept the loose strings of her family together until her untimely death two years before the story is set – the shock her loss has caused to perhaps all but Richie causing the family and its members to unravel.

At the book’s opening a three year old child – Mia - has gone missing on the estate – and shortly after is found dead with bruising around her neck. Suspicion immediately falls on the Greens – partly due to their terrible reputation. Tom by coincidence is on the estate when Mia goes missing and when he hears about the Greens and one person saying Lucy was the last person to be seen playing with Mia – he quickly realises that this could be a scoop and agrees with his boss to get ready to take the Greens away to a hotel/safe house – something which occurs when a number of people report seeing Lucy lead Mia away from the estate and Lucy is taken into custody.

Tom’s plan is to speak in detail to each of the family members and to look for an angle that will explain Lucy’s actions (assuming she is found guilty) – but instead for much of the book we as readers gain more of an understanding by the members point of view chapters and internal reflections on their back stories than in their answers to Tom which range from cautious to openly hostile (although Tom does manage a temporary breakthrough with Carmel).

Tom is convinced that the family harbour some great shared secret, but we realise as reader in line with the book’s title, that each of the members has a failing and insecurity often rooted in their past (in one telling scene which John recalls, Rose gently points out that the family’s habit of eating rapidly and quickly clearing the plates away has its origins in John’s mother’s time in a poorhouse).

John himself is haunted by the infidelity of his first wife and that translates into an unwillingness to be a proper father to their son Richie (or to allow Rose to form a bond with him). This distancing in turn drives much of Richie’s drinking - which is largely turned to alcoholism by guilt over when at 21 he blew his one chance at a career). Carmel had always seen herself as special – and is unable to get away from the pathetic ordinariness of a teenage pregnancy and copes by basically denying first her pregnancy (until impossible to hide) and then any of her maternal instincts. Lucy is convinced, partly after an incident with a boy at school, that she has a monster at her heart which she needs to hide from other people.

I found this an empathetically written book if one that did really stand out to me.

If I had a main criticism, it is that it is hard to write a book about ordinary failings when you centre the book around an extraordinary incident (the death of Mia) – and this incident also necessitated the Tom character which I did not think entirely worked – although I appreciate from the author’s quote that this is very much part of the novel’s journey from its initial conception.

Overall 3.5* but rounded up for the author’s ambition to write something very different from her first novel, despite its great success.

This was quite a departure from Nolan's debut, Acts of Desperation, but in a really good sense! It was closer to a thriller, but without leaving the literary behind, by being an exploration of this Irish family's hardships and generational trauma.

Ordinary Human Failings is a novel about an Irish family and their lives uncovered as one of them is accused of killing a small girl on a London estate. In 1990, tabloid journalist Tom Hargreaves is investigating the disappearance of a young girl who then turns up dead, and the finger of blame is pointed at Lucy, who lives with her Irish immigrant family: her aloof mother Carmel, alcoholic uncle, and reclusive grandfather. As he gets closer to the family, he tries to unravel their stories into something resembling a news story, but that might not be the way it is going.

This book is very different to Nolan's novel Acts of Desperation, which I didn't enjoy, as it focuses more on the everyday secrets of a family and a plotline that sounds like it is from a TV drama. The book gives the perspective of both Tom and the family members, including longer flashback type scenes in Waterford, and the title is very apt as it really does focus on the smaller things rather than the big dramatic death that makes up the start of the book and its plot summary.

The elements of the book—young mother, alcoholism, leaving Ireland, unscrupulous tabloid newspaper—are all pretty predictable and can feel a bit stereotypical, but the book also does try and dig a bit further into the family and how small failings have an impact. The journalist, Tom, doesn't really have much of a plotline, and some hints about him being able to be a chameleon in different settings and how he tries to get in with the family could've been explored a bit further in the narrative.

A book which explores the complex lives behind what sounds like a simple, shocking news story, Ordinary Human Failings was a decently gripping read and would probably be adapted well into a TV drama, but it didn't feel like it delved far enough beyond the stereotypes for me.

Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan is a departure from her debut novel Acts of Desperation which I loved. This demonstrates that she has great range as a writer and I look forward to seeing what she does next. I didn't enjoy this one quite as much but there were lots of moments of perceptive and astute writing that reveal the essence and devastation of the characters to us.