I loved McKenna’s prose and how well he evoked the stifling heat of the summer. I felt so drawn to the characters - I didnt want this to end! A fantastic debut, will be eagerly anticipating whatever comes next.

Review: Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna

Evenings & Weekends is a beautifully written debut novel set during a London heatwave in 2019. Maggie, pregnant and struggling financially, faces the daunting prospect of moving back to Essex while still clinging to her dream of becoming a full-time artist. Her partner, Ed, is committed to their relationship but wrestles with unresolved questions about his past and his sexuality. Phil, her best friend, wrestles with unrequited love for his housemate Keith when his mother Rosaleen arrives with devastating news.

This book easily was one of my favourites this year. Each character is trapped in their own vulnerability and stubbornly refusing to open up. Communication feels impossible as they fear the impact of their confessions for themselves, but also for the other person.

I didn't really enjoy this title that much but i did think the characters were interesting to follow. The premise was interesting but i don't know how well it delivered it. The writing didn't always keep me hooked but when i was in, i was in. There was promise here but i just think a bit more shaping was needed for it.

This book follows the lives of a group of Londoners during one hot weekend in 2019. At first I was worried I wouldn’t be able to follow all the characters and their relations to each other — I am historically terrible at this — but the characters’ voices are so distinct and well-balanced in the narrative, I got immediately sucked in. This is a book about desires, turning thirty and wondering what now, and following what you really want in life — and the costs of that. The hype is in this case justified. I really liked this.

DNF - Althought I was eager to read this book, it didn't end up working for me in the end. I'm sure there is an audience out there who will appreciate the story for all that it holds.

Oisin McKenna's evocative debut is set over one hot weekend in London. The author captures the stifling atmosphere and the simmering secrets of a cast of interconnected characters, many of whom are at crossroads in their lives. Some characters I liked and related to more than others, but all of them felt authentic and their hopes, dreams and problems are deftly brought to life through McKenna's writing. If you like character-driven stories, strong LGBTQ representation and London, you'll love this book.

A series of interlinked scenarios with a broad scope of characters and a tight time frame and setting (a few sticky summer nights in London), this was a lovely novel full of humour and heart(break).

This book, set in a hot, sticky London in summer 2019, has so much heart. A great story with interconnected characters struggling with money, creativity, parenthood, sex, sexuality … it’s all here. Oisin McKenna really understands people and puts their decisions in a wider context. The personal really is political in this book, but subtly and, at times, heartbreakingly so. Ultimately, though, this feels an optimistic book, and optimistic against the odds.. Can’t wait to read what he writes next.

Set in London during a long hot weekend in the summer of 2019 we meet a bunch of friends (and their parents) as they navigate their way through life and love.

This book grew on me so much. Usually I know straight away whether a book is for me or not. But this took me about 10% before I got into it. There's an incident in a toilet (not as bad as it sounds) and from that moment on I was invested.

This book turned out to be a bit special. I fell in love with the characters of Ed, Maggie, Phil and Rosaleen.

It's chaotic and complicated. Messy and modern. Loved the Irish thread throughout the book. And the hope and dream of a Corbyn government.

A wonderful, assured book about queer interconnecting relationships during a sweltering summer in London. Each character is sympathetically drawn and stays with the reader long after the novel is finished, the heat of the city streets is palpable and the emotional charge between the different personalities is strong and believable. Highly recommended.

A whale is stuck in the Thames and London is sweltering in a heatwave, while a group of Londoners are struggling with decisions, large and small. Maggie is pregnant and planning to leave London to raise her baby back in her hometown with her boyfriend, Ed, a delivery courier cycling across London in the heat. Her best friend, Phil, is in love with his housemate, while his mother, Rosaleen, is trying to tell him about her cancer diagnosis.

I thought Evenings and Weekends was an interesting exploration of how we communicate with others and what’s left unsaid. The backdrop of economic precarity that so many young Londoners face shapes the characters’ lives, inevitably influencing their relationships. Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, was my favourite character and I would have happily read a book entirely about her story. While I normally love stories with multiple characters and perspectives, I found it was slightly overplayed in Evenings and Weekends, which made it harder for me to connect to some of the more peripheral characters.

Overall, I liked Evenings and Weekends and I am definitely intrigued to see what McKenna writes next. I had seen numerous amazing reviews of this book prior to picking it up so I had high expectations going in and I think it suffered a little bit because of that but I’m still glad I read it.

I would rate it 3.5 stars.

As somebody in their late 20’s I could really connect with this book. All the different characters and how their lives weren’t necessarily panning out the way they expected was very poignant. There was humour but also tough topics giving the book a well balanced feel.

It’s possible that there is a generational divide here, but I am so tired of reading about solipsistic, self-obsessed young people who lead self-indulgent lifestyles, drinking excessively, taking drugs and engaging in frequent sexual encounters whilst lacking any sense of responsibility or commitment and seemingly unable to communicate with each other in any meaningful way. Perhaps I’m just too old to relate to them, but surely a good writer should be able to convince me that they are in fact worth reading about. This book singularly failed for me. I couldn’t have cared less about any of the shallow characters depicted within and found myself skipping large chunks towards the end. There are too many superfluous characters who have little to do with the main narrative drive – and indeed there isn’t much of a narrative drive in any case. The novel covers one long tedious weekend in the hot summer of 2019 in London as the motley crew attempt to grapple with the usual range of issues of contemporary life with remarkably little success except to make themselves and others miserable. There’s nothing new here, no new insight, and the inclusion of a whale as symbol is never fully explored. If you’re going to include a whale, then please make it count for something. I accept that the writing isn’t bad, but the whole thing seemed banal and pointless to me.

A book that's queer as.. count me in. A whole lot of characters with a whole lot of life shiz, you'd think it'd be hard to keep up but really it's not.

Was I skeptical at first yeah but persevering was way worth it. All the characters are woven together perfectly.. and most of them are hiding a secret or too. Let's face it these characters were so so relatable.

The whole story was raw and emotional and just beautiful. An absolutely fantastic debut novel. Super excited to see what comes next.

This was enjoyable and started strong with a whale washing up in London , an unusual opening and setting. I thought the writing was good and love Irish authors, but I think it never hit its peak. Everything takes place over a weekend in London during a heatwave, with flashbacks to explain how our characters ended where they are.
Rosaleen, one of the main characters mothers and main character in her own right was probably my favourite point of view. I think there were too many characters and it meandered , but it did definitely show the messiness and complexities of life.
I'm looking forward to what Oisin Mckenna brings out in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley & 4th Estate for the e-arc!

An addictive read. Such an atmospheric depiction of a hot summer weekend in London. All of the characters were flawed and lost but I was so invested in their stories, McKenna builds the tension between them all in a subtle yet powerful way. A really impressive and unique book. This is also the third book that I have read in the past year that begins with a whale washing up on the shore, what a niche literary trend!

This book is something that will stay with me for quite a while after I finished reading the last page. Adding this book to the list of my all-time favourites. Cannot believe that this is a debut novel.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for review.

Evenings and Weekends
By Oisín McKenna

The publishers are marketing this book as "for fans of Sally Rooney", and I wonder if that has become a bit of a backfire for them. Those who love the entangled, angsty relationship trope will love this, but I fear that those who despise certain elements in Rooney's writing will be turned off this book by the comparison, and actually it's a lot more accessible than that. It's less navel-gazey, has a broader set of perspectives (including a woman in her late fifties) and most importantly for those who absolutely refuse to read unpunctuated writing, it's got all the speech marks you need to keep up.

It might be useful to note down cast and their relationships as they appear, because there are many, and they all interact in some way or other. As a character driven novel set over a short period of time, its these interactions drive the narrative and McKenna employs a clever device at the end of most chapters to remind us of just how interconnected all these folks are.

The rising action in each of the characters arcs converge over one weekend, and I couldn't help thinking that this is rather like a summer version of Love Actually. It is told with such humour and tenderness despite the potentially heavy topics.

I find myself still thinking about the various relationships and I feel that I would get much from a second read that I didn't notice the first time.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #4thestatebooks for honouring my late request for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book was a perfect for a humid summer weekend, and I loved every page of it. An excellent intertwining of four old friends, each character felt fleshed out and three dimensional. The whale sub plot was a refreshing way of meshing the characters together, and didn’t feel overwrought or hemmed in. This book was well written and easily one of my top 5 books I’ve read this year, I can feel a re-read coming soon!

Evenings and Weekends by Oisin Mckenna is a highly engaging book of interconnectedness and perceptions to in multiple voices and with such gentle and lyrical prose. A real delight

Thank you to 4th Estate | Fourth Estate and Oisin McKenna for this lovely ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own