Such a beautiful book--the perfect read to have in your bag for sweaty summer subway rides. I'll be recommending this one to everyone who lets me get a word in edgewise this year.

Oisín McKenna is the Irish millennial version of Virginia Woolf.

This gorgeous LGBTQ story is written from multiple viewpoints over a weekend is the most lifelike depiction of living in London I’ve ever read. McKenna perfectly describes the beautiful messiness of life, death, love and sexuality.

I would have given it 5 stars but the amount of characters made it a bit confusing at times.

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy in exchange for a review.

This book is about everything, then not a lot, all at the same time. There was something about the lovely gentle writing style that got me hooked straight away.
So many different personal stories going, I wondered what could possibly be next.
It was funny in places, it was sad and traumatic in places, and it was just life.
Life with people that can't talk to each other and some don't feel able to be their true self.
Lots of different themes - sexuality, homophobia, abortion, drugs, rape, cancer.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Evenings & Weekends unfolds during a sweltering London heatwave in 2019, centering around a solstice party attended by a group of young millennials. At the heart of the story is Maggie, a 30-year-old who, while pregnant, grapples with the looming uncertainty of her future and questions whether this pregnancy signifies a final act of impulsiveness. Her partner, Ed, a former bike courier, eagerly anticipates their future together, unaware of his complex history with Maggie’s best friend, Phil.

Phil, entangled in his own dilemmas, is falling for his housemate Keith, who is himself in a stable relationship, all while Phil despises his office job. The narrative also introduces Rosaleen, Phil’s mother, who is making a journey to London to deliver the heart-wrenching news of her cancer diagnosis to her son in person.

The characters are forced to confront their pasts and the trajectories of their lives, leading to potential transformations.

Evenings & Weekends is a masterful debut that left me deeply moved and engrossed from start to finish. The novel’s eloquence and emotional depth are extraordinary, making it a truly unforgettable read.

4.5/5.

For a debut novel this is certainly striking. Set largely over one weekend in a sweltering London, which becomes a character in itself, in the summer of 2019, the plot focuses on a small group of people who knew each other at school in Basildon and their parents. A number of the group are queer and all are damaged in some ways.

Initially, although the characters do become quite distinct in the end, I found it hard to distinguish between their different voices, their introspective thoughts feel similar . London is depicted with all its crowded, dirty, mesmerising, fascinating and compelling faces - and there is a streak of real anger about the ways in which young people in their 30s in low paying jobs cannot really afford to live there. The city is described beautifully and I recognised many places I lived in 30 years ago in Hackney, then quite a run down part of London and now apparently hipster central.

It is a very 21st century novel and yet I recognised the preoccupations of the 1970s/80s here too. But perhaps I didn't enjoy it as much as a reader who shares the youth of the main characters.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.

Highly enjoyable story of an interconnected group of characters and told from multiple viewpoints over a short span of time - I really enjoyed it. Highly recommended and thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Couldn't have loved this book more - a perfect read during a hot London summer. McKenna's characters are so well drawn, you'll be bereft when you've finished and realize they are not real...

At first, I was really immersed in this book and enjoying the queer rep, commentary on late stage capitalism, and nods to climate breakdown. But, as we kept going, the characters were starting to grate on me and, by the time I finished, I was glad to close the book.

I really liked the writing style and look forward to seeing how McKenna develops as an author in future novels. Some of the commentary on how capitalism is destroying everything (including the characters’ beloved London) was difficult to watch but cutting and timely.

Despite being the same age, I couldn’t relate to the humans in this book at all. It was like looking at some weird parallel world that runs alongside mine where people bounce between completely uncommunicative to compulsive honesty without caring a whit about the harm they cause. Everyone in the book is pretty self-absorbed and I just find it so sad when people cling to relationships that have long turned septic because of, idk, sunken costs fallacy? nostalgia? Even if I found the characters largely unlikeable, there’s no denying that they were real and human.

Of all the arcs and themes, I found Rosaleen’s most compelling: an expat who’s grappling with her own sexuality, experienced horrendous religious trauma (that passes down to her sons) and is staring down a terrifying cancer diagnosis…. Well, that’s a lot. My heart broke for her and I saw a lot of growth in her character as the book progressed.

I didn’t enjoy being trapped in a London heatwave. The attitudes and behaviour that our characters are noticing were a stark reminder of why I left London and didn’t look back. People are culty and weird about it, yet London exudes such desperation and unhappiness. There was an undercurrent of English and coloionalist apologist rhetoric that, as an immigrant from a colonialized country, who has been on the sharp end of English racism, I take massive umbrage with. Yes, it's exhausting; yes, it's dehumanizing but English people don’t get a free pass for being ignorant of countries that aren’t England and refuse to educate themselves on the global, generational harm their country has caused. Yeesh.

There’s a lot of sex in this book including an upsetting, graphic rape scene.

All in all, while I wouldn’t call this a pleasant reading experience, I’m glad I read this. I would consider picking up future works by McKenna.

I was privileged to have my request to read this book accepted through NetGalley. Thanks a bunch, Fourth Estate!

A beautifully written, intricate portrait of London, its shifting cast of inhabitants and those who love it, even when they don't even recognize that themselves. I wasn't necessarily the target audience for this novel, I salute the author's skill and would recommend it to a younger readership.

Oisin McKenna is one to watch. The prose in 'Evenings and Weekends' is absolutely masterful. Each character is so rich with emotion and you feel as though you know them after only a few hundred words. Set against the backdrop of a scorching London summer, this novel perfectly encapsulates the heat of desire and burning shame. I loved simmering in this world, and couldn't bear to put it down.

Fairly enjoyable but not as groundbreaking as I wanted it to be. I don’t feel like it stands out amongst the contemporary literary fiction market and neither the characters nor plot made much of an impact on me - especially as they all seemed quite transient, unreliable, and inconsistent. I came away feeling like the author didn’t really know what they were trying to say with the novel - although perhaps it’s me simply not getting what they were trying to say?!

This book was so amazing - I raced through it. Lyrical, moving and engrossing, a gorgeous portrait of a pre-pandemic London

I really wanted to enjoy this as the story line really intrigued me and I love Irish authors. Unfortunately, it didn't grip me like I needed it to and it was a struggle to get into. I don't think this is to the fault of the author as it was written very beautifully and I can see why some people would enjoy it. The book just wasn't for me.

Evenings and Weekends is set in London, centring a number of characters who are linked together. There's Maggie, 12 weeks pregnant and about to move back to Basildon with her partner Ed. Then there’s her best friend Phil, Phil's brother (and Ed's best friend) Callum, Phil and Callum's mother Rosaleen and her neighbour Joan (who is also Ed's mother), as well as a smattering of other characters. Set over the span of a weekend in July 2019, a heatwave brings tensions and secrets to the surface and will change their lives forever.

I love books set over the span of a short space of time, like a weekend, so this is super fun. And I love books where people are all connected in different ways, that you can see like a spider's web. It really shows the intricacies of life and how messy it can be. Personally I felt like there were maybe too many characters. It meant some of the really central ones didn't get the proper time to have the spotlight on their stories and that some of the more secondary characters you didn't know at all, it was very surface level. If one or two POVs were dropped, I think this would have shone brighter for me. I had to write out a list of the characters and their relationships with each other at the beginning as I found it a bit confusing!

Overall I did enjoy it, I really wanted to see if and how the secrets would come out and how their relationships with each other would change, I was very invested in the plot. Evenings and Weekends highlights the complexity and messiness that is life and all that comes with it: friendships, family, sexuality, love, heartache, illness, grief and uncertainty.

An intriguing read, character driven, and well plotted. The story of a group of people in the hottest summer up today in london.
Well plotted, it made me feel the heat and kept me reading.
A bit slow at times but I appreciated the character development
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A summery, seductive love letter to life in London: this un-put-downable novel introduces us to thirty-something Maggie and Ed in June 2019, as the couple are on the cusp of quitting expensive Hackney for a cheaper, more achievable life in Basildon, near to where both of them grew up. Maggie is newly pregnant and being closer to their families makes sense for their futures, but leaving this sparkling, intoxicating metropolis proves to be harder than first thought. Is having a baby really the next adventure, or the end of life as they know it? Maggie needs to tell her best friend Phil that she’s leaving the city, but before she can reach him, Phil bumps into Ed in Liverpool Street Station, on the edge of doing something unexpected – should Phil tell Maggie? He wrestles with this new layer of life to consider, alongside whether he should quit his soul-sapping job and heady confusion about growing feelings for his flatmate Keith, who’s technically in an open relationship but is unavailable in the way Phil wants – or is that what he wants? Meanwhile elsewhere in the suburbs, Phil’s mum Rosaleen is trying to meet up with her son to tell him face to face about her recent cancer diagnosis, yet his slippery ever-moving schedule and shifting priorities keeps him beyond her grasp. Saturday night looms: will everything come together as planned, or will it come crashing down around their ears – or, more painfully to admit, will life just keep rolling on whatever happens, like the silent Thames which stars in the very start of this novel? The duo’s decisions ripple out like breeze-born waves across the surface of a swimming pond, interfering and aligning with their friends’ and families’ lives and choices in a series of beautifully-drawn vignettes. It’ll make you long for post-work drinks outside busy inner city pubs on balmy summer evenings, and that feeling of alignment – everyone looking for something to happen, as McKenna puts it – in a shared pursuit of the hypothetical myriad possibilities on offer to those lucky enough to live near the centre of our capital city.

Reviewed in Cambridge Edition May issue

Only okay account of being young and trying to find your way in contemporary London. Felt like a story told many times before and tipped into cliche rather too much.

Two words 'Loved it'!

I'm calling it the new Normal People. I can't believe this is a debut , not only is the writing great but the characters are so real and the setting is just on point , it's also a love letter to London . There's a lot going on in the novel but you never feel overwhelmed , instead you just want to read about all the characters and their lives, you are part of the friendship group. . It shouts BBC adaptation and i am here for this!

Great debut and I cannot wait to read more from this author

From GoodReads:
Set over one hot, hot weekend in London, this book definitely grows on you and becomes a real page turner. Tensions build, secrets floating and unearthed, relationships on the up and down - all with an eclectic cast of characters, each with their positves and their flaws (Rosaleen surprisingly my favourite by far). I'm willing the outcomes I want by the end.
Beautifuuly written, what is next...

Evenings and Weekends is wonderful debut by Oisín McKenna. Set in London on the hottest weekend in summer 2019, we meet a cast of interconnected characters and learn about their troubles and dreams.

The novel had wonderful atmosphere and pace, McKenna captures the heat, hedonism and despair that has come to define London. He also writes small town, older characters with warmth and tenderness. Initially, the language and relationships felt very zeitgeist-y in a way that made it less believable but this tapers off as the novel gets into its flow. And the ending, without spoilers, is fantastic - political, both searing and poignant.

Fans of character-driven novels, look no further for your book of the summer.

Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the eARC.