I can understand why people really enjoyed this one but it fell a little flat for me. The narration didn't drag me in and I didn't understand the horror element of it. This is a very love/hate book. Worth a read.

Honestly if you put a gun to my head, and asked me to explain this plot...I think it would be my premature end. It was a little bit all over the place, which may have been the point but it wasn0t for me.

I don't think I really understood the message. A quick read with unusual writing and imagery, but I didn't really have a clue what was going on. It was peculiar enough to keep me intrigued but ultimately unrewarding. I'll have forgotten it completely by tomorrow.

Grief fuelling a sort of modern hunted house/ghost story. An interesting take alright, but unfortunately I cannot stand characters drugging/drinking themselves out of their mind! And that is exactly what our brat Gabriel is doing, a man in his thirties ...gosh!

A character driven novel when one doesn't really like the character?! Well that's hard work indeed, but it had a nice flow to it that fired my curiosity enough to read until the end!

That being said, Gabriel Smith is an interesting new voice, I would love to see where he goes next!

BRAT, Gabriel Smith ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Where to begin with this book. There is such a mix of surrealism, gritty and at times gross prose. I loved it.

I loved the journey of this book, it kept you moving through with the pace, had a really interesting structure and felt really meta with the layers of storytelling and writing within the writing.

I had visceral reactions to parts (the leg 😨) and there was this ominous foreboding throughout the book. Honestly half the time I was expecting something crazy to happen, and while it's not a happy clappy book, nothing major does happen. It's mundane but also really not (lets face it it's a bizarre whirlwind and if you asked me what the point was I could not tell you).

I really loved the style of this book, the characters are raw and relatable. So, while I can't tell you more, I can recommend that you read this book.

This is a really weird book, and difficult to review. At its centre is Gabriel who is grieving for his dead father, the recent breakup of a relationship, and his mother's dementia. As a result he experiences personality changes and feels time slipping around him with real and imagined characters peopling his life. There were elements of dark humour which lightened the load, but at times it did feel it was written more for critics than the ordinary reader, but maybe I'm being unfair and just didn't fully appreciate the writing.
Thank you to netgalley and Simon and schuster for an advance copy of this book.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

What a strange novel to review - it’s certainly not a what I went in expecting. It’s a confusing tale of loss and family interspersed with humour that, ultimately, was not for me.

In this darkly humorous and unsettling debut novel, Gabriel Smith introduces us to Gabriel, a writer whose life is falling apart: his skin is peeling, his father is dead, his girlfriend won't return his calls, and he owes his editor a novel. Tasked with clearing out his family home, Gabriel's sanity begins to unravel as he uncovers bizarre home videos, shifting manuscripts, and a mysterious figure in the garden.

Disquieting and hilarious, BRAT is a brilliantly unusual story of grief, art, and love, filled with morbid humor and gothic horror. Gabriel Smith's distinctive prose and inventive structure make this a gripping read that will leave you altered and eager for more

This is a strange book, difficult to categorise. It has been written in a distinctive style, in the first person, and is sometimes shocking, sometimes almost laugh-out-loud funny. The protagonist, named Gabriel like the author, has a problem: his skin keeps peeling off, but for some reason he is reluctant to visit a doctor. There is black mould spreading on the walls of his family home, where he has returned following the death of his father and the breakup of his relationship. His mother's dementia means she has had to go into a care home. There are many themes, some of them quite unsettling, like the deer he keeps seeing in the garden, the brother and sister who keep turning up in an old car, the house which seems to have a life of its own. I think this is a book about sadness and grief: for his father, for having to grow up and take responsibility for his actions and move on into independence. It is good to read a book that challenges, and for that reason I recommend it.

I read this in two sittings, which I think was the best thing to do with such a strange narration. I enjoyed how unsettling it was

‘Brat’ is an extremely fast paced book - I would recommend trying to read it in one sitting, as I think the story is best consumed all at once. I probably would have flown through it if not for time constraints and responsibilities forcing me into reading it over two sittings instead!

It is also a very strange book. Set in a murky old house, Gabriel is a writer who’s meant to be packing it all up, so that it can be sold, as his father has recently passed away, and his mother is currently in a home. Facing time pressures from his brother to get it done, while also dealing with the fact that his skin seems to be peeling off (it’s not eczema), and uncovering strange forgotten video tapes and unfinished manuscripts, things all start to become a bit odd.

I was instantly pulled into this book. Right from the start things feel off-beat and strange, and you know that you’re in for a ride. The dialogue between the characters is snippy and irreverent, and sets the tone for the story.

There’s a real sense of loss of sanity, as things begin to twist more and more, interspersed between equally reality shifting manuscripts, and the strange little short stories that his ex publishes. It’s uneasy in tone, so much so that the ominousness almost drips off the page.

It dissolves a bit near the end, becoming more of a collection of crude humour, which I felt detracted from the overall polish of the story. Things are vaguely starting to click into place but the quiet ‘aha’ moment I might have had was quickly shoved aside for yet another joke, which unfortunately significantly lowered my personal enjoyment of the book.

I do think that the concept and writing were equally enthralling, however, it ultimately became a bit bogged down by the crudeness, and I felt like it never truly became the ghost story that I was led to expect, which I found to be a shame.

Thank you to the publishers, and Netgalley, for the copy to review.

I don’t know how to feel about this book, which I think is the point. It’s unsettling, weirdly comical, clever, creepy and confusing. When reading it, I had the distinct feeling that I’d accidentally missed a page or that the file had messed up. It’s definitely like nothing I’ve ever read before. This is a difficult one to review, but it’s got themes of loss, grief, difficult family relationships mixed in with elements of horror and a little bit of gore. I would note that two of the characters constantly refer to each other as gay as an insult, which I think is used to emulate the era where that kind of joke was very common, but it irritated me. But there were parts of this that I found really beautiful, and I ended up highlighting a fair few lines.

With thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took a minute to get into this one. The writing is odd, the story seems to be going nowhere. Eventually you realize the story is simply about grief, and everything makes sense.

*I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

The first thing I’ll say about this book is it’s weird. There’s a bit near the start where the main character, Gabriel, reads his ex’s short story and that story will probably never leave my head because it was utterly bizarre.

The rest of the book is a surreal exploration of grief through a series of strange hauntings which Gabriel is trying to understand. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s imagined throughout the book, and the inclusion of the fictional works which Gabriel reads make this even more disorienting.

You get a strong sense of his state of mind throughout, which makes this quite a disturbing read. He becomes convinced his skin is peeling off, that manuscripts are mutating and that secrets are being kept, with this intense paranoia running throughout.

One of the most unusual and interesting books I’ve ever read!

Genuinely bizarre. I'm not sure what I was expecting (the description was absolutely intriguing!), but although I enjoyed the writing I'm not sure it was for me!

I didn’t dislike this book but I am also not sure I liked it. It wasn’t for me in the end but I still finished without it being too much of a chore. It felt quite out there which sometimes I like but not on this occasion.

My favourite genre of books is horror so I was really excited to read this. I loved the combination of horror and humour throughout. This will definitely be a re-read for me.

3 and half. This was a quick and fun read on grief, peculiarities and mental health. The formatting allows for a lot of space and the spaces complement the writer’s wit. I enjoyed the punchy, immature prose and the MC. If this were longer, chances are the read would not be as entertaining. The book does not have many layers, it is not deeply literary but I saw these as strengths - a bit like not taking itself too seriously. I look forward to the writers’ other books.

As much as I wanted to love this - its blurb, cover, title, and recent reviews all seemed to indicate that it would be well-suited to my personal taste - my overall impression of 'Brat' has been somewhat lukewarm. While Smith is without doubt a strong writer - his ability to pull off absurd plot points, craft an unsettling, but not gimmicky story, and produce smart, sharp sentences makes that fact abundantly clear - and I could certainly appreciate the ambition and strangeness of his concept, I felt in its execution the book would have benefited from a stronger sense of both character and plot development. While most debut novels, at least in my opinion, tend to be hindered by an over-enthusiastic editor, one who fails to cut unnecessary or overindulgent scenes and therefore produces a book which feels tiresome, or bloated, in this case I actually think the opposite is true: with a couple hundred more pages, I think I would have connected more with Smith's central protagonists - whereas here, I didn't really resonate with anyone at all.

Overall, this was still a strong book - and I would still like to read more from Smith in the future!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for my free ebook ARC!

Weird book. The blurb doesn’t really match what’s in it – it’s not that original, the “ghost story” isn’t a big part of the plot and there’s no mention of the juvenile humour that dominates a lot of it. I think younger readers might connect with it more; I would struggle to recommend this to anyone over 30 but I guess the point is it isn’t for them.