A tense, domestic drama about a woman escaping a coercive, controlling relationship. Set in Dublin, it covers a range of topical issues from the housing crisis, immigration, to an Ireland that has just voted to change their constitution to allow abortion for the first time. More than anything, it throws a light on the different types of abuse that can exist between husband and wife, in particular psychological intimidation and humiliation. A very strong and at times, deeply unsettling novel. I could not put it down.

With many thanks to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for the advance copy in return for my honest review.

Ciara makes a split second decision one Wednesday. She is leaving her husband for good. She grabs some clothes of the line puts them into black bags and head off in her car with her 2 children. Over the coming weeks she finds herself homeless and living in a hotel with the children. The she discovers that she is pregnant with her third child but will she go back to her husband.
Total rating 3 1/2 stars

With ‘home’ no longer a safe place Ciara Fay makes the momentous decision to flee from an abusive marriage in order to take herself and her daughters to safety. With no plan in place, little money and no close family support Ciara faces the bureaucracy of the Irish housing system and comes up against so many obstacles that sometimes it feels as if she has left one difficult life only to encounter another which is just as obstructive.

Nesting is a difficult book to read as not only does Ciara’s husband present a real danger to her and her children but from necessity she reaches out to a social system which is beyond broken and which doesn’t offer much respite from the horror of simply surviving on a daily basis. My heart broke for Ciara as she struggles with motherhood, poverty, and a husband who is hellbent on destroying her spirit, her body and her soul. However, despite what life throws at her Ciara will not be beaten, she fights for herself and her children, knowing that whatever meagre amounts she can give in terms of material possessions she more than makes up for in abiding love and the sheer determination to survive against all odds..

All credit must go to this exceptional debut writer who has highlighted the emotional aspect of homelessness in a very thoughtful way. I won’t forget Nesting in a long time.

From the very first page, this one pulls you in and doesn’t let go.

Ciara’s story is one that too many women will recognise, yet it’s so often left unspoken - hidden beneath layers of shame, fear, and guilt. Roisin O’Donnell brilliantly captures the insidious nature of emotional and psychological abuse, weaving a powerful and unsettling narrative that feels all too real.

As a parent myself, I felt every ounce of Ciara’s desperation, her relentless need to protect her children at all costs. The mum guilt, the constant fear of failing them, the crushing weight of trying to hold everything together, all rang so painfully true and hit me right in the heart.

Set against the backdrop of Ireland’s housing crisis, the stakes feel even higher. There’s a suffocating tension that builds with every chapter, an overwhelming sense of panic that makes it impossible to put this book down. You won’t want to put it down, I know I didn’t.

A powerful and raw debut novel, that I utterly devoured. Totally recommend and cannot wait for more from the author.

I loved this book and read most of it in a day. The way it was written managed oddly to be both poetic and page-turning. It really is a book where you feel you are seeing into someone else’s life and cheering on the protagonist as she struggles through. It feels very modern but has the depth and readability of a classic. I couldn’t not finish it and will make a point of looking out for anything else written by Roisin O’Donnell. It really doesn’t feel a first novel, thick as it is with experience and beautiful use of language. Not to be missed.

I was hardly able to relax throughout the whole of this book. The author did an amazing job of pacing the story so well. It was heartbreaking and at times frustrating but always very realistic to a situation I’m grateful never to have been in. I can’t praise this book highly enough and my book group buddies are going to get bored of me going on about it I’m sure.

Ciara is in an emotionally abusive relationship. She has two children and is now pregnant and her life has gradually been reduced by her coersive husband, supported by his nasty parents. On a whim, she packs up enough clothes for herself and her girls and leaves, sleeping in her car the first night. Later, due to the restrictions of the social system, she moves into a hotel room. Not ideal and continually being manipulated by her husband, she slowly builds up her confidence again, subsisting on very little money , handouts and help & advice from friends and family.
Well written, the book depicts events, emotions extremely well. You feel the loneliness of Ciara in her relationship and understand why she clung on and took the abuse and also the doubts she had once she made the decison to leave. A picture is painted of the desperation of her situation (and others in the same position) and her determination to do the best for her children, as well as the continual manipulation of her (ex) husband Ryan. The rules that must be obeyed, the endless search for living accommodation in the overcrowded Dublin housing renatl market. Sometimes tense, sad and frustrating .
Thanks to Net Galley for a great read . I couldn't put it down!

Explosive! This book delves straight into the life of Ciara Fay, who lives under a constant blanket of fear in her own home as her husband subjects her to emotional and sexual abuse and coercive control. I felt so upset , frustrated, and angry as I read , which is testament to great writing. I instantly felt the fear and the struggles as Ciara battled to get herself and her children free. The system seemed to work against her and was as responsible for her suppression, alongside her husband. Such a rollercoaster of emotions. A brilliant read, #nesting #RoisinODonnell #netgalley

This was a good, but difficult read.
It was quite emotionally tough, but well written.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Roisin O'Donnell's Nesting is an utterly gripping read. It powerfully portrays Ciara’s harrowing struggle to escape her emotionally controlling husband with her children. The novel highlights not only the immense strength and resilience needed to break free but also the devastating financial toll of a spouse wielding complete control over money. A heart-breaking and tense story—highly recommended.

This was an excellent book about a pregnant woman, Ciara and her desperate attempts to leave her controlling and abusive husband. It examines the difficulty Ciara and her two small daughters have in trying to get emergency housing. This felt so real to me and I felt stressed and tense while reading it as Ciara tries to be mother to her young children whilst living in a hotel room. The novel highlights how under-resourced the provision is for women and children who are no longer safe in their homes and how, insanely, it is often easier to return to their abusive husbands. This novel is written from the heart and will stay with me.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

I’m usually quite a slow reader; a couple of pages a night before sleep. Not so with this book which had me gripped from early on. The characters are beautifully crafted & it’s well written.

Ciara is married to a psychopath who controls and manipulates her. Like many women in her situation she keeps trying to leave but is too scared. This is her story. I kept page turning wondering what he (Ryan) was going to do next & willing her to be strong.

You will too…

This book is amazing, but upsetting. I have been in the same situation as Ciara with a mentally abusing husband and I know how difficult it is, the daily manipulation, thinking it’s your fault, being left with nothing. The way Roisin has handled the subject is sublime and honest, I devoured this book and found the last chapters regarding Noah difficult. Everyone should read this and acknowledge what goes on behind closed doors.

I found Roisin O'Donnell's 'Nesting' unputdownable. It tells the heartbreaking and tense story of Ciara's fight to get herself and her children away from her emotionally dominating husband. It reveals the extreme strength and resilience required to break free, but more importantly the crippling financial implications that result from having a spouse who controls all the money. Highly recommended.

Heart wrenching, heart breaking, hard hitting.
A great story that pulls no punches.
Highly recommend

A really emotional and hard hitting story. I empathised with a lot of it, and found it a great read. It makes you really feel what they're going through.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

A heart wrenching and emotional story, very tense and hard hitting.

This book certainly had an impact on me!

With thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advance review copy.

This debut is tremendous - heartbreaking, hopeful, with the ring of truth about it and no whiff of sentimentality.

It depicts a year in the life of Ciara, a young wife and mother living in Dublin trying to break away from a coercive, controlling husband who is clever enough never to use physical violence but who keeps her in a constantly terrified state in other ways. Roisin O'Donnell perfectly captures how insidious coercive control is, how perpetrators present as God's gift then incrementally change, cutting off their victim's social circle and access to money, and getting in their head to make them feel they are going mad.

As with so many real life cases, Ciara has left once already and came back. She has a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old daughter, and is in the early days of a third pregnancy that may have come about as a result of marital rape. One evening, something snaps and she bundles the girls into a car and just drives away. And now the trouble starts, as Ciara comes up against the Irish social care and housing provision system which is stretched to breaking point. She is provided with temporary hotel accommodation which is completely inadequate for two small children, but on that corridor she finds friends, support and a level of kindness and solidarity that give her the strength, this time, to continue down this path as her husband Ryan tries everything to make her come back. To paraphrase something she is told late in the novel once she finally contacts a women's shelter - leaving is the easy part, it's staying away that is difficult.

The tone here is pitch perfect, the writing style perfectly suited to Ciara's mental processes, showing rather than telling us about her journey to finding herself again after all Ryan's efforts to erode her personality. This is not an easy story to read but I was riveted, suffused with hatred for Ryan and his unspeakable parents, moved by the support she finds from family and strangers, and in tears more than once at the harsh realities depicted here. This is an important and beautifully written book and I will be recommending it far and wide.

4.5 stars. This is an unflinching window into what it is like to leave an abusive relationship with next to nothing and the struggle to stay away and build a new life when everything seems to be set up to make you fail. The abundance of female strength that is contained within these pages, from the main character and others, is testament to every woman that has managed to remove themselves, and is a beacon to every woman that is trying to summon the fortitude needed to rescue themselves.
Ciara leaves her husband Ryan, who is that most awful of men - affable, funny, and decent to the outside world, and abusive, controlling, and spiteful behind his front door - taking her two children (and being currently pregnant) and fleeing with no idea where to go or who to turn to. Ryan's charade means that Ciara has trouble convincing people, including her family, of just how terrifying her daily existence has been and this just compounds the loneliness and hopelessness she feels. Roisin O'Donnell shows so perfectly how hard it is for Ciara to express what her marriage was like as she feels her ordeal is minimised by the fact that there is no physical violence, although there is plenty of psychological and sexual abuse.
The other rage-inducing topic in this book is the totally broken housing system. The desolation at living long-term in a hotel room where you have to be invisible, the calls that should come but don't, the attempting to try and keep some sense of normality for your children when you are stripped all agency. Through all this, it's easy to understand the temptation to go back as the love-bombing starts and life apart is so grinding.
There is a thread of hope and light throughout this book though and that is the people that Ciara meets that help her and who she helps in return, giving her a sense of worth and a belief that she can survive this.

Nesting
By Roisín O'Donnell

I read this book a few months ago and have been sitting on my thoughts about it in the hope that time might help me view it in a kinder light. I always wish the best for our new Irish women writers so it's with difficulty, because I must be honest, that I say that I didn't enjoy this book.

It is set in the parish of Dublin that I grew up in, and it deals with issues about which I read anything I can get my hands on, so maybe my expectations were too high, but I didn't get on with several elements, and I think it just comes down to writing style. Anything I have to say would speak more about me than about this book.

Clearly it is finding it's audience and they are loving it. The issues it raises are important and need urgent addressing, I just wish the storytelling had resonated with me.

Publication date: 30th January 2025
Thanks to #netgalley and #SimonSchusterUK for providing an ARC for review purposes.