I loved this book and the characters Netta, Susan, Goose and Iris will stay with me. This is a hopeful family saga, how those closest to us can be the furthest from us, how memories can have a lasting impact on us. The first half of the book is mysterious, who is Bella Mae? What really happened to their father in Italy? What starts as a trip to find answers soon becomes so much more, a trip that’ll stay with them forever. Beautifully written and an engaging story, easy 5 stars!

A new book from RJ is always something to celebrate and The Homemade God is a very, very lovely read.
The cover, let me to expect something along the lines of a more literary read, but on reflection and having enjoyed the story, I think this is her most commercial book so far. I've enjoyed all of the other books, Margery Benson blew me away and Harold stole my heart, but THMG is a very good book too. I didn't expect to like Gustav very much and yet, by the end, I had warmed to him, each of the characters are interesting as much in themselves as their relationship to each other and the way it changes on their father's death. The house in Italy is so well drawn, the lake, the village, I felt as if I was there, with flip flops and kaftan wafting about in the midst of it all - no mean feat when you're in the middle of February storms in the west of Ireland. Bravo Ms Joyce - I will be picking up copies of this for friends as soon as it hits the bookshelves!

I really looked forward to reading this authour's new book but was left so disappointed. Netta, Susan, iris and Goose's famous father Vic Kemp is a famous artist who is eccentric but adored by his children. He lives in the family home on a Greek island with the new love of his life Bella Mae. None of the children have met her, she is much younger than Vic and the siblings are naturally suspicious of her intent. Sadly, Vic drowns whilst swimming before they can meet her and what follows is the rising to the surface of buried tensions, complicated family resentments and relationships. I found the family dynamic tiresome and the characters shallow, immature and spoilt. I never really engaged with the story or the characters. However, O do appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book.

Very nearly 5 stars but the first few chapters let it down and I began to doubt that I would finish it; however once the story took off it was totally gripping. The characters in this dysfunctional family came alive and I was completely immersed in their lives, their tragedies, their joys and above all their need for each other. As they live through the blisteringly hot days in their father's Italian villa his new wife becomes the catalyst for their future and the family splits apart, secrets emerge and everything changes. Excellent!

The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce is a family saga, and what a family. I emersed myself in the life of the Kemp family for days and didn’t want to come up for air. I was so sad when I finished it, and I am now in the middle of a sizable book hangover. Always the sign of a special book.
This is a story of loss, neglect and trauma, but also of love and identity. The four siblings are all so different. All damaged and demanding, but relatable and likeable. Their determination to be loved by and recognised by their father is at the centre of the book.
I am a big Rachel Joyce fan, and I have loved all her books. Although this one was quite different to the others she has written, it is added to the list. It would make a really good book club pick - with so much to devour and discuss. I recommend it.

This story looks at the family of a famous painter and what happens to them after he suddenly dies in his holiday home in Italy by drowning. He’d recently married a very much younger woman which causes problems when it comes to settling his estate. His adult children consist of three daughters and a son all of whom have had difficult and different relationships with their father from childhood particularly when their mother dies tragically young leaving a very young family led by a father who really can’t cope
I have read one of this authors previous novels the unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry and enjoyed it so when I saw this novel on NetGalley UK I grabbed It Up
I love the authors writing style. It’s clean clear and easily read a novel is a very enjoyable read.
The majority of the book is character lead rather than story lead and the author has the ability to describe my new details in the character that makes so much difference to how real they seem to you at the end of the novel. I also love the way that the characters interact with each other right from the start.
Setting a large percentage of the novel in a large Lakeside crumbling Italian mansion adds an important element to the novel almost another character.

My first impressions of this novel are that I’ve read quite a lot of similar books recently some feeling of familiarity to it as a start to read . However I realised at the end of this book has greater depth than a lot of family novels that might look similar on the surface. There’s more to this book then a good summer Read

There are some very emotional portions in the novel, particularly towards the end Oh my goodness, I’m in little blubbing bits at the end
I read any copy of the novel on NetGalley UK and return for an honest review. The book is published in the UK on the 7th of April 2025 by random house UK Transworld publishers/double day.
This review will appear on NetGalley UK, StoryGraph, Goodreads, and my book blog bionicSarahSbooks.wordpress.com
After publication, it will also appear on Amazon UK

Sorry I just couldn’t get into this book so did not finish. I didn’t care bout the story or the characters

Four siblings and their father. Artist Vic Kemp loved his children, Netta, Susan, Iris and son Goose, but found them hard to cope with after his wife died. This book is mostly about the dynamics between his children and how they developed as adults. I preferred the author’s earlier book, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, though this was quite readable.

Does it sound condescending if I say that this is a much more grown up book than The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry or Miss Benson's Beetle? It still has heart and characters that you care about, but the plot feels less cutesy and less contrived. It wasn't quite what I expected, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't worth reading.

The story is about four siblings in their 30s. Netta, Susan, Gustav (Goose) and Iris. Their mother died when they were young and they were raised by their larger than life father, Vic Kemp, a famous artist now in his 70s. Seemingly out of nowhere, Vic falls in love with a woman in her 20s and begins to act evasively. Without introducing any of the family to Bella-Mae he marries her, moves to Italy and breaks off contact with his children.

Initially this scenario reminded me of The Carer by Deborah Moggach but then it goes in a different direction and I started to wonder if it was going to be a domestic thriller. But while there is a mystery, the plot is essentially about the siblings and how losing their father disrupts the dynamics between them.

For most of the book it's the three daughters who are in the centre of the action with Goose on the peripherary, but gradually he becomes the character that you care the most about.

I didn't love this but nor did I want to stop reading it and by the end I realised I'd become fully invested in the four siblings.

When popular artist Vic kemp drowns in a lake near his holiday villa in Italy with his new much younger wife Bella Mae. His son and three sisters arrive to find the will and the last painting he painted. Also meet the wife the children have never met. They think that she only married their father who is in his seventies for his money and without no will, she gets everything. So, they arrive at the villa, but they get more than they bargain for. Not only do they meet Bella Mae, but they learn about each other. We doesn’t go down well.
I am a big fan of the book Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and the other books in the series by Rachel Joyce, So I was thrilled to receive a copy of her new novel The Homemade God.
But I was quite surprised that this is a completely different writing style darker than her other books. I found this interesting storyline, but it was rather slow, and the subject matter is not that original as I have read several other books with this similar storyline, and I was confused at the last twenty percent of it took a completely different turn. It was like another story entirely. To be honest I was quite disappointed. 3 stars.

The fascination with dreadful men who make art never seems to die, although this one is interesting because his art didn’t sound that great either, but what a dreadful man. This is about a family of four children who have never managed to move beyond their father’s influence. When he dies, following a hasty marriage to a woman none of his children have met, the family make their way to his holiday house to investigate and somehow try to move past him. This is a cast of grotesques, which must have been fun to write because frankly, they’re all pretty dreadful people, which can make you feel happier that you don’t know any of them.

As a Wendy Greenberg observed in her review this topic has been covered before. A father with a large-than-life opinion of himself has his four children dancing to his wishes. There are some interesting observations about the relationships between all the characters. There are lots of hints about the infatuation and death of their father which are not really followed up.
At the end of the novel there is a strange section giving a second view point of the relationships which seemed odd stuck in the final chapters.

What a magnificent book, it left me with a tear and hope. The story of four siblings, children of a charismatic artist, who are mostly left to fend for themselves but are completely in thrall to their father. Their lives are in his shadow until his sudden death in Italy after marrying a much younger woman. What ensues is explosive, painful, revelatory and ultimately life changing-but in a very unexpected way. The characters are superb, the descriptions sublime, such a satisfying read.

I was asked by NetGalley to review this book.

This is the story of a father, his new young wife and four siblings. They gather at their rather downtrodden villa in Italy and that is where life known by them has essentially ended.

It is all family drama, realtionships go awray and siblings move away from each other.

It is dark and complex and quite a mystery also.

Compelling and due for publication at the start of the Easter break - 17 April 2025- one to look out for will make a good sunbed read this summer.

Vic is the centre of the Kemp children's world, despite his absent minded parenting after the death of their mother. Though they are now adults, their world is rocked, first with the arrival of a new stepmother in his life, then by his death in Italy at his villa. The repercussions would be nothing short of seismic for the whole family.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this novel when I first started it. However, I have enjoyed other Rachel Joyce novels (particularly Miss Benson' Beetle), so I persevered. It was well worth the effort, as the characters and the setting and the story gradually drew me in to their world. Ms Joyce does not shy away from the dramatic or the shocking, but is always intriguing and, ultimately satisfying, Definitely recommend

An elegy to the slow disintegration of a family held together by the legacy, real or imagined, of one man, The Homemade God offers an atmospheric insight into how family dynamics are formed and changed completely by the loss of the person they are built around. As each sibling grapples with their role in the fracturing, simmering resentments, longheld suspicions, and repressed truths come to a head in the heat of an Italian summer.

Something of a departure from her previous style, content and length, this book by Rachel Joyce still has all the hallmarks of her beautiful writing, clearly drawn characters and deeply understood relationships. The four adult children of artist Vic Kemp are all completely in his thrall and not at all happy when he marries a much younger woman, taking her to the family’s holiday home on Lake Orta in Italy - the house has real emotional resonance for all of the children and they each deal with their father’s new relationship in their own way. The story is slower paced than Joyce’s previous books, but that simply allows for more time to savour the writing, the relationships and the real sense of place that is apparent in all her books.

Just brilliant I adored this book. The author is so beautifully creative. Every character was true and recognisable thank you so much!

I have loved Rachel's previous titles, especially Miss Benson's Beetle, but I found the pacing of The Homemade God to be sluggish to start and was disappointed by the ending, and struggled to hold my attention in part.

Perhaps this will appeal to thriller fans but I was hoping for something with more bite.

The Homemade God had me gripped from the start - maybe because I was reading it on holiday in Italy? Very different to some of the author's previous novels, this one revolves around the family of a rather bohemian artist , Vic, (Jack Vettriano's work came to my mind as I read) who, after the early death of his wife, is left to raise four children. Which he sort of does, in some extraordinary ways, that create a strong bond between the four siblings, who even as adults after Vic's death share a bedroom in the Italian island house they've known all their lives and where Vic eventually dies.

But it all began to unravel, when the seventy something year old Vic married a twenty something young girl, Bella-Mae, whom the siblings instantly distrust. She is an elusive figure for much of the book, and difficult to imagine.

I found the three girls each to be somewhat extreme of their kinds, and as grown women, not easily likeable. Goose (Gustav) their brother, is shadowy at first but then becomes very central to the story, and his final chapters are then inevitable and very woke.

The book was enjoyable, especially as I was on holiday in Italy, and it made easy reading and was gripping enough to sustain me through reading it in just two sittings. And I definitely preferred it to Miss Benson's Beetle. But Italy in January had sufficient damp afternoons of being indoors that I needed something to read! Without that, I think I would have not been so gripped; and as soon as the sun re-emerged, I was happily off to do other things.

A nice book, but not in my top favourites, I'm afraid.

With thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for an ARC.