I received an advanced reader copy of this book, and it changed my life entirely. As a queer person growing up, and coming of age in Ireland, I was left awestruck by this story. Despite never following religion with my family, the catholicism that comes with being Irish is something that often plays on my mind, often filling me with a guilt that feels second nature with simply holding an Irish passport. But this story took that narrative and really explored the escapism that can come from leaving this world behind, whilst also reminding us how easy it is to fall back into it's grip.

I started reading this when I was mid assignment season, and my progress was slow. But I managed to fly through 80% of this story in one sitting, the characters so likeable that I couldn't put it down. I needed to know where Jay would end up, what her life looked like in the before and after of Ferdia. This story, whilst dealing with heavy topics of mourning, religious guilt, Irish history, and homophobia, also managed to be hilarious in parts. I found myself laughing almost as much as I found myself crying.

My only complaint is that I don't have a physical copy of the book, but upon release date I'll be first in line; in fact, for anything Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin publishes, I'll be first in line! I'm in awe of this story, and their work.

Ordinary Saints

Niamh Ni Mhailcoin has written a triumph of a debut novel. Stepping away from your classic coming of age story, we instead rally around the pre- and post death of her brother, and her family’s decision to begin the process for getting him canonised. Such a rich subject matter allows for all the intricate pains of growing up queer, moving away from home, and trying to forge out a life in your 20s, but with the backdrop of the catholic church’s indelible impact on Irish youth, and the feeling of always being second fiddle in your own family.
Ni Mhailcoin’s razor sharp observations of family dynamics, the pregnant pauses that say so much more than words, left me broken hearted regularly. She weaves the Irish culture for secret keeping so deftly into the small moments that it moves outside of the cliches into every conversation, weighed down with the unsaid.
The writing has a familiar cadence of a dryly humorous internal monologue, but it’s also dense with really beautiful reflective prose that had me jotting down quote after quote.
Ultimately, this book spoke exactly to all the things I love to read about; religion, queerness, Ireland, growing up, and it did so in a brand new way.

I hadn’t read anything like this before, and was drawn into the story of a young woman whose Catholic upbringing, and older brother’s posthumous sainthood, is at odds with her life as a lesbian. I learned a lot about Catholicism, and it made me reflect on family and relationships and how we can be true to ourselves only if we share our differences and learn to love each other. The characters were all well rounded and believable, especially the relationship between Jay and her brother Ferdia, who was not quite the man she thought he was as they were growing up. This was a moving story, made all the more emotional for knowing it’s based in part on the author’s own personal experiences.

Absolutely dazzling. I found a real, emotional and genuine connection to to Jay through my own experience with Catholicism. The impending canonisation of Ferdia opens the gates for some really interesting discussions on grief, identity, family (specifically navigating a complex mother and daughter relationships) and faith. Perfectly paced, brilliantly executed and packs a real emotional punch.

I loved this imaginative and witty debut novel, the story follows Jay who grew up in a Conservative Catholic household and a family she has a somewhat strained relationship with both due to her sexuality and the loss of her brother at a young age who their parents are now working to Canonise as a Saint. The writing is self-assured and emotionally complex as it explores themes of grief, religion and family connection.

"Ordinary Saints" is like nothing I've read before.

To start, its premise is incredibly unique. It follows Jay, a lesbian who has deconstructed her Catholic background, as she grapples with the possibility of her dead brother being canonized as a saint. The author's writing style was amazing, and I loved how the narrative weaved between memories and the current timeline. The novel was a masterfully constructed take on religion, family, and grief. Overall, I would highly recommend this book.

What a fantastic book! Really unique story which follows Jay, a lesbian woman who grew up in a devout Catholic family whose brother died while training to be a priest. Her family is attempting to make him a saint.

The writing is just incredible, there were so many sentences that made me smile, like how her brother’s body is ‘weighed down by a lasagne of woolen blankets’ or how the church ‘seized control of the means of saintly production’.

At the same time it deals with grief in an incredibly tender way, exploring how it's complicated by Jay’s relationship with both her family and religion. Catholicism is also explored in a really nuanced way that doesn’t let it off the hook for the harm it's done, but also shows how nostalgic and comforting parts of it feel.

I love how it explores the impact a culture of silence, shame, and secrecy has had on Jay, her parents, and her relationships. And how conflict is avoided but at the expense of being able to form deeper relationships.

I do feel like maybe the last 10% or so felt a bit out of place, it kept jumping forward in time to show how things resolved, which I appreciated, but I think it didn’t work as well for me compared to the even pacing of the rest of the book. And I also feel like some bits, like her day job, felt a bit underdeveloped compared to other strands. That being said, this is such an excellent debut all around and I think it’s really successful with what it’s trying to do.

This reminded me in part of Evenings and Weekends which I read last year and also really enjoyed, but it’s also such a unique story in and of itself, I really recommend checking this out when it is released.

One of those books I just knew I was going to love after only a few pages. For a debut the prose is so self assured and conveys such a clear understanding of what the book is doing. It’s a book fundamentally about religion that neither condemns it nor supports it but so thoughtfully considers the ways in which it has affected the relationships between Jay and her family over time and through their grief. I found it very touching while also not being too heavy despite the subject matter - ultimately it’s quite a hopeful and funny book which gives so much space and kindness/understanding to each of its characters. Reminded me a little of Transcedent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi in terms of themes and how much I liked the book.

Easy five stars for this one. It is honestly a bit of a mad premise - Jacinta, who goes by Jay, is a thirty-something Irish woman, a lesbian who lives in East London and works in marketing. Her very pious Irish family has decided to campaign, thirteen years after his death, for her older brother Ferdia to become a saint, after he died in Rome while training to be a priest.

But if you're on board with the plot, it is very very good. The chapters are quick and short, which makes the story, despite its several timelines and flashbacks, feel dynamic and energetic. The main character's feelings for her parents religion and their attitude to her are examined carefully and intelligently. Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin has done an excellent job capturing the way the Irish can at times both exude warmth and kindness while making it clear that you are Other, and that you just don't blend in enough. You feel the oppression of the family's questions and curiosity, their quiet disapproval when they remain polite. And if course the grief of a young person's death and the way their edges blur and it is amplified with Ferdia, described as a holy child who spent his free time at church or at the bedside of the dying, and who after death is suspected of a miracle.

I really loved this and I am so glad I picked it when it came up on Netgalley.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

Sometimes I know that I'm going to love a book from the very first line, and that's very much what happened for me with Ordinary Saints.

Jay escaped from her very Catholic, very conservative Irish upbringing in her early 20s, free to live an openly queer life away from her family, which has been irreparably fractured since the sudden death of her older brother, Ferdia, when she was 16 and he was only 24. Unlike Jay, Ferdia took to Catholicism like a duck to water and was living in Rome, training to be a priest, when he was killed in a freak accident. With no hope of living up to her brother when he was alive, let alone now that he's dead, Jay has managed to build a life for herself in London. Now older than her brother ever got to be, Jay is forced to face her feelings - about Catholicism, her parents, and her brother - when her mother and father announce the process is being set in motion for Ferdia to be canonised as a saint.

What I appreciate most about this novel is while it's certainly laced with that dark humour the Irish are famous for, it would have been so easy to turn this story into a farcical comedy and Ní Mhaoileoin never lets it stray that way. Like Jay, we're forced to think seriously about what sainthood really means and what it really entails—how it leads to Jay having nightmares about her brother being dug up, and conversations around the nature of belief and commemoration.

For Jay, it means finally having to tell her friends - and her partner, Lindsay - about Ferdia at all, whom she's kept secret because her feelings around him and his loss are still too complicated for her to parse through. On the one hand Jay adored him, and there were some delightful memories interspersed throughout that made it clear she was one of the only people who treated Ferdia like a normal boy when he was alive, but on the other she can't help feeling bitter about how much their parents favoured him. Particularly their mother, who had almost become a nun herself in her youth and still clung strongly to her faith, to the point where she seemed to live vicariously through her son.

No one is right or wrong here, though, and I appreciated the many shades of grey woven throughout this story. You can't help but feel Jay's frustrations with her family, and particularly her parents—yet her parents also lived through a lot, at a time when asking for help wasn't the done thing, so while they certainly made mistakes, they're still characters we completely understand. I loved the way Jay's mother was handled, in particular.

I don't want to say much else, because this isn't really a book where a huge amount happens, but it's a stellar debut, and will be a particularly cathartic read for anyone queer who has grown up with religion, or had religious family, that has made them want to hide a part of themselves. And it does all of that that while still being not exactly hopeful, but certainly human.

"Ordinary Saints" is an utterly captivating book, dealing effortlessly with faith, family and queer identity. Despite never having a deceased brother be considered for a sainthood, Ní Mhaoileoin makes grief and pathos so heartbreakingly familiar, I could not stop myself from devouring this book and falling in love with Jay. An extraordinary debut from what is already one of this generation's best queer Irish voices.

I want to run around pressing copies of Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin’s debut novel 'Ordinary Saints' into people's hands and demanding that they start reading it right away. It's book that is both deeply emotionally engaging and profoundly thought provoking.

The protagonist, Jay, who was raised in a devout Catholic household in Ireland, is currently living with her girl friend in London. Her life is turned upside down when she finds out that her older brother, Ferdia, is being considered for canonisation.

Ní Mhaoileoin's prose is clear and well-judged, and her story telling economical. Each of the characters earns their place and gets their due in a way that is deeply satisfying. I cried and laughed. A world I knew nothing about was opened up to me - and by the end, I wanted to pick up the phone and share all the things I'd learnt about the process of canonisation with someone.

For queer readers there is a particular pleasure here in the examination of family, faith, identity and sexuality. The family dynamics and domestic detail is particularly poignantly rendered. The changing fortunes of the Catholic church in a modern Ireland are explored with maturity and respect, as well as healthy irreverence. The book is imbued with an intelligent queer sensibility that manages to be joyful even whilst taking an unflinching look at grief and loss, and a deep reckoning for Jay with 'what is.'

There is so much to get your teeth into here, personal, political and spiritual. It's a cracking great read; and one that stays with your long after you turn the last page. I hope this book gets all the love it deserves. And I can't wait to read Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin's next book.

A queer girl has very mixed feelings when she discovers that her dead brother, a trainee priest, may become a saint. Family, sexuality, grief in a wonderful book.

Ordinary Saints follows Jay, raised devoutly Catholic in Ireland and now living with her girlfriend in London. She discovers that her older brother, a trainee priest who died in an accident in Rome, will be canonised.

Niamh Ni Mhaoeileoin's writing is fantastic. The characters in this book are one's you can really empathise with, evidencing the great characterisation. It deals with a whole host of themes, from family to religion. Each is given its own space and dealt with in a meaningful way. Overall, it is a great read which feels fresh, a fantastic feat for a debut novel.

Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin’s debut novel follows Jay, raised devoutly Catholic in Ireland and now living with her girlfriend in London, as she discovers that her older brother Ferdia is being considered for canonisation. This forces her to confront her past.

Ní Mhaoileoin’s writing is excellent and I had to stop reading multiple times in order to take it all in. The inclusion of small visual details to enhance the whole is carried out masterfully (eg. the chairs at the disastrous family dinner, Clem’s jackets). She paints sympathetic character portraits as Jay struggles to reconcile the brother she loved with the formal process of canonisation, while her family attempts to give a tragedy meaning in the only way they know how. The parallels between modes of ritual and faith were subtly done and didn’t feel overemphasised. While the time-skips, which can often make a narrative feel fragmented, actually served to showcase underlying themes of divine time versus human time.

The excellent of ‘Ordinary Saints’ stems from the fact that it speaks to profoundly ambivalent feelings around religion, identity, family, and sexuality, but sets these against a background of sainthood. There is no room for nuance in sainthood, and this only serves to make the complicated humanity of the narrative shine brighter.

I adored this book. I was so excited by the overview of the plot and it did not disappoint. A book about family, grief, faith and sexuality written masterfully in such easy prose. The pace was perfect and I found myself so drawn into Jay and her life and her family. The themes are dealt with so sensitively and were so thought provoking. The characterisation was excellent, you alternately feel frustrated with Jay and so sympathetic towards her, and all characters were fleshed out enough that you understood their points of view. A really special read.

'The last three popes have created more saints than all the others combined', and Jay's dead brother is on the long, very public path to being one.

'Ordinary Saints' is the stunning debut from @niamhsquared that tackles the legacy of an older sibling, whose rise to sainthood triggers our protagonist Jay's inner turmoil around her own identity and place in the world.

If her brother is a saint, then who is she? The Catholic church doesn't just see her as less devoted, she's an 'immoral sinner'; she's queer. And what does that mean for the way her late brother might have loved her if he knew? As Jay says, 'we're living in a new Ireland. So why are they still like this?' She means her family, her childhood community, but also society.

Covering themes of legacy, grief, family, queer identity and the far-reaching and no less powerful legacy of the Catholic church, 'Ordinary Saints' will teach you so much about how honouring one life, might negatively affect another.

I ate this up over a few days and had to slow down to relish the exquisite writing.

5 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

With thanks to @netgalley and @manilla_press for this arc copy 🙏

I think Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin will be very succesful when released. It explores ambivalent feelings to do with religion and faith, relationships, sibling rivalry, sexuality and identity.

Jay is a young queer woman in London who has escaped from the oppressive roots of her devout Irish Catholic upbringing. She's confronted with her mixed feelings about family and her views about faith when she finds out that the process has begun to canonise her brother, a trainee priest who died in an accident in Rome.

This is a stellar debut. The writing is fluid and compelling with deft characterisation. The story gripped me and although there's a quiet reflective tone beneath it, it's a propulsive story and I devoured this. The writing felt fresh, unique and bold. I loved the themes and how thought provoking and oddly moving this book is.

This is already a book I can't wait to recommend. It's something really special and a perfect read