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