This novel was such a lovely surprise. I had no idea what to expect when I started it and was quickly drawn into the story. Jay, gay, living in London with a tight knit group of friends and a new lover, is a Catholic from Ireland with a brother who died in a tragic accident. Now her parents are trying to get him made a Saint. Jay is not sure if she wants to get drawn into this.

What follows is a story about how families and individuals deal with loss and it is deeply touching. I learned a lot about the process of making someone a saint and a lot about how different people are in coming to terms with sudden death.

It really was a pretty much perfect novel. Highly recommend

Over a decade after losing her brother, Jay is living an entirely new life in London, one that is deliberately as far away from the Dublin suburbs and repressive Catholic upbringing of her youth. But when she's contacted by a priest who is leading the campaign to try and get her brother canonised, Jay learns that however far you go, you won't escape your past until you face up to it.

"The first time I kissed a girl, my brother died," is an opening line for the ages. And the rest of the book more than lived up to the opening. I loved Ordinary Saints and can absolutely see why it's already prize-winning before even being published. One for fans of Oisin McKenna.

A thoroughly captivating and emotive read exploring themes of queerness and identity within the Catholic church. Gorgeous writing and storytelling that really packs a punch.

Sometimes you read a book and it all just resonates with you, entertains you, informs you, drags you in and makes you talk to the characters - and Ordinary Saints was that kind of book for me!
I both could identify with the character of an Irish woman, a child of the 80s and 90s, living in the UK as an adult and dealing with the aftermath of loss, but also the ultra religious life of the brother was completely alien to me. It's beautifully written, full of intriguing knowledge of Catholicism and the process of beatification, and sharply observed family dynamics.

I was engrossed from the first page and, coming from an Irish Catholic background, the sense of familiarity was overwhelming. This story is about Jay trying to come to terms with her childhood, her family, her Catholicism (or lack of) and her memories of her brother. At times it was rather slow but it's beautifully written.

I have definitely never read a book with this premise before. Jay (or Jacinta) is an Irish woman living in London when she finds out that her brother, who was training to be a priest when he died in his mid-20s, is being considered for canonisation. Another notch in my accidental Irish lit binge, and also quite appropriate reading after watching Conclave! The thing I appreciated most about this book was how readable it was: I basically read it in two sittings over two days, and the story was always absorbing. I wasn't brought up Catholic, although a lot of my family were – with this, I think I missed some of the nuance of the discussions about religion, but I always found them interesting.

I loved Ordinary Saints! All the classic ingredients of a beautiful, reflective family drama about grief, religion and queerness are made fresh with the unique plot addition of a dead brother in line for Catholic sainthood. Beautiful writing, believable characters and a story that carries you along. I will definitely be looking out for more from this debut author in future.

Jesus Christ this is good!

It took just a couple of pages for me to realise this was something special and the rest of the book just confirmed it.

Jacintas beloved brother Ferdia was set to be a priest when he died in Rome. Years later she is still struggling to come to terms with his death and news of his application for sainthhood only bring everything to the surface once more

Queer, living in London and more or less estranged from the church and her parents in Ireland, Jay struggles with memories of her brother, inherent catholic guilt and her parents' reaction to the possibility of Ferdias sainthood.

I was raised Catholic and now like Jacinta have moved far away from the Church. My Irish mum though is devout. She is named for Maria Goretti (who features briefly in the book) so much of Jacinta's upbringing, feelings and experiences hit so true.

It’s a story looking at identity, loss, grief, guilt and the lasting impact of childhood.

I was fascinated to learn more about the process of canonisation and the fact that so many people are made saints in this day and age - 942 by the current Pope alone!

The writing is blindingly good - insightful, poetic and humorous. A stellar debut. I'm already greedy for Niamhs next book

The tagline of this book - 'The lesbian sister of a literal saint' - was already enough to take me in completely, but this reading experience was so much more than the synopsis suggested.

Our main character, Jay, has escaped the claustrophobia of her Irish Catholic household to busy and vibrant London, where she doesn't have to correct people for calling her Jacinta, and most importantly, she doesn't have to talk about the canonisation cause of her dead older brother. But Jay cannot keep this part of her life hidden forever, and soon she is forced to confront her past, and her relationship with the Church which has let her down.

This is a debut novel for the ages. Ordinary Saints is overflowing with sarcasm and nostalgia, punctuated with poignant reflections about grief which hit you like a truck when you least expect it. Ní Mhaoileoin embarks on a fearless dissection of the Church's role in an apparently 'changing Ireland', so grounded in the dark realities of Catholicism that I found myself running to Wikipedia crying 'That can't be true!' with every chapter.

I would implore anyone to read this book when it is released - or before if you can - and I cannot wait to shove it into the hands of every customer who comes into the bookshop when we get it in.

A compelling, tragicomic portrait of grief, faith, and family ties.
The writing is luminous, and the non-linear structure perfectly mimics the operation of memory. I was totally drawn into her emotional journey, as well as fascinated by the insight into the bizarre world of canonisation. Although it is, on one level, a story about losing faith, for me it felt pervaded by the gentle blessings of Jay's brother Ferdia. Her memories reveal him to be flawed - ordinary - and yet those memories lead to healing in the family in a way that speaks of... well, of saintliness.
This is a book that's going to stay with me, and have an impact on my relationship with myself and my past.

With thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier for the arc.
I requested this book from NetGalley because I thought it had a really intriguing description, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. The story of Jay (previously known as Jacinta after one of the three child visionaries of Fatima), brought up in a devout Catholic family in Ireland and now living with her girlfriend in London, who finds out her (deceased) elder brother may be made into a Catholic Saint. This was a gripping story of family ties, found family, grief, queer identity and the impact of religion/belief on individuals and society. Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin has such an assured and confident way of writing that it is difficult to believe this is their debut novel. The writing is sublime, in turns touching, and at other times imbued with such dark humour that I snort laughed in public! My only (ever so slight) niggle is that the frequent jumping around the story timeline was, on occasion, slightly confusing as it wasn’t always obvious (at least in the e-arc I had access to) that the time frame had moved until you were a few sentences into the new section.
A confident and moving account and highly recommended.

The debut novel by an Edinburgh based Irish author - early drafts of which won the inaugural PFD Queer Fiction Prize 2022 and were shortlisted for the Women's Prize Trust/Curtis Brown Discoveries Prize 2022.

And while dealing with two common themes in recent literary fiction – queer coming out stories (particularly in traditional and/or religious families), and the influence of the Catholic church on Irish society – it does so in a very distinctive, I would say unique, way.

It was one though that rather left me nonplussed but for reasons that were much more me than the author.

The opening two sentences, told to us by our first party narrator Jay (still known by her parents as her birth name Jacinta – named after one of the three girls at Fatima) sets the scene for much of the novel: “The first time I kissed a girl my brother died. I was sixteen and at a party in a big house overlooking Dublin Bay. My brother was in Rome, studying to be a priest.”

The novel is narrated by her thirteen years later, living in London where she now lives, works in a creative marketing agency, has a group of good friends (who she has deliberately told little about her family) and about to start a relationship (with Lindsay – the friend of a work colleague), she gets a call from her father – saying that her brother (who died in a freak accident) is at the starting point of the process for being made a Saint.

And from there the story examines how this impacts Jay, causing her to re-examine her past, her relationship with her family (who while aware of her sexuality have never really come to terms with it or openly acknowledged it) including her mother’s often unacknowledged depression during much of her childhood and her father’s absences on work, her relation with a church she no longer believes in (and which rejects her lifestyle as unbiblical – an additional complexity here is a close friend of her brother’s who was directly involved in the accident but is now himself in a gay relationship), and even her last interactions with her brother (whose strong attachment to the Catholic church was increasingly distancing her as a 16 year old and whose last moments she missed).

All of this while the process of canonisation begins and is described in detail.

Now I am a very strong Christian but from an evangelical (and for the last 25 years Charismatic) Protestant background (not that I would normally use that last term). A very close friend at University was a very devout Catholic – even living in a priory for some of his time at Cambridge – and I found it fascinating learning from him about Catholicism and even studying The Catechism of the Catholic Church – and was truck by how different the carefully argued. long developed traditionally held rather rigid views of pure Catholicism are from the compromises/fudges/left to conscience/not really discussed aspects more common to say Church of England theology. In many ways strict Catholicism and strict Charismatic Christianity have much in common – both holding strictly to biblical doctrine and being slow to compromise/adjust to changing societal views on liberal matters.

And so a book which examines a traditional church’s views on sexuality – both rejecting them but also with deep insight into church matters – would be of great interest t me

But if there are two areas where there is a big difference – and also where I cannot really understand the Catholic position it is in Marian devotion and in praying to Saints (and even more so the designation of saints) – and the book is largely based around these, hence my seeming inability to connect with the book on the very aspect (Christianity) where I would expect to connect the most.

So a very different book and one really well written but which did not work for me.

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.