I loved both The End We Start From and The Harpy making me keen to read Megan Hunter’s new novel which tells the story of Ivy, the daughter of a bohemian family, through six pivotal days in her life beginning with Easter Sunday in 1938 which ends in tragedy.
Nineteen-year-old Ivy wakes to what she expects to be a special day. Her beloved brother Joseph has invited the woman with whom he’s in love to stay and Ivy is eager to meet her. At a funeral, two weeks later she finds solace with a man much older than herself which will lead to marriage and children. Towards the end of the war, a friendship ripens into a love that might fulfil her longing for meaning, hopes dashed ten years later on a day in which she experiences an epiphany pointing her to another way of life. On the sixth day, Ivy remembers the many Easters she has lived through and the course her life has taken, understanding that her quest for meaning has been fulfilled.
Ivy’s story is unfolded from her own perspective although not in her own voice which suits this woman cast as an observer on the edges of a colourful family caught up in their own lives, unsure of her own place in the world. Hunter’s writing is luminously beautiful at times and there’s an elegiac quality to the early part of the novel which lends it a gentle melancholy. Throughout it all, Ivy remains haunted by the tragedy of 1938, unsure to the end if she might have played a part in it. Looking at other reviews, I see that some readers found Hunter’s novel unsatisfying, but I loved it, partly its structure suited it well but mostly for its quietly gorgeous writing.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for an early read of this book, which will be published in April 2025.

This was an unusual read and an interesting slant on a story covering much of a character's life, but by concentrating on six individual days, each a decade apart. It felt much like a stream of consciousness, almost a diary entry with some speech, however, this wasn't traditionally written with speech marks but in italics, but I got used to the style very quickly.

The book is written entirely from Ivy's perspective, as though the other characters were extras in her story, which I suppose they were. This allowed me to get inside Ivy's thoughts as she tries to make sense of herself, which she finds difficult in a family of creatives who have always known their place in the world.

A rather rambling read, but not unpleasantly and almost certainly intentionally, as Ivy struggles to discover who she is.

Originally told through six days in Ivy’s life, this book takes the reader on a journey of life and loss. Initially the writing style was a little difficult for me to comprehend but as the book carried on it became easier to lose myself in the beauty and lightness of the writing. Ivy’s life takes on many twists on turns, from pre WWII to just before the 2000s. We follow her as she grieved, finds love, loses love and finds herself. I really enjoyed this form of storytelling that put focus on these six days in her life. By the end of the book I felt attached to Ivy, I had been following her life since she was 19 and I almost didn’t want to leave her. This was emotionally charged and full of gorgeous quotes and relationships, a real reflection of life and all of its complications.

4+ ⭐

I was a bit misty eyed by the end of this.
Six days with Ivy, and yet I felt I knew her so well.
Admittedly, six very important days.
We start with a fairly ordinary family Easter, lunch and from there I was hooked.
Pulled on my heart strings a fair few times.

Six days of Ivys young life at the start of the War is intense as much as it's tragic.

Ivy is spending time with her family, who are rather free and easy about life when tragedy strikes and wordls and lives are changed forever.

This book is a great read. it is a slow burn but oh how I loved it.

The author is a good storyteller and I felt all emotions and gasped at times at what happened next.

Not what i expected at all but I like when a book surprises me..

I’m not really sure what to say about this book. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good either. I think the premise ended up being much better than the execution. The book presents six days in the life of Ivy, a young woman who is 19 on the eve of World War II. The first chapter, which recounts the tragic events of Easter 1938, is very strong, and I hoped it would set the tone for the rest. Unfortunately, as the story progressed, I felt that this intensity faded.
The idea of depicting long-term grief through a few random days in the protagonist’s life sounds intriguing, but it resulted in a situation where most significant events were told rather than shown. I also didn't feel a sense of continuity, especially regarding the protagonist's emotions and her relationships. Although Ivy is constantly grappling with her loss from 1938, she also builds her life with others; however, these relationships lacked emotional depth for me because we know almost nothing about them beyond descriptions of six moments in her life.
Sadly, particularly in the second half, the book became dull at times. I don’t deny that the author had an interesting idea, and the book does hold some value in discussions about grief and love as factors driving life choices. However, I wish these themes had been more strongly emphasized.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into this book I tired a couple of times but didn’t make past chapter five really sorry to report this but it was DNF for me