My Heart Went Walking - Sally Hanan

AUTHOR: Sally Hanan

GENRE: Young Adult, Coming of Age.

RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A debut Irish fiction with teenage characters dealing with not-so-teenaged issues. The book is engrossing, with just a little more fine-tuning required to make it stand out.

Story:

1983, Donegal, Ireland. Seventeen year old Una Gallagher discovers that she is pregnant after a drunken post-party romp with her best friend Cullen. When her mother threatens to send her away to the nuns, Una realises that the only way to keep her baby safe is to run away from home. Her younger sister Ellie is the most heartbroken at her sister’s unexplained disappearance. Cullen too is devastated as he doesn’t know the reason behind Una’s decision. Ellie and Cullen come close to each other in their sorrow. But soon an event occurs which threatens their happiness. Will the three youngsters be able to get their life back on track?

The story comes to us in the first person perspectives of Una, Ellie and Cullen.

Where the book worked for me:

❤ The book begins with a pronunciation guide of the Irish names and locations, and a glossary of the local lingo used. A big thank you to the author for this.

❤ The author makes good use of Irish slang in the story, lending the characters an authentic sound.

❤ The dialogues are where the author truly shines. The three character perspectives are teenagers, and every line of theirs is exactly as someone of their age would speak. It was one of the most natural-sounding dialogue writing I’ve seen in a novel in a long time.

❤ There are some really beautiful lines in the novel. One of my favourites was: “Gossip is like petrol in this town; it runs a lot of motors, starts a lot of fires.”

❤ I loved the way Ellie’s and Cullen’s characters were written. Because they were so sincere and sweet in their distinct ways, I could connect to both of them easily.

❤ There are frequent mini time jumps and while this was a risky approach to follow, I liked how they worked in this story.

Where the book could have worked better for me:

💔 The plot is a bit too meandering at times because of its conversational casual approach.

💔 While the dialogues feel quite genuinely Irish, the story itself doesn’t make much use of the setting. Except for a mention of Donegal and Dublin and some other places, there is nothing to make the locale feel Irish. It could have taken place anywhere.

💔 There were some plot points that weren’t quite convincing to me. This is mainly in Una’s perspective, where there were a few logical jumps, and too many convenient turns in the events to take the story ahead smoothly.

💔 I didn’t like Una. Though her perspective should have kept me the most emotionally involved, I found myself tuning out of her narration because she seemed too shortsighted and self-oriented and even irritating at times. As one-third of the book roughly is about her, my enjoyment of it slipped downwards.

💔 The first person voices are a bit confusing because though there’s no overlap in the nature of the characters (Una is courageous but judgemental; Cullen is pragmatic and sad, Ellie is idealistic and cheerful), the writing misses out on their individuality and makes them sound very similar in their thoughts. So I was, at times, muddled up about which character's perspective I was reading.

Overall, this is a very good debut novel that brings to life the story of three teenagers caught in unusual circumstances. A nice, emotional and uplifting read.

My thanks to Fire Drinkers Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of “My Heart Went Walking”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.