RaveThe Guardian (UK)A story of contrasts ... Haig’s wise and moving novel is both a mystery and a love story, a fantasy and a billet-doux to the planet. Perhaps its greatest gift lies in showing us that it is possible to dismantle the boundaries we have built, grasp the connections previously hidden, and appreciate life in all its richness. And the realisation that magic realism probably isn’t an oxymoron after all.
RaveThe Guardian (UK)The whip-smart exchanges, the bravado, the vulnerability, all are captured perfectly on the page ... Geary writes fractured outsiders not just with skill but with humility. This book does not fetishise poverty ... If the friendship between Juno and Legs is the beating heart of this novel, there is life and hope to be found in the walk-on characters, too ... Geary finds beauty in the most unlikely places, and in an often brutal story, with more than its fair share of small tragedies, he offers balm along the way ... There is always much talk in publishing of \'the difficult second novel\' – the immense pressure on a writer to exceed or even just equal the achievement of a big and successful debut. Geary need have no concerns on that matter. Juno Loves Legs, in all its painful beauty, is a more than worthy successor.
Donal Ryan
RaveThe Guardian (UK)A book of opposing forces. It begins with an ending...yet concludes with a hope for the people he left behind ... Wonderful humour punctuates Ryan’s novel, and thankfully so, because on the journey towards Saoirse’s adulthood and in the war for Dirt Island we are drawn into dark territory of grief, infertility, mental illness, suicide and rape ... Yet as ever, Ryan’s writing is so musical, so easily heard, that your eyes will dance through its pages ... Within each short chapter, filled with compassion and cruelty, lie more opposites ... As you reach the final pages of this story, as one generation ends and a new generation finds its place in the world, and its own puzzles to solve, you realise that behind the scenes, Ryan has drawn the perfect circle.
Joanna Cannon
PositiveBookreporterThis story is peopled with believable characters ... It will take a thorough reading of this quirky, charming novel to unearth the third thing about Elsie.
