Beautiful and heart breaking

7,67 on CAWPILE tw / cancer, death, drug useA story about pain, grief but also being hopeful. This was painful but also lovely.

A Beautifully observed Irish story and a confident and emotional debut novel. The beauty of this one is that its packs such an emotional punch in only a couple of hundred pages. I would never have picked up this one had it not been for our real life sit in book club read. I had passed it by in book shops on numerous occasions. The cover did not appeal to me enough to even pick it up and read the premise. I can’t help wondering just how many wonderful books I have missed out on because I judge a...

A gritty story set in a rough area of Dublin, Boys Don’t Cry had potential but ultimately didn’t quite deliver. It’s tricky business for an author to create a credible child cancer patient, and Scarlett mostly succeeds with 12-year-old Finn, but I found that the novel’s end edged too close to maudlin. Furthermore, a critical scene late in the book—involving the boy’s elder brother and protector, Joe, who is hovering on the precipice of a life of crime—is sketched in strokes too scant. It lef...

I’ve loved reading all my life, but I sometimes feel sad that I’m not always able to read with the kind of indestructible wholeheartedness that I used to when I was a teenager. It’s more difficult to summon that kind of immersion now, the kind that’s unburdened by distraction or responsibility, when there was nowhere else to be, and nothing else to do. But the experience of reading Fíona Scarlett’s novel ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ has brought me back to a time in my own life when the pleasure of reading f...

Astonishing! Must read! You will cry but you will marvel at the extraordinary prose brought to us by Fiona Scarlett in Boys Don't Cry.This is a beautiful, breathtaking, but emotionally devastating exploration of brotherly love. The bonds between Joe and Finn, fierce, protective and compassionate, enable the pair to face a less than easy life with a Ma who does not intervene and a Da who is in prison.The story weaves in and out of the present day and recent past, painting a moving picture, an unf...

I read this with Pigeonhole over 10 days and what a rollercoaster of emotions it was! Powerful and heartbreaking! I can’t think of many books where tears were streaming down my face by the end! Boys don’t cry....but I think most readers will! I loved the ending too... such a fitting way to remember Finn and celebrate his life. Amazing writing! Thanks Pigeon and Fiona!

If you took a big cooking pot and threw in Irish authors Roddy Doyle and Kit de Waal, then added the scriptwriters for the Irish gangster TV series Love/Hate and gave it a good stir, the end result might be Fiona Scarlett’s Boys Don’t Cry.This novella about sibling love, divided loyalties, illness, grief and toxic masculinity is a heartrending — and heartwarming — read.To read my review in full, please visit my blog.

Boys Don’t Cry is a beautiful novel, exploring the themes of family legacy, love, grief and perhaps surprisingly, given the latter theme, living life to the fullest. The writing is assured, but never showy. There is a confidence in the clean prose that elevates this book beyond most debut novels. I marvelled at how the sparse writing style still managed to bring a lump to my throat through most of the book.I particularly loved how Scarlett captures the melody and dialect of working class Dubline...

Finn, you’ll always have a little piece of my heart!A beautiful gem about life, loss, and love. Raw and gritty. Pure and hopeful. So incredibly touching. Better than Shuggie Bain!
Boys don’t cry? I bet everyone does while reading this impressive debut—even the tough ones.

This story doesn’t need a lot of words. A dual narrative. Two brothers. Joe, seventeen, a talented artist. Finn, a sweet twelve-year-old. Living in Dublin. Their dad, working for a gang. Eventually, in prison. And Finn gets si...

If, as many believe, all stories are ultimately about love, you would be hard pressed to find a stronger proof than in Fiona Scarlett’s devastating debut Boys Don’t Cry. A dual narrative, set amidst the turbulent urban landscape of Dublin, it follows the fortunes of two brothers, Finn and Joe, as they navigate the shadowy spaces in-between what it means to be male amongst the working class patriarchy. Though a smaller, sparer novel than its most obvious comparison, the Booker prize winning Shugg...

The title of Fíona Scarlett's debut novel has a deeper meaning beyond the traditional notion of masculinity where men don't show their feelings. It also has to do with expectations placed upon boys to grow into a certain mould and fulfil a particular role in their families and communities. These pressures are difficult to overcome and often lead to violent or rebellious behaviour especially for two brothers growing up as the sons of a drug dealer/muscle man for a local Dublin gang. Joe is an art...

This short debut novel by Fíona Scarlett, due to be published in April, is a dual narrative by two brothers, Joe and Finn, growing up in the flats in inner city Dublin. Their father is a henchman for a notorious gang leader; their mother is trying to hold it all together.Finn is 12 and on the brink of adolescence when tragedy strikes. Joe is 17. A gifted artist with a scholarship to a private school, Joe is determined to avoid the path his father took before him and which everyone around him exp...

This was so breathtaking.

This is such a special debut that will take you on a roller coaster of emotions. It will make you laugh and make you cry. It is truly unforgettable.The dual narrative tells the story of two brothers Joe and Finn, growing up in a Dublin tower block under the cloud of their father’s role within a notorious gang. Joe is determined not to follow in his Da’s footsteps. But when Finn falls ill and tragedy strikes, he finds his convictions harder to cling to.Scarlett’s debut novel is a triumph, told wi...