This Bright Life, a review by Shelley

posted in: Shelley | 0

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This Bright Life
Karen Campbell

Canongate Books
Publication Date: March 27th, 2025
304 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads

Genres: Literary Fiction

This is my first book by author Karen Campbell. This Bright Life is the story of Gerard, a 12-year-old boy with the world on his shoulders. His mother is an addict and he is left to look after his younger brother and baby sister. When he sees his baby sister has a terrible rash and that the electricity needs topping up he devises a plan to steal a wallet so he can buy diaper cream and add money to the electric card. What starts out as a simple purse snatching turns into Gerard getting caught after the lady he steals from is seriously hurt. Her name is Margaret and she is an elderly lady who is also a widow.

What follows is a story of Gerard and his siblings finally getting the help they need and Margaret opening the door to the outside world for the first time since her husband died. And then we have Claire, who is the one who helped Margaret when she fell, she is also the one who turned Gerard into the police and she too has a whole new world open up to her in ways she couldn’t possibly have imagined after her divorce.

This was a fabulously written story that was so engaging I couldn’t put it down, it was very realistically raw and true to life. The characters were well drawn and the story itself was poignant and compassionate. It was a very difficult read that was at times depressing but for some reason, I just couldn’t stop reading. I felt so bad for Gerard and his brother and sister but in the end, it left me feeling hopeful. I enjoyed it so much that I can’t wait to read the other book I have by this author Paper Cup and that’s the best compliment I can give an author I’ve read for the first time. All. The. Stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

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