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It took me way longer than usual to get into or warm to this book. I was initially open and excited, I knew this book had already won the man booker prize so going in my expectations were extremely high and it’s not that I don’t think this deserves the award, it certainly is a uniquely brilliant insight into the mind of ‘middle sister�� an 18 year old girl living in Northern Ireland during the troubles a critical time of conflict and political unrest. You get right inside her head, in the stream of consciousness style her observations painfully accurate, the paranoid anxiety crippling. The style of writing deceptively simple yet dense and complex but overly repetitious and long winded causing my attention to drift. Anna Burns really displays her writing chops here whether you enjoy the style or not, she is a brilliant satirist, delving into the absurdity yet showing the complete seriousness of the times. It’s both comic and tragic. The violence and hidden shadowy figures and the sense of dread and danger lurking everywhere.

But for all it’s good and brilliant moments it got me zoning out pretty quickly. I lost steam, the stream of consciousness although witty and interesting with a refreshing spin ended up testing my patience. It bothered me that I was so bothered with it. The style grating on me more than endearing me to keep wanting to read it, it felt like an endurance test and I was so glad when I completed this book.