The Mess Were In, Annie Macmanus
The Mess Were In, Annie Macmanus
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

The Mess We're In
An immersive story of music, friendship and finding your own rhythm, from the Sunday Times bestselling author

Author: Annie Macmanus

Narrator: Annie Macmanus

Unabridged: 8 hr 59 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Wildfire

Published: 05/11/2023

Synopsis

A book about finding home in a strange new place, and finding yourself when your life is a mess. The hotly anticipated second novel by the Sunday Times bestselling author of Mother Mother

I'm a Londoner now. I'm a voice in the noise. I'm ready.

It's the turn of the millennium and, landing in London with nothing but her CD collection and demo tape, Orla Quinn moves into a squalid Kilburn house with her best mate and a band called Shiva.

Orla wants to make music, but juggling two jobs and partying every night isn't helping. Back in Ireland her parents' marriage has crumbled, she's not speaking to her father, and her mother and sister are drinking too much.

While Orla's own dreams seem to be going nowhere, Shiva are on the brink of something big. But as the hype around the band intensifies, so does the hedonism, and relationships in the house are growing strained.

This is the story of a young woman thrashing through life, trying to find home in a strange new place. It's also a story about music: how it can break you down and build you back up again, and how to find your rhythm when all you hear is noise.

Praise for The Mess We're In:

'So vivid . . . What [Macmanus has] managed to do with London, and what London means to different generations of Irish people, is terrific, and deeply moving' RODDY DOYLE

'Totally captures the highs and lows, emotional and personal costs associated with those aspiring to be part of the tough world that is the music business' COSEY FANNI TUTTI

'Beautifully painted, well set up and realistic' SARA COX

'A dizzying tale of young adulthood and the glimmering freedom and not-so-good decisions that come with it.' CHLOE ASHBY

Praise for Mother Mother:

'A writer whose understanding and capturing of human nature comes as easily to her as breathing' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS

'Tender, surprising, occasionally bleak, moving and delicate' IRISH TIMES

'A study of grief, addiction and what it means to be a mother' STYLIST

'Melancholy, beautifully unadorned prose' MAIL ON SUNDAY

(P) 2023 Headline Publishing Ltd

About Annie Macmanus

Annie Macmanus is an internationally renowned broadcaster, author, DJ, eventscurator and more.Her debut Sunday Times Bestseller novel Mother Mother was released in paperback this March to critical acclaim and her writing has featured in the Guardian, Irish Times and the Independent and regularly publishes articles via her own blog.She produces her own podcast, 'Changes with Annie Macmanus', where she chats to writers, artists and fascinating people from all walks of life about changes they've faced.Annie is a key music industry figure championing female and LGBTQ+ artists andadvocating for positive, inclusive change. She also runs the festival Lost & Foundin Malta, and can be seen on the biggest stages of music festivals around the UKand the world, and in the DJ booths of the world's best clubs.Annie has created a far-reaching presence rooted in quality, integrity, and theauthentic connections that unite us all as loyal fans.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kate

3.5 stars. This book has left me a little befuddled. The writing is okay, the story is okay. Everything is okay but it's not great. The story (such as it is) follows Orla who has come to London via Cheltenham to live with her best friend, Neema and the members of Neema's brother's band "Shiva". Orla h......more

Goodreads review by Connor

4.5! Do you ever read something and instantly think this needs to be adapted into a series? Because that’s the case with The Mess We’re In! After moving to Cheltneham via Dublin for uni, Orla is ready to take on the big smoke and moves in with an up and coming band, Shiva in Kilburn. (Or County Kilb......more

Goodreads review by Derval

3.5 stars. I zipped through this book over a quiet weekend, and it was pretty entertaining. I wanted more though- more emotion, more of the important relationships between sisters and friends. I didn't find the change in Neema believable; from making her pal chai tea after a night out to refusing to......more

Goodreads review by Lorna Berry

This audiobook started promising. And I appreciated the numerous musical references throughout. That being said the characterisation fell flat and I couldn't much empathize with the book's protagonist. Plus the ending was so abrupt I had to rewind to check it had actually finished. It felt rushed.......more

Quotes

Glorious . . . So brilliant on being young, skint, ambitious and hopeful in London. My heart ached with identification, I loved it! Highly recommended

A dizzyingly good read. iPaper

[An] immersive, music-infused coming-of-age story . . . Captures a time and a place with heart and irresistible momentum in a prose that can be bracingly lyrical. Observer

A brilliant coming-of-age novel. Bella Magazine

Macmanus perfectly captures both the hedonism and uncertainty of being a twentysomething in a new city. Heat Magazine

The Mess We're In is a visceral, raw account of the music business' allure for young people and the trappings that are best avoided. Annie McManus proved herself to be a fine debut author with Mother Mother, and this cements her an exciting literary voice. Sunday Business Post

I really liked the book. I loved the pace of it, it belts along but never feels rushed. The writing is so vivid - I could almost feel Orla's hangover, and everyone else's too. [Macmanus has] created a great gang of characters, and a great variety too, all of them very human . . . All the music in the novel is cleverly and very successfully achieved. And London - what [she's] managed to do with London, and what London means to different generations of Irish people - is terrific, and deeply moving.

The book is so, so good...It's so beautifully written. I could have read on and on, I was so sad when it ended.

Such a gorgeous book . . . I absolutely ate up every word . . . It has been so long since a book has stopped me from, not just checking my phone, but actively made me want to put my phone to the side and focus completely on the story. I loved Orla, I can see the TV show or the movie already. I loved the world - oh my God was it nostalgic about moving to London . . . It's just so grounded in someone who knows the world and place they're talking about and it just fully comes through . . . It's just done so brilliantly and needless to say at the end I cried... I loved this book.

I felt like I'd joined Orla on a mad twisted fairground ride, clinging on with her as she's thrown about and has her ups and downs . . . Beautifully painted.

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