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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Real characters - believable and authentic, 26 Nov 2010
This review is from: Belfast Girls (Kindle Edition)
A modern day Belfast chronicle of three girls growing up in the reality of contemporary Northern Ireland - with visits to Dublin and New York thrown in. You've got almost everything here: love and rejection, friendship and lust, the 'safe' world of fashion and glamour contrasting with the harsh world of crime and danger, fame and disgrace, despair and hope ... Sheila's life takes off. She's got it all! But her 'ice maiden' success is hollow and empty. On the surface she's living a dream, but she's not enjoying the reality. Phil takes a more obvious route, but things get more and more complicated - leading to disaster. Mary quickly becomes a train wreck - but amazingly she manages to survive and turn her life around. The men are a contrast, too. Davy is light-hearted and takes what he wants from life, has few scruples and no worries about consequences; while John is serious, ambitious, self-righteous and confused. It's difficult to decide which is worse - the straight forward, self-centred, all-out bad guy, or the well meaning, but moody and tormented, 'good' guy? And the other men in Sheila's life all have their own quirks and agendas. This novel definitely holds your attention - even on a second reading! It is well written and you want to keep on reading and finding out more about these people. The characters are very real and natural and the story builds steadily towards the final outcome. You've managed to capture something that is believable and authentic. Well done! Hope it goes from strength to strength!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Belfast Girls, 7 Feb 2012
This review is from: Belfast Girls (Kindle Edition)
I've never read anything set in Northern Ireland before, well not to my knowledge anyway and I definitely haven't written anything set in this period and I found it really interesting as well as enjoyable. The combination of the fictional plot with the aftermath of the Troubles was really interesting to read about and unluckily for Belfast, it didn't exactly come off as somewhere I'd like to visit any time soon. The characters were believable and real, Phil in particular was a favourite as she sacrificed everything for absolutely no discernible reason in my opinion and it's really to see Mary's transformation from drug fiend to enlightened spiritualist. The only character who fell flat for me was Sheila. Her `ice maiden' supermodel persona is really well constructed by I didn't like the ending and the way she remained blameless in everything that happened and of course, her relations with John Branagh. It just didn't feel `right' to me. Aside from that, this novel was just my kind of thing, switching between different perspectives and telling different peoples stories and how they all cleverely knitted together in the end. I'm only sorry it didn't portray Belfast in a brighter light!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Belfast Girls make good, 17 Jan 2012
This review is from: Belfast Girls (Kindle Edition)
I really enjoyed this gripping heartfelt tale of friendship against all odds. It is clear that Ms McCullough cares deeply about her characters which in turn lets the reader care too. We share their triumphs, cry with them when they get disappointed or hurt and cheer when something good happens. Compelling dialogue, evocative description and a real flair for storytelling makes this a must read. There is something in it for everyone; romance, danger and glamour as well as real women whose different lifepaths a are still connected by the strand of their childhood friendship across the religious divide. There are surprises in store.
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