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emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I was really taken with the characters and the developing relationships.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Racism, Xenophobia, Dementia
Minor: Vomit, Car accident
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Mike Gayle has delighted me again with a sweet but sometimes painful story that had me gasping (more than once). Another pandemic novel, Gayle examines loneliness through 82-year-old Jamaican immigrant Hubert. He’s on a quest to prove to his daughter that he’s got plenty of friends and she shouldn’t worry about him from Australia. Alternating flashback chapters give Hubert’s present circumstances a deeper poignancy. As all my favorites do, this novel turns a group of trauma-inflicted misfits into a real community. A great examination of relationships and aging.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Dementia, Grief, Alcohol
Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Abortion
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A good background read on audiobook. There were a few surprises but the book mainly told the story of an ‘ordinary’ life and the life story of a young man who moves from Jamaica to London after the war, his challenges and how connection and community ebb and flow throughout his life.
What I enjoyed:
I enjoyed the narrator’s gravely voice and Jamaican lilt. A welsh accent was also passable. I also liked the descriptions of his Jamaican home which were such a contrast to the often grey, cold experiences of England.
The narrator added dimensions that would have been lost to me in print. I doubt I would have finished the book in print.
What I enjoyed:
I enjoyed the narrator’s gravely voice and Jamaican lilt. A welsh accent was also passable. I also liked the descriptions of his Jamaican home which were such a contrast to the often grey, cold experiences of England.
The narrator added dimensions that would have been lost to me in print. I doubt I would have finished the book in print.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Racism, Terminal illness, Grief
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Mike Gayle strikes again! I really enjoyed this heartfelt story, filled with Gayle's characteristic warmth and emotional intrigue.
In All the Lonely People we follow Hubert Bird as he comes to terms with the fact that he is lonely and works to form a support for other lonely people in his local community. It all starts with a visit from his new next door neighbour and her young daughter. The two push themselves into Hubert's world, and slowly into his heart too. Meanwhile his quiet existence is upended as he starts to engage with his neighbours, his community, and ultimately the truth of his own story.
I really loved Hubert, his neighbors, and the story that came to pass between them. I listened to the bulk of his story on audiobook but switched to digital for the final 20 or so %. The audiobook really brought the story to life and I enjoyed that reading experience very much. Would recommend!
In All the Lonely People we follow Hubert Bird as he comes to terms with the fact that he is lonely and works to form a support for other lonely people in his local community. It all starts with a visit from his new next door neighbour and her young daughter. The two push themselves into Hubert's world, and slowly into his heart too. Meanwhile his quiet existence is upended as he starts to engage with his neighbours, his community, and ultimately the truth of his own story.
I really loved Hubert, his neighbors, and the story that came to pass between them. I listened to the bulk of his story on audiobook but switched to digital for the final 20 or so %. The audiobook really brought the story to life and I enjoyed that reading experience very much. Would recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief
Please note that there are a lot of content warnings which could come with this book. I labelled this review with a few but due to time passed since I finished reading, I'm certain I haven't caught them all and would encourage readers to do their own research on this.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism
Moderate: Drug abuse, Violence, Dementia
Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Wow. This book is so beautiful. Start to finish I was locked in. I gasped, I cried, I questioned everything. This story is thought provoking and a great reminder to hold your people close and to love your neighbor.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Racism, Dementia
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Xenophobia, Grief, Alcohol
Minor: Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Racism, Medical trauma, Death of parent
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Racism, Alcohol
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Ok well this was depressing! Despite the title, the synopsis led me to believe that this was going to be a heartwarming tale about a crotchety old man who is forced out of his loneliness so he can present himself as happy and sociable when his daughter who is living overseas comes home to visit.
But instead it’s about a very lovely old man named Hubert whose interracial marriage was constantly attacked in its early years, who watched helplessly as his son disappeared into addiction and later finds him homeless and mentally vacant, whose devoted spunky wife develops early onset Alzheimer’s and dies of pneumonia, and who’s sweet daughter who helps nurse that wife and is her father’s rock tragically dies in a car wreck as an adult. Yes, the same daughter that the premise describes as calling Hubert weekly, the one Hubert makes up friends to lie to her about complete with elaborate backstories, the daughter who is going to come and visit Hubert and therefore unknowingly helps him reconnect with the outside world. Yes that daughter has actually been dead for years and Hubert in his loneliness made up conversations with her in his head.
I know the book tried to put a hopeful spin on the ending but I could not see past the oppressive sadness of it all. Oh and then he dies in the end. Gah don’t read this!!!
But instead it’s about a very lovely old man named Hubert whose interracial marriage was constantly attacked in its early years, who watched helplessly as his son disappeared into addiction and later finds him homeless and mentally vacant, whose devoted spunky wife develops early onset Alzheimer’s and dies of pneumonia, and who’s sweet daughter who helps nurse that wife and is her father’s rock tragically dies in a car wreck as an adult. Yes, the same daughter that the premise describes as calling Hubert weekly, the one Hubert makes up friends to lie to her about complete with elaborate backstories, the daughter who is going to come and visit Hubert and therefore unknowingly helps him reconnect with the outside world. Yes that daughter has actually been dead for years and Hubert in his loneliness made up conversations with her in his head.
I know the book tried to put a hopeful spin on the ending but I could not see past the oppressive sadness of it all. Oh and then he dies in the end. Gah don’t read this!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Racism, Xenophobia