Mother Mother: A poignant journey of friendship and forgiveness

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Mother Mother is the debut novel from legendary DJ Annie Mac, and it's a devastating read with little respite from the unrelenting trauma and tragedy of the protagonist's life.

While she succeeds in getting work experience in two record companies, Orla worries about how she may be perceived.The flaws of Orla kind of added to this as well, and I liked Annie's perspective on this at the end. To a lot of Irish people this brings back the struggle of learning Irish, but for me, personally, it means a lot because it reminds me that at the age of kind of 17, I was pretty much fluent in the Irish language. There are some pretty heavy, emotional parts in this, and I read the last few chapters through tears. It begins as its narrator, 21-year-old Dubliner Orla, arrives in turn-of-the-millennium London to share a house with her best friend, law student Neema, and the members of Shiva, an up-and-coming band fronted by Neema’s brother.

Only criticism is that the format sometimes makes it a little hard to follow/understand the context of things (people’s ages, timeline of events etc) however it becomes clearer the further you read! Orla’s passion for music came from her Dad but with her Dad after leaving her mother for another woman, Orla is devastated. Orla, however is a mess, often strung out on drugs or hungover as a result of her rock’n’roll lifestyle. I was hooked on eating Sainsbury's cooking Chorizo at 2am: BRYONY GORDON was addicted to drugs and alcohol before finally managing to get herself sober. having known of annie mac's incredible career as a dj and all round powerhouse of modern radio, i tried to go into her debut novel with as few expectations as possible.At the same time, she is struggling with telling TJ the truth of his own father and that’s creating distance between them until she disappears and TJ finally understands how much she’s been going through. She shows the life of a rock band as I imagine it can be – drugs, alcohol and all-nighters along with the constant touring and the elation of a crowd’s reaction. While I know this is Annie Macs business and life, it just didn’t appeal to me as while I enjoy music, I don’t want to just read about that especially when I’m not cool enough to understand a lot of it.