Nesting

Starred review from December 1, 2024
In Dublin, a pregnant woman with two little girls flees a controlling, critical husband. O'Donnell's striking debut opens with what looks from a distance like a happy family at the seashore. Close up, the water is too cold, the wind is too strong, and as tiny as they are, the girls have outgrown their wetsuits and their father is screaming at their mother, demanding to know what she'd done with the money he gave her to buy new ones. By the end of the first chapter, we want to get away from Ryan as badly as Ciara does, even if he's handsome, loyal, a good provider, and hasn't actually hit her...yet. That wetsuit money has been tucked away in a diaper bag in preparation for something Ciara hasn't quite admitted to herself she's going to do. And then, at last, it's time. O'Donnell's novel follows Ciara, Ella, and Sophie as they negotiate the harsh realities of sudden homelessness, father's rights, and the Irish housing crisis. Ciara's mother and sister live in England, she's lost her pre-marriage friends, and she can pay for no more than one night's accommodation with that roll of bills. With Ryan constantly hounding her by text, she eventually finds her way into emergency accommodations in a hotel with a dedicated floor for unhoused women and families. Here, she will make a friend and begin to figure out next steps--which are that much more complicated when a pregnancy test reveals the reason for her recent nausea and exhaustion. The mounting tension and suspense as Ciara struggles to stay free and safe make the pages fly. O'Donnell gives us a great character to root for and a portrait of her situation that is both terrifying and ultimately inspiring. An afterword confirms the impression that it's based on research into real women's experiences. A propulsive, nuanced, achingly real novel that will appeal to both Colleen Hoover fans and devotees of Irish fiction.

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Starred review from November 25, 2024
Irish writer O’Donnell debuts with a wrenching and scrupulously realistic narrative of a Dublin-based mother who, after years of emotional and sexual abuse, decides to leave her husband. In the spring of 2018, Ciara, mother of four-year-old Sophie and two-year-old Ella, has recently discovered she is pregnant again. She’s also reached a breaking point with her volatile and controlling husband Ryan, in whose presence she feels a “bright, animal” fear. While he is out of the house, she packs Sophie and Ella into her “beater” car with a few belongings. She has little money and nowhere to go (her mother and sister live in England, and the law forbids her from taking the children there without her husband’s permission), so she’s forced to take them to a hotel that doubles as a homeless shelter. O’Donnell follows Ciara through a year of sharing the room with Sophie and Ella as she doggedly tries to make a new life for them. She gets a job teaching English as a second language and makes friends with the other moms on her floor and with Diego, a Brazilian cleaner at the hotel. Meanwhile, Ryan pressures her to return and files a lawsuit to gain custody of the children. Ultimately hopeful, the narrative steers away from melodrama, offering instead a close examination of Ciara’s daily struggles and hard-won triumphs, all of which are depicted in crystalline and lyrical prose. It’s an unforgettable portrait of an all-too-common dilemma.