Definitely not as good as The Curious Incident etc... but a good read none the less. Made my family look normal & that's saying something. Could relate to alot of it, especially families not being honest with each other & not saying what they really mean & pretending everything's OK when it isn't, but behind it all really needing one another even though they can't always get on. I hated with intensity the bits about George's anxiety & I could really relate to it having had anxiety & panic attacks myself it was too uncomfortable for me in parts but I could really understand it. I really liked the ending. I felt we still don't know how George would manage in the long term but I hoped he'd really pull through & obviously really want him too! Was very pleased Ray & Katie made it in the end wasn't too sure at the start whether they would marry or not but always knew Jamie & Tony would get back together. I expect other people will relate to this novel in different ways depending on how the different threads in the story relate to them. However really glad I read it but let's hope my next choice The House at Riverton is a bit cheerier

nice semi-happy endings all round. And I was glad that Jamie and Tony got back together in the end. It was quite funny in places in a tragic sort of way. And I'm wondering if Geroge was actually going mad or just had a bit of nervous breakdown and recovered. not sure about that one. Katie was irritating. So was George. Ray turned out to be quite a useful sort of person. I recognise aspects of myself in this character.

I particularly liked Jamie and Ray as characters. I thought that all the talk of “keeping busy” for George was sad, and the fact that he was struggling to find purpose in his life now that he had retired. I thought his health problems were dealt with well and I liked the positive ending and being left with the feeling that it was all going to work out (although it did feel a bit as though all he had to do was “stop all this nonsense” and it would all be ok). The one thing that did annoy me was the way that Jacob seemed to fluctuate between being about 2 and about 4 in the way that he was described.

I thought the descriptions of George's downwards spiraling were very good. It made for uncomfortable reading, but the fact that he was doing crazy things (cutting off his lesion etc) whilst expecting that to be a normal thing to do I believe hit the nail on the head as to how people with depression feel. What I think spoilt that was the "just snap out of it" attitude at the end. Anyone who suffers from depression as George does, is not going to just suddenly wake up one morning feeling better and decides not to be like that any more. I liked Ray and Jamie's characters as well. But also felt immensly irrated by how Jacob was portrayed. How old was he... 6 months or 5 years??

The bathroom scene was particularly well written and had me grimacing. I can also see the logic behind why someone would think they could just cut off a blemish or lump. I don't actually think you would need to be that far gone to try it. I agree with Dingsy that the female characters all seemed quite horrible and I thought the male characters in the family were all a bit useless. The strong male characters were the other halves of the relationships. The book was a nice easy read and always left me wondering what was going to happen next. I would've preferred a few loose ends to be tidied up at the end though.