The Mess We're In: A vivid story of friendship, hedonism and finding your own rhythm

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I perhaps need a bit more time to digest this book and all that it made me feel. The things I really loved was the authenticity of life as a 20-something just out of college in the year 2001, I was just a year younger than the character at this time and it made me reminisce so much about the music/gig scene and political feelings of the time. Although Orla is nothing like me, I felt I understood where she was coming from and in particular her relationships with her family. The correlation with Orla's Da and what I also experienced in my mid-20s was very well written and I felt all the emotions in my core. Annie McManus writes beautifully with such description and I truly enjoyed absorbing every word lyrically.

A heady mix of thrills and heartbreak . . . I enjoyed it so so much' GRAHAM NORTON'What [Macmanus has] managed to do with London, and what London means to different generations of Irish people, is terrific, and deeply moving' RODDY DOYLEI'm a Londoner now.I’m so sad it’s over. I could have read another sixty chapters . . . A fantastic read’ JOANNE MCNALLY I feel like this book is aimed at a very particular person - in theory, I was in a similar position to Orla around the same time, having moved away from home for the first time in 2001. There's where the similarities ended - all the characters seemed to do was take drugs while living in squalor. Their flat sounded disgusting, and they were all struggling to make ends meet yet were out every night getting absolutely mangled. They just all really irritated me (except maybe Neema, who was the only one taking anything seriously) - Orla was in no position to judge her mother or sister for drinking when she was off her head daily. Ditto her father's relationship - she was horrible to his new partner and came off like a bratty teenager instead of a supposed independent woman trying to have a career in music.

Do you ever read something and instantly think this needs to be adapted into a series? Because that’s the case with The Mess We’re In! Orla is Irish and moves to London in her early twenties in 2001. She lives with her friend Neema and Neema’s brother Kesh. Kesh is in a band called Shiva and the rest of the band live there too.I'm so sad it's over. I could have read another sixty chapters . . . A fantastic read' JOANNE MCNALLY