Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Trigger warnings: May contain spoilers. Select from here cancer, death, adoption to here to see list of trigger warnings. These are people who matter, situations one can believe. Most readers will find themselves caring very much. A life-affirming read.‘ Vine Kerry Hayes is a single mother trying to earn a living house cleaning for people, because the job fits around her having a child at nursery school. Blurb: Kerry Hayes is a single mum, living on a tough south London estate. She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past.
Originally published in Australia as Amy & Louis, this adorable and endearing picture-book tells the story of two young friends who are inseparable, until one of them moves "half a world away." Whether building towers that reach the sky, or discovering the hidden shapes in the clouds above, the two best friends (and next-door neighbors) spend their days together, summoning each other with a special call - "Coo-ee Am-ee" / "Coo-ee Lou-ee" - whenever they want to play. But when Amy and her family move far away, their call no longer works. Or does it...? Thomas Edison had called electricity “a system of vibrations.” Jaden loved Thomas Edison. Edison had more than a thousand US patents. He had invented things left and right. Jaden wouldn’t hate life like he often did, if only he could invent that much. So this was all Steve’s idea. Jaden didn’t answer. He shook off the bitterness and stared out the side window at the rain falling hard on front lawns, at porch lamps lighting up the houses. It was hard to believe that this lit-up neighborhood existed on the same planet that he’d lived on before. If—if—he decided to go to college, he would study electricity, which he’d done a science project on at school. He’d hooked up a cocoon so that a tiny light would go on every time the future moth moved inside the cocoon. Then, when it was born, a bell would ring. He’d gotten his only A ever on that project. He didn’t get an A for the class, though. He got a C. That was because the only thing that interested him was electricity. He got up and followed her through the house. It was a nice enough house, but not his house. He didn’t have a house. Never had—he’d only thought he had one. His mother, the only person he figured he’d ever loved, had given him up. He refused to feel love again, ever. Every day all he wanted to do was cry. He hated school, sitting there like a soldier in the army. He hated home, with Penni always trying to get through to him. He wished she would ignore him more.Two family members , living world's apart, like strangers really, with not much in common as one a cleaner and the other a barrister. I enjoyed this story and the escapism of it, it is a little repetitive and predictable in places but overall a nice cozy story. I listened to this one on audible and the narrators were excellent. Jaden knew it didn’t make sense, but he felt like if his real mother could have had electricity, if she could have only plugged in a light and turned it on, she wouldn’t have had to give him away. He’d told this to one of his former psychiatrists—a man whose name he couldn’t remember—and the psychiatrist had asked, “Why do you think that, Jaden?”
Kerry and Noah couldn't have had any more different upbringings if they tried, but yet there are a few similarities in their lives. Steve had just gotten home from work, so he was wearing a suit and tie. His suits were all slightly too small because he’d gained weight recently. “I hear you didn’t go to school. Whatcha been up to all day?” Steve asked Jaden.I am struggling to put into words how I feel about this book. Although I was warned by many of you guys when I started this book, that I will need a box of tissues to cope with the heartache, I was not prepared. There aren’t enough tissues in the world to help me come to terms with what I’ve just read. Today’s post is my review of Half a World Away by Mike Gayle, in case I didn’t make it quite obvious in the title of this post.. ha! Half a World Away is honest, raw and moving story about finding one’s self, about family and about unconditional love and sacrifice. It’ll go on the “read again” shelf for when I feel I need the warm hug of a family when I’m unable to be with my own. Books and reading were hugely important. I remember going to the library on a Saturday morning and borrowing five or six books and reading them all by Sunday night. These are people who matter, situations one can believe. Most readers will find themselves caring very much. A life-affirming read.' Vine
This is my second novel by Mike Gayle having recently read The Man I Think I Know which I also enjoyed. I love the ease of Mike Gayle books, they are well written, well rounded characters that the reader can connect with and a plot that is thought provoking and entertaining. Half a Word away is a heartbreaking and beautiful story. An uplifting tale that is relatable and well written. I was almost in floods of tears for most of the last fifth of the book, and kept having to swallow the lump in my throat, purely as I didn't want people wondering why on earth I was crying poolside on holiday.
Did we miss something on diversity?
He closed his eyes and stayed very still, concentrating on his electricity. He could feel a slight tingling in his hands. He hadn’t even known what electricity was when he was first adopted from Romania four years earlier. In Romania he’d lived in four different group homes, and none of them had electricity.
Great Deal 
New Comment