Hellfire launch

I had the distinct pleasure of attending a book launch last night for an excellent new book. A friend for many years, Mia Gallagher has written an amazing book, and it was a pleasure to see her squash into Waterstones with the 100 or so people who turned up to see her debut novel Hellfire launched. (So many people turned up for the launch that the staff wouldn’t let everyone into the launch room on the top floor – it was too full, so around 25 people or so ended up listening from downstairs. I haven’t seen that before for a debut launch.)

I’ve mentioned Hellfire here before so the name may be familiar to some readers, but I thought it worth another mention as the book is now out and can be bought. Mia did an amazing reading, rendering her book’s unique patois into an authentic thick Dub accent, something I can’t do at all. Her years in theatre and performance held her in good stead, as the room was held enthralled by her wild gesticulating and raised voice. She’s a real actress and I stand in awe.

I have a confession to make regarding this book – I actually wrote a review of it for a national paper here. This was one of the hardest reviews I’ve ever done – the more cynical of my friends joked that was because “yeah, you actually had to read this one, ha ha!” – but actually, it was hard because of course I knew the author personally, and knew how much work she had put into it. When the book was offered to me, I instinctively said Great, I’d love to read it.

But then it sunk in a bit and I realised, My God, what have I done - what if it’s crap? I can’t give a bad book a good review just to be kind to someone I know. Who would want that kind of review anyway? (Actually, probably lots of authors I know! Not Mia though.)

Thankfully, the book is excellent, and happily, this is borne out by the fact that all the other reviews that have appeared – in the Financial Times, The Irish Independent, The Sunday Independent, Metro, The Sunday Tribune and more – also concurred with my judgement. (Phew!)

Even so, as I read the book, it was heavy on my mind, and I don’t think I’d do it again, just because you have to be free to say something is flawed if it’s flawed. It would be a betrayal of a trust if I said something was good and readers actually went and bought it on the back of that, only to discover it was crap. There’s always room for subjective judgement in reviews, but not that much.