The Names

Not my usual choice of book, but I have enjoyed reading it. Quite confusing at times as there is a lot of names, different story line and events happening. Might be difficult at times to read and go through it but nice to see how their lives turned out when different name was chosen. Overall- worth reading it! :)

I didn't expect to like this book so much, but I did. Despite of the theme being serious and heavy, I found writing light and easy to follow. Characters were very believable and deep. The story had a myriad of important topics discussed. I do feel like the ending was a bit rushed and I really didn't quite get on with the prologue, but it was a very good read overall.

I really enjoyed this book overall. I especially liked the concept of 3 parallel stories playing alongside one another. I did at times forget which story related to which name though so may have skipped back to sense check. The book made me cry (sob) at one point when Bear lost his life as he was my favourite of the stories told. I did like how in the end Gordan came good and helped his mom after being manipulated a lot as a child to give his Dad a reason to be abusive and finally give her life back. There were still a few questions whirling around my head about how Cora died in Julians story, we learn a bit more about it towards the end and the same with Vihaan - was he the person in the first few chapters with the Dog who busted in on Cora being beaten by Gordon?? I found that the book was original and I've not read anything like this before so once again thankful for trying something new and different.

Despite the underlying theme of domestic abuse, I realy enjoyed this debut novel detailing the three possible life stories for Cova and her two children depending on what name she decides to put on her second child's birth certificate. I thought this was a very interesting idea.