'More than just one of the best debuts of the year; one of the best books of the year. It should do for Aberdeen what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh' Herald

When Janie Ryan is born, she is destined to be the latest in a long line of Aberdeen fishwives.

Ahead of her lies a life filled with feckless men, filthy council flats and bread & marge sandwiches.

But Janie isn't like the rest of them. She wants a different life.

And Janie, born and bred for combat, is ready to fight for it.

This is the poverty trap writ large, the authentic working-class experience in all the mess and glory of the giro queue, drug and booze dependency, and gallows humour... Kerry Hudson's early life was like this. What a brilliant thing to turn the chaos and trauma of a hectic childhood into a debut novel as colourful, funny, joyful and compelling as this -- Nicola Barr ― Observer

more than just one of the best debuts of the year; one of the best books of the year. It should do for Aberdeen what Trainspotting did for Edinburgh -- Louise Welsh ― Herald

'Trainspotting on a sugar rush' has been my pat description when recommending this spirited debut novel... a remarkable story of love and loyalty, of fierce passion and scabrous wit, full of characters whose broad vernacular is direct and expressive. This is about a culture with just as much right to be called British as that of middle-class suburbia -- Jonathan Ruppin ― Foyles Best Fiction of 2012

Kerry Hudson’s fine, eloquent debut novel traces the peripatetic childhood of Janie Ryan...her tale is full of warmth and bittersweet humour -- David Evans ― Financial Times

Despite the grinding poverty, drug addiction, alcoholism and violence, this isn't a relentlessly dark book. It's an honest one: honest about the things that go wrong and about the lives that people who don't often get to be the stars in fiction really do lead... [Hudson] gives us, without a shred of hipster cynicism, the hope and tough warmth for which she has such a sharp eye -- Jenn Ashworth ― Guardian