Reviews

Once in a House On Fire by Andrea Ashworth

Only show reviews with written explanations

jasanais's review against another edition

3.0

I read this for college so I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t enjoy it much since I’m going to be studying it but, hey, I suppose it’s not the kind of book you ‘enjoy’ since it’s a memoir on the author’s experiences of abuse…

jarrigy's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.5

Grim no-holds-barred coming-of-age memoir. Every moment when you think things can't possibly get worse, they somehow do.

ameliahayez's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.0

kwubs's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

4.0

memoir of Andrea's childhood in Manchester, including violent abuse, love of literature and having a future

rkkmistry's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

i absolutely flew thru this book...and got a lot out of understanding some of the parent/child dynamics that form in tough situations

in many ways it does check a lot of the normal boxes of the sort of traumatic memoir, but I was particularly interested because A. there's this interesting race subcurrent because of the fact that the author is slightly tan so people are always confused about her race, this also makes her a more sympathetic character to some of her non-white school mates—understanding the racial dynamics in a 70/80 British public school was very interesting which also leads to reason B. that I found this interesting as I feel like I got a little bit of a glimpse into a version of the UK that my parents my have experienced even though they were non-white, but I had heard of so many of the cultural references before (biros, sandwich cream, winklepickers etc).