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In a Thousand Different Ways: the gripping, unforgettable new novel from the Sunday Times number 1 bestselling author

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Beautifully executed. I cannot recommend this enough and the audiobook is out of this world. Try it! I loved everything and I highly recommend this for your reading or listening list right now. Cecilia Ahearn is a genius and has pulled out an absolute corker for us all. I still have Alice’s Dublin accent in my head reminding me of the year I lived there. Did I mention he Narrator? I am actually going to look for other audiobooks she has worked on. Five huge stars! Alice Kelly has a gift (or curse, depending on your perspective). She sees an aura around people, sensing their emotions and moods, owing to a condition called synaesthesia. She grows up in an unhappy home with a bipolar mother who neglects Alice and her brothers. This is the story of Alice’s life and ultimately, it’s a rather odd, humdrum and depressing one. Synaesthesia is an interesting condition and it has worked well as a plot device in a few books that I’ve read in recent years, but hanging the entire story on synaesthesia is not really a runner. It becomes very repetitive - there are only so many ways of describing how colours appear - the red mists, the murky browns, the swirling purples. Less “a thousand different ways” and more a case of, well, just a few really. From her extraordinarily difficult childhood, we follow Alice throughout her life, dealing with her strange gift which she cannot describe, therefore nobody can understand, and consequently has her labelled a troublemaker. Relationships with her siblings and her mother are complicated. Her school days are fraught with problems due to her condition preventing her from making friends, until she finds people she can relate to in a special school, just one of many breakthrough moments in the story.

and bad ways. Her initial aim is to protect herself from feeling what others feel as it’s too draining but she finds in time that emotion is what makes us human. We see glimpses of her past, future and present as she goes to a special school, her life after that as she starts to try and discover who she is and meeting people who accept her. Some who even think she is special in ways she doesn't even known. This confusing discovery is a lot for a child to take in, and it impacts her behaviours, as well as her relationships. Their personalities come to life. It was like watching a movie or listening to a radio play with multiple narrators. Seriously folks, it’s utter genius and it’s what makes the audiobook just pop. I would of enjoyed the novel reading it also but this is THE best audiobook ever. A bad or boring Narrator can kill an audiobook, so choosing one carefully is a must. Kudos!First off this is a story about Alice and her life of seeing people’s aura’s good and bad, now the story it’s self was ok but it was a bit jumpy for my liking one minute she was at her brothers house the next she was in a pub looking for her Dad. That is the one thing I really didn’t like about this book the jumping about with no warning it was very hard to keep up with. The neighbour that helped her was one minute she didn’t like them the next they were best friends. The job she had one minute she had a normal job the next she was applying and got the job that one of her co workers wanted. As someone who lives in Swindon I was very disappointed that they called it the Swindon Theatre it’s called the Wyvern not Swindon Theatre. That just proves she did not do any research in to this book at all. There was also a bit in the book where she went to Ireland to visit her mum the next sentence her mum was living with her. She does manage to live a life of her own, with the urging of her older brother, and moves away from the toxic environment that is her childhood home. She is already living with her two brothers and mother, who is deep in her own mental health issues, and as time goes by, she finds herself caring for her wheelchair-bound mother, living a life she is coping with but suffocating herself as well. Utterly wonderful . . . Cecelia Ahern is a master storyteller at the absolute peak of her powers. Her heroine, Alice Kelly, is completely unique – beguiling, complicated, extraordinary – and she’ll change the way you see the world’ Clare Pooley

Overall, I loved this book and would highly recommend it. For me, it is a colorful and sensational story. Divided chapters by colors, and you'll immediately feel sorry when you come across the last chapter because you know the thing associated with it. This brings a unique element to the story so much. Kudos for all the intense and correct research into it. I am excited that so many people who taste this book will know of it. I have a friend who smalls things as colours and tells me mould is like a dark murky purple. This was my first title by Cecilia Aherne and I was thoroughly engrossed in the story and am now keen to discover more of her writing.Did being the daughter of a former taoiseach help prepare you for being a public figure or encourage you to keep a low profile? If you asked me to describe this book in a colour, I would call it the blue of a mist - pretty to look at but not very discernable. If you asked me how I felt reading it, I'd say it tugged at my heartstrings but it also left me a bit confused - what was the point? Is it a sort of bildungsroman? Just a story of a woman with Synesthesia? If you asked me whether I would recommend the book to others, I'd say it depends on whether you would like to spend an evening reading about a woman, her struggles with her undiagnosed condition, beautiful relationship with her older brother, complicated relationship with her mother and a romance that just didn't seem right. Trust me when I say this is a book that is an absolute must read of 2023! Thank you so much for the publisher and NetGalley for giving me advance access to one of the most beautiful, moving books I've ever read. I hope this one wins some awards that's for sure. The audiobook narrated by Amy McAllister was good, especially the distinction she provides to different characters. A beautiful cover – very apt for the story. Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie könnten jedem einzelnen Menschen eine bestimmte Farbe zuordnen. Stellen Sie sich vor, die Farben haben Bedeutungen. Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie könnten dadurch die Stimmung und die Absichten aller um Sie herum vorhersehen und fühlen. Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie haben Synästhesie.

I know the adage it is not the destination but the journey that matters, but Alice's journey is more of the same. It felt a bit like a mega serial (soap opera) with an extraordinary person since the mini-events happened to be nothing life changing or from a novel form story line altering. I did admire the author's conviction to see the world in it's colors and some of it's passages around light and prism to demonstrate maturity. Some parts like wearing a shield or her sales roles through aura mirroring seemed a bit stretched. The last part of her family was in super fast forward mode like done around the publishing deadline. It's been a long time since I finished a book in one setting and quite liked it. What I didn't expect was for this to happen with a Cecelia Ahern book. Indeed, the way Cecelia thinks is one of the things that inspired her new book, In A Thousand Different Ways. It tells the story of Alice, whoAlice is just a young girl when she starts seeing colors swirling around her mother, Lily. Soon she starts seeing colours around everyone and soon learns they are reflecting the person’s mood & emotions. But Alice doesn't want the gift, and struggles with adjusting to being different to everyone else. At times, it's overwhelming for her feeling everyone's emotions, so she hides away from the world and only interacts with very few people.

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