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Away With Words book review

 



I read Our Sister Again by Sophie Cameron last year and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading Away With Words when I heard about it and it didn't disappoint me. This was another strong contemporary book set in Scotland with a twist, this time that in the world they live in you can see other people's words. 

This book follows Gala who has moved from Spain to Scotland with her dad to live with his partner. At her new school she meets Natalie who collects words and together they start collecting words together and creating kind poems for other in their year but when someone starts making mean poems mimicking theirs they are determined to find out who is doing it and stop them. 

I really enjoyed this book and loved the friendship that Gala and Natalie developed together. The friendship that Gala also formed with Eilidh O was another really good friendship that warmed my heart throughout the later chapters of the book. 

It was really nice to see how Gala gradually adjusted to living in Scotland and how much her opinion of the place changed towards the end of the book. 

The concept of being able to see other people's words was really interesting as well as collecting and preserving those words. I also really like how Gala and Natalie used other people's words both struggling with English and speaking themselves respectively. Through the words Gala manages to develop her English and become more confident while Natalie uses them to express herself. Natalie struggles with selective mutism through the book which I felt was written well and in a way that was easy to understand and relate to. 

I also loved the setting of Scotland, Fortrose, the dolphins and the fact that there were two characters who share my name! 

Overall a great read that I highly recommend and release I am highly anticipating from a strong Scottish author. I am also someone who's also always looking for more good books set in Scotland this is definitely a good one to add to my list

Thank you to Neygalley and Little Tiger for an early e-arc of this book in exchange for a honest review

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