Firstly, huge thank you to Estelle for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Review

After reading the first few pages of The Bridge of Little Jeremy through a sample, I was intrigued with how the story would go and what would happen to this family that is clearly going through very tough times. 

Jeremy’s dedication to his mother, and vice versa, is incredibly heartwarming and the driving force behind this story. He was a particularly interesting character and felt much older than his 12 years at times. I must admit, I wasn’t sure about how I felt about his German Shepherd, Leon, for the first half of the novel. This is mainly because of how he seemed to react to whatever Jeremy asked him by nodding or shaking his head, which felt a bit odd to me. However, as the book continued I soon began to love him and really appreciate the relationship Jeremy and Leon had. He felt less like Jeremy’s pet and more like his brother. 

Whilst I did enjoy this book as a whole, I feel like more editing was needed on the novel as, personally, this took me out of the moment at times particularly when the incorrect word was used. This does not mean that the novel was bombarded with mistakes, far from it, it just distracted me when it did occur whereas some other readers may not notice it as much. This is also why Jeremy sounds older than his 12 years at times. However, as the book was from Jeremy’s perspective it is very possible that the wrong word choice is intentional by Garai as Jeremy tries to make himself sound more mature and older than he is which works really well when you think of it as a technique which gives Jeremy more depth whether it was intentional or not. 

Despite the minor issues I had with the grammar at times, the plot had me gripped and and I loved how descriptive Garai is. I had an idea how the novel was going to end and that didn’t make it any less impactful, purely because of Garai’s descriptions. This novel is a nice read that explores how far people will go to protect their families, as well as illustrates the harsh realities some face living in Paris.