The Troubles With Us By Alix O’Neill

‘The Troubles With Us’ is the debut book by Alix O’Neill.

Growing up on the Falls Road in 1990s Belfast, Alix O’Neill has seen it all – burnt-out buses blocking the route to school, the police mistaking her father for a leading terrorist. Not that she or her friends are up to speed with the goings-on of the resistance. They’re too preoccupied with the obsessions of every teenage girl – booze, boys and Boyzone – to worry about the violence on their doorstep. Desperate to leave Northern Ireland and the trials of her mother’s unorthodox family – a loving yet eccentric band of misfits – behind, she makes grand plans for the next stage. But it’s through these relationships and their gradual unravelling that Alix begins to appreciate not only the troubled history of where she comes from, but the strength of its women.

As teenager growing up in Northern Ireland during the 1990’s, this book was a complete relatable story. Hell, I could have even been friends with the girls as they dealt with the heartbreak of Take That breaking up and going to their first disco, all dealing with the drama of living through the Troubles and us versus them.

Alix’s writing is deliciously fun and fresh, she delivers serious issues with wit and sensitivity that all teenagers from the 1990’s can totally relate to.

It’s an enlightening story that vividly portrays the hardship of growing up during the Troubles and the regular sighting of army presence that all teenagers were accustomed to.

Bursting with energy, drama and the real hardships of being a Northern Irish teenager, this story made me giggle and relate to on all levels, ‘The Troubles With Us’ an unique story packed with Northern Ireland charm that showed an genuine insight of being a teenager at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

You can buy ‘The Troubles With Us’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.