Amanda Berriman

Oh Jesika, Jesika, Jesika. How I want to dive into the words and grab you and cuddle and kiss you. I defy anyone not to love this adorable four-and-a-half-year-old little treasure.


I couldn’t quite fathom how an adult could get into the mind of a child so young and use her voice to tell her story, but, by golly, she didn’t half do it well. You fall in love with Jesika right from the start: she has you in a vice-like grip from the beginning and within a very short time, you’re thinking, I don’t want this book to end.


Jesika lives with her mummy and baby brother Toby in a hovel of a flat: the epitome of housing rented out by a scumbag. It’s damp, it’s cold, the bath has a crack in it, so you can’t fill it too high and the boiler pilot light keeps going out. But it’s home to Jesika. She loves preschool and very much wants to be friends with Paige. Such poignant innocence and blessed naivete. It’s all very adorable so far. About a third of the way into the story, you suddenly realise there are some red flags…and you hope beyond hope it’s not all going the way you dread. But Jesika has you hopelessly smitten by now. You’re besotted with her, and all the people in her little life, whom she loves.


It’s quite an exhausting read: Jesika doesn’t speak in commas and full stops. Four-and-a-half-year-olds don't. She can speak for quite a long time without drawing breath. But don't let this fool you into thinking that the novel isn't an adult one. It is.


I saw this author on Davina McCall’s programme, This Year Next Year: Berriman’s pledge was to have her first book published twelve months after her first appearance on the programme. And she did it. Successfully, brilliantly. This is without doubt my book of 2018.… (mere)

As the narrator of Home is a young child, it took me a little while to get used to Amanda Berriman's writing style. As well as words being spelled as you say them, Jesika's feelings are described with such heartbreaking simplicity that she instantly found a place in my heart.

Amanda Berriman has done a remarkable thing; to be able to view the world through the eyes of a young child and to share that view with the reader so that we feel as if we are actually looking through Jesika's eyes. My heart clenched with both joy and sorrow as I felt every single emotion with Jesika. I cared for the characters so much that I worried for Jesika's mum, Tina, and feared for the health of Jesika's baby brother, Toby.

When Jesika goes to nursery and makes friends with Paige, I dreaded reading what I feared was coming next. Paige is a troubled little girl, often silent and moody, who has been told to keep a secret but she eventually lets Jesika into her world. I held my breath as the scenes played out to expose the secret that Paige, or any child, should never have to keep.

Home is an emotion filled book with some dark scenes that are written with care and subtlety. Seeing an adult world through a child's eyes is quite an eye-opener and although I envied the simplicity of trust and honesty in Jesika's world, seeing how this trust can be exploited was completely heartbreaking.

Home is an absolutely heartbreaking, emotional debut that will invite Jesika into the heart of every single reader.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.… (mere)

A new favourite author.
I was bowled over by this book; the debut novel by a talented author.
Narrated by four-year-old Jesika, I could totally imagine her voice, and her child-like take on events was so endearing.
She and her mother live in substandard housing, in a poor neighbourhood, but Jesika loves her baby brother Toby and knows she, in turn, is loved by both him and her mother. Her father has returned to his native Poland and they are left to manage alone in a big city.

Jesika enjoys her playschool and is happy to reach out to a new little girl who joins and appears to be very shy. Paige, however, has some dark secrets that she doesn't even understand herself and my heart went out to the two children as they tackled the issue of secrets being bad and something to be shared with loving adults. It highlighted just how complicated an issue this all is.

Although this book tackled some sensitive subjects, it was done tastefully and sympathetically.
I loved how Jesika and her mother began to settle into the community and find friends among other residents. Everyone needs friends and adults are no exception.

Highly recommended.… (mere)