Book Review of Getting the Electric by Louise Hegarty

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This review is based on a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley of the first story only.

The life and death by scrolling of a young Irish woman.

This is set in the present day and is based on the heroine scrolling her way through life, whilst fretting about illnesses she doesn’t have, although she forgets to tell anyone about the one symptom that actually matters! But the structure is that of a basic text-only role-playing game popular on mainframes and TRS-80 type microcomputers in about 1982. The clue is that a troll keeps appearing and trying to kill her, and this is not a reference to someone posting nasty comments online. And yes, it is relevant that the young woman is Irish because this simply would not happen to anyone who was not.

It’s very funny once the reader gets their head around what’s happening. If the other stories are as good, and and assuming that there are enough of them, then the book as a whole should work quite well. The first installment was released this St Gertrude’s Day.

Getting the Electric by Louise Hegarty is published by Picador (Pan Macmillan) on the 30^th of April 29026.