Book Review - The Sh!te Before Christmas by Serena Terry

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Title: The Sh!te Before Christmas

Author: Serena Terry

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: 10th November 2022

Rating: 5 Stars

Christmas time, toddler meltdowns, teenage angst, marriage problems and WINE.

This year, the perfect Christmas is going to take a miracle…

Twas the sh!te before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except for … mum!

Like every mum, Tara wants a perfect Christmas for her family – but no-one else is lifting a finger and she’s losing her elf-ing mind. From the kids behaving badly (vaping! Potty training! The Nativity!), to a distracted husband acting very out of character, the last straw is Tara’s glamorous, feckless, boundary-less mother moving herself back in for the holidays.

Can Tara pull off the holly jolly Christmas of her dreams? Will she deck the halls and not her family? Or is this a Christmas catastrophe waiting to happen?

What a wonderful follow up to Mammy Banter. 

Set throughout Christmas, this was fast paced, manic and so much fun, while also had me exhausted thinking about trying to Tara and dealing with everything she is. 

This is a warts and all look at motherhood in the run up to Christmas, complete with Tara's own mother paying a visit and to say she has been an absent mother / grandmother is an understatement.  Paul also seems rather distant and I'm incredibly glad the conclusion I jumped to, was completely wrong. 

I loved seeing Gemma's dfiffernet sides to this teenagers personality, and how she grew over the course of the book was really lovely.  And then there are Jax and Nathan who come out with easily all of the best lines. 

Then there is Tara's catastrophizing, her inner monologues which once you are used to them, are a wonder to behold.  

My only issue with this book was one specific chapter which I had the misfortune of hitting at the point my dinner arrived in the restaurant I was at while reading, and I basically had to skim the chapter because the level of details involved were making me feel ill and severely putting me off my food - far too much expulsion of things from a body at all ends from multiple family members.  I'm squeamish anyway but this painted a disgusting picture - but fairly sure one a lot of parents would fear. 

I especially loved the various ideas Tara and her family had for Wee Donkey and just what mischief he could get up to each day! 

Other than that I adored this book and couldn't get enough of it.  It's a joy to read and I really loved the ending which was just perfect! I can't wait to see what Serena Terry writes next. 

Thank you to HarperCollins and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.