This is the third novel that I've read from Mr. Hynes and must say, it's his best work to date. To me, his books of this nature are almost a diary of a sorry braggart. As if his characters say, " hey, look at me and how unfortunate things can get! " The moral I took from this story is that you have to be willing to hoof your whole journey alone and feeling sorry for yourself is not productive. If you're lucky, you'll have some help and adventures along the way. Yes, it's full of misspells and slang from Newfoundland but write what ya knows!

A very interesting story line. Love hearing the story from the main character, Johnny. Too bad it was written in Johnny’s actually voice. Slang, accents, the whole thing. It makes the read unpleasant. Very tiresome. Found myself skipping sentences.

What a waist of time!
Disgusting trash talk disguised as literature.
Couldn't get past the first 20 pages.
Governor General stooping pretty low here.

I can't do it no way can I get into a narrative that doesn't even bother with "fucken" punctuation or quotations for dialogue, I said to my partner.

My staunch Newfoundland pride requires me to read every novel released by my countrymen and -women; this one won the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, so I was doubly powerless. Much like Joel Thomas Hynes' previous novels, We'll All Be Burnt in our Beds Some Night is gritty, violent, profane, and frenetic. But damn, this guy can tell a story. Our narrator, Johnny, is completely unhinged and deeply flawed, but Hynes' manages to make the reader feel for this utter mess - who among us could emerge from such a tragic childhood unscathed? Pearl-clutchers need not apply.