Jess Kidd returns with The Hoarder after her sublime and outstanding debut, Himself. There is much that echoes Himself in this story, its Irish background, the writing style with its themes of the supernatural and fantastical, its quirkiness, eccentric elements along with a dark gothic tale. It features rabid, volatile, relcalcitrant and cadaverous geriatric pensioner, Cathal Flood, who resides in the huge house, Bridlemere, heaving with the detritus of the Flood family history, spirits, ghosts,...

Once again, Jess Kidd blends several genres in a story that is absorbing and fascinating. An elderly man is living in his own home but is now under care. The services are cleaning and at least one cooked meal each day. The cleaning part is difficult due to the fact that the lower floors of the house are stacked with old newspapers, garbage, and magazines. In fact, there is a wall of National Geographic magazines blocking access to the furthest reaches of this large home, including the upper floo...

‘’A dead mouse curled in a teacup, a headless ceramic dray horse, a mannequin’s pink severed limb: that sort of thing. I have a morbid bent. ‘’It would be extremely useful if each one of us had a power squad of our favourite saints to talk to face-to-face every time we were in trouble. Mortals usually let us down and, honestly, no human being is as wise as a saint. So, Maud- our troubled heroine- can be considered lucky, right? Well, not quite...Her saints appear at some terribly uncomfortable

Be sure to visit Bantering Books to read all my latest reviews.4.5 starsJess Kidd and I, we just click. She’s my writer, and I’m her reader.Don’t we all, as readers, have one or two authors who are ours? Whose every story is our kind of story? Whose every word nears literary perfection?This is how I feel about Jess Kidd. To me, her stories are pure magic, and her words are enchanting and beautiful. It’s as if she writes perfectly for who I am as a reader.And because she is my writer, Kidd’s seco...

I'm between 4 and 4.5 stars.Some authors know just how to tell stories. Jess Kidd is one of those. Fresh on the heels of her magnificent, magical book Himself (see my original review), which made my list of the best books I read last year, she dazzles with her storytelling ability again in her new book, Mr. Flood's Last Resort .Maud Drennan is a caregiver whose seemingly unflappable attitude hints at a world-weariness you wouldn't expect of someone her age. But Maud isn't sunny and naive—...

4.25. Clever and imaginative. When I read this authors first book I was blown away by her clever mixing of the worldly with the unworldly. She does the same thing here, in a different way. Maud, who after a devastating incident in her childhood has a special connection with some who have passed. She is sent by her agency to the home of Mr. Cathal Flood, a hoarder, an elderly gentleman who has an irascible personality. The house if full of meaningful and meaningless stuff of all sorts. It is also...

"You don’t know what you’re dealing with." —Sam Hebden (a character in the book).Mr Cathal Flood, the aforementioned hoarder, is a long thin, raw-boned, gimlet-eyed, foul-mouthed, unwashed old Irishman. Dutiful care worker, Maud Drennan, is assigned to clean and declutter his squalid, cat-filled house. Dark whispers about the irascible Mr Flood abound, not least the mysterious death of his wife and the disappearance of a schoolgirl. Maud, as well as cleaning his toilets and providing him with

“Memory is like a wayward dog. Sometimes it drops the ball and sometimes it brings it, and sometimes it doesn’t bring a ball at all; it brings a shoe.” On May 30 2017 I finished reading Jess Kidd’s “ Himself ,” one of my favourite reads of 2017. Not quite a year later, I’ve closed the last page on her latest, “ Mr. Flood’s Last Resort: A Novel ” or “ The Hoarder ,” the title depending on where you purchase your book. If you’ve read “ Himself ” then you know that Jess Kidd knows how to

I know one thing: Jess Kidd has joined the Group of Authors I will always follow. My GR Friends have written some exquisite reviews, so let me just say that I loved everything about her novel: the characters, the saints included, the plot and the writing. I could not ask for anything more from any writer, maybe just an opportunity to take part in a literary soire and an authograph.

4.5 stars! This novel had the perfect mix of genres that I absolutely love to read!MR. FLOOD’S LAST RESORT by JESS KIDD is a magical, clever, imaginative, and an absolutely wonderful novel that had me totally engaged, entertained, and interested throughout this entire book. JESS KIDD delivers a well-written and creative story here with an absolutely wonderful gothic mansion setting, quirky characters and an extremely mesmerizing storyline. I really enjoyed the magical realism and the Irish folkt...

4 Stars.Fantastical, Magical, Wondrous & Whimsical. It captures your heart and holds on tight. Cathal Flood is an angry, cantankerous, difficult old man who lives alone in Bridlemere, a dirty, disgusting old mansion, which houses lots of secrets, perhaps a few ghosts and several quirky cats too. Maud Drennan has always lived a lonely sort of life. Having lost her sister at a young age, grief has always been with her. She is a special sort, seeing and hearing things that others don’t, including S...

This is the story of a lonely, Irish caregiver named Maud and a widowed old lonely hoarder that she is assigned to take care of named Mr. Flood.Mr Flood lives in this rundown gothic mansion with feral cats and all sorts of strange things and is just trying to stay in his own home without his son putting him in a care facility. There is a mystery involved here to be solved.Maud has her own story simultaneously throughout the book, her own mystery to deal with.I had so many moments of laughter rea...

Initially I rated this book a 4 because it was such a slow starter but as I continue to think about everything that is so wonderful, the story telling, the characters, the uniqueness of the plot, I have decided that it deserves a 5* rating.It took me at least three starts to get into this book. It takes a while to get all of the characters straight and all that is going on with Maud and Cathal Flood. As you know from the very extensive blurb for the book, Maud is the caregiver that is hired as a...

Norma and I were lost in the heavy dense wooded coulee reading Mr. Flood’s Last Resort with four of our Traveling Sisters and we were swept up in the mystery and magic of this story that explores grief and loss. Jess Kidd does a good job bringing out some emotions here for us with the emotional depth that touches on grief and loss. Jess Kidd does a fantastic job creating well-developed enduring characters here with our main characters Cathal and Maud. We really loved the dynamics between these t...

Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.Old man Flood, slightly crazed and eccentric to a fault, he hoards, he roars, he gnashes his dentures.  His home is full of cats that he doesn't bother to name, curiosities, secrets, and a fox that likes to be followed.  Something untoward is afoot here.  Maud, a caring and capable caregiver, lives with visits from vestiges of uninvoked saints who hover and watch, and some who make themselves a general nuisance.  Renata is Maud's agoraphobic...

4.25 starsQuirky, fantastical, and phenomenal story-telling! Ms. Kidd has a unique style of writing that I love. Funny, yet also poignant, this story features Maud, who has been hired as the caretaker of Mr. Cathal Flood, a lonely, cranky hoarder whose son wants to ship him off to the old-age home. Renata, Maud’s agoraphobic friend and landlady, is a transvestite (or maybe transgender…it wasn’t made clear which), and is hiding a personal tragedy under her flamboyant exterior. They were all wonde...

Mr. Flood’s Last Resort is the first book I’ve read by Jess Kidd. She has a great imagination and lots of talent. The plot feels a bit like a rollicking romp with a bit of a mystery at its core. Maud is assigned to provide home assistance to a raging aging hoarder, Cathal Flood. Flood has some complicated family secrets that Maud unearths as she goes through his house. Maud has her own childhood secrets. Despite the topic, the tone of this book is not sad, but rather has a dark humorous edge. To...

4.5 stars to a fantastical book! You can find my reviews here https://yayareadslotsofbooks.wordpres...Well this is a book for those of us who like a little bit of everything in their stories. Do you like magic, possible ghosts, a strange house, characters that are weird, loving, cantankerous, nasty, and dirty? Yes, they are in there. Do you like relationships that develop into friendships, saints, sinners, and everything in between? Well yes, again, they are in there. Do you like novels of loss,...

I’m guessing, no, surmising, that readers who are going to read this book know what hoarding is, and the horrible, debilitating grip it has on those it afflicts, literally imprisoning them in a prison of their own creation.Mr Cathal Flood is a hoarder. He may be able to move efficiently, swiftly, through his house, having intimate knowledge of negotiating the passageways and tunnels amidst the mess. However. it is a different story for Maud Drennan. She, who has been working on cleaning up Flood...