Lucky Girl - Completed

Overall, I want the very same for her. I find it frustrating sometimes how every moment of her life is tainted with worry and anxiety, but I knew the story wouldn't work if she went from an anxious teenager to a suddenly normal adult without some sort of overlap. She's getting better all the time but is still riddled with worry about small, inconsequential things often. I think that's why people say that youth is wasted on the young...

That's a fair point, Claire's parents could pay the whole bill, as they clearly could afford to. I imagine that the electricity and gas bill arrangement is just something they agreed upon because it seems fair, and since Evie is living there she should have to pay for her half of it. I feel she's aware of how lucky she is to be in that situation and get that apartment for cheap so probably wants to feel like she's contributing fairly, maybe she just wasn't prepared for how lax Claire is with leaving the heat and lights on. Maybe i'll revisit this later! & Yeah, college is always difficult when you don't have money. The fees are not expensive at all, but everything else including accommodation, transport and bills are. It'd be impossible for anyone from a working class background to go if they depended on their parents money, hence why financial aid is available for everyone below a certain bracket.

I was kinda trying to portray that feeling many art students get when they go to college after being used to being the big fish in a small pond back in school. Evie was always humble about her work, but at the same time when she did show it to people they always told her it was amazing. She's become attached to the idea that being a good artist is her main asset, and that it's one of the only things she has going for her which is why she sees Dean's comments as direct attacks on her. Even strict Ida likes her work, so why doesn't he? She feels that if she's not the best at this one thing then what does she have to show for herself.

UGH. Marnie - I hate her a lot, and unfortunately she's based around a group of people I was adjacent to when I lived in Dublin, so the things she's saying are real. She's into the feminism which is obviously very important but she just picks it up the wrong end of it and insults women who don't want to live her specific lifestyle. I feel like she's the type of person to not shave her armpits, and then criticize all the other women who choose to shave for various reasons.

Yes... Christmas dinner... Evie was exactly that! I think I touched on that briefly in earlier chapters, how she was overwhelmed by the way that Kelly and Shane behaved at home because she was used to being quiet and reading books. She was a really sweet, quiet kid, but to her detriment as she's only beginning to question her upbringing now. Hmm that is interesting and I never thought about it like that! I wonder would her criticism of sexism within the family be better directed at one of the various lazy men instead.

Absolutely - and I understand that because I do too. I can only imagine, as any of us who have been involved in organized religion to some capacity have seen the intolerances that lie below the surface. Ireland has a very complex relationship with it and a very very long history of oppression, human rights violations and frankly, atrocities committed by the catholic church. My best friend at school was part of the LGBTQ+ community too, but didn't feel safe to come out until she moved to the city because of how (in 2012!!!!) people we knew were still getting attacked for being open about their sexuality. We were the first country in the world to legalize same sex marriage through a referendum, but it was in part because of our collective anger at the church and how we'd been kept under their thumb for far too long.

I wanted to show that Evie is only at the church because she has to be. He's only going through the motions and the content of the mass has meant nothing to her. She was never given the choice to be catholic because everyone here just is one, and because you couldn't get enrolled into many country schools in the 90's if you weren't baptized so everyone just did it whether they liked it or not. Her grandmother is also obviously a traditional catholic woman who has instilled the family with ideas about what man are expected to do vs what women are expected to do, and nobody questions it because it's just normal to them. Evie didn't question it either and was potentially on a path to become just like all of the others until she was blown off course by the new things she's learned about in college. (For all the hate Marnie gets - and deserves - she did help out in this regard.)

The people pleaser thing is such a catholic trait! Women must be agreeable and serve! So many of her issues come down to this, and it's not just her need to be liked by everyone, Kelly, Jude, Dean etc, it's seeped into her self image and her relationship with sexuality. Catholic guilt is so real, it's the plight of the Irish woman.

I knew this was going to be a big chapter, but the response has been really great. I'm relived everyone seems to have understood what I was trying to say, because I feel like when it comes to religion it can be so touchy. Thank you so much for your comment <3