Book Review - 'Barney' by Guy Sigley

Barney A Novel (About a Guy called Barney) by Indie Author Guy Sigley is a wonderful read. Funny, poignant, with echoes of The Rosie Project, this novel kept me coming back to the crazy world of Barney Conroy every moment I got. Barney has recently been fired from his job in public service when he lands a new job in the private sector with a small communications firm with a lack of clients. Here he meets Gloria and is captivated by her. Barney now sets out to win her over.

So begins an hilarious ride through the world of private sector dealings, a stand-up comedy routine and Barney's awkward way of dealing with life in order to be who he thinks people want him to be. Can he win the girl? Can Barney do the right thing and find out who he really is? That would be telling and I wouldn't want to spoil your reading. Barney is a lovable character and Guy's writing flows as one thought after another pops inside Barney's head as he encounters every situation. The offbeat comedy novel had me from the start. This was my kind of novel - the incident with the pizza but just one of several laugh out loud moments (sorry you have to read it to get it!).

Guy Sigley is an Indie author living in Australia. We met through Twitter when we were both spending strange hours writing during NaNoWriMo back in 2014 (I think it was). I enjoyed his tweets and decided to follow him. So, I was thrilled when I saw he had published Barney and headed over to Amazon to order the book - the paper version - a real book! It arrived virtually overnight and I began reading as soon as I could prize the cardboard packaging from it. I was not disappointed. I was sad to leave Barney at the end. The good news is there is a follow-up due out later this year and you can get some free short stories about Barney from Guy's website.

This book is worthy to sit alongside any shelf in Waterstones or WHSmiths.

I generally only write reviews for books on this blog when it directly crosses over into the writing section of my life. This one does because we struggling authors have to stick together. I wouldn't say that if the book was no good. But it's great! I hope you will be suitably enthused by my review to buy your own copy. If I haven't convinced you then you are seriously missing out!