The Seven O'Clock Club by Amelia Ireland - Book Review

Publication Date: 15th Apr 2025

Genre: General Fiction, Contemporary 

3.8 Stars 

One Liner: A good debut! Introspective 

Genevieve is a psychologist who wants to try a new kind of group therapy for grief. She picks four candidates – Victoria (52), Freya (31), Callum (29), and Mischa (20), people dealing with different types of grief and personal battles. 

They are to meet once a week in Genevieve’s home. Of course, all of them are skeptical about this, but give it a try (some more grudgingly than others). However, as they start to speak and get to one another, things change. Maybe, they might have a chance to finally move on from whatever is crushing their souls. 

One day, they find out the reason they were chosen for this therapy, and it tests their newly formed friendships like no other. What happens next? 

The story comes in the first-person POVs of Genevieve, Freya, Victoria, Mischa, and Callum. 

My Thoughts: 

The book is divided into multiple parts, like denial, anger, bargaining, depression, etc. 

After a short intro via Genevieve’s report written after the therapy ended, we go back to how it began. The four main characters get a chapter each as introductions. 

Luckily, the character POVs are distinct and have specific narrative styles. Callum’s are filled with F-bombs. Victoria is snarky and snobbish. Freya is detached. Mischa is lost and overwhelmed. This makes it easy to track whose POV we are reading. 

The initial setup takes time, so the first 30% is slow. We get sneak peeks into their lives, keeping the interest levels high. Emotions also run high, so it is not really a light-hearted book. Since the therapy is for grief, there are quite a few triggers as well. One of the characters is into substance abuse. 

As each character reveals their past and the key incident, we can see their pain and anguish. They also start to bond with each other, which makes things easy and complicated. 

There are a few hints about the twist that would come. I did guess some of it and wondered if that’s what it would be. It was but with something extra. However, this is a deal breaker. You’ll either like it or hate it. If you like it, you’ll enjoy the book more. 

I did like how things proceeded despite the repetition of actions and dialogues where they go back and forth about a few things.  

One thing that didn’t really work for me was the romance part. It’s not organic, and the explanation didn’t help. A toned-down version wouldn’t suit the plot, but the way it is doesn’t work either. Maybe a combined backstory might have helped. I’m not sure! 

The ending is quite good too. It ties up the loose ends without moving away from the main plot. This does result in an open-ish end, which is just right here. 

To summarize, The Seven O'Clock Club is a good debut read dealing with different types of grief, found family, and learning to move on. I will be interested in reading the author’s future books. 

Thank you, NetGalley and Black & White Publishing (Bonnier Books UK), for eARC. 

#NetGalley #TheSevenOClockClub