Part of the series: My Favourite Books of 2025
At a Glance
| Author | Florence Knapp 🇬🇧 |
|---|---|
| Published | 2025 |
| Publisher | Hodder & Stoughton (UK) · Pamela Dorman Books (US) |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Contemporary |
| Themes | Domestic violence, identity, parallel narratives, how we raise children |
| GFP Rating | Honourable Mention — Best Books of 2025 |
Scott’s Take
A boy is born. His mother Cora and sister Maia are taking him to the registry office to name him. His father has left instructions: name him Gordon, keep the family tradition going. His mother would prefer Julian — let the boy grow up and be his own man. His sister likes Bear. The novel then splits into three narratives, three worlds: Gordon, Julian, and Bear.
On the surface a name shouldn’t change things that much. But in The Names, the choice of a name is everything — it’s symbolic of a woman being cowed by her husband, standing up to her husband, or protecting her children. Each choice triggers shockingly different reactions and sends these three worlds in completely different directions.
That might make it sound like a novel about a marriage. It isn’t. It’s about Maia and Gordon/Julian/Bear — about who they become, what sort of people they turn into depending on the world they’re born into. I said when I first reviewed this on the channel that it was asking the question: what sort of men do we want to raise, and how do we create that? That’s still true, but it extends further — because Maia changes too in each scenario, and the question becomes bigger. What sort of people do we want to raise? How does the environment we create shape the people our children become?
Florence Knapp can write a sentence. She can create a character. She can build shock and tension. Reading it you sense immediately it’s going to be good — but it has the feel of a high four-star book, not necessarily a best-of-the-year. Then you finish it. And you keep coming back to these three scenarios. You keep asking questions about them. Your overall rating drifts steadily upward. That’s a very specific kind of novel — the kind you think is good when you close it and realise is great six weeks later. They’re never bad novels, those ones.
Watch the Full Review
Scott covered The Names as part of his My Favourite Books of 2025 video. Watch it here:
▶ My Favourite Books of 2025 — Gunpowder, Fiction & Plot
(timestamps in the description)
Get the Book
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If You Liked This, Try These
Other books from Scott’s 2025 favourites that explore how families shape us:
- Nesting — Roisin O’Donnell — another 2025 standout examining domestic coercive control, told from a completely different angle
- A Family Matter — Claire Lynch — identity, parenthood, and the long shadow of who we used to be