Part of the series: My Favourite Books of 2025
At a Glance
| Author | Colwill Brown ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ (Northern English) |
|---|---|
| Published | 2025 |
| Publisher | Chatto & Windus (UK) ยท Henry Holt (US) |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Contemporary |
| Themes | Female adolescence, sexuality, friendship, class, Northern England |
| GFP Rating | Honourable Mention โ Best Books of 2025 |
Scott’s Take
We don’t talk enough about the distinction between Northern and Southern English literature. When we think of British literary fiction, we tend to lump it together โ but Northern writing has far more in common with Scottish authors than it does with the London scene. Sarah Moss, Sairish Hussain, Eliza Clarke, Sarah Hall, Jeanette Winterson, Carys Davis, Benjamin Myers, Gwendoline Riley. Going back further: the Brontรซs, Gaskell, Wordsworth. Colwill Brown belongs on that list, and she’s not the only Northern writer in this video.
Fair warning before you commit: a lot of readers have criticised this book for its heavy use of dialect. I loved it โ it gives the prose character, a real sense of place, and a very specific rhythm. But reactions have been mixed enough that I’d genuinely recommend reading a sample before you buy. Not because the dialect is bad, but because it needs to be appreciated rather than merely tolerated. If you can get into it, the prose is gorgeous in a deeply unconventional, deeply Northern way. It’s one of the things you should be praising when you finish.
Shaz, Kel and Rach are fourteen when we meet them, growing up in Donnie โ Doncaster, South Yorkshire, population around 350,000. We meet them again at twenty-nine. The older timeline acts as a frame, allowing the earlier narrative to spread out across years as the dominant story, with the present-day offering context rather than revelation.
The sexualisation these girls experience is full on, and the novel lets you sit in the confusion of it. In one scene, one of the girls has her nipple grabbed by a boy they’re friends with. It’s clearly assault. But she’s never been touched before โ does that mean he finds her attractive? Does she want him to find her attractive? There’s a disturbing, entirely human validation in the act. That’s what most of this book is about. The title says it: We Pretty Pieces of Flesh. Not a novel calling out the way boys treat women โ that’s a given โ but one examining how those acts get internalised. The push and pull between the power of sex and the prey of it. Being objectified is gross. It’s also, in a way that this book understands, empowering.
As the earlier timeline plays out, we learn how these three friendships have bent and broken. Sometimes it’s a sling. Sometimes it’s a landmine someone else planted. The specifics of what these women experienced as they moved from girls to adults aren’t unique โ the generalisations are the point. This is about what shapes women in ordinary places. How do they get the way they are? You have to ask about the adolescence.
What I can’t stop coming back to is how the prose manages to be gritty and common while also containing genuine beauty. This is a book that could only work set in Donnie. Doncaster natives and 14-year-old girls โ a people frequently dismissed โ and Brown gives them exactly the voice they’ve been owed.
Watch the Full Review
Scott covered We Pretty Pieces of Flesh as part of his My Favourite Books of 2025 video. Watch it here:
โถ My Favourite Books of 2025 โ Gunpowder, Fiction & Plot
(timestamps in the description)
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If You Liked This, Try These
- Nesting โ Roisin O’Donnell โ another unflinching look at the systems that trap women
- Gender Theory โ Madeline Docherty โ how the conditions of young women’s lives shape who they become