School is done for seventeen-year-old John Masterson, living on an island off Ireland’s west coast. The summer holidays loom ahead, full of potential and the uncertainty of what comes next. John is determined to make his mark on the football pitch, if he could just find his place in the team and play in the big game of the summer. Keeping up, and fitting in, with the lads is paramount. Then there’s the thing with Amber, his slightly older colleague. It’s only casual, a bit of fun. He does really like her, he thinks… but no one needs to know about it. And he’s trying to hold it together with his family; the fuss around his sister getting married, and his parents living apart since the whole town saw those pictures of this mum. 

As summer progresses, McHugh deftly captures the volatile rhythms of adolescence, the transition to young manhood in particular. The sway between bravado, awkwardness and vulnerability; between elation, shame and self-doubt; between moments of boisterous camaraderie and pointed cruelty. Moving between the high-energy fields of football practice, the tetchy dynamics of his lads’ group, the dull summer job at the local hotel, clumsy encounters with his sort-of girlfriend, and the claustrophobia of home, McHugh explores with dark humour and moments of tenderness that threshold between school ending and the future stretching ahead; all captured in the lively dialogue of young men trying to belong. For all the bravado, the need to impress and fit in, the teenage push and pull between affection and mortification for family, there are also affirming moments of raw honesty, solidarity, connection, and growth. In Fun and Games, McHugh delivers a debut novel brimming with meditations on masculinity, the messiness and confusion of adolescence, the sometimes painful journey towards self-acceptance, and the connections we build or break along the way. A great summer read, darkly humorous and compelling with an evocative step back in time to being a teenager trying to navigate the world. 

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Fun and Games was published in April by 4th Estate. Big thanks to HarperCollins Ireland for the advance copy. 

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John Patrick McHugh is from Galway. His work has appeared in The Stinging Fly, Winter Papers, Banshee, The Tangerine and Granta and been broadcast on BBC Radio 3. He is the author of the short story collection Pure Gold. Fun and Games is his debut novel.