Her seventh book and fifth novel, My Hot Friend (Hachette, 2023) was shortlisted for an Irish Book Award. White’s novel is set on an island in Galway Bay that bears a strong geographical resemblance to Inis Meáin in the Aran Islands. In an appendix she goes to some length to say that it is not the island, but a version of it, as if from a parallel universe. All of this is near the beginning of the story, where the protagonist, a nineteen-year-old girl who was born on the island, talks increasingly about death.

The bedbound parent in Filter This is a father suffering from Alzheimer’s — a disease White is all too familiar with, having lost her own father — the writer and television producer Kevin Linehan — to it in 2017.

When Rachel, an artist, arrives on the island with her newborn son, Aoileann sees the life she never had and a future she never dreamed of until now. She’s also been learning to pole dance and roller skate, endeavours which are “massively good for slowing me down a bit, making me be more in the moment and trying not to think a million miles an hour.” The pair live by their own warped Girl Code, maintaining an image of unflappable edginess. They perform the role of clued-in cool girls, making sure to "eat around people" as "diets weren’t on trend any more". Lexi swaps out meals for detox juices and documents her gruelling, pseudo-mindful bootcamp gym classes on social media. It’s funny because I do think when women write about their lives, people worry about their children.” (White and her husband Seb have three young sons, Roo, Ari and Sonny). “I don’t know if they worry about the children of male writers. But I do think it’s just always more transgressive, or more taboo, for a mother to write honestly about motherhood and her experiences.”

When the first line of a novel starts ‘ My mother. At night, my mother creaks’, you know that this book is certainly going to be nothing like you have read for a while! Three generations of a family live together in the remote house closest to the cliffs, Aoileann, the 19 year old narrator, Móraí, her reticent grandmother, and Aoileann’s mother, the survivor of a disaster that the family has kept secret. Between them, they care for almost every need of the mother, and over time this has built an intense hatred of her within her daughter. Sophie White is a novelist, essayist and podcaster from Dublin. She also holds a First-Class Honours degree in Sculpture from NCAD. She is the author of seven books and she is currently the Arts Council Writer in Residence in DCU. I do think this book may be a hard read for people who are family carers, and therefore I wouldn't recommend it to these people. There are some moments in this that made me so uncomfortable due to the way Aoileann and her grandmother treated her mother - they kept her as comfortable as possible, and cared for her in the way they knew how but there were moments that made you truly wonder if she was trapped in a terrible silent prison of her own self. And as Aoileann's obsession deepens, her behaviour towards her mother becomes more resentful and cruel.And as Rachel's time to depart from the island nears, and Aoileann father and grandmother find out she has been interacting with Rachel and her child, the story comes to a satisfyingly disturbing conclusion.

The men wanted to think parenthood could be 'won’, while the women were barely able to think beyond whatever symptoms were holding them hostage at any one time", she thinks at one point. Aoileann lives on a remote island with her Móraí and her mother, who will not, or cannot, leave her bed. Having moved to the mainland, Aoileann's father, whom she calls Dada, visits once a month. The other islanders go out of their way to avoid Aoileann for reasons she does not fully understand because they have always reacted this way to her. This book is fantastic in creepy setting and horrific situations, that are desperately sad and brutal all at the same time. The isolated island life, especially experienced through someone even further ostracised, was done so well and there were times I didn't know whether to hate the islanders for their ways or pity them. Later chapters explore the challenges faced by women in a society that values the female body over the mind, and demands nothing less than perfection from both. White contributes some of her own uncomfortable experiences, from sexual assault to self-harm.

During the early chapters, I found myself musing that there were parallels between this book and The Colony by Audrey Magee, with both set on a remote island off the coast of Ireland and featuring a resident artist character. I think they make good companion reads but do steel yourself for some seriously disturbing content. This morning, I’m wondering what the link is between these books and my reading experiences? Quite simply, everything hinges on the writing. I have, in the past, abandoned books due to the writer’s heavy reliance on gratuitous violence or downright grossness. Life’s just too short. What stands out for me in Where I End is the impressive, engaging writing, superb scene setting, clearly defined characters, and Sophie’s own unique style. Corpsing: My Body and Other Horror Stories comprises a collection of personal, lived horror stories in which the setting is Sophie White's own body. Dada is softer than we are. He loves the thing somehow. His memories sustain the love and the thing he sees once a month is tidied up by us, neatened for his consumption. Without it in his eyeline constantly, it is easier for him to recast this thing as a tragic ailing wife and mother. He doesn’t have to look at it every day. It doesn’t hover nearby at all times, ruining his life.