SuitabookLove My Enemy
Kate MacLachlan
- Reading
- Read alongside discussion of Northern Ireland’s Protestant/Catholic divide, grief and prejudice. Pause after major violent events, and invite reflection on whether the ending changes the meaning of the romance.
- Themes
- Love across a sectarian divide: Zee, a Protestant, and Conor, a Catholic, pursue a relationship while family and community expectations threaten to separate them. Sectarian hostility is presented as destructive, making the young couple’s relationship a test of whether inherited divisions should govern private life.
- Grief and inherited anger: Zee’s father has been shot dead, while her brother Gary becomes strongly anti-Catholic and an enthusiastic Orangeman. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Violence and punishment: The book addresses violence and punishment; the detail of how it is developed remains unclear. Violence appears as a brutal consequence of sectarian hatred rather than a solution, and the conclusion is explicitly described as horribly violent.
- Worth knowing
- Be prepared for bereavement, religious bigotry, punishment beatings and a highly violent conclusion.