Make Strange Author: Niamh Campbell ISBN-13: 9781399631792Publisher: W&N Guideline Price: £20There was once a television show called Kids Say the Funniest Things, where children answered questions about the world in naive and amusing ways. Lena and Odhran, the parents of four-year-old Sunny in Niamh Campbell’s novel, might wish for their daughter to be just as whimsical, but instead she repeatedly refers to her past life and seems quietly disappointed that no one, apart from her, remembers it.It’s a chilling premise, one with which any parent would struggle, and Campbell does an excellent job at portraying the different stages of Lena’s reaction, from shrugging it off to questioning whether she’s failing as a mother, to eventually consulting a doctor, worried that her child might have serious psychological problems.There’s a lot going on in Make Strange. As well as the above, there’s a focus on Dublin’s housing crisis and what might be gained or lost for a couple by leaving the city for a new life in rural Ireland. There’s the career that Lena, formerly a singer in a band, has given up, even though it looked to be on the upswing. The unexpected appearance of a woman whose sister, a past acquaintance of Lena’s, died by suicide. And finally, her relationship with Odhran’s family, which is complex, particularly when it comes to her mother-in-law Sonia, who’s the most open to believing that Sunny might have access to a spiritual plane.Each strand works well, offering the reader insights into a time of change and crisis for the protagonist, but I found myself wondering whether there were too many storylines fighting for my attention, as if the author was uncertain whether the main plot was sufficiently engaging. It definitely is, it’s both intriguing and original, so it’s rather a shame that it too often gets shunted to the side to make way for these other elements.[ Your first eight novels disappear into the ether. Then you strike goldOpens in new window ]I’ve read Campbell before and admire her as a writer, so perhaps it’s not too much of a criticism to say that her creative energies feel like they’re being aimed in so many directions here that the reader is left feeling a little frustrated. That said, each target is worth attacking and her arrows fly true. John Boyne’s new novel The Weight of Angels is out in October.