First published in the US  in September 2021  People Magazine selected Snowflake as a People’s Pick in their October 4th  issue.

Snowflake was also an Amazon US spotlight Pick For The Month Of September As Featured Debut, selected among Bustle’s Most Anticipated Books of the Month and picked as one of Shondaland 5 Best Books for September.

Snowflake was also chosen by  The Nervous Book Club (TNB) as their September book.

Praise for Snowflake in the US:

"Nealon’s razor-sharp focus on the shame surrounding mental health issues, sexual promiscuity and substance abuse in Irish culture — and her female characters’ determination to not only face but conquer their shortcomings . . . makes an indelible mark."

-Washington Post

“A vivid tale of courage and discovery, of engaging with a world that contains so many interpersonal traps, so many sources of shame, guilt, and self-deception. . . . The jokey give-and-take of the craic—and there is plenty of it—lightens the book's serious subject matter. . . . Nealon keeps us laughing to soften the rawness. And as all is filtered through Debbie's sharp consciousness, we come to appreciate the protagonist's fierce curiosity about how to guide oneself to live in the world.”

-Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“In an entirely unique, dark, and hilariously human novel, Nealon manages to weave the pressure of youth with the hopeful reality of unconditional love.”

-Shondaland

“A lithe and limber debut. . . . the reader who, like Debbie, allows herself to be carried along by the swift and unexpected world of Snowflake will be rewarded in the end.”

-Chicago Review of Books

"Reminds the reader of James Joyce’s most brilliant short story 'The Dead.' Like Joyce’s story, Nealon’s Snowflake is about compassion and acceptance, about the difficulty in aligning one’s dreams with reality. Nealon navigates that territory well, making the reader empathize with her damaged characters, allowing an understanding of depression and its consequences, and fashioning out of eccentrics and outcasts a company of ordinary heroes."

-New York Journal of Books

“An accomplished debut novel. . . . One of newcomer Louise Nealon's many skills is in finding the tenderness lurking underneath everyday exchanges in a captivating story about a smart working-class country girl who is trying to adjust to Trinity College and its privileged social set. . . . Made me laugh out loud and cringe simultaneously. . . . the book has the power to make you gasp at its revelations and its sheer poetry, which often unfolds with the languid pace of a lucid dream. There hasn't been a book quite like it out of Ireland in years.”

-Irish Central