The First Move by Jenny Ireland: Review

The First Move

The First Move is everything a YA contemporary novel should be: full of warmth, growth, and romance. Following two protagonists, Juliet and Ronan, the novel documents their personal struggles as well as telling their love story. Juliet is grieving the loss of the life she thought she would lead after being diagnosed with worsening arthritis, whilst Ronan grieves the loss of family life as he knew it after the death of a close family member. 

Our two protagonists initially connect in two different spheres: in real life and also anonymously through an online chess game. As a result, they know each other in two different ways and have two very different ideas of who the other person is. This also means that what they choose to reveal about themselves differs, depending on whether they are communicating in real life or through their comfortable chess game that allows them to easily hide the parts of themselves they don’t want others to see. This set-up allows the novel to do a really excellent job of showing that you never know what people are going through, which the book also achieves through its large, well-rounded cast of characters. Each character has their own struggles, even if other characters in the novel believe their life to be perfect or desirable. This is a lesson that everyone needs reminding of every once in a while, as it is something so prevalent in our society of curated social media pages. 

In my opinion, The First Move is a novel that should be read by all. It is beautifully relatable and a powerful reminder of the importance of empathy.

Niamh O’Donnell