FIVE star ARC Review of Overflowing Nothings and Threadbare Everythings!

Hi friend,

Ahead of the publication date of Overflowing Nothings and Threadbare Everythings (which is tomorrow, wahhh!), both my heart and inbox have been overflowing (😏) with the loveliest messages and reviews. I'm quite blown away, in all honesty. When you write a book, especially one that tackles complex themes, there's a real trepidation about how it will be perceived. Is it too much? Will people like it? Will they hate it?

So far, thankfully, I've received nothing but positive reviews from early readers, and I'd love to share with you one of my favourites. The following review is from Nizza, whom I connected with over TikTok. (Her handle is @theinkedplot. Click the link and give her a follow!) She's an absolute sweetheart, for firstly reading the book quickly before publication date, and for writing up such an thorough and in-depth review for both her TikTok channel and Goodreads. Here it is:

★★★★★
Set during a suffocating lockdown, Overflowing Nothings and Threadbare Everythings follows two souls trapped in their own private hells. Behind closed doors, away from a quarantined world, two separate abusers are systematically breaking down their victims. It is a gritty, unglamorous, and heartbreakingly real look at the "trauma bond"—proving that sometimes, the most dangerous place on earth is your own home. But as the walls close in, the lives of this fractured neighborhood begin to tangle, forcing a desperate collision where the only way to survive is to expose everything.

This book functions like a total pressure cooker. As the violence escalates, the author completely throws traditional thriller tropes out the window—trading a cheap, Hollywood rescue for the messy, painful, and terrifyingly real failures of the system like hospitalizations, police tape, and legal loops.

The climax is a chaotic, rapid-fire explosion where the privacy of the abuse is finally shattered in full view of the neighborhood. And just when your heart is in your throat, it clears the deck for an epic epilogue that jumps two decades into the future to show what the long, ragged road of generational healing actually looks like.

🌸 Recommendation

I am recommending this book with the biggest, most emotional asterisk because it is a total roller coaster. Your anger will be at a 10/10 for most of it, and then the epilogue will literally have you sobbing. To quote Dumbledore, this book beautifully reminds us that "help will always be given to those who need it." It’s not through grand, cinematic gestures, but through the ordinary decency of neighbors, friends, and strangers willing to step into the dark to catch you. If you want a heavy, psychologically accurate debut that handles trauma with exquisite tenderness and gives you a gorgeous legacy of healing, pick this up immediately. Just keep a box of tissues close by.

✍🏼 Praises and Critique for the Author

Since it's a debut, you’ll definitely notice some technical quirks, like a heavy overuse of punctuation and way too many parentheses that chop up the rhythm. But honestly? The storytelling instincts here are pure genius. I absolutely loved how the author never gave proper names to the abusers—it completely strips them of their power and keeps the focus entirely on the survivors. Carly Ratcliffe completely refuses to give us a cheap, Hollywood "happily ever after," honoring just how messy and brutal real-world trauma actually is. Yet, her ability to weave beauty out of trauma is a total masterstroke especially the raw way the title is dropped in. She wrote a book that makes you furious, breaks your heart, and then gently pieces you back together.

P.S. This was actually my very first time doing an ARC review, and I am so incredibly glad it turned out to be a solid 5/5 read. Talk about setting the bar high for future advanced copies! 😭✨

“Don’t let the abuse win.”

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Now, isn't that just one of the nicest reviews that you ever did read? A huge thank you, Nizza, for doing the story, the characters, and (hopefully) real life victims and survivors justice.

Overflowing Nothings and Threadbare Everythings available for sale here on 18 May. If you read it, please do email me to let me know thoughts.

All my love,

Carly x