This was ... not what I expected. A band of travellers in the England of 1348, travelling and telling tales to each other over the course of their journeys. The reviews and comments on it make an obvious but - to my mind - highly suspect assertion that this somehow a re-imagining of The Canterbury… Continue reading Company of Liars, Karen Maitland
Category: Magical Realism
The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge
I am coming to adore Frances Hardinge! I've only read this and Cuckoo Song to be fair, but there's something about her imagination and her writing which chimes with me: dark, intensely personal, yet somehow mythic at the same time. She captures a sense of wonder, of terror, of awe which is simultaneously so childlike… Continue reading The Lie Tree, Francis Hardinge
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The Collectors, Phillip Pullman
This is an absolute gem of a read - or more likely a listen, as Pullman wrote it for Audible as a free giveaway at some point. That's how I collected it - see what I did there? - and it's been lurking in my library ever since and today I thought I may… Continue reading The Collectors, Phillip Pullman
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The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness
Ahhh... a new Patrick Ness publication is like a new China Miéville publication: an event to be savoured. Chaos Walking. A Monster Calls. More Than This. He writes science fiction, fantasy, dystopian fictions with drama, true emotion, real depth so well! So it's difficult with this book. It's fabulous. It really is. But it's… Continue reading The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness
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Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
Kate Atkinson is one of those authors who I have been aware of but avoided for a while. I put my hands up, it was and has been deeply unfair of me. Like that chap in the village I grew up in who always crossed the road when he saw my mother to avoid talking… Continue reading Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
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The Secret Place, Tana French
I've noticed this book creep into the recommended reads of the local Waterstone's and into the supermarkets. Well... I was reading it first! So, what do we have here? It is a murder set in Dublin, Ireland revolving around the Murder Squad. It's the fifth in French's series which, as I understand from other reviews,… Continue reading The Secret Place, Tana French
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The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
When I was an impressionable teenager, which feels a long time ago now, I imbibed a lot of Arthurian legends. Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Gawaine, Bedivere, Ector, Cai, Pelias, The Fisher King, Tristran, Iseult, Mordred, Morgana La Fey. And from there, at University, a unit on Medieval Literature reunited me with Gawain in Sir Gawain and The… Continue reading The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
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Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge
This is a remarkable novel. Of the three CILIP Carnegie nominees I've read, this is my clear front runner. And I'm saying that having read Patrick Ness! Before I review it, however, I'm going to play a game with my sixteen year-old stepson, whose birthday it is today. Despite his protestations, he is going… Continue reading Cuckoo Song, Frances Hardinge
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The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell
Ahhhhh David Mitchell. This, for me, is probably your crowning glory. I loved the realism and naturalistic voice of Black Swan Green; I also loved the mysticism and scope of Cloud Atlas. The Bone Clocks incorporates both those elements whilst ramping up the fantastical into a breathtaking and deft novel. The novel most closely resembles… Continue reading The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell
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The Golem and the Djinni, Helene Wecker
There are some books - most books probably - which I read, finish and review pretty much straight away. They are like those meals which are fine, tasty and enjoyable but which you move on from. Some, however - stretching the metaphor perhaps to breaking point - I like to savour more, to digest, before… Continue reading The Golem and the Djinni, Helene Wecker
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A Tale For The Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
I have an opinion. Just the one, but an opinion nonetheless. And my opinion is this: that most writing is, at least in part and at least tangentially, about the writing process itself. Books about books, about creation, about reading, about interpretation. How much reading do we come across in books? Ozeki seems to share… Continue reading A Tale For The Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
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Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Fantasy is my (not so) secret (not so) guilty pleasure in reading. Fantasy introduced me to reading through The Hobbit and Tolkien. Fantasy was my escape from teenage tedium ... my family was far too middle class to have angst! And I still enjoy a healthy dollop of fantasy, as readers of this blog will… Continue reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
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In Darkness, Nick Lake
In Darkness is Nick Lake's debut novel and an extraordinarily powerful one at that. Set in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, the novel is literally set in darkness: our narrator, Shorty, is entombed in the remains of a collapsed hospital as rescuers lose hope of finding any survivors. In the darkness and rubble,… Continue reading In Darkness, Nick Lake
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Midwinterblood, Marcus Sedgwick
This is my second foray into Marcus Sedgwick's writing: White Crow, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal a couple of years ago was the other. And this is by far superior, more beautiful, more powerful, more poignant. This book is shortlisted for the Cilip Carnegie 2013 and tells the tales of Eric and Merle. Tales. Tales… Continue reading Midwinterblood, Marcus Sedgwick
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The Girl With Glass Feet, Ali Shaw
There are some books that revel in plot, action and events. Other books - perhaps quieter books - are content to develop narrative: characters and settings, relationships and language. This book by Ali Shaw is very clearly and very effectively one of the latter: little really happens, but so much is created. Lets take the… Continue reading The Girl With Glass Feet, Ali Shaw
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