There are times when comfort, familiarity and ease are, actually, exactly what you need; at other times, by all means, challenge me, make me confront my preconceptions, subvert my genres in different ways. When I'm tired, poorly and stressed, however, enfold me in familiar settings, tropes and - hell, yes - even the comfort of… Continue reading The Boy On The Bridge, M. R. Carey
Category: Star Rating
The Plague Charmer, Karen Maitland
As the image above shows, this book is another historical fiction novel by the author of Company of Liars, which I read and enjoyed a while ago. It wasn't a great book but it was an enjoyable enough read, earning a decent four star review here. I was expecting something similarly entertaining and comfortable reading.… Continue reading The Plague Charmer, Karen Maitland
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The Hanging Tree, Ben Aaronovitch
It's a funny thing about series. What is original and unique can become familiar and even - dare I say it? - stale as a series goes on. They become perhaps over-thought or overworked like a piece of dough that's had the life kneaded out of it. I wonder whether that's what has happened with… Continue reading The Hanging Tree, Ben Aaronovitch
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His Bloody Project,Graeme Macrae Burnet
Authenticity is often what we look for in a book. Is the setting authentic? Are my characters authentic? Is my voice authentic? Is my lexis authentic? It doesn't take much sometimes to pull a reader from a novel and inauthenticity can do it. I've still got concerns about the use of the f-word in Hilary… Continue reading His Bloody Project,Graeme Macrae Burnet
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The Likeness, Tana French
I do enjoy Tana French. Her writing style is simultaneously lyrical and languid, full of synaethesia; and, at the same time, credible and realistic. And this, her second novel in the Dublin Murder Squad series, is a delight! I love the way that it follows seamlessly on the heels of In The Woods and Operation Vestal -… Continue reading The Likeness, Tana French
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Magpie Murders, Anthony Horowitz
Detective fiction is a funny thing. The moment of most conflict and drama generally takes place outside the narrative, often before detective has been called in. The narrative arc is pretty formulaic: scenes are inspected, witnesses interviewed, discrepancies explored. And the conclusion is pretty predicable: the culprit is identified and society made safe from him… Continue reading Magpie Murders, Anthony Horowitz
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Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood
Once again, a deliciously striking cover for Margaret Atwood's most recent novel, and the most recent entry into the Hogarth Shakespeare Project... and the first in the project that I've read. Now, I have a confession to make before going much further: I've never really got Margaret Atwood. I've wanted to; I've tried to. I… Continue reading Hag-Seed, Margaret Atwood
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Nutshell, Ian McEwan
Some books need more of an exercise in imagination than others. A bigger suspension of disbelief. An unborn narrator, for example, is one such. And not just unborn in a metaphorical sense but literally foetal. The narrator of McEwan's most recent book - recently serialised on Radio 4 - is a third-trimester Hamlet, set in modern London, recounting… Continue reading Nutshell, Ian McEwan
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The Girl of Ink and Stars, Kiran Millwood Hargrave
This certainly has a distinctive and gorgeous cover on it, which has graced the window front of local bookshops for weeks! But they do say that you shouldn't just a book etc etc etc ... The book is narrated by Isabella, a young girl on the island of Joya, who has been brought up on… Continue reading The Girl of Ink and Stars, Kiran Millwood Hargrave
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The Risk Of Darkness, Susan Hill
This will be a fairly brief review for two reasons: firstly, I thought I'd already reviewed it and only realised when I tried to link my review of The Vows of Silence to it that I'd not; and secondly, it is very much a continuation of the second novel, The Pure In Heart. Serrailler is… Continue reading The Risk Of Darkness, Susan Hill
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Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
It's a Dresden File. It's Harry Dresden; it's Jim Butcher. Even after reading only the previous two novels, I already know what to expect. It's also a step up from the previous two novels in the series: the prose is still very, well, prosaic; Dresden is still a wise cracking hard boiled detective with magic;… Continue reading Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
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The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith
You know when you hope you got a book series wrong? Other people are telling you it's great but you just don't get it? You end up offering excuses for the writer: maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind; maybe I was too tired; maybe I read it too quickly. Sometimes, it is… Continue reading The Silkworm, Robert Galbraith
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The Vows Of Silence, Susan Hill
Susan Hill is, without doubt, a fantastic writer. The Woman In Black is an exquisitely crafted horror; Strange Meeting is exceptional. so I am persevering with these detective novels hoping for ... well something. But I've not found it yet. I really don't know what it is that's missing but something is. The plots are decent enough: this… Continue reading The Vows Of Silence, Susan Hill
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The Trees, Ali Shaw
This book might win the most striking cover award this year: the stunning autumnal russets and reds are gorgeous! But you know what they say about judging books by their covers? As a parent and as a teacher, we trot out that truism time and again but on what else are you going to judge… Continue reading The Trees, Ali Shaw
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The Voyage Of The Basilisk, Marie Brennan
Still trying to catch up on my reviews which have been delayed thanks to writing a whole bunch of schemes of learning for work and a delightfully full-on three year old daughter, I realised I'd missed this one. The third installment of the Lady Trent memoirs - set in a fictional but faintly vwiled and… Continue reading The Voyage Of The Basilisk, Marie Brennan
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Etymologicon and The Elements of Eloquence, Mark Forsyth
These are not worth separate blog posts: same basic book written in the same basic style about the same basic themes. Which sounds terribly dismissive but shouldn't: as a self-confessed language geek who's alert to the absurdity and beauty of our mongrel mother tongue, these books were a delightful treat.and a little like talking to… Continue reading Etymologicon and The Elements of Eloquence, Mark Forsyth
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Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, Max Porter
Wow! This book is extraordinary. It is strange and bizarre and wild. And has the vividness and opacity of a nightmarish dreamscape. It is literary and visceral, erudite and scatological, mythic and domestic at the same time. Death and grief are such massive topics that you expect a weighty tome to contain them. Yet this… Continue reading Grief Is The Thing With Feathers, Max Porter
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H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald
I mostly read fiction: an escapist flight from the same rigours of the real world - work, a beautiful but demanding three-year old - that have kept me from keeping up-to-date with my reviews! So this book has languished on my kindle to-be-read pile for a while. A pretty long while. Which just goes to… Continue reading H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald
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The Reader On The 6.27, Jean Paul Didierlaurent
How can you review a book like this? I mean, seriously? It was just so incredibly sweet and heart-warming and just delightful and you can't review that, just enjoy it! The book is set in Paris and follows a few weeks in the life of Guylain Vignolles, a lover of books whose job is to… Continue reading The Reader On The 6.27, Jean Paul Didierlaurent
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Fool Moon, Jim Butcher
Book Two of the Dresden Files. Pretty similar to book one, really! Special Investigations, Karrin Murphy, Bob the Skull, potions brewed, magic used. This time around, we have werewolves! Seriously, there's not much more to say: it's smart and sassy, it's got magic and werewolves. It is not high literature! It's a decently written, fast… Continue reading Fool Moon, Jim Butcher
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Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
Another detective fiction novel - and another still to review, albeit with a paranormal twist - and this shares many similarities with The Cuckoo's Calling but is done so much better. Kate Atkinson - whose more explicitly literary offering of Life After Life was divine and possibly one of the best books I have ever read - is… Continue reading Case Histories, Kate Atkinson
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The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith
Okay. I'm putting my hands up to this. I did not like this book. Yes, I know that Robert Galbraith is J. K. Rowling and the sainted J. K. can do no wrong in the eyes of many... but this did not work for me. The plot was decent enough: the death of Lula Landry,… Continue reading The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith
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The Vegetarian, Han Kang
This is a very difficult book to review, to consider, to - for wont of a better analogy - digest. It is also a book which I think will haunt and follow me. And, Heaven forfend, make me think. What an appalling concept! The plot, such as it is, is devastatingly simple: Kim Yeong-hye is… Continue reading The Vegetarian, Han Kang
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Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All, Jonas Jonasson
I've not read anything by Jonasson before, although I am aware of the acclaim that The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared attracted. And it had appeared in Waterstone's May Book recommendations so I had pretty high hopes. Social satire, I thought; comedy, I expected; characters, I looked forward… Continue reading Hitman Anders And The Meaning Of It All, Jonas Jonasson
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Company of Liars, Karen Maitland
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
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