Our latest reviews
Love, Death & Other Scenes by Nova Weetman
After playwright Aidan Fennessy dies during the 2020 covid lockdowns, it is 15 months before his family can hold his memorial. Loss is always unfair, but it feels especially so to happen when everybody had to look after each other…
The Chain: The Relationships That Break Us, the Women Who Rebuild Us by Chimene Suleyman
In January 2017, Turkish-Cypriot London-raised author Chimene Suleyman sat in an abortion clinic in Queens, imagining her boyfriend sitting in the waiting room, ready to take her home. The closest she’d get to seeing him again was on her apartment…
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
Welcome to Blackheath – the last island of human inhabitants at the end of the world. After a cataclysmic event exterminates the rest of the planet and it is enshrouded by a deathly black fog, one tiny island holds the…
Sanctuary by Garry Disher
Most of us lead law abiding lives. Sure, there’s the occasional speeding fine, or you went slightly outside the 5k limit during lockdown, or pinched a packet of lifesavers when you were a kid, but at the end of the…
It Takes a Town by Aoife Clifford
Reading this book, I’m reminded of a quote in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, when Jordan says ‘And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.’
Set in the Australian countryside in…
Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi
To those reading this review, I first ask you to imagine a city in your mind. It can be any city in the world, maybe your favourite one, or the one you’ve most recently travelled to. Now I want you…
Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan
I found Mayflies, Andrew O’Hagan’s last novel, such a cosy read about youth, music, and everlasting friendships. Here, in Caledonian Road, he tackles similar themes, but ‘cosiness’ is not an adjective to use for this story. Instead, I…
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
‘Whale fall’ is the term used when the carcass of a deceased whale settles on the ocean floor at a depth greater than a kilometre. It’s there that the body is consumed by all manner of deep-sea scavengers, sometimes over…
The Alternatives by Caoilinn Hughes
Caoilinn Hughes is touted as a major new literary voice and from the very first page of reading The Alternatives it is apparent as to why. Her prose is exciting and original and while I don’t usually like to compare…
Mongrel by Hanako Footman
Mongrel by Hanako Footman is a beautiful debut novel that captivated me from start to finish. With lyrical prose and masterful characterisation, Footman weaves a story that explores themes of heritage, identity, and hope.
From the very start, Footman draws…
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