I had a great time reading this book. It could have seemed to be confusing in it’s timeline, but I was able to follow through it’s strange narrative relatively well. The past, the future, the real, the unreal, it all was knitted in a story that was quite believable and sound, if that makes sense.
Aaah the 80s. The decade we loved to hate and hated to love, with its fluoro, spandex, and shoulder pads, until it was brought back to coolness by the likes of Stranger Things, The Goldbergs or The Americans. Different times. Times of carefree materialism, decent airlines, groundbreaking bands and seasonal weather, a complete disregard for
Communion by Steve Stred is the second book of an ongoing trilogy – book one was Ritual (which we reviewed here) and the second book starts pretty much where book one finished. This proposed trilogy of books by Stred is dark, brooding and graphic as hell, with Stred giving us a slice after slice of
I’ve not read Alicia Hilton’s work before but after this short outing in Demain Publishing’s ‘Short Sharp Shocks!’ series this is something I am going to have to remedy – and double time. Hilton delivers two stunning short stories that are each beautifully woven together, the first, and the title story has us at the
It’s hard to be a mother. You don’t really study for it. You can’t tell people: I have BA in mothering with honours. That might be why some mothers feel so inadequate. Or why some others feel the need to get validation from others. Or why some fall apart. No book or NCT course will
It is early evening when a dishevelled and terrified twelve year old girl bangs on the door of a middle aged Irish priest. Her father has disappeared and we immediately find ourselves sharing the narrator’s intense anxiety. Conor O’ Callaghan’s first novel, Nothing on Earth, is a Gothic tale set in a barren half built
In the Introduction to Europa28, writer Laura Bates states that ‘women see things differently […] it comes as a shock, because our default setting is to see things through men’s eyes without ever realising we are doing so.’ I am more than inclined to agree. It’s along this premise that we find Europa28, an anthology
Christopher Beck gives birth to three different variations of horror within this short collection of his work, with many different tropes of the horror genre – first we have a tale steeped in an eeriness that as a reader we are unsure of the intentions of our protagonist, the second we see life in all
Well if you’ve found your way to this review you’re either a fan of Planet of the Apes, Folio Society or a consumer of fiction – well if that’s the case you are in for a mighty fine time. If you’re a space travelling lost soul and discovered this (a message in a bottle if
The motif of the Bird flies all the way through Anna Vaught’s novel, Saving Lucia. It encapsulates in its image a plethora of contradictory notions: freedom and constraint, strength and vulnerability, companionship and loneliness, elation and desolation. The birds that flit in and out of this novel offer both solace and sorrow to the characters
