‘My body was my mother’s unfortunate toy.’ I came to True Crime not knowing what to expect, all I knew was that it was a debut and that it was recommended by Sadie Hartmann (Mother Horror to many other people) – and that recommendation was all I needed. So I picked up my book and
Nina Scafe, a workaholic TV producer from the North of England, takes her teenage daughter Laurie to visit her grandparents on Hope Island, off the coast of Maine in the USA. She’s hoping to find the right moment to break it Laurie that her father has left them for his secret second family. Tensions run
Every now and then a book comes out that when you read it, your world is changed, whether that is that you’ve just discovered a writer who you now adore, whether it moves you in ways you’ve not been moved before, or that the storytelling is so sublime that the book you believe is destined
‘At some point, someone or something is missing from their lives.’ This is the short quote that greats you when you go to Ellipsis Zines page about Seventy Percent Water on their website, and I’d have to say that this short quote nails what the flash fiction collection is all about. Something is lost, something
Kev Harrison is a new writer to me but after his offering ‘The Balance’ he is a writer I will continue to read and seek out, such is the depth of story and stunning prose on offer! ‘The Balance’ is a strange beast it’s like the offspring of the folklore brilliance one expects from the
The Earth is healed and humans have been extinct for 500 years. Those two things are connected. In the dying days of human civilisation a scientist created a better species, the Erta. Human-like but with none of their physical and emotional flaws. They are walking problem solvers with one purpose – to fix the Earth.
Reading Stephen King for me is a type of therapy; one that is good for the soul and mind. When I get a new book from him it’s like sliding on a pair of comfy slippers, pouring myself a hot steaming cup of coffee and disappearing for a while into the world and characters he’s
You know how some books just sell themselves? They have that comfy kind of mass appeal – a little light and shade, a little wholesome, a character for everyone? Well, how does a work of autofiction with a semi stream-of-consciousness narrative about a doom-drone band, the specifications of guitar amps, edibles, the echo chamber and
Delving into Diary of a Murderer, one is filled with a curious sense of unease. Despite holding short stories of definite direction and plots, one wanders around inside them as if in a David Lynch movie. We have characters, progressions and plot twists, but they somehow the tone of these stories supersedes their storylines. There
Hester Why is running from her past. Louise Pinecroft is waiting for resolution. But in Morvoren House, no one gets what they want. Bone China is the latest novel from Laura Purcell – a modern queen of gothic fiction. Fans of her sinister story-telling in The Silent Companions will be delighted with this new tale,
