Christopher Stanley is making ever increasing waves in the horror genre and his latest offering of The Lamppost Huggers creates a tsunami of macabre delights, sweeping the reader off their feet and dragging them into the frothing deadly undertow that are his words and visceral imagination, prepare to be scared, entertained and scarred by this
About two thirds of the way through ‘The Fabric of Tombstones’ there’s a line – short and sweet though it is – that perhaps sums up what we should expect from B.F Jones’ debut flash fiction collection. ‘All these souls, here momentarily, before going there permanently, trying to get on with their lives and make
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
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
In the summer of 2016, I moved to Putney in south-west London and got a new job that meant I could cycle to work. Some days on my two-wheeled commute I would get to the river at Putney Bridge and turn left to pedal upriver along the Thames river path. I would pass long hedges
Always North by Vicki Jarrett is a strange little beast, on the one hand I thought that the location and isolation that she brought to the book were astonishingly well written – you could feel the bleakness of it, the coldness of the arctic and at times when I was reading in bed, I’m sure
When I was 14, I had this massive crush on my friend Ana from my art class. She was a couple of years older, and as effortlessly cool as I was effortlessly awkward. She lived this bohemian life in a hippieish Parisian flat with her mum and brother (who I also had a massive crush
Wow, what a ride! That is the first thing I think of after reading Million Eyes: Extra Time by C.R.Berry. This compilation of short stories is set in the universe of Time Travel where conspiracies are explained through the lens of time travelers changing time to suit their purpose. It is part of a trilogy whose
‘Please Read this Leaflet Carefully’ is a life told in reverse. We begin in the present moment [2016] of Laura, our protagonist’s life – New York City, mid-thirties, a single mother and a body wracked with pain having been diagnosed with endometriosis in her twenties. From there we are taken backwards, travelling through Laura’s life
A short story collection that captivates from the very start, Subjunctive Moods is a spectacular triumph and brilliant example of how setting can really bring a story to life. Menon is no stranger to multi-cultural experiences, and this shines through in her short prose. Each story is crafted to the utmost quality, and we feel
