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
Seventy years is a long time right? It’s in fact a lifetime, but what we have with An Inheritance is a gripping novella-in-flash that takes us on this journey at breakneck speed, as we flit through seventy years and four generations of family life – with all its love, grittiness, despair, hope, loss, grief and
It’s hard to go through childhood in your second language. And when your father puts you on the spot by teaching you the wrong way to pronounce the word “knife”, making you the class’s laughing stock, it doesn’t get better. It’s that time when you find out that parents don’t always have all the answers,
Taking a closely considered look at grief and guilt, Here is the Beehive is an enchanting and poetic novel that uses form to unravel the relationship between Ana, Connor and Rebecca. Ana, the grieving ‘other woman’ struggles to come to terms with how to mourn someone whose ‘real-life’ she knew very little about, despite their
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
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
Dive into steam-punk Japan with Natasha Pulley’s highly anticipated sequel, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow. Favourite characters return for an exciting, daring adventure, which perfectly blends the worlds of science and mythology. New additions help keep the story fresh, and Pulley’s decision to shift the setting to some lesser-known areas of Japan allows for some
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,
