Mary Shelley (2018) is not the story of Mary Shelley’s life, despite the title. Her life was one long gothic nightmare. She endured untold grief, beginning with her mother (famous proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft) who died giving birth to her. She then outlived as a young adult, in a relatively short period time, her half-sister Fanny,
‘I walked in on my first shift and was met by the manager, Hakan. He was a little prick. I could see it from the start.’ So begins Zero Hours, the second in a proposed ‘Manchester Trilogy’ by realist writer Neil Campbell. We are back with our troubadour narrator, bouncing from menial job to menial
Cover design from The Folio Society’s edition of Steppenwolf illustrated by Dan Hillier ©Dan Hillier 2018 The Folio Society’s 2018 edition of Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf, translated by David Horrocks is a thing of beauty and its aesthetics get first mention. The book has all the qualities of a good vintage bourbon. A vanilla hardback with an
Short Review Tuesdays Are Just As Bad is a fascinating book, from the vibrant eye catching cover through to the very last page, the book sucks you in and doesn’t let go. It’s a young adult book that explores and enables its readers to feel that they are not alone, that depression is not the
What happens when your father dies: when you are 7years of age – how does this affect the rest of your life? Sharon’s memoir is about how she deals with death as an adult after a catastrophic event in her childhood. Her father dies in an apparent car accident after a collision with a deer;
The quality of the writing here announces itself from the start: Frances had waited…for the static to disperse from her daughter’s personality; the obscuring details of herself that got between her and other people and then, shortly after, a storm cloud poured into the shape of a girl. These are the kind of short stories
Short Review Beyond the Odyssey follows the ongoing adventures of Elliot a young boy with big dreams and big issues, not only is he trying to save the world and retrieve the remaining Chaos Stones, he also has a house full of Greek Gods, a mother who is seriously ill, villains and evil doers coming
Parenting can be difficult, it can also be fun, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done – but I do sometimes wonder if I’m getting this whole parenting thing right, because it doesn’t come with an instruction manual (which is what all new parents will enjoy hearing from well wishers when you are
We read to experience lives entirely different from our own. If you’ve ever been curious about what it would be like to have grown up and lived in Georgia, this is the book for you. The Book of Tbilisi is an anthology of ten short stories by various authors. Each details the experience of living
Short Review E.R.Murray delivers an action packed follow up to her Nine Lives Trilogy book 1 ‘The Book of Learning’ with the breathtakingly brilliant ‘The Book of Shadows’. We journey with Ebony again as she tries to continue her quest, but this time there are more baddies, more adventure, more gadgets, more fabulous characters and
