Over a series of eight immersively engaging novels, all set in the same shared paranormal universe – think Marvel but with way more werewolves, sprites and immortal beings – Maria Lewis has told the story of empowered supernatural women reshaping the world in an image which is far more just, Continue Reading
Books
Book review: The Island Home by Libby Page
There is pain in life that starts so early, cuts so deep, and leaves such a long-lasting, festering wound that we wonder if we will truly ever get over it. Our responses to such pervasively terrible wounding vary but the truth of the matter is, facing up to the pain Continue Reading
Book review: The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
One thing among the many that has always made reading reading so precious and necessary to this reviewer is its ability to warp reality in ways so escapist and pleasingly beyond belief that any troubles in the real world are temporarily kept at bay for the duration of the read. Continue Reading
Book review: The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez
Every novel worth its narrative salt should have an emotional hook that ensnares your reader heart. But there’s something about the emotionally evocative wonder that is The Vanished Birds, the debut book by promising writer Simon Jimenez, that captures your heart (and mind and soul) far more deeply and irrevocably Continue Reading
Book review: The Maid by Nita Prose
People for the most part do not take kindly to those who do not seamlessly blend with the mainstream. They should because often these people offer, fresh, original perspectives sorely lacking from the usual way of viewing things, but alas, they don’t, too interested in enforcing the security of orthodoxy, Continue Reading
Book review: The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
If you have been an avid reader like this reviewer, you will know deep inside yourself that books are rare and precious things capable of illumination, escapism, companionship and real empathy and warmth. They matter and they speak to us because they are, by and large, created by people who Continue Reading
Book review: The Keepers by Al Campbell
We wield the phrase “the weight of the world on their shoulders” about someone struggling with a great burden in terms both hushed and reverent, and often, sorrowfully pitying. Drawn from the Greek mythological tale about Zeus and Atlas, the latter whom carries the literal world on his enormous but Continue Reading
Book review: The Sleepless by Victor Manibo
ARC courtesy Erewhon Books via NetGalley – The Sleepless releases 2 August 2022. It’s safe to say that in the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic people understand all too well how disruptive these kinds of events can be. No longer solely an artefact of post-World War One history, pandemics Continue Reading
Survival is insufficient: Thoughts on Station Eleven
You have to hand it to anyone who adapts a beloved book into a TV series. On the one hand, it’s a sensible move since some of the best storytelling around comes from authors who pour themselves and their stories into immersive, compelling reads; however, many readers, like fandom across Continue Reading
Love in chronological flux: The Time Traveler’s Wife releases an intriguing teaser trailer
SNAPSHOTBased on the 2003 novel by Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife – coming to HBO and HBO Max in May – is about exactly that: a woman named Claire (here played by Game of Thrones star Rose Leslie) is married to a man named Henry (here played by Divergent’s Continue Reading