Books

Death, to our never-ending despair and ever-present grief, is a very final thing. That’s not necessarily a commentary on life-after-death or any of the philosophical or religious beliefs that evoke ideas of what happens to our supposedly incorruptible souls; it’s more a resigned acknowledgement that when somebody passes away, that’s Continue Reading

Who of us, at least those with a love for watching films about people falling in love, hasn’t wished they could step into the frames of their favourite romantic comedy? They are usually so perfectly put together, so wonderfully alive with romantic possibility and eventually, after many twists and turns, Continue Reading

The corrosive power of secrets is on full, ever tense, slowly building display in Veronica Lando’s debut novel The Whispering, a story which understands how the past can come crashing into the present and throw the future, in its all troubled and glorious possibility, into doubt. Set in Far North Continue Reading

High fantasy is not usually the stuff of warm and cosy feels nor do second-chance stories of found family and hopeful new starts feature all kinds of mythical creatures. These two genres do not normally share a narrative bed since one, the former, is usually all high stakes and intense Continue Reading

Finding intimate character moments in the midst of a sprawling space opera may seem like a strange anomaly, but the truth is that the two go together in ways many people not familiar with genre may not fully expect. Much like movie blockbusters which neatly characters with real, fully-rounded humanity Continue Reading

Can one day change everything? If you’re Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood, it can and it does, with less than 24 hours in fact bringing about a messy kind of Road to Damascus moment for the titular character who finally confronts the one issue that ended up splintering her Continue Reading

Being loved unconditionally and truly belonging are two of the greatest gifts anyone can ever receive. They bolster the heart, restore the soul and they are utterly alien to Oxnard Matheson, protagonist of TJ Klune’s latest masterpiece, Wolfsong. Not because he hasn’t been loved at all – he has always Continue Reading

There’s something entirely and innately satisfying about reading about someone who’s life has not even gone remotely where they want it to and who manages through sheer force of will or happy circumstance to turn things around. Maybe it’s because that so rarely happens in real life, at least to Continue Reading

SNAPSHOTIn a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees, live three robots—fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe. The day Continue Reading

Discovering who you actually are, assuming you are bothering to look in the first place (not everyone is), is one of life’s great gifts. It’s not always the easiest of things to uncover sometimes, and can involves a huge amount of blood, sweat and tears and challenges to who you Continue Reading