Books

There are a great many times in life when things feel so limited and finite, and defiantly, unhealingly one way. No matter how much we yearn for a something new to life us from a too well-carved rut or for life to bring us meaningful connection or for closure to Continue Reading

As a gay man, you commonly come across the idea that the life you lead must be one of endless partying, unremitting casual sex and a fabulousness wrapped in feather boas, soaked in glitter and strung about with rainbow-hued neon. That’s understandable in one sense since it is the popular Continue Reading

If you were to believe popular culture, and it’s chock full of alluringly escapist ideas about how life should be so why the hell wouldn’t you, you can experience the most resoundingly destructive romantic grief, and then not much later, by dint of a meet-cute, the exchange of a few Continue Reading

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