Books

People like to think that, above all else, they know their family well. In a world where a great many other things will disappoint, horrify or surprise, we can be assured, so we tell ourselves, that we know the ins and out of family members, for better or worse, especially Continue Reading

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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