If you want a flimsy plot and an awful lot of virtue signalling, you'll love this book. Oh, and it has magpies. Lots of magpies.
Category: 2 star reviews
Book review: ‘Thirteen storeys’ by Jonathan Sims
The residents at Banyan Court are sure that something is wrong. The building itself seems to be breathing, there are unexplained deaths, whispering figures on the stairs, and mysterious decay in the walls. Each resident only has one thing in common: an invite to join owner Tobias Fell for dinner at his top-floor penthouse where they might finally find answers.
Book review: ‘The Recovery of Rose Gold’ by Stephanie Wrobel
Patty has just been released from prison after serving 5 years for the abuse of her daughter, Rose Gold. Despite a childhood filled with unnecessary pain, medication and isolation, the now-adult Rose Gold comes to pick Patty up from the prison gates with a new baby in tow and ready to put the past behind them. But the townsfolk aren’t so quick to forget, and Patty quickly realises that Rose Gold is no longer the weak and impressionable child she once was. If she wants to regain control, she’ll need to fight for it.
Book review: ‘Ninth House’ by Leigh Bardugo
‘Ninth House’ is a soft magic system masquerading as a hard magic system. Mix into that a protagonist who's inconsistent, a lack of world-building structure and some ridiculous moments, and you've got yourself a frustrating read.
Book review: ‘Zone One’ by Colson Whitehead
‘Zone One’ is a zombie novel with braaaaAAAaaaaaains. By that I mean it takes the well-celebrated, detail-oriented style of Whitehead and attaches it to typically what is quite an action-packed genre. While it makes for a pretty interesting literary performance dressed in the zombie genre, the focus on the slow reality of a world (new advertisements and cleanup crews) after an outbreak meant there was little fast-paced action - leaving a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I'll stop.
Book review: ‘Your fault’ by Andrew Cowan
As far as coming-of-age stories go, ‘Your fault’ is a great literary contributor to the genre. But as far as my enjoyment of the plot or the characters goes - I felt like it could have done with some extra ‘story’.
Book review: ‘FOE’ by Iain Reid
It’s an interesting premise: Junior lives with his wife Henriette, far from anyone else. One day, a strange man comes to the door and tells them that Junior has been selected for a space program, and together they all need to prepare his life and his person to go away for a while. But unfortunately, FOE doesn’t live up to the hype. More than that, it was actually a struggle to finish.
Novella review: ‘Minna Needs Rehearsal Space’ by Dorthe Nors
Chuck Palahniuk has a saying: “Be clever on someone else’s dime. Being clever will never make your reader cry, laugh and probably won’t break their heart.” And this was what I was thinking throughout this novella - really, there was just no heart.
Book review: ‘Grow Up’ by Ben Brooks
Feeling very much like a novel of its time, with TV series like Skins into its 5th series by 2011, the storyline follows immature 17-year old Jasper, who believes his step-dad to be a murderer and lies to his therapist about being gay and racist. He spends every evening getting high, drunk or having sex with any girl he can. His best friend Tenaya is troubled; something Jasper only really understands after spotting the cuts down her arm.
Book review: ‘No country for old men’ by Cormac McCarthy
This book contains more people getting shot than you can shake a stick full of black-tar heroin at, and all the reviews I’ve read about this ‘classic thriller’ are singing its praises - but once I’d read the first 50-odd pages, I got bored. And then I got more bored. And then I had to drink an energy drink to get through the last bit.
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