Lucy
A subtle and clever dystopian novel that reminded me a little of Station Eleven. I love Enid, she is a wonderfully strong and interesting lead, who uses her brains and wit to solve a murder in a small, close knit community after the “Fall” of civilisation. I accidentally read the sequal first, but part one is better.
I really wanted to love this book, I love home grown crime, but something wasn't quite right and I think it was the characters. The plot, the murder, the cult, they all worked well, but Ngaire, Finley, Debs and Billy all felt bland and were so uninteresting that they all began to blend into each other. Never the less, I will read the sequal. 3.5/5.
I cannot speak highly enough about this brilliant and wonderful book. An absolutely stunning, enchancting collection of intertwined stories set in Russia from Stalin's purges to the modern day, revolving around a painting, a meadow and a dancer. A must read.
A thoroughly enjoyable collection of short stories inspecting the female gaze. On ourselves, other women and men too. A diverse range of view points, from young women and mothers to older women, the last story was my favourite.
Boring coke heads do stupid things and regret it. Not a bad book, but too boring to make an interesting read.
A stunningly beautiful fable-esque story in the style of Maggie O'Farrell.
A young servant girl runs in the middle of the night from a starving, disease ridden English colony on the James River in 1600s Virginia. She's running from her mistress, but also from the darkness in her past, and hopefully, towards the safety of French Canada.
Along the way she deals with starvation, injury, disease, animals, other humans, her failing believe in god and the memories of the past.
The girl (named Lamentations, but she admits herself she does not fit this name) is a resourceful and clever and endearing character, and her development, alone as she is in the story and in the wilds is artfully done.
Groff is a true master of the word.
Angsty, foody memoirs are my thing. This goes on a shelf with Heartburn and Crying in HMart, although the focus here is more angst, less food. Ree writes introspectively about her marriage and it's messy breakdown, just hours before the first Covid lockdown, her dating and eventual self discovery during the pandemic. Her food and love for food shine, as does her mental health journey.
A short collection of short stories centred around a young woman Flick and her family as they navigate post earthquakes Christchurch, new relationships, aging and aftershocks. As with most collections I found this to be a mixed bag but the characters are well realised and the city, complete with liquifaction and cones feels like a character in its own right.
Paige is a wonderful, strong but complex heroine, her world is believable, yet immersing. I look forward to more books from this author.
I love Hugh Howey, and although this was a bit of a departure from his other works, and definitely more YA, I enjoyed it very much. Great main character, as always!
Green writes with such humour, intelligence, empathy and perception, I enjoyed every one of these rambling essays. Written during the pandemic, it would be easy to see the worst in the world, but he manages to find a very decent silver lining to most things. 5 stars.
Reading other reviews, I can see why it is liked. But I found the story bland. Not for me.
Very disappointing, after a great first book, this was a shoddy, badly written, boring excuse for a thriller. And she ruined a great character, making Cat cliched and dull. Yawn.
Excellent world building and magic system, great action sequences but the writing felt stilted and with a couple of exceptions (Akane!) I didn't like the characters much.
Seriously disapointing after a cracking first novel. Hangman is disjointed, hard to follow, has unlikeable characters and a terrible ending. There are many many better crime novels around.
Loved the multilayered twisting storylines, the characters of Jonathan and Vincent especially, the slightly super natural feel to the story. 4.5 stars
A scalding and painful read of marriage, family, sisters and mental health. Equal parts sad and hilarious.
I really liked this twisty turny Sea Detective novel. After a weaker 2nd book, this is back to being awesome like the original.
5 stars for writing, 3 for the story which just makes no sense. Worth reading for the writing alone though.
Cute, but boring. I was more interested to learn about the genesis of the project, than read the actual letters which are mostly dull.
The weakest of the 3 Matthew Venn books to date, sadly. Plot lines abandoned (a bag of evidence discovered on the beach and never mentioned again?), unbelievable reasons for murder and little in the way of development for the 3 main detectives left me underwhelmed.