19TH CENTURY
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
“I saw my mother raise a man from the dead. It still didn’t help him much, my love, she told me. But I saw her do it all the same. That’s how I knew she was magic.” I was hooked by Libertie’s opening paragraph. Set during and after the American Civil War Kaitlyn Greenidge’s novel […]
MoreThe Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“But in the places where it isn’t faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.” First published in 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper is a disquieting short story that has become a seminal piece of […]
MoreCrime And Punishment: A Novel in Six Parts with Epilogue by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot is a favourite of mine so I was expecting Crime And Punishment be right up my street…aaaaand I hated it. Many consider Crime And Punishment to be one of the most influential books of all time…and I have to wonder…how? The Idiot, although certainly flawed, tells a far more cohesive and compelling […]
MoreThe Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell
MILD-SPOILERS At first I thought that The Shape of Darkness was going to be a spoof of Gothic novels. The dialogues were corny, the two main characters are exceedingly frail, and the ‘murder mystery’ storyline struck me as somewhat theatrical (or perhaps I should say more suited to a film than a book). But I […]
MoreMadame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Emma Bovary has become the epitome of desperate housewife, the archetypal unfaithful wife, the ultimate daydreamer whose fantasies lead to a premature self-destruction. “She wished she could stop living, or sleep all the time.” Madame Bovary follows the ‘provincial ways’ of the petite bourgeoisie. Charles Bovary is a so-so doctor, married to an older woman, […]
MoreThe Dark Days Deceit by Alison Goodman
To say that I am incredibly disappointed by this final instalment would be pretty accurate.I enjoyed The Dark Days Club and I thought The Dark Days Pact was the perfect sequel. Goodman’s writing painstakingly depicted the Georgian era, its customs and language. Lady Helen, our main character, was both sensible and diplomatic, and she could […]
MoreNo Name by Wilkie Collins
I love Wilkie Collins’ humour, the quirkiness and mannerisms of his characters, and the intricate plots of his novels. No Name focuses on a rather unconventional heroine, Magdalen Vanstone, who in a short amount of time finds herself orphaned and – due to an idiotic a legality – penniless. Her rightful inheritance lands in the […]
MoreCrossings by Alex Landragin
Alex Landragin has written an ambitious tale, one that begins with the following line: “I didn’t write this book. I stole it.”This prologue, written by a bookbinder, tells us of how this manuscript has come to be in his hands. The manuscript in question comprises three seemingly separate books: ‘The Education of a Monster’ written […]
MoreThe Binding by Bridget Collins — book review
“Bindings are for desperate people. People who can’t go anywhere else.” Surprising, occasionally frustrating, and relentlessly sad, The Binding never seemed to reach its full potential. I was genuinely intrigued by the premise (an alternative history in which book binders get rid of people’s ‘bad’ memories?) even if I know that the whole ‘memory-erasing’ idea […]
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