missing persons
All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue
Caroline O’Donoghue’s foray into YA will definitely appeal to fans of the genre. Although I do have a few criticisms I can safely say that I found All Our Hidden Gifts to be an entertaining read. Set in Ireland, our narrator and protagonist is sixteen-year old Maeve Chambers, the youngest in a big family. She […]
MoreWhen We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
“I had always understood, of course, that the task of rooting out evil in its most devious forms, often just when it is about to go unchecked, is a crucial and solemn undertaking.” As much as it pains me to admit this…I didn’t particularly care for this novel. While it is written in Kazuo Ishiguro’s […]
MoreAnd Now She’s Gone by Rachel Howzell Hall — book review
“Boyfriends and husbands, baby daddies and one-night stands were always madly, deeply, truly in love. Bloody love. Crazy love. Love-you-to-death kind of love.” Last year I read the first book in Rachel Howzell Hall’s ‘Detective Elouise Norton’ series. It had a great sense of place and a brilliant main character. And Now She’s Gone shares […]
MoreWays to Disappear by Idra Novey — book review
Ways to Disappear tries hard to evoke the absurd and surreal atmosphere that is often associated with Latin American magical realism, the end result makes for a rather dismal homage. The lack of quotations marks and the inclusion of word definitions hardly make Ways to Disappear innovative. A nondescript American translator flies to Brazil after […]
MoreFlyaway by Kathleen Jennings — book review
While Kathleen Jennings is an undeniably wonderful illustrator, I’m afraid that I wasn’t particularly impressed by her novella. What first struck me as somewhat discordant in Flyaway was the prose itself. At times the writing was clunky and there were passages that seemed as if they were trying to echo someone else’s style. The way […]
MoreThe Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney — book review
“That was Wyatt’s philosophy when it came to the past: Stay out of it. ” The Long and Faraway Gone is a well written if somewhat uneven novel. I can definitely see why it has drawn comparisons to books by Dennis Lehane. Both authors render a strong sense of place, so much so that the […]
MoreThe Missing Years : Book Review
The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott ★★★✰✰ 3 stars The story had some potential, which is why I was very frustrated by the way the storyline developed. To begin with, I was absorbed by the setting of the novel: a creepy manor in Scotlandwhere the main character, Ailsa, lived as child. After her father’s mysterious […]
MoreWylding Hall : Book Review
Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand ★★★✰✰ 3.5 stars I’ve read two other books by Elizabeth Hand, one of which I consider an all time favourite. Wylding Hall begins strongly enough. The narration uses a limiting form of structure and consists in a series of interviews with the former members of a British an acid-folk band. In the […]
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