Pretend I’m Dead was 50 shades of fucked up but boy was it funny. “When he went to order their drinks, he asked, “What’s your poison?”“Oven cleaner,” she’d said with a straight face.Her sense of humor sometimes made people—herself, included—uncomfortable.” This novel is divided in four chapters, each one focusing on a particular relationship of […]
More“Loving a country besides the one you lived in was a recipe for disaster.” The Star Side of Bird Hill is an enjoyable coming-of-age novel about two sisters, Dionne and Phaedra, who are sent off by their mother to spend their summer with their grandmother, Hyacinth, in a small town in Barbados. The girls’ aren’t […]
More“Under the gas lamps, mist pawed at the windows of the closed shops, which became steadily shabbier nearer home. It was such a smooth ruination that he could have been walking forward through time, watching the same buildings age five years with every step, all still as a museum”. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street mostly […]
More“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 […]
MoreWylding 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 […]
MoreThe Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths ★★★✰✰ 3 stars “Stop!” shouts Nelson. “Police!” In answer a bullet shoots past his ear. “Ruth!” yells Nelson. “Get behind the duck.” While I did find The Ghost Fields to be rather entertaining, it also made me realise that Elly Griffiths is not for me. Maybe it’s down to […]
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