Life can be incredibly, disorientingly and emotionally destructively cruel. That might not be immediately apparent to anyone with a reasonably cushy middle class existence in a plush Western liberal democracy, but for many people the stark, horrifying reality is that their hopes and dreams often take a distant back seat Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Tank Water by Michael Burge
Growing up in a place where your lived experience is not part of the mainstream is daunting indeed. It becomes even more pronounced in rural areas where the lack of anonymity provided by the diversity hustle and bustle of the big city leaves many people exposed and open to ridicule, Continue Reading
Book review: Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Having your heart ripped out of you and then placed back in again may not be at the top of everyone’s list of great things to do in your mortal waking hours. But when you are reading the transcendentally affecting delight that is TJ Klune’s (The House in the Cerulean Continue Reading
Book review: The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper
Split narratives, whether its differing timeframes, character point-of-view or physical location, can be problematic in novels. While they can shed illumination aplenty on the storyline, their two vantage points providing dual and hopefully complementary insight on the unfolding story, they can often end up with one being compelling and the Continue Reading
Book review: Out of Character by Annabeth Albert
No book is ever read in an experiential vacuum. Any reader brings to a novel their world view, their pain and their sorrow, their hopes and their joys and all of them go into how they react to any story, often dialling it up or shaping into ways more intense Continue Reading
The books they are a-coming! Angry Robot Books announces three exciting new releases
I am huge reader of sci-fi and fantasy books, and as such, I love it when authors, and just as importantly publishing houses, decide to go all out to do something a little, or a lot, different with the genre. It’s why I love Angry Robot Books who, quite apart Continue Reading
Book review: Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
The world, nay the galaxy is a big, messily wonderful and diverse place and it’s a joy to see it reflected in the pages of Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki, a vigorously alive novel that takes a brilliantly out-there premise and runs with it in ways that will Continue Reading
Book review: Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell
If you’re a reader of any devotion, you will doubtless have an enduring and profound love with your local bookshop or, quite possibly, a great many bookshops. Part and parcel of that great and enduring romance with the retailer to end all retailers – that last phrase alone should establish Continue Reading
Book review: The Bird’s Child by Sandra Leigh Price
Finding, and keeping, a place to belong is one of the great imperatives of the human soul. We all need somewhere that feels our own, with people who will love us unconditionally and give us the room and the encouragement to be precisely the people we need to be. Discovering Continue Reading
Together at the end of the world: Cover + synopsis for Wayward by Chuck Wendig
SNAPSHOTFive years ago, ordinary Americans fell under the grip of a strange new malady that caused them to sleepwalk across the country to a destination only they knew. They were followed on their quest by the shepherds: friends and family who gave up everything to protect them. Their secret destination: Continue Reading