Having just set down this book ten minutes ago and spent that time in silence pondering what I had just read, it’s supremely hard to now put those thoughts into words. I know I definitely liked A Little Life, I barely have put it down since I started it a little under a week ago. Recommending…
As someone who spent the last 3 years after studying English & Classics (and therefore only reading books from the literary canon for over ten years) binging on all the science-fiction I could get my grubby little hands on, I can safely say with an educated background in science-fiction that this is a very unique…
Imagine your basic Georgian period piece, a young woman being forced into a marriage to a man she hates. An overbearing father. A sheltered life. Your basic oppressed femininity tale that barely grapples with the flaws present in 18th Century society. The Butcher’s Hook is completely the opposite to this.
I just finished raving to my mum about this book by saying it was one of the most amazing books I have ever read. This may be the post-terror high speaking, but on reflection I can safely say it is definitely one of the most unique books I have ever read. And I have read…
Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings is, in a nutshell, an epic fantasy that has equal strengths and weaknesses. Sort of like the main protagonists of the novel. I literally just finished it, and cannot think of one character I actually think deserves to be “King” or “win” in the end. In that way, it is…
To be perfectly honest I haven’t read any YA fantasy in a long time. Unless you count another Patrick Ness book (The Knife of Never Letting Go, which I had been recommended years ago by a friend). So I don’t know, maybe YA fantasy is different now. Or maybe Patrick Ness is truly on a…
What makes this post different to the multitude of platitudes floating around on facebook and twitter regarding the death of David Bowie? Honestly, nothing much probably. I was as sorely tempted as anyone to post a generic picture of him, alongside a caption reading “You will be missed” or “[insert lyrics from Space Oddity]” –…
What a weird book. Honestly, this is the first thing I have to write about “The Bees”. Doesn’t mean it’s bad. Just not at all what I was expecting – which is ridiculous now that I think about it – it’s all in the title after all.
David Mitchell has a habit (I speak from experience of reading two whole books by him) of writing in a non-linear fashion. Time-jumps, narrative skips, perspective shifts – they’re all part of his style. This worked beyond comparison in “Cloud Atlas” because of the emotional resonance of the story. The absolute lack of limitations in…
I haven’t written a book review since it was a requirement to get my “25 Books Read” badge in year 4…but why not break the streak for one of the best series I have had the pleasure of delving into in a long time. Part of this enjoyment stems from my background in Classics, as…
Imagine walking into a bookstore with no books. Makes no sense right? But that’s a little like what walking into the Blackwell’s at the Wellcome Collection was like. My first impression was the smell of food, since it is based behind a cafe, my second was “man, I’m hungry”, and my third was childlike glee…
For my “Publishing Contexts” module at UCL we were given the prompt “Literary Bloomsbury” and told to run with it however we saw fit. I thought it would be fun to imagine if the authors who worked and resided in Bloomsbury at the time had access to a social media platform such as twitter. I…
[Follow my blog with Bloglovin] The days that Laura Marling releases new albums are happy days indeed. She’s only 25 years of age and now has 5 studio albums under her belt. To give some perspective, I left my apartment only twice this weekend and one of those times was to go buy Ben &…
Let’s just straight up ignore the fact that I haven’t posted anything on here for over a year…ok, moving on now… Writing about Marina is somehow akin to writing about an older sister or a friend who has made it to the pinnacle of what they described their dream to be. I found out about…
Poliça have only existed as a band for two years and they’re already dropping their second album after coming off of a year and half long tour. Yesterday I left the house to take out the trash. So props to the quintet from Minnesota for not only being prolific, but also making a damn good…
cantionis 