Tag: fiction

Widowland – C.J. Carey

~ Eden Haslam ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Synopsis: What would society be like if Britain had signed an alliance with Germany during WWII? This question is what Widowland explores, detailing a version of Britain where most of the young men have been sent to Germany and women are separated into castes based on factors such as appearance and family background, implementing a strong level of control over their lives.

The main character Rose works at the Ministry of Culture rewriting literature, so it reflects the values of the Protectorate. Being a Geli, the highest caste, and having an affair with a senior SS officer offers Rose a reasonably good life but she is aware that one misstep could result in her being reclassified. One day Rose is sent on a secret mission to Widowland, the run-down areas occupied by the lowest caste women, to uncover the insurgents who have been vandalising walls with graffiti made up of lines from subversive literature. As Rose undertakes her mission, she realises that she cannot ignore ideas from the past and begins to question where her loyalties lie.

Review: Reading this book immediately draws similarities to the Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 and other dystopian/alternate realities. The concept itself I thought was really interesting, even if it is similar to other stories, and I was intrigued about the editing of literature and separation of women into castes. The world-building was done extremely well, there was so much detail, and it was clear how and why this type of society had come into existence.

If anything, at times there was too much detail. I was often confused about the names of the different castes and found the first half of the book quite slow as the society was explained, meaning that it took a while to get to the main plot. This meant elements, such as the romance and Rose’s change in character, felt rushed.

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The Existence of Amy – Lana Grace Riva

~ Eden Haslam ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Synopsis: At first glances Amy seems like a well-adjusted, perfectly functional woman. Yes, she constantly cancels on plans last minute, but that just makes her unreliable. In reality, however, Amy is trying desperately to seem ‘normal’ so that no one realises just how much she struggles with everyday actions. It is not that she is unreliable, she is just unable to do the things she wants to.

The Existence of Amy follows Amy as she deals with everyday actions – getting on the bus, interacting with friends, going on a work trip – and shows the difficulty of trying to maintain an appearance of normality when these everyday actions can be a source of great distress. Because Amy suffers from OCD, but she does not want her friends to know that. She would rather suffer alone than have them think any less of her.

Review: This book is so insightful and touching. It does a really good job of exploring difficult issues in a sensitive manner with a portrayal of OCD that is as heart-breaking as it is informative.

Although the plot was quite simplistic, I thought it was really effective in portraying Amy’s life and the struggles she faces. Not very much happens in the story itself but I feel like this book doesn’t need it. Being inside Amy’s head as she deals with work, friends and generally life is more than enough to help drive the story. I usually like my books fast paced and filled with excitement, tension and/or suspense, and yet I was never bored reading this book. Instead, the pace of it allows you to truly feel for Amy and invest in her character.

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Comeback – Chris Limb

~ Eden Haslam ~ 2 Comments

Genie has everything – a BRIT award, a singing career, the attention of the press and Oliver Fox, a pretty boy who looks good on her arm.

Until he dies.

His death brings Genie’s long buried feelings bubbling to the surface. Her grief over the death of her lover Wendi who introduced her to this world. Her self doubt and fear that she will be exposed as a fraud.

How far is she prepared to go to fix things? 

The afterlife isn’t the most comfortable of places for anyone who’s still alive, but Genie’s not going to take any crap from the dead – she’s got years of experience in the music business.

Sometimes going to Hell and back takes a lifetime…

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Review: I have found it pretty hard to put my feelings about this book into words because it is so twisted, strange and intriguing. You’re left with a slight feeling of confusion and bewilderment about what it is you have just read. And whilst it is these unusual aspects that make this book really interesting, it also makes it difficult to fully wrap your head around how you are feeling, and how these feelings can be articulated.

I enjoyed the clash between 21st century celebrity culture and Greek mythology and thought this book does a great job at showing that the rock n roll lifestyle is not as glamorous as it seems. Instead, there is a real sense of exploitation and loneliness that runs through this story, highlighting the vulnerabilities of someone who may seem untouchable. In a society that reveres celebrity, I think it is important how this book has shown the damage that the celebrity lifestyle can cause and the pressure these stars are under.

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The Favour – Laura Vaughan

~ Eden Haslam ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Synopsis: Ada’s gap year trip to Italy on an art history course offers her the perfect opportunity to become friends with the type of people she feels she should be – wealthy, privileged, sophisticated. Obsessed with the loss of her grand home after her father’s death at aged 13, Ada is determined to get back to the life she could have had. All she has to do is prove herself.

Whilst in Venice, one of the group dies under mysterious circumstances, and Ada sees the chance to make herself indispensable to the people she aspires to be like.

Spanning over 10 years, the story follows Ada after the trip to Italy as she strives to maintain the connections to the people she met there. But, Ada is not the only one maintaining a deception and, sooner or later, the lies begins to unravel.

Review: This book was an enjoyable read. I raced through it in a matter of days and loved the sense of atmosphere and descriptions of Italy. It really did create a perfect background for a plot of deception and secrets.

I enjoyed the sense of mystery and intrigue, but based on the book’s description, I expected the death to play a larger part in the story than it did. I couldn’t help but spend the first section of the book waiting for the suspicious death to occur, and then the rest of the book waiting for it to really matter. That being said, the main plot which focused on Ada’s efforts to ‘get back’ to the social position she believed she deserved was interesting.

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The Word Trove – Elias Vorphal

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

Synopsis: This book follows the story of a word that has lost its meaning after being spoken by a human. As goes on its journey, the word meets other words who teach it about stories and language.

Review: I cannot put into words how much I adored this book. I only wished I had the same incredible grasp on language that the author has! The Word Trove is so magical and yet so hard to explain. There is a reason that the book blurb is so concise. I know the premise sounds weird, but the uniqueness of this book is what makes it truly special.

I loved the meta element of this story – a book filled with words, telling a story about a word, and giving the message about the importance of words and how words are wasted by the humans that speak them. It sounds confusing, but this whimsical story is so smart in what it does.

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The Power – Naomi Alderman

~ Eden Haslam ~ 2 Comments

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Synopsis: The Power is framed as a research/book proposal, with letters before and after the story between the author Neil, and Naomi. Acting as an in-depth exploration of what would happen if teenage girls gained the power to produce electricity from their fingertips, the book flips societal power structures and gives women the chance to decide how they want to world to run.

The novel is focused on four main characters who represent the responses of different stakeholders within society – crime, religion, politics, and media. There’s a crime boss’ daughter Roxy who has extremely powerful abilities, Allie, an abused foster child who becomes a religious leader, middle-aged US politician Margot whose daughter gives her the power, and Tunde, a Nigerian male who first captures women displaying abilities on camera and travels around reporting on how women’s powers are affecting the world. Each of these characters are followed throughout the different sections of the book which count down ten years from the Day of the Girls to the Cataclysm.

Review: I have found this book extremely difficult to rate and review. The premise – what would happen if women suddenly had the capacity to produce electricity from their fingers – is clever and intriguing and, although producing a thought-provoking exploration of a shift in the balance of power between the sexes, risks overwhelming the story itself. Each section of the book counted down towards the Cataclysm, and yet, the story did not always feel like it was going somewhere. Instead, the story got lost behind an exploration of a concept and jumped around too much towards the end of the book to allow a coherent progression.

This being said, it did not stop me from devouring this book in a matter of days. I was desperate to learn where each character’s story was going and how their power would affect them and their decisions. Although I did find some characters more engaging than others, I enjoyed how they were used to explore different aspects of society and found the similarities between the female characters’ responses to their new-found power interesting.

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The Book of Hidden Things – Francesco Dimitri

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Rating: 4 out of 5.

Synopsis: The Book of Hidden Things starts with a Pact. Four friends agree that on a specific day, time, and place every year they will return to their hometown in Southern Italy. They are unsure, after so many years, why they still adhere to this Pact, but none wish to be the reason their enduring bond is broken. Except this year, one of them does not show up. Art, the charismatic and brilliantly curious leader of the group is missing. His phone unanswered, his house messy but empty.

In attempting to discover what has happened to Art, his friends Fabio – a photographer whose life is unravelling, Tony – trapped in a conflict between his sexuality and spirituality, and Mauro – the sensible one, disappointed with the route his life has taken, get drawn in to a world fraught with magical possibility and danger. They believe his disappearance now is linked to his disappearance as a fourteen-year old, but without knowing what happened then, they struggle to discern what the truth might be.

The Book of Hidden Things walks the line between two worlds – a world of the supernatural, filled with spirits and mystery, and the traditional world steeped in religion and fear of the mafia who control the goings on. Split between the points of view of Fabio, Tony, and Mauro, each man has his own distinct voice as they put together the pieces of Art’s life, ultimately discovering a book that he has written which attempts to explain the unexplainable: The Book of Hidden Things.

Review: This book is intensely readable. So quickly you are drawn into the world of the four friends, both due to the detail in which Salento is described, oppressive through its tradition and heat, and through the thrilling nature of Art’s disappearance. The way Dimitri manages to balance the different elements of fantasy, thriller, spirituality, and supernatural is impressive. In a lesser author’s hands these elements could feel like a mix of literary techniques just forced together, but this is not the case for this book.

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The Immortalists – Chloe Benjamin

~ Eden Haslam ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Synopsis: The Immortalists follows the stories of 4 siblings who, as children during the ’60s, visit a psychic who gives them the dates of their deaths. These prophecies inform the rest of their lives as each sibling takes their own path to forge an individual future.

Separated in to 4 main sections, the book follows each sibling in turn as they grow older, ultimately reaching the date given to them by the psychic. Stretching from Las Vegas to New York, the book spans decades as it explores the impact the prophecies has had on each sibling, exploring themes of fate, agency, belief and family.

Review: The premise of this book was one that I found so interesting. Would you want to find out when you die? And, if you did, how would that impact the way you choose to live your life?

This philosophical aspect adds a thrill to a book that otherwise simply follows the life of four siblings, and the way the book is split up allows you to fully immerse yourself into the life of each of the Gold children in turn. Whilst this does mean you miss out on part of the lives of the others, an issue that is not resolved in any way, it allows the reader to see four very different results for how someone would live their life supposedly knowing the date of their death.

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