I thought I knew exactly what I was going into when I picked up Koushik Banerjea's Another Kind of Concrete. As someone largely interested in the pop culture element of historical fiction, I interpreted the blurb as an enjoyable yet slightly overtold tale of the 70's punk scene with racial tensions of the time woven... Continue Reading →
Writing a full-length review on David Mitchell's most recent novel, Utopia Avenue, definitely didn't seem like something on the cards when I first started it. It didn't even 500 pages in, to be honest. It was only once I'd closed the book that I was hit with so many emotions that I knew I couldn't... Continue Reading →
Evelyn Hugo is a book that seemed to haunt me. It was all over my Twitter feed, in every respectable critic's recommendations, going for a discounted price on Amazon....escaping the hype was almost impossible. Of course, though, it was the latter appearance that sold it for me. I gave into its reasonable price tag almost... Continue Reading →
Over the past four years, Scottish-based Vistas have earned their title as one of the most promising upcoming indie bands. Their highly anticipated debut album, Everything Changes in the End, seems to establish this for them further. It's thirteen tracks of pure joy, with cheerful vocals and upbeat guitar riffs. It's the type of album... Continue Reading →
Like most people, Ninth House was one of my most anticipated books of 2019. A dark academia novel about secret societies and murder, by a well respected author? Sounds like a dream. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't have my reservations from the start. It's a fantasy novel, and me and fantasy... Continue Reading →
"One thing I'm sure Colborne will never understand is that I need language to live, like food—lexemes and morphemes and morsels of meaning nourish me with the knowledge that, yes, there is a word for this." If We Were Villains seemed like the only step forward from The Secret History - every review draws comparisons,... Continue Reading →
The Goldfinch was released in UK cinemas on Friday, and I don't think that I've been so excited to see a film in a long time. The terrible reviews just made me even more excited - if there's anything that gets me going, it's a critically bad film. I felt as though I had an... Continue Reading →
"A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don’t get to choose our own hearts. We can’t make ourselves want what’s good for us or what’s good for other people. We don’t get to choose the people we are." My current reading goal is to read all three of Donna... Continue Reading →
"Let go of the doll. The goddess too. Then she was herself. A girl with pale blue eyes and freckles on the nose. A long jagged scar across her heart and a chasm that kept her from happiness." If I’m honest, I love a good teenage thriller/mystery. There’s something about them that just really gets... Continue Reading →
"Maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it." Like most people who are avid readers, Jodi Picoult seems to haunt me. My Amazon recommends are filled with her novels, and I can’t ope n my GoodReads without seeing someone I follow... Continue Reading →
thoughts in small print 