Book Reviews

A Vantage Point of Earth: Observations on Orbital by Samantha Harvey
A Vantage Point of Earth: Observations on Orbital by Samantha Harvey
It is a Wednesday. I am at work, on my lunch break, orbiting around the Earth in a spaceship. Rather, I am reading Orbital by Samantha Harvey. But during that... Read more...
Faith or Feminism?
Faith or Feminism?
Christine de Pizan’s The Book of The City of Ladies Claims Both   Read more...
Aliens Within Us All
Aliens Within Us All
Deconstructing beauty ideals in The Most Normal Woman by Roisin Kiberd   Read more...
Gloria Don’t Speak, But She Makes You Listen
Gloria Don’t Speak, But She Makes You Listen
This is a particularly sad, yet hopeful book. Gloria Don’t Speak by Lucy Apps is her debut novel, and it follows Gloria, a woman with a learning disability and a... Read more...
Dogs, Deer, and Dodgy Men in The Hour of the Wolf
Dogs, Deer, and Dodgy Men in The Hour of the Wolf
I was very surprised by this book, from its form to its topics and how they were treated: loss, nature, toxic relationships, and who we become or who we lose... Read more...
Uniquely Black, Uniquely British
Uniquely Black, Uniquely British
Nestled on the back cover of Pete Kalu’s Act Normal: Joy and Despair in Postcolonial Britain, emboldened in capital letters, are the following words: “a kaleidoscopic memoir that explodes with... Read more...
The Trouble of Blurred Worlds in Raul Garrigsait’s 'The Others'
The Trouble of Blurred Worlds in Raul Garrigsait’s 'The Others'
Historical fiction requires finesse to master. It is the equivalent of walking a tight rope with several weights in each hand. Alongside the usual difficulties of world building and character... Read more...
To Speak the Name of the Dead is to Make Them Live Again: Toni Morrison's 'Song of Solomon'
To Speak the Name of the Dead is to Make Them Live Again: Toni Morrison's 'Song of Solomon'
words by Jocelyn Howarth   What’s in a name?¹ Shakespeare’s words are timeless, marked by constant relevancy, and can be referred to in almost any situation. This question has been... Read more...
Family, Class, Trauma and the eternal question: Are there really second chances?
Family, Class, Trauma and the eternal question: Are there really second chances?
Lorna Elcock's The Windhover is not only about its characters. It is equally a novel about class, culture, language, and trauma, and once again Elcock demonstrates extraordinary precision. Two things immediately stand... Read more...
The Dichotomy Between Childhood and Adulthood in Hjalmar Söderberg’s 'Martin Birck's Youth'
The Dichotomy Between Childhood and Adulthood in Hjalmar Söderberg’s 'Martin Birck's Youth'
Translated fiction has always had a place in the hearts of English readers. Victor Hugo and Fyodor Dostoyevsky spring to mind, titans of literature who wrote novels that also serve... Read more...
The Importance of Tracing the Past and Its Horrors to Understand the Present and Its Shadows
The Importance of Tracing the Past and Its Horrors to Understand the Present and Its Shadows
“A Kick in the Belly: Women, Slavery and Resistance” by Stella Dadzie is a fantastic work that combines rigorous research with a beautiful pen. There is nothing in this book... Read more...
Does Chaos Control the Human, or Does the Human Being Control Chaos?
Does Chaos Control the Human, or Does the Human Being Control Chaos?
A review of Ashley Hickson-Lovence's novel, About to Fall Apart Read more...