Book Reviews

F is for Friends
F is for Friends
An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail by Hélène Giannecchini is, among other things, a book about what happens when a life has not been properly recorded. Through a collection of... Read more...
Faith or Feminism?
Faith or Feminism?
Christine de Pizan’s The Book of The City of Ladies Claims Both   Read more...
Beauty Has Teeth
Beauty Has Teeth
The 1992 publication of Donna Tartt’s groundbreaking debut novel, The Secret History, marked a consequential moment as it reshaped the terms under which an academic novel is written, while simultaneously... Read more...
Sometimes Love Isn't Enough
Sometimes Love Isn't Enough
We don’t immediately learn our main character’s name at the start of the narrative, but this makes no difference in the reader’s ability to understand him. When we are finally... Read more...
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...
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...