When I have nightmares, they are often about ants. Ants spilling frantically from an anthill, swarming over my ankles as I try to escape – or worse, suddenly clambering over my recumbent limbs as I sunbathe, jolted out of my peaceful reading by thousands of tiny feet pattering over my vulnerable body. *shudder* I’m certain […]
‘It’s a book about the lies we tell ourselves and others,’ says Sarah Govett. She adds: ‘and the evil that can be perpetrated if we, for whatever reason, convince ourselves that another group of people is somehow lesser or ‘other’. This theme at the very core of ‘We go on Forever’ is what I loved […]
Be careful: you might get what you wished for… I’m not usually a fan of supernatural tales, but this is a novel by Louise Beech, and it’s so beautifully done that I’m entranced. What’s it about? A haunted theatre. A murdered actress. Three cursed teenagers. A secret that devastates them all… The Dean Wilson Theatre […]
The best fiction is almost fact. The persecution in James’ novel is sadly familiar: a girl and a woman who others see as different from them becomes feared, reviled and hunted. Increasingly subjected to hate crimes and condemned without evidence, a mother and daughter struggle to clear their reputations in a town which is no […]
Would you play a game to save your life? I’m a big fan of psychological thrillers and the premise for ‘Play for me’ was definitely intriguing: ‘LJ must give the performance of a lifetime, if she wants to avoid a deadly final curtain call…’ What’s it about? LJ’s life is going downhill – fast. She […]
‘I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus.’ So begins this fascinating tale of a woman who is born into the deeply patriarchal world of first century Galilee and is sold by her father to her husband, but longs to control her own destiny. Along the way she marries Jesus Ben Joseph, more commonly […]
Lily Owens yearns for her mother. Unfortunately, not only is her mother dead, but Lily believes she killed her. Trapped on a peach farm in South Carolina with her abusive father, T-Ray, Lily longs to become a writer, but can’t imagine how her life will ever amount to anything. One hot July day, inspired by […]
Nine suicides. One cult. No leader. It was another fantastic strapline that first drew my attention to Will Carver’s fascinating and disturbing tale about The People of Choice, who are enduring their lives without feeling them and ending their lives without wanting to. If you enjoyed Carver’s previous novel, ‘Good Samaritans’, which was brilliant but […]
“Mum, I’m bored. What can I do?” As a parent, I have found this persistent cry deeply irritating – and genuinely confusing. My children are surrounded by toys, books, opportunities and activity books. They have access to a garden and to art materials, to siblings, cuddly toys and bicycles. How, I wonder, can they possibly […]
This is a ‘Thursday Next’ novel and the short version of my review is as follows: it is excellent. If you like books, you should probably read it, but if you’ve not read anything by Fforde before, or if you’ve yet to be introduced to the fiction hopping phenomenon that is Thursday Next’s BookWorld, then […]