Category: Adult Fiction

‘Cackle’ – Rachel Harrison

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this in advance of publication. Cackle is not necessarily what I would deem horror (and I’m unsure why someone might regard it as such) but it does use witchcraft to explore the theme of friendship and it has plenty of good-humoured moments.

Our main character has been dumped by her boyfriend. She moves to a new town, where she knows nobody, and is befriended by Sophie. Sophie is beautiful, glamorous and everyone in the town seems in thrall to her (though some are happier about this than others).

As Annie settles into her new routine, she starts to feel more and more indebted to Sophie. She heard rumours about her new friend, and when she is gifted a spider as a housewarming gift we know there’s something odd about her.

The question soon becomes about how quickly Annie is prepared to accept these changes to her life. She veers between desperate to salvage her previous existence and determined to forge a bright new path. Ultimately something of a middle ground has to be found, but Annie learns what is important to her and what boundaries she is prepared to put in place to live her life.

‘Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match’ – Sally Thorne

Oh, how I needed this book. The Frankenstein story, humour and a romance that you can’t help but become entranced by…all add up to a fantastic read.

Our focus is Victor and Angelika Frankenstein, orphaned at an early age, but determined to pursue their scientific endeavours. Thorne borrows heavily from the Frankenstein story, but with the addition of Angelika and a cast of characters (including Belladonna the love struck pig) this becomes – dare I say it – the story that Shelley might have told if she were writing much later.

Angelika is twenty four, passionate and unorthodox. She wants a husband, but those around her think she’s strange. So, instead of reconciling herself to a life of spinsterdom under the care of her brother, she helps him in his experiments…and makes herself her ideal man.

Fourth time lucky, Angelika and Victor manage to resurrect their experiments. Unfortunately, Victor’s creation runs away and a goodly part of the book focuses on trying to get him to return to their care. Angelika, however, is shown to be just as capable and her experiment survives, stays with her and is cared for.

Will, as he is named, enters into an unorthodox relationship for the times, but the spark between them all was wonderful. There were so many moments between these two that I couldn’t pick a favourite. Even the love triangle served to strengthen their bond. There were worries as Angelika and Will try to uncover the truth of his previous identity, but even this encouraged deeper thought about the role we play in our community and how religion serves us.

I’d started recommending this before I’d finished, and now that I have I shall be even louder in my praise. Huge thanks to the author for this, and to NetGalley for granting me access prior to publication.

 

‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ – Gabrielle Zevin

 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a book about gaming but it is also a book about friendship, and a rather unconventional love story.

Our key characters are Sadie Green and Sam Masur. Both reserved, they have a shared love of gaming. Their bond is almost obsessive, and from the moment they meet in hospital to the closing pages of the book, we see the role gaming has in their lives.

While in college they design a best-selling game…and with some help from Sam’s room-mate, Marx, game design becomes their world. A start-up created through shared passion, and though there were sections of the book where the gaming talk became a little much there was plenty to keep our interest.

While we’re immersed in the world of gaming, Zevin’s focus is also the dynamics between the key characters and the relationship shared by Sam and Sadie. Complicated, fragile and prone to over-reactions, these two seemed to have a closer relationship than most lovers. Marx’s role seemed to be to bridge the gaps between the two, and yet it seemed rather cruel to dispose of him in the way Zevin did.

This was a solid 3.5 star read for me, but I’ve rounded it up because there were some moments within the book that resonated. Of all the games mentioned within the book I’m surprised that they went with the Emily poetry one to help generate interest…

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this.

‘The Book Eaters’ – Sunyi Dean

The Book Eaters takes a fascinating premise – people who can survive by eating books, each with their own distinctive taste – and evolves it into a dark urban fantasy. We see the depths people will go to in order to protect those they love, and there’s no escaping the dangers inherent in people’s obsessive need for power over others.

Devon is a member of one of the old Book Eater families. Raised on a diet of fairy tales her life is, as she recognises, one of constraint. A princess, but one who cannot escape. Destined to be wed twice, for the sole purpose of creating and raising an heir, Devon hates how the expectations of others challenges her own primal bond.

The story opens by plunging us into a world that makes little sense. Devon is in Newcastle with her son, Cai, who needs to feed regularly to survive. No ordinary child, he needs to eat minds to live. She spends her days hunting for good people to let her son feed, and the talk of knights and dragons following them is confusing.

As the story unfolds we switch back to the past and so get the details that explain the current situation. Forced into a dangerous predicament, there’s no disguising Devon’s determination to get the best for those she loves. Necessity dictates that only one child is focused on during this time, but I like the fact that her daughter was still very much in her thoughts.

The mind-eating element of this story really was quite unpleasant. However, it was interesting to see how those who were regarded as different were treated by those in control. Challenges were made, and it clearly doesn’t offer much hope for change overnight, but I wonder whether this concept was meant to get us thinking about events/attitudes in our present.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this before publication in exchange for my honest thoughts. I haven’t made mention of it yet, but that cover is a beauty!

 

‘Husband Material’ – Alexis Hall

When you reach the age Luc and Oliver are in the book I appreciate that you are often caught up in the kind of situations they experience. Having got married at 21 I really don’t get the focus on weddings, but I appreciate that it can force you to feel certain responses.

Luc hasn’t moved on much – he would be exhausting to live with, and yet he brings a certain charm to his reactions. This time round we get to see them go through a number of weddings, some of which are more entertaining than others, and how it impacts their relationship.

Luc and Oliver continue to feel they have to behave a certain way, and I was pleased that they were given the opportunity to really have the chance to think about who they were/what was important to them. The scene following Oliver’s speech really did hurt – sometimes family are the ones who find it easiest to hurt you.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this before publication.

 

‘The Island of Missing Trees’ – Elif Shafak

 

Exploring thoughts about identity, love, tradition and conflict, I found this book a strange experience. As I was reading I found myself caught up in elements of the various stories, but the overall story felt quite disjointed.

Our story spans decades, and through the split narrative we are offered an insight into the lives of our characters and how their experiences impact on them. Set in Cyprus and London, Shafak attempts to show us something of the conflict that caused such chaos and how it continues to impact the lives of those caught up in it, or who come later.

We begin with sixteen year old Ada, a young girl grieving the death of her mother. Her father does not speak much about her mother, and her pain is clear. When she suddenly stands up and screams in the middle of a lesson, she spawns a new social media meme. As part of her school homework she is tasked with interviewing an older family member…and it is this seemingly innocuous task that sets in place the digging into Ada’s family past.

Her story begins many years earlier, in Cyprus, when her mother and father first meet. They enjoy their time together, but because one is Greek and the other Turkish they have to meet in secret. The potential shame at their relationship being discovered results in some unusual choices being made. Their illicit love is mirrored in that of the two cafe owners who welcome them – being from opposing sides, and gay, leads to tensions and events that seem world away from the experience of many.

Finding out the intricacies of the various relationships does not come easy. Much of what we learn is in small pieces, usually revealed by what I came to see as our main narrator – a fig tree. This device is a bit of a tricky one to respond to. It allows for a voice to accompany each character as they are witness to all the events that take place, in some way, and I certainly felt that part of this book was focused on encouraging us to see the tree as a metaphor for our human experience and how we put down roots, the conditions we surround ourselves with and how we need to create the right environment in which to thrive. At times this seemed heavy-handed to me, though it allowed a unique voice and served as a way of encouraging us to consider how we are interconnected to our environment.

I found myself recognising what the author was doing, but I didn’t connect to this in the emotional way that I felt would have given it greater impact.

‘Razorblade Tears’ – S.A. Cosby

There’s so much about this book that should make me hate it – transphobia, homophobia, graphic descriptions of wanton violence being the main ones – but this got under my skin and was a surprising hit.

Razorblade Tears is unflinching in its honesty. Sometimes the things said are very hard to read, but from start to finish this was a book that I found myself fully engaged with.

Ike and Buddy Lee are fathers who feel they have let down their kids. Ike, a black ex-convict, has tried to keep on the straight and narrow but is judged whenever he sets foot outside his home. Buddy Lee is a drunk white redneck (his own description) who is hiding from the fact he has cancer. In spite of their sons being married, the two men don’t know each other. When their boys are murdered, the police don’t seem to be looking too hard for answers, so Ike and Buddy Lee take it upon themselves to try to make up for the way they treated their sons while alive to avenge their deaths.

From the outset it’s clear there is something big at stake here. The gang links and casual attitude to violence were a challenge to read – how anyone can be so casual about disposing of a body in a wood chipper I don’t know – but they help to explain a little where these two very flawed men are coming from.

Neither is without fault, and I can’t imagine taking the law into your own hands, but Cosby paints a sympathetic picture of two men struggling to accept their shortcomings.

This will not be for everything, but it really was an unexpected hit for me.

 

‘The Drift’ – C.J. Tudor

From start to finish The Drift had me hooked. In spite of reading this on the hottest two days of the year, my blood ran cold.
In the beginning we are given three unusual scenarios. A group of teens in a crashed bus. A group of adults trapped in a cable car. A group in a place known only as The Retreat. We know this is a world in which a deadly virus has taken hold; a virus for which there seems to be no cure. What we don’t know is how these scenarios link, or exactly what is happening.
The lack of detail should be off-putting, but Tudor carries us through with barely time to pause for breath.
I want to say more, but not knowing exactly how these stories link made such a difference to my reading of the book. I was thrown more than once as I pieced together who was who and the links between their stories. Plotting to die for…and a sign that we’ll never know just how far we’re prepared to go when it counts.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication.

 

‘The Retreat’ – Sarah Pearse

The Retreat opens with an insight into an event so horrific that its influence is still felt years later. A young couple are out in the woods when one of them is attacked. The other runs. We know nothing of them, but the death was part of a gruesome attack on a remote island known as Reacher’s Rock.

The history of this island is steeped in mystery, and locals tell a good story. Since the murder of a group of children on a summer camp the locals have talked of a darkness. Over the course of the book we come to understand why, and how the events of the past link to the present.

When we pick up the story Reacher’s Rock is home to a luxury retreat offering people with money the chance to get away. Jo, an influencer, has organised a holiday on the island for her sisters and their partners. From the outset there is tension between them, and as our story progresses we come to learn a little more about each of them.

Early in the story a body is discovered. Having seemingly fallen from a balcony while under the influence, this could have been it. But the young woman found dead was not a guest on the island. Only days later another body is found.

Detective Elin Warner is on her second big case, full of doubts, but this time round she seems a little more certain of herself and her decisions seem more circumspect. As she investigates these mysterious deaths she too falls under the spell of the island, but with the help of her partner Steed she teases out the finer points of these crimes and unearths a determined plot for revenge.

For those who enjoyed The Sanatorium there’s a sense of the character developing, and I feel this could work as a stand-alone story. I found myself more unsettled by the ending than I care to admit, and I’m hoping that in Warner’s next outing we’ll get to the bottom of who has their own vendetta against her.
Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication in exchange for my review.

 

‘The Island of Lost Girls’ – Alex Marwood

In light of some of the things coming out recently, this book struck a nerve. Money can buy you a lot, and the contempt I felt for some of these characters was visceral. It was too easy to see how some of these predators engineered situations to exploit the vulnerable, and I really hope people who pick this up will stick with it.

Mercedes is a young girl living on a beautiful island and she, like many in her hometown, is rather taken aback when multi-millionaire Matthew Meade arrives with his daughter. The glamour and wealth they bring has its allure…and we soon see how certain people are prepared to look the other way if they can benefit from their association. Mercedes is one of the first victims, when her father takes a huge payout in order to encourage his daughter to befriend Tatiana Meade.

While Tatiana has some redeeming qualities as a child, we also see her as an adult exploiting her relationship with Mercedes. There are hints of behaviour that sets alarm bells ringing, but the true horror is not revealed quickly.

As we follow Mercedes going about her work, we also follow the story of seventeen year old Gemma and the mother seeking her runaway daughter. Their stories inevitably link, and when they do we see the full horror hidden beneath the glamorous surface.

A mesmerising read, and one which feels unsettlingly relevant. I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this prior to publication.