Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner

56%

22.08.25

I was 15% of the way through and wondering when the plot was going to kick in before I realised this was non-fiction. Even having experienced my own version of what the author describes, it did nothing to change my mind about the point of memoirs beyond therapy for the writer. It was well written but, oh, the endless descriptions of bonding over food - yes, I get it.

Absent - Katie Williams

68%

03.04.25

Like Williams' later book, My Murder, this story of a coming to terms with being dead was both emotionally involving and beautifully written. It was also, unfortunately, quite similar to the (later) TV show, School Spirits - I hope Williams got some credit.

Here One Moment - Liane Moriarty

71%

24.02.25

I've read all Moriarty's novels and they're a mixed bag but this is such a satisfying read that it's certainly her best. For a book about death and mortality, it's remarkably wry and vivid, the humour always balancing the pathos and contributing to the strong characterisation. The handling of the spiritual vs realistic elements is masterful, and it's pleasing to note Moriarty continuing the clever foreshadowing technique she began in Apples Never Fall, which makes you want to flick back and read it all again.

(I do find her negative portrayal of only children a bit irritating, though.)

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy - Megan Bannen

56%

13.02.25

More very American light fantasy, again with a promising central conceit that didn't quite pay off. The worldbuilding was fine, but was all just a bit of a muddle, with uneven pacing and characters agonising over problems that would be solved in three pages if they just spoke to each other.

How To Kill Your Family - Bella Mackie

 

47%

05.10.23

This was diverting enough but it could have done with another draft to make the relentlessly unsympathetic anti-hero(ine)'s motivations less muddled, to cut the dull details and weird cultural observations, to streamline the plot, to focus the humour and to sharpen the characters. (And another copy edit to get rid of the irritating comma splices; also distracting in Cat Lady - is this a thing now?) I think at the end you were supposed to shout 'The injustice!' but frankly she had it coming.

Listening Still - Anne Griffin

 59%

12.04.23

I quite enjoyed this, and its theme of communication (or lack of it), but it could have been... more. Some readers didn't warm to the main character, and it's true she spent most of the book crying, but my problem was more with everyone else - the awful husband and boring love interest, the token autistic brother, the obligatory quirky yet supportive best friend, the played-up Irishness that didn't really ring true. (I can imagine the publisher urging the writer to 'make it more Irish'.) The details about the undertaking of undertaking were interesting - although I presume the dead don't normally chat so much. 

Body Language - AK Turner

 

48%

28.04.22

The writing was awkward and the plot full of convenient loopholes but at least I learned a few things about working in a morgue, in case it ever comes up at a party.

They Both Die at the End - Adam Silvera

 63%

23.09.21

I really didn't want to read this month's book club choice. Why would I, when <title>? Not that such an ending is unusual, but it is unusual for the whole book to be about that ending. And indeed it was brutal - but also intriguing to explore the idea of whether it's about the journey or the (final) destination.