Woodworking - Emily St James

69%

02.01.26

The new year's off to a strong reading start with this engaging, funny, moving and ultimately satisfying character-driven story that uses every type of narrative voice to convey many types of identity. I was less keen on the underplaying of the inappropriateness of the teacher/student relationship, and the lack of trans men amongst the vivid queer cast, but overall a good read.

My Murder - Katie Williams

 70%

12.09.23

The idea of a clone trying to solve their own murder isn't new but I really enjoyed this take on the theme. It's strikingly well written on both a sentence and chapter level, the characters are interesting, the worldbuilding is clever and the issues of identity, parenthood, death and the ethical use of technology are well explored. What spoilt it was the annoying ending that exposed various plot holes and didn't address its own implications. But the first 90% - fantastic!

Upstairs at the Party - Linda Grant

48%
09.08.20

This self-indulgent novel makes a huge metaphorical meal of an unsympathetic narrator (just for a change) and her boring friends going to university and then leading disappointing lives. I have rather less sympathy for the Boomers here than for the lost Millennials in Queenie, though neither set of characters is particularly likeable.

Cuckoo Song - Frances Hardinge

72%
25.04.20

Finally, something worth reading. In other hands, the simile-heavy style would be overwritten, and the Gothic/fantasy/social commentary plot disjointed. But somehow Hardinge makes it work, and work like a, well, song. Even better than 'A Skinful of Shadows' (but unfortunately with the same occasional jarring phrasing that a decent copy edit should have sorted out).