27.02.25
This was sweet in all sorts of ways, including the 'sour' and 'bitter' variety. Set in a a vivid 1990s Jamaica, this was strongly imagined and characterised, although the story was a little oddly paced, which made you less invested in what happened.
56%
17.02.25Telling the story via media channels was an interesting (if hardly original) conceit but it meant that you never get into the heads of any of the characters. The ones who were supposed to be 'good' were so irritating that I expected them to turn out to be the villains. (Spoiler: they didn't. The obvious villains were the villains.)
56%
13.02.25More 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.
06.02.25
What is it with all the telling and not showing in family dramas? This could have been a fascinating insight into an unfamiliar world, but it - the characters, the plot, the dialogue - felt cold and flat because everything was exposition. It really needed another edit - but would make a good TV show.
03.02.25
A competent first novel. Dent seems pleasant and erudite in real life, and this comes across here - it's obviously more than a little autobiographical (apart from the murder bits, I assume). Oxford was the main star but the plot was unusual, if a little confused by the end, and the characters fairly well drawn. It might be Dent's speciality but most of the distracting and irrelevant etymology could have been edited out.
29.01.25
Objectively, this isn't a particularly good novel but it's so sweet and positive that it's easy to overlook the general lack of drama and conflict, and the unrelentingly 'nice' characters. It's also refreshing to note that it barely features any men - the girls are definitely able to do it by themselves!
26.01.25
This was bad in almost every way a novel can be bad: characterisation, continuity, exposition, plotting, dialogue... Not quite Danielle Steel-bad but it's surprising from such an experienced and widely read writer.
22.01.25
I'd never heard of Rob Rinder before this book but apparently it's a bestseller because he's famous so I'd thought I'd better read it. Well, it was no John Gresham, apart from the casual sexism in all the depictions of women. Stereotyped characters, messy and illogical plot, not really any action, not really any suspects - at least it seems he didn't use a ghostwriter.
19.01 25
The best thing about this was its title. If it wasn't based on existing Oz lore, it would be just another, albeit quite well written, chosen-one-teen-girl tries-to-kick-ass-fantasy-that-doesn't-even-end-properly-because-it's-the-first-of-a-trilogy. Even the romance, such as it was, seemed shoehorned in.
15.01.25
This was better than Ralph's Party but it was still poorly written (can't an item of clothing be described without naming its brand?) with a lot of unquestioned assumptions about what makes a family. Lots of babies, apparently, which, well, yeah, taken literally, it is. Oddly for a novel of this type, found family, while valuable, came much further down the value chain than blood relations, even if those relations failed you.
06.01.25
New year, old favourites. This was a middling-to-good Heyer. The dialogue in particular was a masterclass - every character had a distinct way of speaking that reflected their personality and the effect was reliably entertaining. Yet the novel was overlong and portrayed gender-based behaviours that are discomforting to a modern reader (the hero occasionally resorts to what we'd regard as domestic violence) - although, as usual, the hints at gay characters were sympathetic.
These are novels I got partway through - in some cases, halfway through - but didn't manage to finish. A couple just weren't very good but with most I simply lost interest and preferred to spend my reading time on something more compelling.
In alphabetical order by author:
I've also not been able to finish anything by Joanne Harris, John Marrs or Maggie O'Farrell.
29.12.24
The three Klune books I've read this year (see also The Extraordinaries and Wolfsong) are different in many ways - but all are gently humorous queer fantasies emphasising the power of found families. Which is, of course, a lovely message, but this particular story was rather like being bludgeoned with a rubber kitten - sweet and annoying at the same time.
52%
21.12.24A glance through my reviews shows how much I love many of Heyer's books but this wasn't one of her best. Unfocused and lacking the usual vivid characterisation and witty dialogue, it's clear that Heyer's heart and mind weren't really in the right place for this late-in-life offering.
17.12.24
This was a 'by numbers' Christmas cash-in (literally - the structure was based on an Advent calendar) that was almost self-aware enough, in the usual Stevenson style, to pull off. But not quite - it lacked the passion to be anything other than a gimmicky read - although I liked the determined portrayal of the festive Australian summer.
11.12.24
Talking cats! Comedy villains! What a shame the premise was better than the execution. It just all seemed so half-hearted - it needed more action, more conflict, more coherent plot, more character development, more humour - and less pointless paragraphs of nothing. And how disappointing (spoiler) that the main character gave up villainy before he even got started.
60%
08.12.24If you confuse this with the Georgette Heyer novel of the same name, you'll get quite a shock. I'm not generally a horror fan but I enjoyed the way this ramped up from 'disaffected daughter reluctantly returns home' to full-on blood sacrifices before the fires of Hell. The wry tone was well judged and the structure engaging, but what's with the annoying trend for omitting conjunctions and gerunds? ('Julia read the sentence, shouted at her Kindle in frustration. She didn't like it, took her out of immersion.')
