The Golden Age of Magic - Luanne G. Smith

43% 

29.12.25

The author tried hard with the worldbuilding but maybe should have spent more time thinking about plot, pace and clarity.

The Only One Left - Riley Sager

 61%

12.12.23

As you'd expect from the cover, this '80s-set thriller ramped up the gothic mystery factor before unapologetically going all out at the end. You could call it twisty but twisty does not necessarily a good book make - the last 10% or so was a case of "Really? Come on! Give the reader some agency!" Credit for the variety of female characters, though (all the male ones were pretty one dimensional), and for the quality of the writing - except for the irritating overuse of "atop" instead of "on".

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).

Old Baggage - Lissa Evans

69%
14.02.19

Who cares if there's not much plot when there are so many strongly drawn characters, and such a vivid sense of place? It is indeed the 'delight' that the cover promises, at least when it's not bogged down in pathos and foreshadowing.