In Case I Go Missing - RN Swann

56%

30.06.26

A competent smalltown 'kids on bikes' (well, teens in cars) mystery that wasn't particularly distinct from similar YA stories and TV shows.

Human Remains - Jo Callaghan

56%

24.05.26

The pacing is poor, there's too much exposition, the fact checking is still dodgy (has the author ever actually listened to a podcast?), the characters are underdeveloped but still I keep reading this series so there must be something about it that engages me. Maybe I just hope that this time it will be better.

Lying in Wait - Liz Nugent

56%

15.06.26

It's not a bad book (it's in fact well written, well characterised, quite well plotted) but it's so unrelentingly depressing that I simply didn't want to read it. But, after many attempts, I forced my way to the end, but that was somehow even more depressing (spoiler! But this is Liz Nugent, after all: evidence #1; evidence #2). 

The Woman on the Ledge - Ruth Mancini

56%

06.05.26

This was a fun read but so confusing, with its unnecessarily complicated 'explanation' for 'what really happened' and its interchangeable female characters. I wouldn't even say it was twisty - more that its unreliably unreliable narrator revealed unpredictable information as the story progressed.

Cover Story - Rachel Lacey

56%

19.11.25

You know what I said about Lacey's Stars Collide? That. Except this had some minor manufactured angst that got boring fast.

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.

One Perfect Couple - Ruth Ware

56%

29.07.25

I think this book works best if you read it ironically - as a satire with more than one unreliable narrator. Whether that was the author's intention is another matter, but it's dark and fun and gritty and silly and generally so full of contradictions that you just have to go with it.

Death at the White Hart - Chris Chibnall

56%

09.07.25

Apparently, the author is a well-known screenwriter so you'd think the pacing would be better. It did read like a TV drama, but that's not necessarily what you want in a novel. And here was yet another 'cynical female detective approaching middle age while bringing up teenage son and dealing with iffy husband'. But it was fairly well written and the update to typical English village stock characters was refreshing.

Leave No Trace - Jo Callaghan

56%

31.05.25

This didn't contain the irritating factual errors of the first book (or at least not that I noticed), but it was frustrating in a different way. It wasn't emotionally involving, and the murderer was obvious as soon as I gave some thought to whodunnit. Mainly, though, it could have done so much more with the series' whole USP, the AI detective. 

Immortal - Lauretta Hignett

56%

01.05.25

This'll be the last Hignett for a while, promise as I have many, more literary, novels to read. That said, while there's no doubt her books are entertaining, she also sneaks in more serious political or emotional messages, adding a little depth to what could be cliched wish-fulfillment stories. This series starter was better than Susan's and Prue's but still seemed a little transitory - on its way to somewhere else later in the series, where I don't feel very strongly about going.

Starling House - Alix E Harrow

56%

30.03.25

I've never managed to get through Harrow's celebrated 'The Ten Thousand Doors of January' so finishing this was a step up. But it was also oddly forgettable, even as I was reading it. It could have - should have - been compelling, moody, atmospheric, but instead it was foggy, uneventful and self-consciously overwritten. And the main character had so little charm that it wasn't clear why anyone was rooting for her.

Clickbait - LC North

56%

17.02.25

Telling 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.) 

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.

Pineapple Street - Jenny Jackson

 56%

08.03.24

An admittedly illuminating glimpse into the lives of crazy rich WASPs, who are hard to warm to or care about even when they're trying to divest themselves of their millions. The three main women seem to be defined entirely by their relationships to men (and don't often pass the Bechdel test). And, apparently, rich people don't 'say' much - they tease, they admit, they muse, they spit. It does make me want to visit Brooklyn Heights, though, and not just because it really does have a district called Dumbo.

Fairy Tale - Stephen King

56%
29.01.23

This was a well-written, well-researched (if consciously derivative) take on the hero's journey but it's all undermined by the fact that King clearly regards women as a necessary inconvenience. Example after example of the few women in the story shrieking and crying and generally spoiling things for all the brave men (unless they have a bit of sex appeal) gets wearing after 500 slowly unfolding pages. Oh, and did I mention the breasts? Apparently all women have them, wouldn't you know, so they have to be mentioned in every description. Strange that he doesn't describe the male characters' willies at all opportunities. Strange too that I can't find any other reviews that mention this obvious misogyny. 

Exiles - Jane Harper

 56%

17.11.23

The story's main character wasn't so much the detective as the lovely small-town Australian setting which, intriguing as that was for a Brit like me, made it not very thrilling for a thriller and not very mysterious for a mystery. Although the plot unfolded agonisingly slowly, I did keep on reading, which was something, but came away with a sense of it being a deeply conservative tale of people unable, or unwilling, to make a life away from the town they were born in.

Spirited - Julie Cohen

56%

30.09.22

Why didn't this quite work? As usual, it came down to being poorly edited. The author clearly wanted to show off her extensive research but as a result the characters were dull and their story badly paced - though credit is due for never explaining away the supernatural elements.

Soul Eater - Michelle Paver

56%

28.06.22

More vivid worldbuilding, thorough research and well-rounded characters but marred by the muddled story and too much emphasis on fantasy over history.
 

Idoru - William Gibson

 

56%

15.11.21

Beautifully written, creatively imagined and surprisingly boring cyberpunk.

So boring, in fact, that I have absolutely zero recollection of having read it before.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

 

56%

07.10.21

Interesting from a cultural viewpoint - accounts of everyday life, poverty and starvation in Malawi usually go unchronicled. But otherwise not emotionally gripping, and problematic in terms of the Western privilege of 'choosing' a boy to fund and champion.