After I Do - Taylor Jenkins Reid

47%

03.04.26

I like TJR's vivid stories from the world of Evelyn, Carrie and Daisy but her contemporary relationship novels (see also this and this) might as well be by a different author. Everyone was just a cipher and, despite each person presenting a different aspect of long-term relationships versus independence, the ending was deeply conservative, with everyone ending up (spoiler) traditionally coupled up. 

It also made America seem very foreign, highlighting their strange food (sweet potato at Christmas? Pigs in blankets with pastry at a baby shower?) and traditions and approaches to life.

The Warbler - Sarah Beth Durst

52%

14.11.25

This had an unusual and intriguing premise that was unfortunately fumbled in the execution. Readable enough but too many 'but whats?', 'but whys?' and 'but hows?' to feel like a final draft.

Grave Birds - Dana Elmendorf

43%

19.10.25

There was an atmospheric Southern Gothic thriller fighting to free itself from this poorly paced, poorly edited book. I'm all for genre fluidity but it didn't know what it was (Romance? Apocalyptic horror? Murder mystery? Not enough of any of those) and so ended up as an unfocused muddle.

Less is Lost - Andrew Sean Greer

52%

26.05.25

I really enjoyed the first book but this was, well, so much less. It wasn't as clever or funny as it thought it was (it wasn't funny at all), and I had no emotional connection with Less's muddled and rather tedious journey through America. What was the point of this book other than to remind me that I'm British? 

The Space Between Trees - Katie Williams

61%

23.05.25

Katie Williams is an inexplicably overlooked author: she sure knows how to string a sentence together. She also knows how to reach into the mysterious, awkward core of teenagers. There's a murder but it's not a murder mystery; this strange, beautiful, ugly story gets out its magnifying glass to examine - and to burn - that difficult age from all angles. 

For an actual murder mystery, see Williams' My Murder, and for more teenage angst, see Absent.

Ravensong - TJ Klune

49%

22.04.25

As I said about the prequel to this book, Klune does good work but it doesn't always pay off. This was all over the place in terms of tone, plot and character, lurching from one thing to another - and it did such a poor job of establishing sympathy that I ended up wondering what made the goodies so sure they were good.
 

The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune

59%

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.

Wolfsong - TJ Klune

 64%

20.08.24

There's a thin line between brilliant and terrible, and this story walks it, occasionally dropping a foot on both sides. The angst! The yearning! The refreshing reinterpretation of masculinity and male relationships that nevertheless continues to disregard the role of women so that the few female characters were entirely nominal! The evocative and distinctive voice that needed a much stronger editorial intervention to tighten up an often-meandering narrative! Overall, it was a better novel than The Extraordinaries, but then that was for a very different readership.

Kane - Dick Wybrow

 53%

27.05.24

This was good fun. If it had been anywhere near an editor, it might also have been a good book.

The Extraordinaries - TJ Klune

57%

15.04.24

This story, while funny and gloriously queer, featured one of the most irritating protagonists I've ever encountered. Why two hot guys were literally fighting over this self-obsessed, excruciatingly slow-on-the-uptake 16-year-old-who-behaved-like-a-10-year-old*, I had no idea. And the true secret identities were so obvious from almost the start that the 'great revelation' towards the end was more of a 'well, duh!', along with another twist that was basically spelled out which will be properly revealed in Book 2. Still, it was fun. (And I'd already bought Book 2 when it was offer so I might as well read it.)

*This aspect was particularly annoying. I know plenty of 16-year-olds and, yes, they're still children, but they try very hard not to behave like children. I also know people with ADHD and they don't behave like children either. Neither being a teenager nor ADHD are developmental limiters - quite the opposite, really.

What the Hell Did I Just Read - David Wang/Jason Pargin

 63%

14.01.24

The title isn't a question but I'll answer it anyway. It defines itself as cosmic horror, which is partially accurate, but it's also a surreal and madcap supernatural adventure, the protagonists/narrators all so unreliable that it's not clear whether or not the story has been resolved at the end. It's also a deceptively clever, funny and well-structured novel, despite its pretentions of randomness. 

(The protagonist's girlfriend was a manic pixie dream girl, who would never be the protagonist's girlfriend in real life, which was annoying but did fit into the narrative style.)

(My library book has the narrator David Wang as the author on the cover, with a rather concerning note from actual author Jason Pargin at the back explaining that it is entirely fiction and to seek help if you think it isn't.)

The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly

 61%

09.09.23

What makes this interesting - other than the details of how the urban American legal system works - is the character development arc. It could have been a standard procedural but the narrator goes from shrugging off the ethical issues of defending guilty people to confronting and eventually embracing the complexity of different cases. There was a lot of unnecessary visual detail, though - who cares what side of the sofa people are sitting on? 

Confess - Colleen Hoover

39% 

19.07.23

"Hey, AI! Write me an overwrought romance featuring characters that describe their thoughts and actions in tedious detail but still create unnecessary tension by failing to communicate with each other. Ensure the woman is weak and weepy and needs to be saved by a man. Ensure that very little actually happens and that nobody behaves like real humans. Put that Hoover name on it and it'll sell millions!"

Separation Anxiety - Laura Zigman

 50%

01.06.23

I don't really get on with tragicomedies. A couple of things in this raised a wry smile but, while marketed as being a funny story about a midlife crisis, it was more about ongoing mental health issues and grief, which aren't particularly funny, and there wasn't even much of a plot. It wasn't so much 'rich people drama' as 'middle-class angst' (and the negative attitude towards only children was irritating).

French Braid - Anne Tyler

 

54%

29.04.23

Anne Tyler at her best is superlative. This was not her best, or even her middling. As a narrative covering the ebbs and flows of family dynamics over time, it worked fine, but the story and characters just weren't worth caring about. And enough of the pointless pandemic epilogues!

The Change - Kirsten Miller

 

65%

18.04.23

As I'm also writing a story about a middle-aged woman superhero, I thought I'd better check out the competition. Turned out it was better than anything I could manage, an angry feminist fable that's still funny and absorbing. What a refreshing change to see badass women fighting (literally) back. A little too predictable in places, and a little too glib in others, but all in all a good, original read.

That Summer - Jennifer Weiner

 

58%

20.09.22

The simplistic cover designs do this book no favours by implying it's a chick-lit beach read - but it soon becomes clear that beaches can be dangerous places. Its serious message is somewhat undermined by the pantomime villain of a husband, who any real wife would have left years ago, and by the weird 1950s vibe of what was supposed to be a contemporary story. The alleged twist was also so telegraphed from the beginning that I was surprised to learn from reviews that it was a twist at all. But it was interesting enough, in a 'rich people's drama' kind of way.

Family of Liars - E Lockhart

 

54%

17.07.22

Apparently, there's a subgenre called 'rich people dramas' and this is a prime example. I don't mind reading about impossibly entitled people - I mean, isn't imagining other's experiences what novels are for? - but this was just very boring. I was ready to give up when Something Suddenly Happened... and then it went back to being boring. We Were Liars was indulgent and predictable but at least it wasn't dull.

Never Saw Me Coming - Vera Kurian

 

58%

12.05.22

This was fun as a psychopath primer, should The Psychopath Test not be enough. How they interacted - or not quite interacted - with each other was particularly intriguing. But the plot was badly paced and made no sense, with an irrelevant background of political protests that had no bearing on anything, and there were enough typos to break the story world on several occasions.

Never Look Away - Linwood Barclay

 

48%

28.01.22

A by-the-numbers attempt at a thriller and by that I mean the 'twists' were so predictable that 1+1 = 2 every time.