Queen of Fives - Alex Hay

44%

14.10.25

This story made no sense.

The Siren of Sussex - Mimi Matthews

52%

11.07.25

Considering the author tells us in her afterword how much research she did, you'd think she'd have attempted to make the characters sound and act period appropriately, rather than being 21st-century Americans inexplicably stranded in Victorian London. Even if this was a deliberate choice, the constant Americanisms - as well as some stereotypes about mid-19th century British society that I doubt were quite true - kept taking me out of the otherwise fairly sweet and fun story.

The Frozen People - Elly Griffiths

59%

13.06.25

Griffiths' depictions of North Norfolk have always been fanciful, so perhaps it's no surprise that she's gone full sci fi with her new time-travel series. It made no sense, the characters were poorly developed and the plot full of unresolved (worm)holes but it was a lot of fun - the culture-clash scenes set in Victorian London were particularly engaging.

Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters

67%

06.03.25

Sarah Waters hasn't published a novel for more than 10 years so I was pleased to remember there was one I hadn't read. In her anniversary afterword, she's pretty critical of this, her debut novel,  but I think she's too harsh on herself. From the start, the reader is clearly in the hands of a confident and sophisticated storyteller, a late-20th-century Dickens. Yes, it was a bit messy, and the main character is self-serving to the end - and it wasn't quite as good as The Little Stranger, for example - but it's certainly a good read.

Circus of Wonders - Elizabeth MacNeal

 59%

17.06.24

Proper literary fiction, this - meticulously written*, carefully layered and a bit depressing. The settings were well researched and vividly described, as was the complex plight of those who were 'different' in Victorian times. But the characters never really came alive, and most of them were so passive that their actions didn't seem to be conscious decisions.

*Although perhaps the editor got distracted three-quarters of the way through, when endless comma splices and a general lack of gerunds became very distracting.

My Friend the Octopus - Lindsay Galvin

 61%

07.04.23

I happened to be in Brighton and visited the very aquarium featured in this middle-grade novel, so thought I'd read it. The story was well researched and engaging, with, refreshingly, no attempt to soften the darker aspects. But the author tried to squeeze in rather too many unrelated strands, which made it feel a bit padded out. Much better than many adult novels, though!

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.

The Unforgetting - Rose Black

 

46%

07.06.21

Perhaps the barely literate style choice of omitting conjunctions and pronouns at the start of run-on sentences was to distract attention from the incoherent story and forgettable characters. So it was no surprise that it ended as if some pages were missing.

Shadowplay - Joseph O'Connor

 

59%

20.02.21 

Well, it was a confidently written reimagining of the relationship between three very interesting (real) people that got me checking their achievements on Wikipedia. The possible influences on the development of 'Dracula' were cleverly handled. It was also on the wrong side of pretentious and went on even after the main story had ended. And on. And on some more. 

The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry

70%
22.06.20

I'd been putting off reading this, partly because I wasn't all that keen on Perry's previous book, After Me Comes the Flood. But this was very different - rich and complex in all sorts of ways, with unusually detailed characterisation and an unusually modern take on Victorian Britain. I even liked the way it didn't wrap everything up neatly at the end (spoiler!).

Bellman & Black - Diane Setterfield

59%
26.01.20

If I'd read this before Once Upon a River, I don't think I'd have read Once Upon a River. This was just very strange and detached, with a lot about rooks and a lot about mourning and not much insight about anything, really. Beautifully written, though.

Elijah's Mermaid - Essie Fox

Didn't finish

I was hoping to have a short mermaid season (a short season of  mermaid book reviews, not a season of not-very-tall mermaids - how can you measure their height if they don't stand up?). But this was unreadable so never mind.

The Affinity Bridge - George Mann

47%
10.04.19

Oh, for a structural edit, or at least a thorough copy edit, to make this promising steampunk mystery actually readable. Trim the cliches here, delete the awkward phrasing there, cut some of the endless fight scenes and develop the characters into three-dimensional beings and you might have the framework for something quite fun. It does get extra points for having a character called Sandford, though.

The Secrets of Wishtide - Kate Saunders

60%
11.10.17

Not a particularly taxing detective story, although the author obviously had an urgent need to highlight the poor treatment of women (of all classes) in 1850. Readable enough, but introducing the villain so late in the story is a little bad practice.