The Homemade God - Rachel Joyce

54%

08.06.26

This wasn't as tragic as some of Joyce's other books but it was still pretty dark. But it was frustrating, too. Beautifully written, of course, but it didn't finish where it should have done and I was hoping that karma would get the utterly unlikable and entitled adult siblings, too dependent on their manipulative father, and it sort of did, but then... it didn't. Because having siblings is apparently always preferable to not, even if they're horrible. 

Perspectives - Laurent Binet

59%

04.03.26

I tend to avoid translated novels as they're usually sterile and stilted, but this was the opposite - smooth, fast-paced (for an epistolary novel - recounting a police chase by letter is an eccentric choice) and fascinating. Apparently, its cheeky take on Renaissance figures is controversial among those who know the period, but I don't, and it got me looking up most of the characters in Wikipedia. And I laughed out loud when the murderer turned out to be [x] because... of course it was.
 

The Perfect Golden Circle - Benjamin Myers

54%

14.01.26

This is lit fic at its most self-referential, like the crop circles it describes - carefully crafted and ultimately meaning whatever you want it to. 
 

The Examiner - Janice Hallett

57%

13.10.25

Hallett rehashes her trademark 'murder by email' style, and then rehashes it all over again halfway through, for added WTF flavour. It's probably meant to be a critique of the inherent dishonesty of e-communications but mostly it's just plain crazy.

Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder

 

57%

06.08.22

Well, this was certainly an antidote to all the insipid relationship novels I've read recently. The first half is a fluid, angry, visceral and rather funny take on modern motherhood, albeit in entitled American suburbia. But the author clearly didn't know where to go with it, and I lost all sympathy for the main character once she <spoiler!> disembowels her cat. And the ending was a cop out, quite frankly.

The Muse - Jessie Burton

54%
13.04.17

Attentive readers may remember that I wasn't too keen on Burton's previous book but this was slightly better. So the two historical periods didn't gel too well, the 'twist', such as it was, predictable, and the ending yet again tailed off to nothing, but at least I didn't fall asleep this time.

How to be Both - Ali Smith

67%
17.09.15

It's a tale of two characters and the one you get first is, apparently, randomly allocated. My copy began with the strange and wonderful stream-of-consciousness of a 15th-century fresco artist, a skilful and vivid voice. By contrast, the modern-day second half seemed dull and irrelevant, throwing insufficient light on the painter's tale. It's impossible, however, to resist Googling Francesco del Cossa and his (or her) majestic works.

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

50%
29.07.14

Too many words. Not enough plot.

Tulip Fever - Deborah Moggach

59%
11.11.03




Thorough research doesn't make this oddly emotionless historical love story any less tedious. It's an interesting concept, perhaps, to replicate Dutch paintings in the medium of a novel but, well, it's a novel, not a painting.

Headlong - Michael Frayn

70%
15.10.01




Not a promising book at first sight - an outrageously unsympathetic narrator, an unattractive picture by a Dutch (or was it Flemish?) painter I'd never heard of, the politics of the Netherlands in the 17th century... but once it gets going, it's hard to stop. It's the thought-processes of the narrator, and the emotional nuances that really catch the imagination. Clever and funny.