This Way Out - Tufayel Ahmed

 46%

06.06.24

This was clearly semi-autobiographical, and took an unusual lens to important cultural issues that the author clearly feels passionate about. But worthiness doesn't make it a good novel. The poor writing undermined any emotional, political, psychological or spiritual points the author was trying to make. The main problem, of many, was the relentless telling not showing - pages and pages of exposition with very little to ground it, set the stakes or to make the reader engage with the narrator's predicament. Apparently, it has been edited but you wouldn't know it. 

One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston

 

57%

24.10.22

McQuiston's YA novel, 'I Kissed Shara Wheeler', was delightful. This earlier book, in comparison, was crammed with entitled 20-somethings leading frankly rather meaningless lives and the central romance was drawn out until it became paper-thin. Clearly, readers are expected to fall for the quirky, cutsey characters but middle-aged me couldn't help wishing they'd just face reality and responsibility. Still, McQuiston gets points for carrying the (rainbow) flag for accessible queer fiction.    

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.

I Kissed Shara Wheeler - Casey McQuiston

 

69%

30.06.22

A sweet and funny YA LGBTQ+ romantic drama set in an Alabama Christian high school. Compulsively readable, with some clever turns of phrase, the number of gay characters (spoiler: almost everyone) heroically tries to rebalance the usual straight stories. There is, strangely, no hint of sex - other than kissing, of course - and only a nod towards the real issues faced by kids in such communities, but it is a tonic to take in the relentlessly positive message. 

Tin Man - Sarah Winman

 

60%

29.07.21

I'm all for relationship-based novels and beautifully written character studies - and this excelled at that - but I also expect something to actually happen in a story. There was no narrative tension to this at all, beyond 'bereaved man finds friend's diary, feels better' (spoiler!).

The Binding - Bridget Collins

66%
03.01.20

Although this book is flawed in many ways - overwritten on a sentence level and underwritten on a plot level, with leads that are hard to root for - it nevertheless magically sweeps you into its quasi-historical world and scientifically reveals the many implications of its central conceit. I don't normally get on with magic realism but this is a fine holiday read.

(Unfortunately, I read it on my Kindle so missed out on the beautiful hard copies - but it's good to see that high production values are (sometimes) still maintained.)

Less - Andrew Sean Greer

72%
13.10.18

It would have been so easy to find this book and its hapless, Sterne-inspired hero annoying, for it to have fallen on the side of pretension rather than invention. It could have been trite and predictable - and it very nearly is. But it's not. It's really rather wonderful - funny, sharp, warm, wise and (secretly, subtly) clever and complex.