60%
17.06.26Who doesn't love a psychopathic narrator with no redemption arc? Well, lots of readers if you go by the reviews. But a bad person does not make a bad novel - in fact, it's cleverly paced and the emphasis here is definitely on the fun. (Apart from when she killed a cat. Oh, yeah, and a couple of people too, but there's no excuse for killing a cat.)
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.
43%
26.05.26This was... exuberant, with strong sense of place (Manchester) and time (the 1980s), although the pop culture references were rather shoehorned in. And that was the problem - a better edit would have sorted the awkwardness, poor pacing and repetition. In particular, characters rolled their eyes on almost every page, which must be as tiring for them as it is for the reader.
23.05.26
My verdict on Grisham's novels is either great or guilty of being poor - the best thing about this one is the marketing strapline on the cover. The interesting idea was badly paced and even more badly written, with cardboard characters and details that have horribly (and fascinatingly) dated over the thirty years since it was written.
11.03.26
This has a great premise and (slightly) unusual setting but it doesn't explore either enough. The tediously self-involved protagonist can turn invisible - so many possibilities! - but most of what she gets up to is skimmed over. Also not interrogated was the love interest letting her take the fall for something he was also involved in. But it's fine, as long as they're together, right?
25.02.26
This is archetypal lit fic, in all senses. It's introspectively character driven with very little actual plot, and the New York setting almost a character in itself. It's vividly and wittily written, just on the edge of pretentiousness. It can be read at surface level or appreciated for its clever narrative device in which the omniscient narrator is a subtly critical friend of the protagonist. And the feminist message is fascinatingly complex. It's a book that can be admired and enjoyed but, while both are true for me, I don't think I'll remember much about it in a month.
45%
26.12.25I can sort of see what Devlin was going for here - but it didn't really work. Trying to add nuances to perceived nepotism - and actual privilege is fine if we care about the characters. But everyone was either awful (the main character and her friends) or unrelatable (her aunt and mother) so the stakes would have been higher if they'd all tried to go into accountancy instead of the family business of acting.
10.12.25
Although the style and much of the subject matter is dated, you could bump into many of the characters today. Everyone was eccentric in their own way - sometimes charmingly and sometimes obnoxiously but always vividly. And the message of women's sacrificing their individuality for men and family is still, sadly, relevant.
07.12.25
Someone pointed out that all Riley Sager's books can be summarised as 'Young down-on-her-luck woman moves house, discovers neighbours' secrets, has secrets of her own.' This one definitely fits that mould, and is also pretty similar to Sarah Pinborough's supernatural domestic thrillers (like the one I've just read). Despite its cliches, this was still quite well written and pretty entertaining, if not all that engaging.
05.10.25
This was such a lovely story: pleasing turns of phrase, funny in the right places, sweet without being cloying yet secretly quite complex - and surprisingly wholesome, given the sex 'n' drugs 'n' rock 'n' roll at its heart.
14.03.25
Despite the terrible cover and misleading but actually perfect title, this is as much proper literary fiction as it is a rom com - in more ways than one, as the main character relates everything to classic novels. A reflection on what makes a worthwhile life, it was the sharp observations that made it so good, rendering the characters real and relatable, even when they behaved badly.
56%
17.02.25Telling 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.)
06.02.25
What is it with all the telling and not showing in family dramas? This could have been a fascinating insight into an unfamiliar world, but it - the characters, the plot, the dialogue - felt cold and flat because everything was exposition. It really needed another edit - but would make a good TV show.
21.11.24
First of all, the murdered person does not solve their own murder (because she's, yer know, dead). Other examples of the many annoying things about this book are the endless punctuation errors, the wimpy, undeserving 'heroine', a plot and structure that made no sense, and the tiny village with its own two ambulances (complete with assigned paramedics), police station (complete with assigned detective who can't even find the cannabis farm), solicitors' practice, walk-in doctors' surgery, iPhone store and Oxfam shop.
30.10.24
You wouldn't want to meet any of the horrible, entitled characters in this book (especially the sanctimonious 'main' character) but that's OK, because nobody actually behaves like them in real life. It was all tedious telling and not showing, with no real emotional engagement. And it didn't actually address the ultimate point - even if (spoiler) the cash was not ill-gotten, the rest of the estate probably was.
06.09.24
Looks like a beach read, reads like literary fiction that happens to be both layered and fun. Not psychologically complex but vividly written, the claustrophobic south of France in August the strongest character of all.
65%
31.08.24I thought this would just be throwaway fun but it turned out to be one of the best things I've read this year. Well enough written that the exposition didn't seem forced, serious enough for the funny parts to be very funny, and a vivid enough insight into a weird wealthy world to be educational and entertaining. The 'murder mystery', such as it was, hardly seemed necessary.
12.07.24
Something about this series is really engaging. Is it the effusive and well-placed swearing? Yes. Is it the eccentric British humour? Yes. Is it the surprisingly complex dynamic between the main character and the ghost that haunts her? Yes. Admittedly, this was rougher round the edges than Grave Expectations (and needed another proofread - but thanks to the author for acknowledging our work anyway) but it's basically just uncomplicated fun.
