28.07.26
It's set in 1976, you know. 1976! Yes, 1976! Can you tell? Can you tell? Are there enough irrelevant pop culture details and political references and endless updates on the heatwave (which actually sounds quite mild compared with 2026's brutal summer) to hint at it being, you'd never guess, 1976? And let's add so much background description that readers might not notice the flimsy, predictable plot.
30.06.26
A competent smalltown 'kids on bikes' (well, teens in cars) mystery that wasn't particularly distinct from similar YA stories and TV shows.
61%
01.05.26This Tyler is so early that the distinctive small-town 1960s setting was contemporary. It's stranger and sadder than her later work - and it's not set in Baltimore! - but it's as intriguing and beautifully captured as ever.
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?
19.02.26
This ice-skating drama had all the elements of a really good literary thriller but they don't add up to a place on the podium. Some parts were really interesting - the potential for abuse at the heart of competitive sport, in particular - but it needed a stronger edit to avoid a forgettable performance.
60%
10.02.26A fun and thoughtful high-school supernatural thriller that leaned into the ridiculous horror tropes while also tackling the universal desire to belong. It could have been developed a little more - there were parts that needed more (and others that needed less) focus, and the protagonist didn't really have enough conflict, but generally it was engaging and mostly unpredictable.
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.
03.04.25
Like Williams' later book, My Murder, this story of a coming to terms with being dead was both emotionally involving and beautifully written. It was also, unfortunately, quite similar to the (later) TV show, School Spirits - I hope Williams got some credit.
27.02.25
This was sweet in all sorts of ways, including the 'sour' and 'bitter' variety. Set in a a vivid 1990s Jamaica, this was strongly imagined and characterised, although the story was a little oddly paced, which made you less invested in what happened.
55%
This won a prize for being funny but I didn't find any jokes amongst the misery of living with death and the threat of death in '90s small-town Northern Ireland. There also wasn't much of a plot. Which was a shame, because the protagonist was exactly the same age as me but I couldn't identify with her at all. The many inaccuracies about the Oxbridge entrance process at that time were also annoying - it was a small thing but noticing the errors ruined the immersion and veracity of what was otherwise a vivid account of a particular culture at a particular time.
24.11.21
Oh, the curse of the sequel. This confused mess wasn't a patch on the first book in the series - sense and logic were forgotten, which is rather ironic for a book about solving puzzles. And the two love interests were so interchangeable that the whole romance angle seemed pointless. I don't think I'll bother with any more - although I might watch the upcoming TV adaptation!
09.11.21
I last read this about 35 years ago (this is the cover I remember), probably when I was younger than Adrian and didn't understand why his problems were so funny. Perhaps because of its huge influence over (British) comic writing and young adult novels, the humour hasn't dated well, but in many ways teenagers never change.
63%
23.09.21
I really didn't want to read this month's book club choice. Why would I, when <title>? Not that such an ending is unusual, but it is unusual for the whole book to be about that ending. And indeed it was brutal - but also intriguing to explore the idea of whether it's about the journey or the (final) destination.
64%
A teenage girl unexpectedly inherits a fortune and several hot teenage boys. As wish-fulfilment fantasies go, this one was quite fun, even if I'm a little old to find the 'romance' (such as it was) very convincing. Although the end seemed written entirely to get you to read #2 in the trilogy, I probably will, when it comes out.
07.07.21
I realised what the story was really about halfway through (spoiler: it was the same pretty obvious twist as in a book I read last year) but I still cried at the end. It's a sophisticated YA novel, portraying the complex self-absorption of teens and, yes, the characters and their circumstances are unsympathetic and the writing style is annoyingly mannered, but that's, y'know, the whole point.
