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Review: Caramelle and Carmilla

A brilliant combination of novellas, with a new instalment in the Gilda Stories paired with the tale that inspired it; Le Fanu’s gothic classic, Carmilla. In the same vein as the Gilda Stories, Caramelle is a vignette which presents an alternate history of the Underground Railroad, where our vampires are not predators but are seeking sanctuary themselves. It’s a brilliant use of early vampire…

Review: Brown Girls

An innovative and original debut which uses the collective voice of the ‘brown girls’ of the title to explore coming-of-age and race. The book is a brilliant collective experience of girlhood, uniting Nadira, Anjali, Michaela, and Naz as a single voice as they move into womanhood, reflecting perhaps not a universal experience but one which many readers will relate to. The novel has little plot,…

Review: Brown Girls

An innovative and original debut which uses the collective voice of the ‘brown girls’ of the title to explore coming-of-age and race. The book is a brilliant collective experience of girlhood, uniting Nadira, Anjali, Michaela, and Naz as a single voice as they move into womanhood, reflecting perhaps not a universal experience but one which many readers will relate to. The novel has little plot,…

Review: You Exist Too Much

A poignant and moving exploration of one woman’s struggles with her identity, both as a Palestinian-American woman and with her sexuality. Our unnamed narrator moves through a series of relationships where she struggles with co-dependent bonds and forging her own sense of selfhood. Her desperation for affection stems from a difficult relationship with her mother, constantly needing to please her…

Review: The Inheritance Games

What would you do if you inherited a billion-dollar estate from a complete stranger? After her mother died, seventeen-year-old Avery Grambs is desperately trying to make ends meet, balancing multiple jobs with her schoolwork and living with her half-sister. When Avery is mysteriously summoned to Hawthorne House for the will reading of Tobias Hawthorne, she discovers that he has disinherited his…

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Review: No Friend to this House

How do you even begin to write a story about the woman mythologised (and demonised) for killing her own children? Following her retellings of the Trojan War and Medusa’s story, Haynes turns her hand to another of the most misunderstood female figures in literature – Medea. In true Haynes fashion, we trace all of the elements of the story, following each myth and side quest to build up a complex…

Review: Human Rites

How do you even begin to end a well-loved series? It’s a tough one – not only do you have to live up to the previous instalments, with higher stakes and bigger battles, but you also have to give characters a good ending. And a ‘good’ ending doesn’t always mean a happy one. A series finale is prime time to break a few hearts. And with a particularly lovable cast of characters in the HMRC series,…

The Unworthy

Agustina Bazterrica’s highly anticipated second novel is a speculative exploration of a world decimated by climate change. Our protagonist lives in what can only be described as a convent, of a new religion, where people are deemed Unworthy or one of the Enlightened. Outside the world is ravaged, food is scarce, weather fluctuates violently and people are deemed ‘infected’. This religion has…

Review: The Witch and The Tsar

The Witch and the Tsar is a beautiful, rich folklore-inspired fantasy telling the story of Baba Yaga. Olesya Salnikova Gilmore’s debut weaves traditional Russian folktales about the witch Baba Yaga with real Russian history. The old crone witch from folklore becomes the half-goddess Yaga, a heroine who hides away in the woods to use her healing powers while rumours spread about her magic. When…

Review: The Gilda Stories

Originally published in 1991, The Gilda Stories fundamentally challenges what we think we know about the vampire genre. Our heroine is a black lesbian vampire, who begins her life as a runaway slave, when she is rescued by Gilda, a vampire brothel owner. As she is adopted into the brothel learning about how they live as she becomes part of the family. Soon, she becomes a vampire herself and…

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Review: Creation Lake

Creation Lake is Kushner’s second booker nominated novel, following 2018’s The Mars Room. This one follows Sadie Smith, a spy, or rather ex-spy for hire, as she inserts herself into a commune of environmental activists in France. They follow the teachings of an intellectual, Bruno Lancome and much of the book explores these philosophies as Sadie monitors his email communications to the…

Review: The Invocations

Would you sell a piece of your soul for the power of a witch? Witchy books have exploded in popularity in recent years, but where many use the witch as a symbol of female empowerment, few really delve into the darker aspects of witchcraft. Krystal Sutherland certainly doesn’t shy away from the dark and occult – if anything she embraces it. The premise of the book starts with something all too…

Review: What a Way to Go

Bella Mackie’s first book How to Kill Your Family was one of THE books of 2021. And boy did it live up to the hype. So her second book, What a Way to Go has been hotly anticipated. Could it meet the success of it’s predecessor? What a Way to Go is a novel in the same vein as Mackie’s first with similar class commentary, satire and dark humour. However, it’s also wholly different – instead of a…

Review: The Davenports

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3.5 out of 5. In the wake of the first series of Bridgerton hitting TV screens and the rise of Booktok romance fiction has taken off. However. diversity in the genre is still not mainstream and considered ‘niche’. Queue The Davenports by Krystal Marquis – exploring the lives of wealthy black Americans in early 20th Century Chicago. The book explores the dreams, desires and…

Review: The Housekeepers

‘never underestimate the women downstairs’. Not unlike an Ocean’s film crossed with a Dickens’ novel, The Housekeepers is a fun historical romp of a heist.Set in Victorian London, a group of women recruited by Mrs King, plan a revenge heist against her former employer, Miss De Vries. Mrs King’s ‘gang of thieves’ are all women fighting and dreaming of better lives, from the devious Mrs Bone to…

Review: Best of Friends

Following the incredible Home Fire, any Kamila Shamsie novel should be a promising read. Best of Friends deals with female friendship over the course of 30 years. Despite their many differences Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since they were schoolgirls in Pakistan. Now successful women in London, they are finally forced to confront their history, From the beginning, despite attending…

Review: Cleopatra and Frankenstein

Cleopatra and Frankenstein promised a compelling read featuring two highly dysfunctional leads engaging in an impulsive marriage and its aftermath, perfectly pitched at millennial readers, especially Sally Rooney fans. Cleo is a 24 year old painter from the UK, studying in the US. As her visa is coming to an end she meets Frank – 20 years her senior and owner of his own successful ad agency.…

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