It’s been a while since I wrote a review as I have been having myself a little summer break. But this barnstormer of a book; Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson published this week by Tinder Press, has inspired me to hop back on the blog.
Set on the Californian coast, amongst the logging community of the 1970’s this is a novel that will touch every part of you. It is beautifully told, beautifully constructed and worth every single minute of your reading time.
It is 1977 and Rich Gunderson’s family have been logging the giant redwoods for years. His father lost his life in one of the all too frequent logging accidents and Rich wants a better future for his son Chub. With this in mind he buys up a local plot of land, the yield of which could set his family up for life. But only if he can get to it and that’s a risk of it’s own.
His wife Colleen is the community’s unofficial midwife, a role that she finds both fulfilling and heartbreaking in equal measure, as she longs for a second child of her own. After suffering several miscarriages Colleen is desperate and grieving.
When a face from the past arrives in the town then something rotten at the core of the community threatens to rise to the surface. Each family has a different opinion, but the very survival of this way of life suddenly seems to hang in the balance.
Written with passion, heart and breathtaking complexity, this is the story of all sides of the argument. It is the story of economics and the survival of a way of life that finds its self pitted against the continuation and protection of the landscape that supports it existence.
By creating characters with honest and complex motivations, characters who lives are laid bare for all to see Davidson brings this debate to life. Nothing in this story is ever as clear cut as we would imagine it to be.
This is a story of powerful motivations, strong people, and ultimately love; all set against the fragile and majestic beauty of the land.
One of my books of the year so far. Thank you Caitlin Rayner for my gifted copy and the very welcome introduction.
Today it is my pleasure to take my turn on the blog tour for Lying with Lions by Annabel Fielding. I was approached by Annabel a while ago to ask if I would be interested in reading her historical novel set at the turn of the 20th Century. A quick read of the blurb – see below- and my interest was piqued!
The Blurb…
Edwardian England. Agnes Ashford knows that her duty is threefold: she needs to work on cataloguing the archive of the titled Bryant family, she needs to keep the wounds of her past tightly under wraps, and she needs to be quietly grateful to her employers for taking her up in her hour of need. However, a dark secret she uncovers due to her work thrusts her into the Bryants’ brilliant orbit – and into the clutch of their ambitions.
They are prepared to take the new century head-on and fight for their preeminent position and political survival tooth and nail – and not just to the first blood. With a mix of loyalty, competence, and well-judged silence Agnes rises to the position of a right-hand woman to the family matriarch – the cunning and glamorous Lady Helen. But Lady Helen’s plans to hold on to power through her son are as bold as they are cynical, and one day Agnes is going to face an impossible choice…
My thoughts…
This is a book absolutely buzzing with period detail. It is a story of family secrets, intrigue and a fight for survival as the world heads towards irresistible and irreversible societal change.
The characterisation is strong, direct and you will find yourself drawn towards points of view and sympathies you never expected. Of particular strength is the considered and careful portrayal of both Agnes and Lady Helen. Born in different eras, both from different social classes theirs is a meeting of minds and a testament to what happens when strong, intelligent women come together, working to common ends. It is tale of unexpected courage and unexpected love.
The plot is dark and twisting. There are many skeletons rattling within these Edwardian cupboards and at times it is hard to see where morality and necessity both begin and end. But for a family with such a chequered past the Bryant’s passage through life was always going to be eventful.
From beginning to end this story has you guessing, has you reeling and has you hooked! If you love historical fiction and want to dip you toe into some Edwardian intrigue then Lying with lions could very well be the place for you to go.
Flash Fiction rules! And for this week Hannah Storm is the Queen! Thank you Reflex Press for sending me a copy of The Thin Line Between Everything and Nothing. Released this week it is my absolute pleasure to be able review.
I have made no secret of my deepening love affair with flash fiction and the fact that I can’t cram enough of it through my eyes and into my brain. Good flash fiction is compulsive stuff, tiny morsels of yummy delights that linger on your palate for days, sometimes weeks at a time. The kind of experience that makes your brain zing and then yearn for more. And that kind of flash is exactly what Hannah Storm is serving up here.
What always truly amazes me is the depth that you find in excellent short fiction and running throughout Hannah’s work is a tangible sense of humanity, humility and understanding. This is the human condition laid bare. These stories touch upon all corners of life, they take you to the highest heights and the lowest lows, sometimes just within the space of a few lines. But always they feel so real.
There are many themes that bind these stories together but the thread that seems to bind them all is the lived female experience. The empowerment and definition of women’s lived experiences and a clear acknowledgement of the challenges, abuse and extremes they face. At times these stories feel like spells or incantations. Places where women can see each other, hold out their hands and say ‘I feel that too’.
The arc of experiences and perspectives within this collection are vast. Each reader will naturally gravitate towards individual pieces, each reader will be drawn to stories that chime with them. For myself, wrestling through the first week of the holidays and with reluctant, dare we say difficult teenagers, pieces like ‘Octopus’ and ‘Birth Plan’ hit me with a thump. It is also proving impossible to get beautiful, lost Amy from ‘Birthday Girl’ to stop dancing in the corners of my brain.
This book is masterclass in flash. It’s a master class in knowing how to grab you by the heart and give it a beat stopping squeeze. Congratulations Hannah, you have a triumph on your hands.
Often these days I find myself wondering how on earth I am going to put into words the feelings a book has provoked within me. Sometimes it seems like a mountain to climb and this was definitely the case with Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t struggle to read Nightbitch; on the contrary I gulped it down in big messy mouthfuls. It was like some dark delicious treat that I kept finding waiting for me in the cracks of an insanely busy and stressful week. It was the kind of book I wanted to read non stop but knew it would be all the better for savouring. In all honesty I failed with the slow savouring part; I was just too greedy and impatient. Maybe that will come on the reread; because there will be a reread. This book is too deep, too delicious, too beautifully complex for anyone to take in first go.
This is the story of a mother, a mother never identified by her name, who is exhausted, lost in the forest that we know as motherhood. A women who feels she has lost her identity. Having been a successful artist she has paused her career to look after her young son. Believing she would be fulfilled by this she finds herself feeling bored, unseen and diminished. She still loves her son but motherhood alone is simply not enough. And admitting that makes her feel like she has failed. Admitting that makes her feel alone.
That premise right there ‘motherhood alone is not enough’ is at the centre of what this story is about. That is the place of honesty from which this story grows. It is something that is so true for many many women but it is still taboo, an often unspoken truth even amongst women themselves. There are no taboos in Nightbitch; Rachel Yoder smashes them one by one.
The mother’s discontentment takes on its own physical manifestation. The mother gradually begins to believe that she is turning into a dog. What begins as a strange patch it hair and possible extended canines, turns into wild changes of behaviour and a whole new way of looking at the world.
The process of change is symbolic of a mother rediscovering herself, of finding space for what she needs in the tiny slots of time that parenting affords us. It is about the way The Mother transforms to Nightbitch, about the risks and chances she takes. It is about how she finds her pack; others who are feeling the same and are willing to join her on the path to rediscovery and freedom.
This is a book filled with emotion. It is filled with heart, soul and truth. It makes you laugh, cry, scream and rage, but also it makes mothers feel seen. It is the book that every women struggling out of the depths of cartoons, playdough and sleepless needs to read.
Having read and been deeply moved by Cathy Rentzenbrink’s memoir The Last Act of Love and devoured her wonderful celebration of a lifelong love of reading Dear Reader, I could not believe my luck when the chance to read and review her first novel came my way. Everyone is still alive was published on 8th July by Phoenix and it really is a truly incredible debut.
This is the story of Juliet, recently bereaved, who decides to move her family into her late mother’s home, on the quiet suburban street of Magnolia Road. Her son Charlie is just about to start school and her husband Liam is a writer working, somewhat sporadically, on his second novel. Juliet herself is the main breadwinner and in addition to being side swiped by grief, finds herself juggling all the demands and guilt associated with the life of a working mother.
Magnolia Road has a close knit community; the heart of which are a hub of middle class parents whom Liam seems quickly to become absorbed by. At first Liam views the group as fodder for his new book and claims his daily meet ups are purely for research purposes. But as the weeks go on and bonds of friendship seem to grow Juliet increasingly feels as if she is on the outside looking in.
The dynamics of the group are further complicated when one seemingly stable marriage suddenly crumbles and Liam is pulled further into the emotional turmoil left in it’s wake. Juliet starts to question the foundations of her own marriage and wonders if moving to Magnolia Road was really the solution it seemed to be. As doubt continues to creep closer, life changing moments are just around the corner.
This novel commands with an air of authenticity from the first page to the last. It is populated by a cast of believable and well rounded characters who act with both spontaneity and comforting predictability . Characters who in short make you believe in them. The population of Magnolia Road feels like a community you could walk into, with lives you can both visualise and care about.
Cathy Rentzenbrink has created a plot that pulls you, that shows how the day to day of our lives is just as complex and engaging as events further afield and how the answers to the questions we ask ourselves are actually often not that far away.
Once I stepped into Juliet and Liam’s lives it was actually surprisingly hard to leave! This one of those novels that compelled you to keep turning the pages, but once you got to the end the characters lingered for a good long while. Complex emotions and solid story telling make this a must read of the summer.
Rachel x
And there is more…
For more reviews and reactions to Everyone is still alive check out the rest of the blog tour below…
Just this week a group of friends and I were discussing the reason we read. Since then it has occurred to me that my answer was missing one vital element. I read because I am nosey. I want to know what it is that makes people tick, what is behind the decisions they make. In short I want to know their secrets.
So being given the chance to read and review Dreaming of Rose : A Biographer ‘s Journal by Sarah LeFanu was an absolute gift. A gift of a chance to see into the lives and minds of not just one great writer but two!
In 2003 Sarah LaFanu published her biography of 20th Century author Rose Macaulay. During the period of her research and writing thoughts of Rose, unsurprisingly came to inhabit her head and somewhat overtake her life. First published in 2013 Dreaming of Rose is the story of what it took to create such an accomplished biography and the trial LeFau went through to get there.
This is a glimpse of one writer trying to pin another to the page. Through the pages of Sarah LeFanu’s journal we are able to both witness and share in the triumphs and despair born of hours of research. The frustrations of contacts who seem willing to talk but then mysteriously clam up and the difficulties of prizing fact from fiction, a little more each day.
Throughout this time, when money is tight and work on the biography is somehow fitted in between writing for the BBC and teaching, Sarah is determined to find and represent the true Rose. However frustrating and difficult that maybe.
The journal is a window on her world, a fascinating insight into how a book morphs into being. Of the process and the doubts, of agonies around structure and tone and the sweet joy when something sits just right.
This book has so much to say on so many levels. It’s is testament to the work ethic, creativity and determination of two great female writers, and my heartfelt thanks to Handheld Press for sending a gifted copy my way.
Life at the moment in our household feels a bit crazy. There has been work stuff, exam stuff, self isolation stuff. A whole lot of stuff going on!
I have been reading to escape the world and I seem to have accumulated quite a backlog of reviews. I have read some cracking stuff recently and so I don’t want to miss anything out when time is short so…
I though I would have a go at my first Triple Decker Review!
Which is a fancy way of saying ‘three reviews’ in one blog post!
The three books in question are all different in subject matter but definitely all have some deliciously dark themes and over tones.
So, first up is Come Closer by Sara Gran. First published in 2003, it became a cult classic and was rereleased in the UK by Faber and Faber on 1st July this year. Huge thanks to Josh Smith for my review copy.
It is easy to see why this book became a classic. From the off you are grabbed by the throat and pulled into the world of Amanda and the strange things that are happening to her. Married, with a good job and a busy life, Amanda suddenly finds herself plagued by a strange tapping in her apartment. But this is just the beginning…
Amanda herself begins to change. The way she dresses, the choices she makes, the thoughts she has and the things she says.; they all begin to morph into something quite removed from her original character. It seems that Amanda may have been possessed.
This novel is short, dark and terrifying. It’s like a ride that you can’t get off and the horror film you can’t look away from. It leaves you with a hundred questions and the answers are not as obvious as they seem. Devoured in 24 hours, I loved it!
Next up, The Hierarchies by Ros Anderson. Thanks you Jordon Taylor-Jones at Dead Ink for sending me a copy.
Continuing the theme of dark, let’s step into the dystopian world so skilfully created within this book. Where AI robots are embedded into society and divides between those who are born and those who are created have begun to threaten stability and peace.
Our narrator is Sylv.ie, a humanoid pleasure doll, created to serve her husband and her husband alone. But Sylv.ie’s systems are advanced and complex and the lines between human and machine are already becoming blurred. When Sylv.ie over steps the line in her home she find she has no choice but to leave. And a whole new world is revealed.
This is a complex and fascinating read which raises a whole host of questions. Questions that range from what makes us human, to considerations about the future of AI and the ethics around it’s use in society. This is one that will provoke any number of discussions and deserves to become both a feminist and dystopian classic.
And finally, continuing the dystopian theme let me intro you to AccidentalFlowers by Lily Peters. A novel written in a series of short stories, it was published last month the wonderful Arachne Press. I jumped at the chance when offered a copy by Sara Aspinall and I am so glad I did.
Set in the near future this is book with a heavy emphasis on the impact of Climate Change. Told in four sections the author begins with the subtle but deadly changes that occur in the UK environment , moving onto what the world looks like after the sea levels have risen and the rains have fallen.
This is a world of displaced people, where only a chosen few are safe, living in the great towers that dominate the skyline. Places in The Towers are awarded both by perceived usefulness and lottery, but life within them is strange and run by a series of complex rules.
It is world where those living outside the Towers are forced to scavenge and loot and the time before is but a distant and devastating memory.
This novel is a warning. It is filled with fragments of lives torn apart and people displaced, trying to come to terms with a reality they refused to believe in and ignored for too long. It’s familiar North East setting makes it all the more relatable and unsettling, forcing the reader to think the unthinkable.
It is a powerful collection of humanity and prose. Possibly not an easy read but I would say essential.
So there ends my first Triple Decker! Huge thanks to all the authors, publishers and publicists who have kindly shared their work with me. I am forever grateful.
This week sees the long anticipated publication of Animal by Lisa Taddeo, by Bloomsbury. It follows the success of her 2019 release Three Women; a work of nonfiction that detailed and examined the sexual and emotional lives of three women living in the USA. Three Women was a book filled with insight, hard truths and untapped emotion.
In many ways Animal has many of the same qualities. The biting intelligence and sense of raw perspective is present throughout this novel, as is the unguarded examination of a women’s sexual and emotional choices. But nothing you have read before will quite prepare you for meeting Joan.
The novel opens in New York City, and the suicide of a lover. It is bloody, brutal and public. One lover shoots himself in front of Joan and her other lover. So the scene is set.
Both Joan and the story move painfully and at pace, trying to escape the horrors of the immediate and distant past. Final destination: California. And while Joan is running away from the past, she is also running towards it. Heading to meet the shadowy Alice.
Here among the dust, the heat and crucially the circling coyotes, Joan starts anew. But life it seems is finally catching up with her. From the outset we are aware that Joan’s life is unorthodox, unstable and filled with trauma. Her parents loom large in her life. Both died when she was young and the manner of her death stalks her lived experience. It is never far from the decisions she makes.
Joan’s life is marked by her relationships. Her sexual relationships with men, in which she seeks both comfort and revenge, and which ultimately leave her hollow. Her relationships with women are complex and often filled with regret. All roads seem to lead back to her parents. It’s a truth that could seem clinched. But it never does. It feels honest, brutal and ultimately real.
Joan is our narrator, our guide and she leads us over some pretty bleak terrain. She is often hard to trust, hard to like and at times abandoning yourself to her damaged hands can feel terrifying. The scent of blood lingers on Joan, growing stronger as the story unfolds. And like the coyotes, the past is moving in.
This is a novel where the boundaries are blurred. It’s is a landscape filled with sharp edges and sudden drops. You aren’t meant to to feel comfortable here. You are meant to feel alive, you are meant to be in your guard.
It is a novel that is alive with the effects of trauma, it bubbles and boils with pain and the ways we deal with disturbing and life altering events. Sex in this both is complex and ever present. Sometimes a security blanket, some times a weapon and more often than not a punishment.
Animal is unforgettable. It is raw, it is dark and it is not for the faint hearted. I wanted to devour this novel, but the story itself had other ideas. It is a tale too rich, too spicy to be rushed. You need to take it in steady gulps and let each one digest.
I begin this review with an apology. I read this book a couple of weeks ago, and I really wanted to get a review up for it’s publication date which was 10th June. However this proved to be one of those books where the reading experience continued long after I had turned the final page. It was a book that I needed time to consider, a book that just needed to ‘sit awhile’.
Lives Like Mine tells the contemporary story of Monica. Married to Dan, with three children, she is a stay at home mum. Monica is of dual heritage and her husband is white.
Her in-laws are ever present in her life. She finds solidarity and support in her sister-in-law Nancy, but she is very much the exception. There might be a veneer of acceptance as far as Monica is concerned but Dan’s family are racist to the core. And the mask of tolerance slips again and again.
Monica has spent years shaping herself into something she’s not. Denying her heritage, her identify, her very being and trying to fit in, trying to keep the peace, trying to maintain family harmony for the sake of her children. But the support from her husband Dan is weak at best and he repeatedly fails to challenge the embedded attitudes of his family.
Add in the fact that Monica is estranged from her own parents, still coming to terms with the events of her youth that drove them apart, then by the time we meet her Monica is desperate for change. And it is at this point Joe enters her life.
A simple connection on a school trip soon develops into something more and their relationship is both a catalyst for change and a mirror in which Monica sees just how conflicted and at odds with herself her life has become.
Eva Verde has created a story that is powerful, painful and wholly believable. Themes of love, loss and cultural identity are woven together, held in place by strong multilayered characters and contemporary events. There is a genuine exploration of the motivations and experiences of each character, even those whose views are very hard to tolerate. No one is perfect, and everyone is flawed. And the book is all the better for that.
The story happens in real time, with a relatively compact timeline, a normal few months in the life of a family. But the exploration and unpicking of attitudes, events and feelings goes far beyond this. Eva Verde explores with sensitivity, wit and searing honesty the impact of generations on today’s lived experience.
This was a book that provoked every emotion. It made me gasp with shock and anger, it made me laugh and it made me cry. Beautifully written from a place of honesty and reflection, this one is a keeper.
There are some blog tours I will always jump at the chance of being on, pretty much setting the keyboard on fire with the speed of my response. And when the new Stacey Halls lands in your inbox this exactly one of those times!
Welcome then to my stop on the blog tour for Mrs England, published today, 10th June, by Manilla Press. Huge thanks to Tracey Fenton at Compulsive Readers for my blog tour invite and Francesca Russell and Eleanor Stammeijer for my gifted copy.
It is 1904 and Ruby May is a children’s nurse. Recently graduated from the prestigious Norland Institute Ruby is a poor girl made good. Dedicated, skilled and hard working Ruby loves her job and wants the best for the children in her care. But when an unforeseen circumstance forced her to take a position in a remote Yorkshire village Ruby wonders if she has bitten off more than she can chew. Four children of different ages and the isolated position of Hardcastle House make this situation seem daunting and unfamiliar. Little does Ruby know that these are the easier ingredients of her new life.
The marriage of her new unemployed Mr and Mrs England is immediately unusual. Having married into his wife’s large and wealthy mill owning family, Charles England is undeniably in charge. The household, including the nursery is under his control, while Lilian England is nervous and often absent.
As time passes and Ruby becomes more established in her role the cracks in the household begin to show and she is left wondering just what does form the basis of the upper class family and Edwardian marriage. And when things take a darker turn Ruby’s own past threatens to overwhelm her.
From beginning to end this a story of depth and complexity. Stacey Halls’ writing is a masterclass in perfect plotting and building of tension. Each chapter, indeed each sentence reveals just enough, no more, no less, to keep you reading, to keep you guessing. To keep you wanting more.
This is a gripping tale, immersive and created with intelligent attention to detail. The social standing of the Edwardian up class family is explored and laid bare. The veneer of perfection is carefully dismantled to show the secrets that might just lurk beneath. Add in to the mix Ruby May’s own unique story and the scene is set for a groundbreaking and unexpected tale.
If you are looking for spellbinding historical fiction, then this could be right up your alley. Stacey Halls strikes again!
Rachel x
And there is more…
For more reviews and reactions to Mrs England check out the rest of the blog tour below…
Book Bound 