Blogs and book reviews

The Day The Earth Turned is book one in a post-apocalyptic YA series - and it surpassed my expectations. It begins after a pandemic or two or three. All (or almost all) the adults are dead. The focus is on a small town (village?) and its outskirts, and the two big...

A compelling domestic suspense novel that also manages to tell a story of families surviving across the ages. After her mum and step-dad are murdered, and step-brother Martin sentenced for their deaths, Nancy realises she has to disappear. She flees to her mother's...

None of This is True is a read-in-one-day, expertly put-together psychological thriller, and I thoroughly enjoyed every single page. It begins with Josie and Alix crossing paths at a local pub one day, and realising they are both celebrating the same birthday on the...

My second book with 'Zero' in the title in a row, and the second review in a row where I'm going to do a TV comparison... In this case, Going Zero reminds me of Channel 4's The Hunted x BBC 1's The Capture. In other words, a thrilling chase vs the technology all...

If you were forced to sum up Camp Zero with a single comparison, you could say: "Climate change meets The Handmaid's Tale" - thought that is, of course, an oversimplification. Set in the far north of Canada, on of the few remaining cool spots in the world, there a...

In Games for Dead Girls, we explore the mysteries and folklore of a small seaside town called Hithechurch, where horrible things have happened, and where Charlie hopes to find out the truth... In 1988, Charlie was a child when she dreamt up Stitch Face Sue, an urban...

I thoroughly enjoyed this dystopian debut from Lavanya Lakshminarayan. Set in Apex City, formerly Bangalore, some time in the future, this is a world convinced it is running successfully as a meritocracy. Ninety percent of people are Virtuals, living in a world with...

A thought-provoking read that sees the world slowly run out of water - and a great example of a 'what if' novel. Thirsty Animals is set in Scotland, about now-ish. As the book begins, there is already trouble. The price of water is rising, and people are desperately...

Love Will Tear Us Apart by CK McDonnell. The deeper I get into this series, the more I find I'm enjoying it. But do start at the first book if possible (nb. this is book 3). The Stranger Times is a publication reporting on the weird and wonderful, with its own rather...

I really enjoyed the slow suspense of The Second Stranger. Remie York has one shift left at the Mackinnon Hotel, based in the remote Scottish highlands, and then she gets to hand in her badge, get to the airport and go on her adventures. But then a storm closes in a...

Godkiller is a strong fantasy debut from Hannah Kaner. It begins with water and fire and a young woman who can kill gods. And sometimes gods do need killing, because once they have love, affection and a shrine, they often tend to malignancy and abusing the very people...

The Other Half is a fantastically strong crime debut from Charlotte Vassell. Laser-focused on a rich and elite set of friends who live in London (formerly of Oxford), we begin this dark satire at a black-tie birthday party at McDonalds. Only one person doesn't turn up...

This YA science fiction thriller is a blast.In a dystopian future, Sil Sarrah is an 18-yr-old agent for the Syntex Corporation. Her brain has been engineered so she can piggyback on other agents' minds and lead them to safety without ever leaving the building she is...

The Seawomen is a wonderful dystopian literary novel, reminiscent of Handmaid's Tale at times, and easily my favourite book of 2022 so far.Esta lives on Eden's Isle, a harsh and unforgiving place to live at the best of times but even more so when it's ruled by a...

As a long-time fan of M.R. Carey (since ye olde Lucifer graphic novel days), I was looking forward to this new release, and wondering where it would take us, as his books can be so very different. This is a dystopian/post-apocalyptic almost YA-ish yet epic...