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REVIEW: The Marsh House by Zoë Somerville
The Marsh House seeps in atmospheric brilliance. It has the uncanny ability to remind you just how boring your life is. The novel tackles relationship breakdowns from multiple angles. A mother and daughter. A house in the country. Creepy diary entries. Personally, living in a cold, damp property in the middle of winter is a dead cert no for me but the protagonist had a story to unfold. It’s December 1963 and Malorie escapes to the country with her daughter, Franny. Her life is changing far quicker than she could have ever anticipated. Her relationship with Franny’s father, Tony has broken down. Partly due to his multiple infidelities and Malorie’s…
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The Dinner Party by Richard Jay Parker
The Dinner Party is a dish best served cold. Mr. Parker, what on earth have you created? The opening chapter ensures that the reader isn’t going anywhere. Make sure you have cleared your schedule because you won’t do anything else whilst you are reading this book. No hoovering, no baking, no husbands asking where clean socks are lurking…this is a story to be consumed whole, with no breaks but plenty of tea and biscuits. So THAT first chapter – it sets up the story immediately, it has that hook that embeds in your mouth like a prized salmon. You may try and look away but one word, one yank of…
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REVIEW: The Search Party by Simon Lelic
The Search Party is a story that aims to entangle the reader into the web Simon Lelic has so expertly weaved. It incorporates the fear and danger of the forest – personally, there’s nothing more frightening than the open forest in the dead of the night. The branches reaching out and enveloping you in a death hug, the eerie noises that can empale you with terror, and the dark longs to crush you with its inky blackness. A group of friends is one member down, a disappearance, and the remainder of the group decides to lead a search party to locate her. However, what are their motives, and are they…
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REVIEW: What His Wife Knew by Jo Jakeman
What would you do if everything you knew, everything you lived for was suddenly snatched away at the drop of a hat? What His Wife Knew is a novel portraying a Wife’s denial and grief at being told her husband has died by Suicide. The remnants of her and her children’s lives are now a scattered ruin. She doesn’t know how to parent them in a way that they need, she can’t face doing the things that gave her pleasure…she is left in a wasteland of pain. With all, why does her husband committing suicide feel so wrong? The situation in What His Wife Knew is one of my worst…
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REVIEW: We All Scream for Ice Cream by Lou Yardley
If you are planning on grabbing some Ice Cream to eat during this recent pleasant weather…maybe think twice. Lou Yardley is known for bringing the gore to her stories and We All Scream for Ice Cream is no different. I love ice cream of all different flavours, strawberry, raspberry, salted caramel, I love them all. I, however, do not like Ice cream cones that attack children and tear them limb from limb. It’s a story that will have me side-eyeing Ice cream vans from now until eternity. It’s a fine line between an innocent ice cream seller to psychopathic octopus like monster that wants to end you. Katelyn and her…
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REVIEW: Malevolent Nevers by Tom Rimer
Malevolent Nevers packs a serious punch, cracked jaw, fractured skull, split orbital bone, bruised, battered, and beaten. The story feels like an old friend, an old friend who likes to live life on the edge, a friend that you can never tell if they want to help or hinder…a friend that has you walking across glass. A sense of familiarity, this is the kind of book you want to curl up with in front of a roaring fire and a nip of whisky. Pick up this book for its kick-ass cover and stay for the characterisation and penetrating gothic atmosphere. Malevolent Nevers starts from the ground up. You feel the…
