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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: 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: Far from the Light of Heaven by Tade Thompson
Far from the Light of Heaven reminded me a lot of a closed room murder mystery. Think Agatha Christie for the Science Fiction genre. The premise was exciting, but the execution left me feeling just meh. The characters weren’t particularly memorable and as the story progressed, I wasn’t bothered about how the mystery was solved. Wooden characters and a plot that felt a little convoluted, to me at least. The threads of the story should have been tied together in an understandable spectrum of events, but I was left confused and annoyed. The prologue got me very excited about the potential of the story. Far from the Light of Heaven…
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REVIEW: Jimmy the Freak by Charles Colyott & Mark Steensland
Jimmy the Freak is a story that makes you appreciate great characterisation. The relationship dynamics between Jimmy and Mike made my heart warm. Mike has essentially taken on the role of carer and isn’t too above himself to admit that it was more than he anticipated. The authors have created two of my favourite fictional characters of all time. An unlikely friendship. A freakish psychic ability. An obsession for pizza. A will to protect. I haven’t read another story like this in which disability is at the forefront and tackled with a sense of tact and love. I fell deeply for this raw storyline. Jimmy was dropped on his head…
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REVIEW: The Long Weekend by Gilly MacMillan
The Long Weekend is a psychological thriller that likes to live in your head rent-free. The story follows three couples who look to escape the city constraints and rent a converted barn in Northumbria for a long weekend. It’s abundantly clear that the couples all have their problems. Ruth and Toby have recently welcomed their baby boy Toby, but it isn’t the picnic the couple imagined, Ruth is struggling with alcoholism and her marriage is plagued with suspicion and paranoia. Jayne and Mark are ex-forces, and they are hoping to bury trauma from their tours in the Middle East. Emily and Paul are newly married and basking in their newfound…
