Steve
You can feel the fingerprints of Hollywood all over this one from the very first chapter (I’m assuming a film adaptation although it feels more suited to TV.) It's undeniably pacy, engaging and pointedly modern, and yet for all the questions it poses and all the timely themes it evokes, it feels frustratingly shallow to the point of glossy. Burke takes some big narrative swings as she finally reveals her hand unfortunately Yesteryear misses more than it hits.
A unique, somewhat elusive, literary experience that's both hauntingly disorientating and emotionally tender; Peter Cameron's elusive and deftly unsettling novel is a strange, atmospheric and elegant unraveling of the primal intricacies of what it is to be human. A novel to revisit.
Originally posted at x.com.
An ambitious, wildly polyphonic and emotionally complex novel that picks under the surface of trauma, parenthood and class; Wendy Erskine’s long-form debut is an undoubtedly assured, deftly focused and refreshingly honest portrait of a diverse, modern-day Belfast. However, it’s a novel that quietly entraps whilst reading yet fails to really linger once closed.
Originally posted at x.com.
A stark, spare and brutally uncompromising dissection of human consciousness and the unnamable currents of life upon which it is mercilessly cast; David Szalay's modern masterpiece is a gripping, thrilling and hauntingly existential portrait of the physical experience of existence.
Originally posted at x.com.
A searing, poignant exploration of human identity that cleverly unravels the various roles one must adopt and portray in order to function on the grand stage of life; Katie Kitamura‘s devilishly tricksy and thrilling experimental novel earns its audience with its sparse, page-turning prose, but some will certainly find frustration where others will find reward, and it’s a novel that will likely reveal more of its secrets upon revisitation.
Originally posted at x.com.
