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alicechris's reviews
129 reviews
Frontier by Grace Curtis
3.5
Read this all in one on the train from Newcastle to London. I enjoyed the episodic nature of it and would definitely pick up something by Curtis again (esp with a long train journey coming).
salt slow by Julia Armfield
3.75
Horrible and fun, but not at the levels Our Wives reaches. The writing style and ambiance generally lovely but suffer in comparison if you've already read Our Wives.
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
5.0
Gorgeously written, emotionally astute, and stylistically clever. The characterisation in this is phenomenal, Sonia, Mariam and Haneen in particular. Would love to see this win the women's prize.
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
4.75
Absolutely devoured this, it was such a fun escapist read and it really lives up to its brilliant/ridiculous premise. However I am nothing if not a hater of the monarchy, so its (literal) romanticisation and the rare inaccuracy did disrupt my immersion, but only very occasionally.
CMQ is a great writer of found family, and the way they write about queerness feels tender and special - reminds me very much of Lex Croucher whose work I adore.
Yes, part of me wishes the book had engaged more with the campaign to abolish the monarchy or hadn't presented the Democrats as flawless, but these aren't fair things to expect of a romance set in the funniest geopolitical context possible!
CMQ is a great writer of found family, and the way they write about queerness feels tender and special - reminds me very much of Lex Croucher whose work I adore.
Yes, part of me wishes the book had engaged more with the campaign to abolish the monarchy or hadn't presented the Democrats as flawless, but these aren't fair things to expect of a romance set in the funniest geopolitical context possible!
It's Not About the Burqa by Mariam Khan
4.0
Found this really interesting, as with all essay collections there were ups and downs and so this took me a while to get through (although I found the essays got better as I went on). I tend not to engage with (organised) religion and so was surprised by how powerful and inspiring these explorations of Islam are - this book is an important reminder of how faith can be a progressive force for good.
This is also a book of a specific moment - without checking the publication date I could easily describe it as 'post-brexit and pre-BLM'. There's an element of 2010s pop feminism individualism to this kind of essay style that I don't feel totally comfortable with, but it didn't take much away from my enjoyment of these essays.
This is also a book of a specific moment - without checking the publication date I could easily describe it as 'post-brexit and pre-BLM'. There's an element of 2010s pop feminism individualism to this kind of essay style that I don't feel totally comfortable with, but it didn't take much away from my enjoyment of these essays.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
5.0
Yeah, this is brilliant. I started off listening to the abridged audio version made for BBC radio and glad I switched because this book is all about the details. The narrative voice is exceptionally crafted and absolutely excruciating. I kind of wish there had been a little bit more in there for people like me who aren't that interested in twitter or publishing - but this also made me realize I've never thought that deeply about the industry that produces the books I read. I did feel there could have been more payoff at the end (it was more oh! She's back? Than shit it all makes sense now! ) but that also betrays that this is has a lot more to it than most thrillers.
Edit - I've come back to this to up the review to 5 stars because I can't stop thinking about this book.
Edit - I've come back to this to up the review to 5 stars because I can't stop thinking about this book.
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
5.0
This is such a weird book and I couldn't help reading it in a day. It absolutely dragged me in and I'll be thinking about it for a while. I've left it unsatisfied and suppose this is intentional, but it does slightly frustrate me. It takes a lot for a book to spook me, but this one's done it!
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
4.5
This was so good! The worldbuilding is phenomenal (as it is in Priory) and despite Shannon juggling four perspectives throughout the book I was invested in all of them. I was really impressed by the sense of time passing through the book without a loss of stakes or momentum.
I've knocked a half star off because it took me so long to get through the first part of the book, and because I think the whole book is maybe longer than it needs to be. The switching between perspectives so frequently at the start just left me confused and I would have preferred to have longer chunks with each narrator. By the third part, Shannon had me deeply invested, but I would have finished the book a lot faster if that had come earlier.
It's also worth saying that the LGBTQ+ representation in this book is just so good - high fantasy is often off-putting to me as its major works are just so male, and the matter of fact way Shannon writes about queerness in a fantasy setting will stay with me (Wulf and Thrit's romance maybe could have done with more developing though? ).
I've knocked a half star off because it took me so long to get through the first part of the book, and because I think the whole book is maybe longer than it needs to be. The switching between perspectives so frequently at the start just left me confused and I would have preferred to have longer chunks with each narrator. By the third part, Shannon had me deeply invested, but I would have finished the book a lot faster if that had come earlier.
It's also worth saying that the LGBTQ+ representation in this book is just so good - high fantasy is often off-putting to me as its major works are just so male, and the matter of fact way Shannon writes about queerness in a fantasy setting will stay with me (
The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye
5.0
Read this. Very excited to give it to my parents.