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booklane's reviews
126 reviews
Reprieve by James Han Mattson
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Reprieve is the code word that will end the challenge at a Quigley House, a full contact haunted house that offers an experience so horrific that only one team has been able to win the 60,000-dollar prize. But a hastily put together team of four think they can handle it – after all, it is all fake.
Nevertheless, ss the book opens with the proceedings of a trial, we understand that something must have gone very wrong. In this tense book, these proceedings will alternate with scenes from the escape room and with the back stories of the participants and characters, among which: a hotel manager desiring a devoted subservient wife torn between his girlfriend who wants a job to be independent and a Thai prostitute, a gay Thai student that chases his English teacher to America, an orphaned black girl whose father was not as good as she thought. We also meet John, the dark spin doctor that pulls the strings at Quigley House, an all-white establishment so far. It is 1997, and the United States are heading for Bill Clinton’s second round. Business is not exceptional: people are getting softer these days -- they feel they have rights not too be touched and they will even sabotage you -- and he has something in mind.
Hanson chooses Nebraska as its setting, a Republican stronghold which he also terms a redneck state, where the only topics of conversation are sports and Quigley House. The book has the terrific feel of a Nineties’ college movie that holds up the mirror to the dark heart of America: it offers an insightful study of racist, self-obsessed, homophobic whiteness and masculinity as well as of luring American dreams that end up materialising in nightmares taunting and engulfing their dreamers (it reminded me of great American novels of that period that managed to paint a veritable moral picture and, more recently, of Joker). With an angry metal soundtrack and images from the Rodney King beatings on repeat in the background, the theme of otherness, racism and integration is exceptionally developed in biting social criticism (just look at the bios of the protagonists above).
The escape room is meant to push humans to the limits. We see how the tensions that build up in the outside conflate in this room in gory splatter scenes, and how the fine line between fake and real dwindles to deliver a terrifying experience with the horrors of the real world lurking under the costumes. In the end we end up wanting a reprieve: both from the haunted house and from the horror outside its walls.
The High House by Jessie Greengrass
‘Neutrality has become a fantasy. The time for it is past’
A novel that fully captures the mood of our times like no other and what one can imagine as the moment of ecological and societal collapse -- chilling in its exactitude: seeing an increasing number of ecological disasters, the sensation that collapse is far, the difficulty in apprehending the magnitude of the problem, the tragic moment of acceleration and collapse when unprecedented events take place and too much is at stake at the same time.
Our protagonists are alive because Francesca, the mother of one of them and a climate activist, has fitted a house that could guarantee survival in dire times. Their reminiscences of the warmth and little comforts of things past are beautiful, vivid and evocative, infused with the luminous longing and nostalgia that is only experienced when something is lost forever. Other interesting elements are the value survival and the backstory, the way the tension among the characters changes due to the circumstances. The acuteness and intensity of the writing is a strength of this novel, which at times tends to slow down in the renditions of different reactions to the same event.
Highly recommended and in the same lines is the essay #TheGreatDerangement by #AmitavGhosh, about our mind’s struggle to conceive cataclysmic events of such scope and what it can be like to be in unchartered territory. It seems his thought illuminates these pages.
Beautiful, urgent and timely #slowburner
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
‘Neutrality has become a fantasy. The time for it is past’
A novel that fully captures the mood of our times like no other and what one can imagine as the moment of ecological and societal collapse -- chilling in its exactitude: seeing an increasing number of ecological disasters, the sensation that collapse is far, the difficulty in apprehending the magnitude of the problem, the tragic moment of acceleration and collapse when unprecedented events take place and too much is at stake at the same time.
Our protagonists are alive because Francesca, the mother of one of them and a climate activist, has fitted a house that could guarantee survival in dire times. Their reminiscences of the warmth and little comforts of things past are beautiful, vivid and evocative, infused with the luminous longing and nostalgia that is only experienced when something is lost forever. Other interesting elements are the value survival and the backstory, the way the tension among the characters changes due to the circumstances. The acuteness and intensity of the writing is a strength of this novel, which at times tends to slow down in the renditions of different reactions to the same event.
Highly recommended and in the same lines is the essay #TheGreatDerangement by #AmitavGhosh, about our mind’s struggle to conceive cataclysmic events of such scope and what it can be like to be in unchartered territory. It seems his thought illuminates these pages.
Beautiful, urgent and timely #slowburner
The Savior of 6th Street by Orlando Ortega-Medina
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
2.0
Virgilio, a gifted 20-yo young artist of Cuban origins, portraying the gritty aspects of his world (and what he should not see): we are in a dilapidated area of #LosAngeles near #SkidRow, and he is determined to save his neighbourhood. There are many intriguing elements: dangerous mafia men who control the destiny of the area and what happens overnight, interesting queer characters, a young patron whose previous lover has been killed by her father and who seems to be falling for him, the glittering promises of the art world, the cult of #Santeria which his mother professes. In short, there is much to like when urban grit meets #magicalrealism . The writing style in first person is simple and immediate, with a #youngadultfiction feel to it: This stylrdoes not really work for me, but I would warmly recommend it to the many readers who are into it.
Thanks to #Netgalley for a review copy!
Thanks to #Netgalley for a review copy!
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
A sweeping, irony-filled dark comedy on ambition, racism, class, revenge.
Carney is a furniture seller in Harlem. Coming from a crooked family but ambitiously striving for respectability and status, he has gone to college, opened a shop and married a black woman from a higher social class, whose parents, however, look down on him. Brilliantly flawed, beneath his respectable facade he has maintained a crooked side to his business -- just to round-up a little bit. Things come to a head when he finds himself entangled in a heist, involving a robbery at Theresa, Harlem’s version of the Waldorf Astoria.
Carney’s flawed logic and the way he absolves himself, his ambition and desire for vendetta are the thread that goes through the book, subtle, ironic and absolutely enjoyable. The family drama and the heist side of the plot are interesting but unroll slowly and nearly a pretext, and tend to get lost in the details and the asides; what really stands out is the vibrant, fine-grained reconstruction of 1960-ies Harlem (and Manhattan, thanks to the characters’ forays into the city, from Radio Row, Times Square, Upper East Side) caught in a period of social change up to the Harlem riots. The rendering of the hustle and bustle is simply glorious, it makes you feel you are there or want to be there; and even the fact that Carney owns a furniture store allows for more immersion and nostalgia as we visualise the environments and details, from the dinettes to the futuristic space-age sofas. Whitehead maps the different streets and neighbourhoods and introduces us to all types, from “strivers”, appropriately residing on Strivers’ Row, to “crooks” as he perceptively highlights the class differences within the Black community in a sociographic analysis that eschews stereotypes and is always peppered with soul, character and colour.
The way Whitehead tells this story reminded me of one of those mafia movies where the main character tells the back story and reveals his hidden crookedness with irony and nostalgia. Very different from The Nickel Boys, which was more propulsive, solemn and streamlined and used a direct, accessible language. At times one feels there is too much detail in which the reader can get lost; yet the storytelling, the use of slang, the pitch, the way he puts things is nothing short of superb and had me highlight quotes over quotes, just to be able to savour them.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
A sweeping, irony-filled dark comedy on ambition, racism, class, revenge.
Carney is a furniture seller in Harlem. Coming from a crooked family but ambitiously striving for respectability and status, he has gone to college, opened a shop and married a black woman from a higher social class, whose parents, however, look down on him. Brilliantly flawed, beneath his respectable facade he has maintained a crooked side to his business -- just to round-up a little bit. Things come to a head when he finds himself entangled in a heist, involving a robbery at Theresa, Harlem’s version of the Waldorf Astoria.
Carney’s flawed logic and the way he absolves himself, his ambition and desire for vendetta are the thread that goes through the book, subtle, ironic and absolutely enjoyable. The family drama and the heist side of the plot are interesting but unroll slowly and nearly a pretext, and tend to get lost in the details and the asides; what really stands out is the vibrant, fine-grained reconstruction of 1960-ies Harlem (and Manhattan, thanks to the characters’ forays into the city, from Radio Row, Times Square, Upper East Side) caught in a period of social change up to the Harlem riots. The rendering of the hustle and bustle is simply glorious, it makes you feel you are there or want to be there; and even the fact that Carney owns a furniture store allows for more immersion and nostalgia as we visualise the environments and details, from the dinettes to the futuristic space-age sofas. Whitehead maps the different streets and neighbourhoods and introduces us to all types, from “strivers”, appropriately residing on Strivers’ Row, to “crooks” as he perceptively highlights the class differences within the Black community in a sociographic analysis that eschews stereotypes and is always peppered with soul, character and colour.
The way Whitehead tells this story reminded me of one of those mafia movies where the main character tells the back story and reveals his hidden crookedness with irony and nostalgia. Very different from The Nickel Boys, which was more propulsive, solemn and streamlined and used a direct, accessible language. At times one feels there is too much detail in which the reader can get lost; yet the storytelling, the use of slang, the pitch, the way he puts things is nothing short of superb and had me highlight quotes over quotes, just to be able to savour them.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book
Magma by Thora Hjörleifsdóttir
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
“I didn’t think any of it was really important. Just two pieces of meat kneading each other, trying to find an orgasm that would make them forget, if only for a fleeting second, how empty their lives are”
An account of a toxic relationship in chapters that are like flashes, written a sparse, magnetic prose that does not hesitate to call thing by their own name.
20-year-old Lilja falls for a young man a few years older than her. He seems to tick many the boxes: smart, well read, a vegetarian, does work for a charity. Yet their relation exudes toxicity from the very first lines, with humiliation as a key word: Lilja got chlamydia from someone else while travelling before they got together and he thinks she is a slut (never mind he will openly sleep around multiple times). This should send her reeling, yet she feels guilty and undeserving. Her sense of guilt increases as, enumerating the partners she could have got it from, she loses count, and we understand that she is a fragile, confused being desperate for connection who has found someone ready to take advantage.
The introductory episode sets the tone for a novella in which the anonymous boyfriend will debase Lilja in a number of ways, including gaslighting, openly cheating on her (even as part of a game), ignoring, exposing or isolating her her, comparing her to his idealised ex and forcing LIlja to meet her and listen to her anecdotes filled with graphic sexual details. As the narration progresses, we witness Lilja's spiralling down and falling apart as she tries to save him from his callousness, drowning in demeaning acts of self-denial and feelings of worthlessness. The narration in flashes focusing on single significant moments is particularly effective.
It always takes two to tango or to build a co-dependent relationship, and this is particularly true in this subtle, powerful investigation of female fragility -- a condition that makes Lilja the perfect prey for an equally fragile man who hides behind a facade of self-confidence and righteousness and fills the void of his life with fleeting, strong, violent emotions and may be playing out on her his repressed anger and trauma. An insightful exploration of prevarication, of the power imbalance between men and women and the anguish, vacuity, and emptiness that can pervade social and affective relationships (in our time and other times as well), in which sex is a perfunctory, empty act, sleeping around an empty game to kill time and communication is close to zero, replaced by a harsh physicality and rough sex the protagonists don’t seem to enjoy: anything “to shake me out of this deadness”.
The ending, strangely hopeful and open, leaves it up to us to imagine what future awaits Lilija.
A graphic, shocking novel that, in its cold lucidity, reminded me of the lost youth and moral vacuum brilliantly depicted in Bret Easton Ellis’ early novels.
An account of a toxic relationship in chapters that are like flashes, written a sparse, magnetic prose that does not hesitate to call thing by their own name.
20-year-old Lilja falls for a young man a few years older than her. He seems to tick many the boxes: smart, well read, a vegetarian, does work for a charity. Yet their relation exudes toxicity from the very first lines, with humiliation as a key word: Lilja got chlamydia from someone else while travelling before they got together and he thinks she is a slut (never mind he will openly sleep around multiple times). This should send her reeling, yet she feels guilty and undeserving. Her sense of guilt increases as, enumerating the partners she could have got it from, she loses count, and we understand that she is a fragile, confused being desperate for connection who has found someone ready to take advantage.
The introductory episode sets the tone for a novella in which the anonymous boyfriend will debase Lilja in a number of ways, including gaslighting, openly cheating on her (even as part of a game), ignoring, exposing or isolating her her, comparing her to his idealised ex and forcing LIlja to meet her and listen to her anecdotes filled with graphic sexual details. As the narration progresses, we witness Lilja's spiralling down and falling apart as she tries to save him from his callousness, drowning in demeaning acts of self-denial and feelings of worthlessness. The narration in flashes focusing on single significant moments is particularly effective.
It always takes two to tango or to build a co-dependent relationship, and this is particularly true in this subtle, powerful investigation of female fragility -- a condition that makes Lilja the perfect prey for an equally fragile man who hides behind a facade of self-confidence and righteousness and fills the void of his life with fleeting, strong, violent emotions and may be playing out on her his repressed anger and trauma. An insightful exploration of prevarication, of the power imbalance between men and women and the anguish, vacuity, and emptiness that can pervade social and affective relationships (in our time and other times as well), in which sex is a perfunctory, empty act, sleeping around an empty game to kill time and communication is close to zero, replaced by a harsh physicality and rough sex the protagonists don’t seem to enjoy: anything “to shake me out of this deadness”.
The ending, strangely hopeful and open, leaves it up to us to imagine what future awaits Lilija.
A graphic, shocking novel that, in its cold lucidity, reminded me of the lost youth and moral vacuum brilliantly depicted in Bret Easton Ellis’ early novels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Self harm, and Gaslighting
Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
This acutely observed novel opens with Kate throwing the titular dinner party, which, far from being a celebration, brings together the family on the 16th anniversary of Kate’s twin sister’s death. Quietly, without apparent drama, tensions emerge and shortly the Baked Alaska ends up in the bin.
The novel goes back in time, home in rural Ireland and to Kate’s first years as Trinity student, examining Kate’s dysfunctional family, including her manipulative, half-crazed, abusive, embarrassing mother, and her twin sister, her mother’s favourite, who was so much extrovert than her. Exploring guilt, family relationships, feelings of inadequacy, loss, surviving and eating disorders.
Gilmartin painstakingly lingers on details recreating mood and atmospheres. She brings out the undercurrents of tension in daily life under an appearance of complete normality that is similar to what we find in Ann Enright, who aptly is the author of the praise on the book cover. This novel enters in full rights the canon of novels centering on life in rural Ireland, caught in the Nineties at a time of change in values, which emerges through the young siblings’ experiences and their mother’s hysterical reactions. In this slow burner, the depiction of how thwarted and damaging family relations can be and the portrait of Kate’s struggle to cope and what she does to her body are shocking.
A good debut. 3.5
My thanks to Pushkin Press for an ARC via NetGalley
The novel goes back in time, home in rural Ireland and to Kate’s first years as Trinity student, examining Kate’s dysfunctional family, including her manipulative, half-crazed, abusive, embarrassing mother, and her twin sister, her mother’s favourite, who was so much extrovert than her. Exploring guilt, family relationships, feelings of inadequacy, loss, surviving and eating disorders.
Gilmartin painstakingly lingers on details recreating mood and atmospheres. She brings out the undercurrents of tension in daily life under an appearance of complete normality that is similar to what we find in Ann Enright, who aptly is the author of the praise on the book cover. This novel enters in full rights the canon of novels centering on life in rural Ireland, caught in the Nineties at a time of change in values, which emerges through the young siblings’ experiences and their mother’s hysterical reactions. In this slow burner, the depiction of how thwarted and damaging family relations can be and the portrait of Kate’s struggle to cope and what she does to her body are shocking.
A good debut. 3.5
My thanks to Pushkin Press for an ARC via NetGalley
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Eating disorder
Panenka by Rónán Hession
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
iam not sure I can do justice to Panenka,. It seems such a simple novel with “unassuming” characters and yet the beauty, fullness and depth of every single moment took my breath away and moved me. One of characters in this novel is simply beautiful because she makes people feel good and interesting, and in a nutshell this is what Hession strives to do. It feels like every scene is surrounded by an aura, and this is because everything and everyone is given absolute dignity, uniqueness and complexity,
Panenka is a divorced middle-aged man and a former football player for the local team, Seneca. He has become a scapegoat for its lost glory and for the decay of the town. To crown his failure, he symbolically takes the name of the penalty kick he could not score. He lives with his once estranged daughter and grandson, “a precious and undeserved chance to experience a family from the inside again”. Now he is dealing with blinding headaches, which he names his Iron Mask, a clear sign that “his body was trying to make him understand that it was betraying him”, and the diagnosis seems to go along with the pattern of bad luck that has characterised his life. But quiet Panenka does not want to impose on his family and reveal what is at stake. Can a sudden meeting disrupt the bleak narrative of his life?
A redeeming novel that focuses on allowing stories to be rewritten even in dark or uncertain moments. It also focuses on affinities with “people who cultivate what’s good in us”, on quiet negotiations and states of grace which are to be relished only when you know what it means to feel broken. Relationships are pondered and meditated upon and ultimately rewritten in a novel that breaks conventions and expectations of romantic love and family ties in the name of “free-standing wild-card arrangements”. In a troubled twenty-first century #RonanHession’s lessons are pure gold.
Panenka is a divorced middle-aged man and a former football player for the local team, Seneca. He has become a scapegoat for its lost glory and for the decay of the town. To crown his failure, he symbolically takes the name of the penalty kick he could not score. He lives with his once estranged daughter and grandson, “a precious and undeserved chance to experience a family from the inside again”. Now he is dealing with blinding headaches, which he names his Iron Mask, a clear sign that “his body was trying to make him understand that it was betraying him”, and the diagnosis seems to go along with the pattern of bad luck that has characterised his life. But quiet Panenka does not want to impose on his family and reveal what is at stake. Can a sudden meeting disrupt the bleak narrative of his life?
A redeeming novel that focuses on allowing stories to be rewritten even in dark or uncertain moments. It also focuses on affinities with “people who cultivate what’s good in us”, on quiet negotiations and states of grace which are to be relished only when you know what it means to feel broken. Relationships are pondered and meditated upon and ultimately rewritten in a novel that breaks conventions and expectations of romantic love and family ties in the name of “free-standing wild-card arrangements”. In a troubled twenty-first century #RonanHession’s lessons are pure gold.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness
No Number Nine by F.J. Campbell
4.0
An intricate, carefully crafted coming-of-age story where the excitement of the Olympic Games comes alive!
Pip has been in a very dark place for two years, since Holly, Olympic hockey champion and loving sister who made her feel so special, lost her life in an accident on the pitch. Pip has given up hockey and is now trying to move on but is still confused about her future. Therefore, she decides to accept an au pair position caring for two boys in Germany, as far away as possible from home, hockey and what reminds her of Holly.
I was hooked from the start as Pip, home alone on her first night in her new, stately house, is woken up by a sudden noise and discovers that two strangers have entered the house …. Bigger surprises will await her as she finds out that she has ended up with possibly one of the most prominent hockey families in Germany. No matter where you go, your past will haunt you and you have no other choice than dealing with it.
Part coming-of-age novel part suspenseful romance with touches of Cinderella and Jane Eyre minding kids in a wealthy family, there is much to like in this captivating, well plotted novel. I truly empathised with Pip, a well-rounded, relatable character who struggles with difficult decisions and tries to find her place in the world: her doubts, insecurities and mistakes feel so real and resemble many issues young women face. The plot is complex and not only about Pip: while her own family are struggling with loss, her new family are facing other difficult issues – ultimately, everyone has something to learn.
This is also a novel that highlights women in sport, dealing with the pressure and the psychological obstacles they may meet. I have finally understood something about hockey (no previous knowledge or specific interest required!) and have felt the frenzy of the Olympics! a worthy companion tot he Games and a great surprise!
Pip has been in a very dark place for two years, since Holly, Olympic hockey champion and loving sister who made her feel so special, lost her life in an accident on the pitch. Pip has given up hockey and is now trying to move on but is still confused about her future. Therefore, she decides to accept an au pair position caring for two boys in Germany, as far away as possible from home, hockey and what reminds her of Holly.
I was hooked from the start as Pip, home alone on her first night in her new, stately house, is woken up by a sudden noise and discovers that two strangers have entered the house …. Bigger surprises will await her as she finds out that she has ended up with possibly one of the most prominent hockey families in Germany. No matter where you go, your past will haunt you and you have no other choice than dealing with it.
Part coming-of-age novel part suspenseful romance with touches of Cinderella and Jane Eyre minding kids in a wealthy family, there is much to like in this captivating, well plotted novel. I truly empathised with Pip, a well-rounded, relatable character who struggles with difficult decisions and tries to find her place in the world: her doubts, insecurities and mistakes feel so real and resemble many issues young women face. The plot is complex and not only about Pip: while her own family are struggling with loss, her new family are facing other difficult issues – ultimately, everyone has something to learn.
This is also a novel that highlights women in sport, dealing with the pressure and the psychological obstacles they may meet. I have finally understood something about hockey (no previous knowledge or specific interest required!) and have felt the frenzy of the Olympics! a worthy companion tot he Games and a great surprise!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
The Mediterranean Wall by Louis-Philippe Dalembert
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
You are the ones who have no rights at all. Get that into your qird heads: none at all. You belong to us. If you insist on going where no one is waiting for you, you’ll do what we tell you to do. Period”
A harrowing story that reads like a reportage of pain and desperation. Three women from different walks of life, of three different confessions and from different countries, united by the same desperation that leads them to escape from climate disaster, violence and war. After very difficult journeys they all converge to Lybia and embark on a hellish crossing where many will die and which is inspired by terrible events reported in many newspapers (referenced at the end). Each tells her story, which feels more like a chronicle. The language is crystal clear and calls things by their own name in a restrained, solemn tone which is devoid of rhetorical flourishes. The focus is on the harsh realities that caused them to flee and the lawlessness and arbitrariness of the Lybian camps. These are de facto a hellish modern day enslavement system that gives the reader more than a punch in the stomach: the narrator wants us to take everything in and bear witness but his gaze is not voyeuristic and does not linger on gruesome details. Yet there are uplifting moments as we stay with these womens’ trampled humanity and learn of their hopes, fears and dreams.
An eye-opening novel designed to make you indignant, it does not hesitate to point the finger toward the indifference of international institutions. While it manages to fulfil its purpose, it is a pity that it drags in some parts, especially as in the women’s accounts of their past. Still an important achievement.
A harrowing story that reads like a reportage of pain and desperation. Three women from different walks of life, of three different confessions and from different countries, united by the same desperation that leads them to escape from climate disaster, violence and war. After very difficult journeys they all converge to Lybia and embark on a hellish crossing where many will die and which is inspired by terrible events reported in many newspapers (referenced at the end). Each tells her story, which feels more like a chronicle. The language is crystal clear and calls things by their own name in a restrained, solemn tone which is devoid of rhetorical flourishes. The focus is on the harsh realities that caused them to flee and the lawlessness and arbitrariness of the Lybian camps. These are de facto a hellish modern day enslavement system that gives the reader more than a punch in the stomach: the narrator wants us to take everything in and bear witness but his gaze is not voyeuristic and does not linger on gruesome details. Yet there are uplifting moments as we stay with these womens’ trampled humanity and learn of their hopes, fears and dreams.
An eye-opening novel designed to make you indignant, it does not hesitate to point the finger toward the indifference of international institutions. While it manages to fulfil its purpose, it is a pity that it drags in some parts, especially as in the women’s accounts of their past. Still an important achievement.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Torture, and Sexual violence