escape_through_pages's reviews
233 reviews

Bournville by Jonathan Coe

emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

📖 REVIEW 📖

́́𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞.'

Where were you and what were you doing when you heard the news that Princess Diana had died?

I was on the last day of a family holiday in Majorca. We had just boarded the airport transfer coach for the journey home when one of the travel reps stood at the front of the coach and announced the news. I was fifteen years old at the time, the same age as Prince William. I seem to recall that particular holiday strongly.

You remember where you were, who you were with, during key moments in history. In Bournville, Jonathan Coe takes that fact and tells the story of one family by returning to them at memorable times in Britain’s past over 75 years. It is history as experienced by ordinary people living ordinary lives; a multigenerational tale with an eye on the social and political transformations that run alongside the changes within the family. 

The setting is Bournville, an area made famous  for being home to the Cadbury chocolate factory and spans from VE Day 1945 to the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, the 1966 World Cup, royal marriages, the Chocolate War, Boris, Brexit and lockdown all feature.

It’s nostalgic, funny, tender, entertaining and satirical. It’s also quite unforgiving in its portrayal of the bad decisions of past and present leaders. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It’s so very British, and therefore familiar and comforting. Best served with a cup of English breakfast tea and a Cadbury’s fruit and nut 🍫🫖😊

Thank you @vikingbooksuk for my book

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Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

📖REVIEW📖

In the simplest of terms, Trespasses is a story of forbidden love. In Northern Ireland during the Troubles, an older Protestant man, married no less, is not supposed to enter into a relationship with a young Catholic school teacher. 

The time and the setting of this novel mean everything. The community, the allegiances, the political and sectarian violence, are in the faces of the ordinary folk daily. Every choice, every action has a potentially devastating consequence. Kennedy makes this clear from the early pages, such that you read with a building sense of nervousness and foreboding.

The sense of place is incredible. The romance itself, however, I found less believable. The relationship seemed to start out of nowhere and be serious instantly. Michael, the older married, Protestant barrister has all the power in this relationship and comes across as a little predatory. I did not like that Cushla appeared to surrender all control of what their relationship is to be and took absolutely no offence that he was disappointed to find out she wasn’t a virgin! I expected this book to break my heart but because of this, and an overall lack of emotionality, it didn’t.

That’s not to say this isn’t a good book. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The characterisation is excellent, the supporting characters are very well written. I particularly loved Cushla’s mother, Gina - a woman who struggles to cope with the circumstances life has thrown at her without the numbing effect of alcohol, but who is astute, caring and undoubtedly her own person.

This isn’t a love story, I don’t wish to sell it as that. It has much more edge. It’s a story of a time and a place defined by darkness and fear, and the effect of this on the ability of ordinary people to live. 

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

📖REVIEW📖

A run-down derelict country estate provides the setting for this suspense novel, an earlier publication from Unsettled Ground author, Claire Fuller. 

There are shades of similarities between the two books; our protagonist and narrator, Frances is a 39 year old woman who has newly acquired freedom following the death of her mother, with whom she lived with, shared a bed with and cared for. Frances arrives at the estate for the job opportunity of surveying its external architecture. 

There, she meets Peter, who is tasked with examining the interior of the house, and his wife Cara, an enigmatic and troubled soul. 

Frances being somewhat socially awkward and easily influenced, is soon drawn into Peter and Cara’s way of life. The story is told through Frances’s reflections from her death bed and it is apparent that her summer at the property has defined her whole life. From the outset, we are aware that the summer ends with sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛᴇʀʀɪʙʟᴇ happening. 

Fuller succeeds in laying the darkness down and creating a discomfiting atmosphere. I also really enjoy her writing style, it is very readable and full of description. The mansion itself is an omniscient character (more than one shade of du Maurier here). 

The twists and the reveals were clever and this certainly reads as a story that was well planned. I did, however, feel it was too slow paced in the lead up to the unravellings, such that I found about 50% of the book a little dull. Perhaps I am conditioned to the faster pace of psychological thrillers. Be prepared for a slow burn and you’ll likely find Bitter Orange a rewarding novel that quietly builds the tension to a climax that is at once foreseen but not predicted. 

Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer

challenging sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

🏆𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚛 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝟷𝟷🏆

'𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬;

𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝, 𝐈 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐡𝐞𝐫.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮.'

Having read a plethora of mixed reviews, I really couldn’t guess what I was going to make of Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies before going in. On the other hand, it was easy to predict it was likely to strike some chord with me; I’ve been the child who lost their mother to breast cancer and I work with cancer patients week in week out, I’ve seen this journey but always from the outsider’s viewpoint (thankfully). Maps, however, isn’t from an observer’s perspective; it isn’t even from Lia’s perspective really. The loudest voice in this novel is the imagined cancer itself and the cells and structures that make up Lia’s body. It’s an interesting technique that this voice becomes the more dominant in the narration, the paragraphs getting longer and more frequent, as the cancer progressively metastasises throughout Lia’s body. 

But that voice of cancer read confusingly in parts, such that I questioned whether it was the malignancy talking. It’s a shapeshifter and I couldn’t always follow the abstractions. 

I otherwise enjoyed the way this was written verse-like, it flowed smoothly and lyrically, although I could take or leave Mortimer’s experiments with fonts of varying sizes and emphasis travelling over the pages in different directions. Bit unnecessary, it read uniquely without them. 

You can tell that Maps is borne from a personal experience of Mortimer’s, it has that authenticity about it, which is not to be underestimated. I felt this. 

What it doesn’t do is bring an emotional weight. It’s not about pulling on the reader’s heartstrings, but there is an argument that Mortimer has missed the opportunity to truly impact readers. You’ll be impressed by the stylistic skill but you won’t grieve for the characters. 

All in all, a striking debut that certainly brings something new. I understand why it’s dividing readers - you’ll be blown away by the style or you’ll be missing the connection. 

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

🏆𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚛 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝟻🏆

'𝐇𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭... 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭.'

Ok, here is my ignorance: Had I heard of Abraham Lincoln: yes. Did I have some knowledge of his role during the American Civil War and abolition of slavery: yes. Did I know he was assassinated: no. Had I heard of John Wilkes Booth before reading this book: no.

This is and isn’t a story about Lincoln’s assassination but it is a story of the Booth family; from the birth of John and his siblings until that defining event that changed how this regarded theatrical family would be viewed forever. 

I was interested from the beginning, the story starts from the perspective of eldest child, Rosalie, and life on the family farm. The pain and grief experienced by the family following the loss of (I think) three of the siblings was carefully and believably depicted in this section. The problem is the middle section of the book just plods. And plods. I got bored. The characterisation wasn’t strong enough that I had an emotional investment to compensate for the mundane years and prose to match. It’s a bit flat and one dimensional. What I did like was the interspersed vignettes detailing concurrently what was happening in Lincoln’s rise to power. It added to my understanding of the political landscape and progression of the war. 

The pace picked up in the final 25% and knowing where events where leading, I was invested again. I’ve learned more about American history so overall it has been a worthwhile read, if not a wow read, which really is what I want from Booker selections. I’m probably judging this book more harshly because of this. Maybe. 

Booth sits on the longlist for me as Great Circle did last year. It’s a good book, both extensively researched. I would class the writing of a similar style and standard and I found the middle of both books to be a slog before reaching to a climactic ending. I was surprised to see GC shortlisted, and I will be again if Booth makes it to that stage. 

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

📖 REVIEW 📖

I groaned a little when the Booker long list was announced; I had a head start of only one book and that was immediately cancelled out once I saw Oh William! was listed.  I knew I’d have to squeeze in its predecessor, Anything is Possible. Having read My Name is Lucy Barton last year, my completionist brain was never going to get on board with skipping from book 1 to book 3. 

While I’ve since seen many people say it’s not necessary to read the earlier books in the series to appreciate Oh William!, I’m someone who doesn’t remember the details of books well so this was a welcome revisit to both Strout’s writing and Lucy’s background. 

Anything is Possible is not focused on Lucy Barton herself, instead it is a collection of linked short stories focused on different members of the Amgash community where Lucy grew up. A companion piece if you will. Lucy does feature in one story that reunites her with her brother and sister but she’s very much only on the periphery in the remainder of the book. It’s a little reminiscent of the style of Olive Kitteridge, although not quite as strong (that’s my favourite of the Strout books I’ve read so far). 

They are again stories that explore the lives of ordinary people, who are on the surface unremarkable but Strout tells us of their pain, their darkness and their insecurities. I’m going to quote another reviewer, @thebookstopshere who sums up what Strout does through her writing as there is no better description of how she handles a community than this, ‘she looks at its people directly in the eye while they seem to spend their days looking at the ground’.

Strout’s writing is soothing, I find it the reading equivalent of a lullaby and so whether necessary to fully appreciate Oh William! or not, I’m glad I made this pit stop. 

#anythingispossible #lucybarton #amgash #elizabethstrout #shortstories #bookreview #bookerprize2022 

Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

🏆𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚛 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝟺🏆

The more I think on Case Study, the more clever I think it is. Even the structure of the novel - fiction disguised as non-fiction - reflects the entire premise of the novel and the questions asked within it. What determines what is true and untrue in any given situation? Which of the personae we present to the world is actually our true self? Can they be distinguished, does a true self exist? What is identity?

The story is set out as a series of 5 journals written by an unnamed author interspersed with biographical chapters on a renowned 1960s psychotherapist, Arthur Collins-Braithwaite. Our journal author believes that Braithwaite, through his unconventional approach and ‘anti-psychiatry’ views, is responsible for leading a former client, her sister, to her suicide. She creates an alter ego, Rebecca Smyth and presents herself to Braithwaite in an attempt to dig deeper. 

It sounds quite dark laid out like that, and indeed it is in places, but it’s also funny and entertaining. I found it propulsive reading and intriguing from start to finish.

Unreliable narrators, unstable, unlikeable but hella interesting characters, what is reality becomes increasingly blurred as the story goes. 

Questions remain at the end, we never get the full story about Rebecca’s sister’s death, which may disappoint some, but is that not reflective of life? The truth is not always easy to define and often not forthcoming. How could there be a clear cut answer to this? 

So clever is this novel that I am sure there are other observations that have gone over my head, I thoroughly enjoyed this dissection of psychology and identity and will certainly be reading GMB’s His Bloody Project on the strength of this one. 

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

🏆𝙱𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚛 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚣𝚎 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟸 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝟹🏆

Sometimes the hardest thing is to be concise in writing isn’t it? The number of times I write a work email, read it back and chop out unnecessary or repetitive parts, or the number of times Instagram tells me ‘your caption is too long’ 🤦🏻‍♀️ I blame the coursework demands of GCSE English and university essays and the requirement to hit a certain word count training me to over ice the cake. 

To describe Small Things Like These as concise is an understatement. There is not a wasted word and yet it feels like a complete, well-rounded story. I am still at odds with myself as to if I view it solely as the best short story I’ve ever read rather than it holding it’s own amongst a cohort of novels.

Despite its brevity, I got a true sense of place, Ireland 1985 in the run up to Christmas. 

Coal merchant Bill Furlong is dealing with a growing sense of unease. Despite his comfortable present; a wife, five daughters, a steady income and respect in the town, his past is present in his thoughts. His unconventional upbringing - opportunities that should have been out of reach but weren’t due to the kindness and compassion of one person - means he cannot close his eyes to what is happening nearby despite the complicit silence of his community and the likely consequence of going against the tide. 

It’s a story of hope with a reminder that doing the right thing is never the wrong choice. The book finishes with Bill having made his choice, you feel a connection to this character, you know he will have a price to pay and yet you don’t doubt the path he has chosen is the right one. I was left wanting to know what was next, for Bill, for Sarah, for the community. Once I sat with it for a while, I found myself also wanting the fleshed out version of the story; the detail of Bill’s early life, more about Sarah’s back story. I would love to read an extended version of Small Things Like These - but does that simply speak of its success and the power of Keegan to grab the reader in the minimum amount of words? I think it probably does.

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

'𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥. 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲𝐬. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐬. 𝐁𝐮𝐭, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞. 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐭𝐨. 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐧'𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭.'

A lot is made of the fact that Leila Mottley is the youngest ever longlisted author for the Booker prize and it really is astonishing what she has managed to produce. Putting her age aside though, this book holds its value, it isn’t just a well written book ‘for her age’.

Inspired by a real life headline event in her hometown, Mottley gives us Kiara, a seventeen year old black girl, who lives in a basic apartment she can’t afford to pay rent on with her older brother, Marcus. Her father is dead and her mother is held in a halfway house. Marcus is doing little to support his sister, too busy chasing a dream of becoming a musician, so she feels the weight of maintaining the roof over their head as well as that of her 9 year old neighbour, Trevor, whose own mother is absent for long periods. 

Circumstances lead her to sex working on the streets and one night she is picked up by two policeman. Instead of reprimanding her, they take advantage of her and continue to do so, effectively pimping her out to other members of the police. 

Many months of abuse down the line, the scandal breaks and Kiara finds herself in the midst of a potential criminal case and media storm. 

Take Shuggie Bain, ship across the Atlantic and fast forward to the 2010s and you have the sense of what Kiara’s world is. The impossibility of life, the lack of choices and a desperate struggle to survive. 

Kiara is a great, human protagonist, I was fully engaged in her narrative and found the surrounding characters interesting and colourful. Given Mottley is a youth poet laureate, it’s no surprise that the prose is poetic and descriptive. 

The pacing of the first half of the book was perfect. The storytelling is patient, serving to depict how Kiara finds herself in the situation she is in. I found myself struggling to think of how it could have been any other way for her. 

In the latter stages of the book I found this patient storytelling fell by the wayside a little and we seemed to fast forward to a conclusion that left us with more questions than answers about what the future would hold for Kiara, Marcus and Trevor. There’s no obvious bright light at the end of this tunnel. 

I also felt at times it was a little overwritten, particularly in the closing sentences of the chapters; they sometimes read like they were trying too hard to finish on a deep or profound note. 

This is an incredibly strong debut novel that carries an emotional punch but it’s not a Booker prize winner. Conversely, I predict that will be its success, it will appeal to the masses, it has mainstream appeal, a strong, powerful story that will rightfully engage readers across the board. 

The Push by Ashley Audrain

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

📖 REVIEW 📖

The Push is about the making and breaking of a family. It’s about mothers and daughters. How much of who we are, of who we will be as parents, is inherited? Or learned? Can you override a dysfunctional upbringing with will alone?

The women in Blythe’s family have not taken well to motherhood. Blythe is determined things will be different when she becomes a mother herself. But as her daughter, Violet, grows, Blythe becomes increasingly aware her daughter is not normal. She doesn’t behave like other children. Her husband Fox doesn’t see it; Violet is a normal child and Blythe is overthinking, overreacting. An event happens that ultimately tears the family apart. The question remains throughout the book, how far can we trust the story Blythe is telling us? Can she be right about her child or is her own traumatic upbringing shaping her view and leading to disconnection with her daughter?

This book consumed me from the moment I started reading, I read it in two short days. For someone who thought they were done with thrillers, The Push (and Lullaby) have recently convinced me otherwise. I like my thrillers with a heavy dose of the psychologically unsound, sitting deep in the dark. Complete with cliffhanger ending (what did she do????) that left me both desperate for another chapter but also fearful of what that would reveal, The Push was a thrill from start to finish.