oz617's reviews
473 reviews

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

3.0

I didn’t quite Get this book. The allegory felt confused to me – I figured planet Jupiter must be the US, land of Cokes and Cadillacs, and it tracks for that to be a relatively free place in a world where Britain is overtaken by a Nazi/Soviet allegory (itself a little confused politically, but no matter). But then at times it seemed that the planet was wholly fictional, which I feel would be more interesting if the character had arrived there to discover it was no better than home, but was too ambiguous to say much to me, and not confident enough in its ambiguity to lean into that. I was especially confused by the “what if the moon landing was fake” plotline, which seemed to come out of nowhere, and I can’t quite link it to the rest of the themes or plot. Maybe I’m the problem, I’m not sure. It was all very atmospheric, and quite fun to read, but I didn’t understand, and I’d be surprised if most younger readers did.

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

3.0

The magic and mystery are great, and the characters are beginning to take shape. I’m a little uncomfortable with parts of how the author approaches gender, race, and class, especially through the lens of a Black policeman.

Open House on Haunted Hill by John Wiswell

4.0

Very cute! I think it’s marketed as a horror story a bit falsely – the whole point of the story is that the haunted house itself is Not the horror you might expect it to be. Lovely message, but playing with reader expectations is a bit dicey, as many will just be disappointed. I was definitely surprised to find this in Diabolical Plots. I spent a lot of the story waiting for the weirdness to start. But it was a lovely concept executed well.

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One by Jenny Blake

3.0

Wee bit repetitive, and I disliked how it positions starting a business as something accessible to everyone, but if you’re working in the right type of corporate spaces this is likely a helpful read.

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

4.0

All the problems re. appropriating Quileute stories inherent to the series, of course, but at least in this novel the Quileute characters all seem well rounded. There may well be things I’m missing as a Scottish reader, but I was pleasantly surprised with this novel. The portrayal of Bella’s depression felt extremely real, and the tragedy of the vampires’ powers giving them information that wasn’t quite right (but also not quite wrong) was compelling. Sadly, I know some of what I loved about this book (Bella and her affinity towards the supernatural, even as a human, and her relationship to the werewolves) isn’t meaningfully resolved in the series, but if I’m looking at New Moon in isolation then there isn’t much negative to say.

On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

4.0

Beautiful story, beautifully drawn. I’d love to read more books set in this world.

Noontide Toll by Romesh Gunesekera

5.0

I’m not sure if this counts as a novel or a heavily interlinked short story connection, but whatever it was, I highly enjoyed myself. The narrator’s commentary was moving, the insight into a newly post-conflict country was moving, and the atmosphere created was comfortably hopeful.

The Mesmerist's Daughter by Heidi James

5.0

Very interesting novella. I love how unsettling it is, how it plays with the fallibility of childhood memories and the tendency to make monsters out of horrifying realities.

The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance by Jen Harvie, Paul Allain

4.0

I read this cover to cover before starting a drama degree. It’s really more of a reference book, meant to dip in and out of, but it was very informative and provided a useful springboard into subjects I ended up studying more broadly.

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu

5.0

Brilliant ambiguously magical story. I cried at several points, and will be recommending it to everyone I know who reads short stories.