skconaghan's reviews
451 reviews

The Hemlock Queen by Hannah Whitten

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Children of Fallen Gods by Carissa Broadbent

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

This is … often good writing in chunks. And then it repeats and repeats and repeats and... The author is obsessed with white and white and white and repetition over and again. This novel could have been …oof… probably 8h shorter (what is that like? 300 pages too long?) it was a BIT OF A long haul to get to the end. The majority of the middle narrative was action and action and repeated action (and a lot of bedroom action) that all didn’t accomplish much until round about the 80% mark.

The ending was superb. Grand wee twist. Just took too long to get there imo.

Won’t be reading the third for a while.
Exhausted after this one.

But I’ll come back to it…

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

adventurous dark funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

starts a bit dark and ugly 
turns morbid & hilarious
becomes increasingly absurd
but the plot moves along as the mismatched participants engage in their most serious quest
ends in relief & romance

short enough to enjoy in a reasonable time frame

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

This was a heart-warming, heart-wrenching, heart-mending surprise of a novel, stuffed with wit and charm, some naive passion and a mature romance, a mouthful of banter, and all the delectable literary truffles you’d expect from a book with shelves of books on the cover and the word ‘book’ in the title. 

 

Each character is embroiled in colossal real-life mistakes that cause irreversible trauma and life-long damage, and each is presented with a simple impossible question: what will you forgive? 

 

The unpredictable responses from this motley cast of serendipitous friends and lovers confronts our piety, humbles us, and mends us. We are inadvertently asked to evaluate our own quick-to-judge assessments of the people in our lives, and even those on the fringes, and the asking is gentle and kind, the extension of the forgiving hand of the person we’ve hurt the most… 

 

This is not simply a novel, it’s a whole purpose, the divine ambition and momentous objective and subtle intent that should be and can be applied to every novel we read; it’s precisely a novel about how to read a book—as if our lives depended on it… 

 

This will probably be one of my top reads of 2025, and it’s only January… 

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A dark fantasy that dabbles in all the evil wiles of religion and royalty while teetering our anti-heroine between several reckless and rash romances. Lore is special—and she knows it, but she doesn’t quite know the whole of it, and certainly not the why. All the mystery around her origins and the dark power she possesses keeps us reading, and the reveal near the end is kinda weird, but fits the stretched limits of this macabre tale. 

 

The setting is a fantasy take on pre-revolutionary Paris, including dirty Kings and twisted Cardinals and all the terror of the city’s skull-stocked catacombs—with characters who learned to speak English in 21st Century New York. 

 

It’s definitely unique, and apart from a personal dislike with several cartoonish voices in the audiobook narration (the pronunciation of August sounded like: ‘A-goosed’ —and if that didn’t cause a few misplaced giggles…), it was a fascinating read. 

The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes

emotional hopeful informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I was familiar with the bare bones of the Oedipus story before reading this retelling, but I didn’t know all the intricate details unravelled and investigated here. Haynes brings us the perspective of Jocasta and her youngest daughter Ismene as they fight for the preservation of their lives beneath the restrictions of the Royal Court of Thebes. They become unwitting victims to the plotting men vying for position and power, no matter the cost, but an indomitable spirit shines through the fissures as they rise to claim their own place and power. 

 

Natalie Haynes has a gift with recreating these ancient stories, bringing the page to life in brilliant colour, transmitting each agony—and though we already know the outcome, she draws us into the story until we cannot help but hope for a different ending than the tragic inevitable. She takes some fictional liberties, but each diversion from the original works quite well to engage the reader in the overwhelming emotion of these deceived, unfortunate characters. And even at the tragic end, she manages to deliver a glimmer of hope. 

 

Haynes has brought forth yet another triumph to set upon the shelf of unique female voices, each sharing their perspective on the hackneyed patriarchy’s old familiar Greek myths. 

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

Classic…

Rab the Rhymer: Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns

inspiring relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

Excellent rendition of a selection of Robert Burns best poetry, read and sung by a small cast of talented musicians and actors. A worthwhile listen.

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

‘The chief charges against her were, one: that she was dead, two: that she was a woman, which amounts to much the same thing,..’

…and so we have the plight of a woman in a man’s world, a woman who experiences and possesses much the same intellect, eloquence, and capability as a man—yet is bound by social expectations that define beauty and is restrained by the cultural rules of etiquette from using any of her so-called masculine attributes (as above: intellect, eloquence, capability…)

The autobiography of an intellectual—and straightjacketed—woman 100 years ago.

Thank God for progress, the wins of feminism in the twentieth century, and the continued battle for equality. We owe much to the words and fearlessness of women like Virginia Woolf and Mary Wollstonecraft and HRH Elizabeth I…

Galatea by Madeline Miller

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I loved the idea. As a short story, it satisfies a curiosity, but there was so much more to the character of Galatea I believe the abruptness of the length didn’t allow for justice to her depth.

As a short, it is striking —I think it could have done better as a lengthier short (20,000 rather than 5000 words—or about—perhaps).