Book Reviews

The island is atmospheric. The professor is devastating. The parasite is creepy. And then the tropes kicked in.

Natalie Heller Mills was perfect at being alive. She was also a liar, a narcissist, and completely incapable of seeing herself clearly. I was “equal parts intoxicated with and disgusted by” her — which, I believe, is how Burke designed this book to feel.

A woman finds her murdered lover and cleans the crime scene instead of calling the police. It is a good premise. This will probably work for you, if crime fiction is your genre; it is not mine.

Whistler is a book about love, not the romantic kind, but the kind that forms between two people and how it impacts their lives over decades. Ann Patchett writes that kind of love better than almost anyone.

Maurice Swift will do whatever it takes to succeed. He will beg, borrow, steal, and worse. And the most unsettling thing is how you find yourself hoping he gets away with it.

Gild is fine. I mean that as neither a compliment nor an insult. It is a perfectly serviceable fantasy.

A grieving young woman. Her uncle and his two sons. A remote mountain cabin. And a book that asks you to find the romance in all of it. I couldn’t.

One thousand and twenty-four pages. A love story I was told was all-consuming and a world I was told was unforgettable. I wanted to believe both of those things. I mostly didn’t.

The house has more rooms than it should. The family at the door won’t leave. And somewhere in the supplemental documents, someone is sending a message in Morse code. We Used to Live Here is exactly the kind of horror that gets under your skin without you noticing.

If you loved Shield of Sparrows, book two answers your questions, raises new ones, and leaves you wanting the third. It also features a child, a lot of blinking, and at least one bobbing throat.

A book I admired more than I enjoyed. The writing is exceptional. The plot is almost nothing. Both of those things are true, and it’s still worth reading.

I read this for book club. I made it to page 109 before putting it down and accepting that life is too short and my to-read list is too long.

I watched the first episode of the HBO series and wasn’t sure it was for me. Three days and 337 pages later, I was very glad I’d given it another chance.

Buckeye is immersive, beautifully researched, and written by someone who clearly knows how to construct a sentence. It also kept me at arm’s length for most of its 448 pages. Both of those things are true.

Teenage me would have made this book my entire personality. Adult me finished it in nine days and felt every single one of them.

At a glance The Poet Michael Connelly Genre Crime Fiction / Thriller Format Paperback (1996 edition) Source Gifted Did I finish it? Yes My rating 3 / 5 Read if …

The writing is lovely. The story has been told before. Weyward is three stars of a very specific kind; the kind where the craft outpaces the originality.

A Romantasy sceptic’s honest take on Devney Perry’s Shield of Sparrows. Four stars, a bobbing throat, and a genuine recommendation — with where to find it in Australia.

Ninety new library copies appeared overnight and I jumped to the front of the queue. That kind of thing feels like a sign. It wasn’t — at least not for me.

A green notebook. A café in London. Six strangers who all, apparently, stop to read it and pour their hearts onto the page. It is giving airport table impulse purchase — and not in a good way.

A 17-year-old girl. Her 40-year-old teacher. Thinning hair, a growing paunch, and a life that has quietly curdled around him. Half His Age is not a romance — and that’s exactly the point.