Knowing how much I value reviews of my own fiction, I endeavour to pay it forward for other authors. Indeed, I consider posting reviews to be fundamental to literary citizenship. But they can be dreadfully time-consuming.
This year, I'm experimenting with posting mini reviews both here and on Goodreads. As you'll see from the chart – and yes, I'm not getting any of my own writing done when I'm playing around on Canva – these aren't books I haven't enjoyed (a 4 star rating from me is a strong endorsement). Rather, they're books I don't have much to say about. |
Read on for reviews of six contemporary novels, one classic novel, a short story collection and two non-fiction books, all read over the last three months.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Emotionally abused by her mother and sexually abused by her stepfather, Irka has spoken only one word – dura (which means idiot, but I had to look it up) – in her sixteen years. She's survived through disassociation, and conceiving of people as animals, but now she's pregnant, it's time to change. A poignant tale of homophobia and hostility in contemporary Russia, and a fine example of how where some see psychiatric symptoms, others recognise as a heroic response to unbearable reality.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Another excellent novel about racism, with an interesting angle on the cruel constraints of binary-based identity and colourism. Fabulous storytelling, although I’d have liked a stronger ending.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
In which Charlotte swaps the genders to give her unrequited love at a school in Belgium a happy ending.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s 1957 and no-one could foresee the consequences when Jean, a journalist on a provincial paper, investigates Gretchen’s claim her ten-year-old daughter was conceived without the involvement of any man. A warmhearted contender for the Women’s Prize for Fiction about faith and friendship, duty and love.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A warmhearted novel about a sensitive prepubescent boy negotiating the violently macho culture of Belfast during the Troubles. A worthy winner of the Polari First Book Prize.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Not my usual read, but I enjoyed this nature diary set during the weird world of the first lockdown in the UK.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A lovely lyrical novel about loss, loneliness, prejudice and finding solace in the natural world.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I liked The Yellow Wallpaper as the story of women's disappearance within marriage but less so as a study of madness (where I'd have wanted more context). I didn't think the other stories in this slim volume stood the test of time and the happy endings strike me as womag.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rereading this book reminded me of a few things I’d (conveniently?) forgotten about asylum history:
• how recently people were kept like animals (at a time animals weren’t well cared for)
• how moral treatment pioneered by William Tuke never got a chance in the public-funded asylums
• how quickly the medical profession took over, despite having no effective treatments
• how the asylums created mental illness rather than vice versa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I do appreciate a novel that educates and also entertains. While I know something about the British Empire's meddling in Asia, I'd never previously come across gentleman-adventurer James Brooke and his stewardship of Sarawak. Clever to show his story from an unusual point of view: John Williamson is an interesting character and the perfect guide.
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