Pacemaker by David Toms

Pacemaker by David Toms. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Every time I write about my heart, I write about walking. Every time I write about walking, I write about my heart.

David Toms was born with a rare heart condition. A condition that has shaped his life through childhood surgeries, dictating which sports he can and cannot play, and the knowledge that his heart could stop working at any time. A condition that results in him needing a pacemaker. 

Structured as a series of vignettes, David takes us through different periods of his life and how walking is a constant among the uncertainty surrounding his health. Now living in Norway, we get to walk with David through forests, while he runs errands, around hospital grounds, and on his daily outings with Madra. When David is hospitalised at the beginning of the pandemic, his partner Maria cannot be with him. His parents are also unable to travel to Oslo. Some of their text messages are included in the places where David has little memory of what happened, which adds to the intimacy of the story. 

Pacemaker is a beautifully written memoir about chronic illness, walking, and how to live life while considering your body’s limitations. David’s prose is intimate, precise, and poetic. I’ve underlined so many sentences and paragraphs that I might as well have highlighted the entire book! 

I’ll leave you with one of my favourite passages, “To have an invisible illness is to invite suspicion. I sometimes felt as though I should keep copies of my medical history on me to throw in the face of those who didn’t believe me. I could have it perfect bound, like a dossier, to drop on tables. A book of evidence."

Pacemaker by David Toms is published by Banshee Press and is available in hardback and ebook format.

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Idol by Louise O'Neill

Idol by Louise O’Neill. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

I read Louise O’Neill’s Idol in two sittings with my heart in my mouth as we witness Samantha Miller’s life publicly unravel. The novel lives up to its thriller descriptor. Yet, weeks after finishing it, I was frustrated by how a particular aspect of the story was handled. It’s not something I have seen mentioned in any of the reviews I’ve read, but I still feel this way months later. 

From the blurb, we know that Samantha Miller’s career as an influencer is going from strength to strength. Her latest book Chaste is an instant bestseller, and her follower count has hit three million. While promoting Chaste, Samantha publishes an essay about a sexual experience with her best friend, Lisa, while they were teenagers. But Lisa’s memory of that night differs from Samantha’s. 

They cannot both be right, so whose version of that night is the truth? As Samantha faces increased scrutiny, she wonders whether the life and career she has built will come crashing down around her. 

Idol is a compelling exploration of influencer culture, cancel culture, the Me Too movement, and trauma's effect on someone’s memory. This brings me to my main issue, the dynamic between Samantha and Lisa, both as teenagers and in the present, is complex. Yet, Louise O’Neill never fully engages with how this “she said, she said” story would be viewed or experienced through an LGBTQ+ lens. Neither character is explicitly queer. In her essay, Samantha emphasises that they are both straight. 

I get it: For many people, myself included, sexuality is fluid, and the words we use to describe ourselves often change (again, I include myself here). But, for me, the whole thing felt like a plot device that while not Louise O’Neill’s intention ended up being more than a little dismissive of lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, and other m-spec women’s experiences of sexual violence.

Idol by Louise O’Neill is published by Bantam Press, an imprint of Transworld Publishers and Penguin Random House. Idol is available in hardback, trade paperback, ebook, and audiobook format.

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The Light Streamed Beneath It by Shawn Hitchins

The Light Streamed Beneath It by Shawn Hitchins. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

“Sometimes we must let ourselves feel haunted to propel us towards the safety of others.”

Describing a memoir about grief as a joy to read sounds strange, but that’s how I feel about The Light Streamed Beneath It by Shawn Hitchins. The subtitle, A Memoir of Grief and Celebration, indicates what to expect, so maybe “a joy to read” isn’t so strange a description after all. 

In the space of five months, Shawn loses two men he loved. Matt, Shawn’s former common-law husband, dies following an accident. David, Shawn’s former boyfriend, dies as a result of suicide. 

Yes, The Light Streamed Beneath It is about grief. But it is also a story about queerness, love, friendship, chosen families, long-distance relationships, connection, discovery, and rediscovery of the fact that life carries on following a bereavement. You are changed irrevocably, but the world keeps spinning, so you must relearn to experience life. 

Grief can be a profoundly isolating experience, even while surrounded by others grieving the same person. Grief is also a communal experience, which can be incredibly healing. With The Light Streamed Beneath It, Shawn Hitchins captures the reality that both can be true simultaneously. 

The Light Streamed Beneath It by Shawn Hitchins is published by ECW Press and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook format. 

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Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence by Dr Gavin Francis

Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence by Dr Gavin Francis. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence by Dr Gavin Francis is a meditation on recovery and convalescence. Drawing on his experience as a general practitioner and the time he spent recovering from childhood illness and injury, Dr Francis makes a compelling case for a renewed focus on the time it takes people to recover and heal from all manner of ailments. 

I read this while recuperating from my second bout of Covid during the summer, and much of the guidance for recovering from mild cases of Covid boils down to taking things as easy as you can for as long as you can. Even after your initial symptoms have passed. Which I was lucky to be able to do. Many people do not have the same luxury due to family, work, and other caring responsibilities. This disparity in who is allowed the time, space, and slower pace of life needed during recovery is a central theme of the book.

Dr Francis discusses the history of convalescent hospitals and rest cures. He is clear that not all ‘rest cures’ were created equally and that women were subjected to ‘rest cures’ at much higher rates than men. We can thank our old friend misogyny for that! Yet, rest still has a role in Western medicine. Although, the medical system isn’t structured with rest in mind. 

At just over 100 pages, Recovery is an easy but informative read full of empathy, wisdom, and hope. It would make an excellent present for people, given the time of year! 

Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence by Dr Gavin Francis is published by Wellcome Collection and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook format.

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The Fell by Sarah Moss

The Fell by Sarah Moss. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Paula's e-reader is lying on a grey fluffy blanket beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of The Fell by Sarah Moss.

If The Fell had been written by anyone else, I am not sure I would have picked up. It is too soon for fiction about the pandemic that is still happening has been my response whenever I’ve seen or heard mention of the topic. Sarah Moss is one of my favourite authors, so I made an exception. 

It is November 2020, and Kate is in the middle of a two-week quarantine period. She is missing her routine, her long walks and the feeling of fresh air in her lungs. The moor will be deserted, so where is the harm in going for a walk when Kate knows that she won’t run into people? 

Told from four different perspectives, we have Kate, her teenage son Matt, their neighbour Alice who is shielding, and Rob, who is a search and rescue volunteer. 

Kate’s walk doesn’t go as planned, and Matt realises that she is missing. He is desperate to find her but doesn’t want to get his mother in trouble for breaking quarantine either. Maybe Alice knows where Kate went? 

At under 150 pages, Moss has given us an intense and claustrophobic novel that never feels rushed. Each of the characters is fully realised, and true to Moss’s previous work, the sense of place is so strong that it almost feels like you are right beside Kate. 

The Fell is a thought-provoking portrayal of the impact of the lockdowns and an exploration of why people made the decisions that they did. I loved it. 

The Fell by Sarah Moss is published by Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format.

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Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

How do you talk about a novella that is just over 100 pages long and the blurb only eludes to the plot by stating that the protagonist, Bill Furlong, ‘encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.’? 

Small Things Like These is set in New Ross in 1985, so it’s safe to say that most people in or from Ireland will immediately know what is being referred to. Yet, for people who don’t know the full extent of the Catholic Church’s control over Ireland and our history of ‘institutions’, much of the atmosphere of Small Things Like These is in sensing that something is wrong, but only discovering what that something is as Bill Furlong becomes more and more concerned about what is happening in the Good Sheperd Convent. 

It is the weeks before Christmas and Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, is the busiest he has been all year. While going about his days, Furlong reflects on his unusual childhood and life as it is now, with his wife and daughters. 

As I was reading the words Dickensian, fable and fairytale kept rattling around my brain. Small Things Like These is a strange blend of all three without fully committing to any of them. Dickens being referenced only added to this feeling. 

Claire Keegan is a talented writer, she excels at describing the quiet moments of everyday life. However, for me, the elements of the story don’t quite come together. I don’t mean the actions Bill Furlong takes, but Keegan’s decision to end the novella where she does. Objectively, I understand why she did. But as a reader, it did not have the profound impact on me that it has had on others.

Which I know puts me in a minority.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is published by Faber & Faber and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format.

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Totally Fine (And Other Lies I've Told Myself) by Tifanny Philippou

Totally Fine (And Other Lies I’ve Told Myself) by Tiffany Philippou. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here. 

Grief is universal, yet no two people experience it the same way. When Tiffany Philippou’s boyfriend Richard died by suicide while they were both at university, her life was turned upside down. But Philippou kept insisting that she was totally fine. The truth is that her grief was intertwined with shame, a shame Philippou did not know how to handle.

University and partying go hand in hand, so masking her true feelings wasn’t too difficult even from people who knew Richard and were also grieving. Once she finished university, Philippou threw herself into the world of start-ups. Working ridiculously long hours was another way of hiding from her feelings. As was not speaking about Richard with her colleagues. Eventually, Philippou moves to New York for a fresh start. 

You cannot outrun grief. And shame that is untended will fester until you have no choice but to confront it. 

At times Totally Fine (And Other Lies I’ve Told Myself) feels disjointed, which for me felt like an accurate representation of the messiness of grief but I can understand why it could detract from the reading experience for other people. 

Totally Fine (And Other Lies I’ve Told Myself) by Tiffany Philippou is published by Thread and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook format. 

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The Butchers by Ruth Gilligan

The Butchers by Ruth Gilligan. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Opening with a mysterious photograph of a man hanging from meat hooks displayed on a gallery wall in New York for the first time since it was taken twenty years ago, The Butchers takes us back to rural Ireland in 1996 as the BSE crisis takes hold. 

The Butchers are a group of men who travel the country slaughtering cows by hand following an ancient tradition brought on by a curse. Each year fewer people continue in the old ways. 

Set in the pre-Belfast Agreement border counties of Cavan and Monaghan, the outbreak of BSE in England initially provides money-making opportunities for people who are willing to blur the lines between legal and illegal. When cases of BSE are diagnosed in Ireland, the already struggling Butchers face even more scepticism. 

Told from four perspectives, the novel shifts between Grá, the wife of a Butcher, and her daughter Úna. We also follow Fionn, a believer of the tradition, whose wife is dying, and their son Davey. 

Gilligan has written a richly layered, atmospheric, and complex exploration of folklore, traditions versus modernity, familial bonds, teenagehood, love, loss, longing, and belonging. There are elements of the story that don’t quite come together, nonetheless, The Butchers is an intriguing novel that is impressive in its scope. 

The Butchers by Ruth Gilligan is published by Atlantic Books and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook format. 

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Sanatorium by Abi Palmer

Sanatorium by Abi Palmer. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Abi Palmer is an artist and a writer. She is also living with multiple chronic illnesses, including psoriatic arthritis and a connective tissue disorder. Sanatorium is a memoir, told in fragments, about what it means to be disabled, deal with chronic pain, and navigate the ever-expanding wellness industry. 

The narrative jumps between Palmer’s month-long stay at a thermal water rehabilitation centre in Budapest — the sanatorium of the title — and her efforts to continue her recovery once she returns home. This shifting perspective captures the nonlinear nature of recovery and adds to the losing track of time feeling that pain so often causes. 

In Budapest, Palmer’s days are divided into blocks of time revolving around the thermal water pool that people traveled from all over the world to attend. Between her allotted stints in the sulfurous water, Palmer tries to balance the improvements promised by physical therapy and the other therapies that she is prescribed, with the risk of flare-ups triggered by the exertion of completing those same therapies.

In London, Palmer buys an inflatable bathtub because her flat doesn’t have one and she cannot get clearance to install one. She is determined to keep up the hydrotherapy, as best she can. The inflatable bathtub does what it needs to, most of the time, but it is not the same. How can it be, given the precariousness of the situation. 

Sanatorium is a blend of straightforward memoir, prose poetry, reportage, meditations on water, reflections on Saint Teresa of Ávila, and fantasy. Palmer’s writing is lucid, intense, and often stark and humorous, leading to an exploration of a body — a disabled body, a female body, a disabled female body — that is extraordinary in its scope. 

I want to press a copy of Sanatorium into the hands of everyone I know. Disabled and chronically ill people will recognise much of what Palmer discusses, even if their circumstances differ. For non-disabled people and people who do not experience chronic pain, Sanatorium provides a glimpse into the lived experience of Abi Palmer, yes, but also of their family, friends, colleagues, and loved ones. 

No two chronic pain experiences are the same, but with Sanatorium Abi Palmer skilfully adds her voice to the growing — and much needed — body of work about disabled and chronically ill bodies. 

Sanatorium by Abi Palmer is published by Penned in the Margins and is available in paperback and ebook format. 

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

“I am writing about my father in the past tense, and I cannot believe I am writing about my father in the past tense.” writes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and never has a single sentence made me sob more. I hear you. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to talking about my dad in the past tense. 

Expanding on her New Yorker essay of the same name, Notes on Grief is a moving meditation on the loss of Adichie’s father, James Nwoye Adichie, in June 2020. 

He did not die of Covid-19, yet the pandemic permeates the text in the way I imagine it has impacted so many grieving people’s lives in the last 12+ months. The changing travel restrictions meant the funeral was postponed and eventually happened without Adichie, or her other siblings who live abroad, being able to return to Nigeria. 

The regular family gatherings over Zoom morphed into planning and attending his funeral via Zoom. Igbo traditions are adapted to allow for social distancing and the other pandemic-related changes that have become second nature to us even though they are anything but normal. 

With each vignette, Adichie shares her pain and her father’s life, and the intimacies of their relationship. James Nwoye Adichie was Nigeria’s first professor of statistics. He lived through the Biafran war. Adichie calls herself a daddy’s girl and her love for him is clear to see. 

At under 100 pages, Notes on Grief captures Adichie’s realisation that no one knows how to grieve until we are forced. We think we will be prepared, but we never are. I am grateful Adichie chose to share her grief with us.

Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is published by 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins, and is available in hardback and ebook format. The audio version is published on July 15th. 

We Can Do Better Than This: 35 Voices On The Future Of LGBTQ+ Rights edited by Amelia Abraham

We Can Do Better Than This: 35 Voices on the Future of LGBTQ+ Rights edited by Amelia Abraham. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Edited by Amelia Abraham, We Can Do Better Than This is an anthology of 35 LGBTQ+ people sharing their stories, experiences, and visions for a world where we have true LGBTQ+ liberation. 

As is common with anthologies, there are a mix of well-known voices - including Beth Ditto, Olly Alexander, Mykki Blanco, Owen Jones, Juliet Jacques, and Travis Alabanza - and LGBTQ+ people whose work I wasn't familiar with before now. 

What I like about this collection is that it goes beyond the UK and US, which are often the sole focus when discussing LGBTQ+ issues. By featuring essays about life in Bangladesh, Brazil, Russia, Uganda, and more We Can Do Better Than This provides a global perspective. 

The inclusion of asexual and intersex people also broadens the scope and highlights the experiences of people who are regularly relegated to the + in LGBTQ+, with very little representation beyond that. 

We Can Do Better Than This asks us to consider the difference between LGBTQ+ assimilation and queer liberation. It calls on us to fight for queer liberation because assimilation leaves far too many LGBTQ+ people behind. 

These essays aren't always an easy read, subject-wise, but that is what makes them essential reading. Some of the topics covered include; asexual visibility, the difficulties with accessing trans healthcare, the need to end forced surgery on intersex children and people, the rise of transphobia in the UK media, the state of LGBTQ+ mental health services, the importance of inclusive sex education in schools, and why community care is vital for both LGBTQ+ young people and LGBTQ+ older people.

We Can Do Better Than This is an impressive, engaging, and important anthology. I'd recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about global LGBTQ+ communities and experiences. 

The standout essays for me are Ace of Clubs by Yasmin Benoit, Transphobia and the UK Media by Juliet Jacques, Know Thyself, Or Don't by Naoise Dolan, Happily Ever After Isn't Accessible to Me by Andrew Gurza, The End of Forced Intersex Surgeries by Hanne Gaby Odiele, Queering Sex Ed by Sasha Kazantseva, Breaking Through: Centering the Needs of Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth by Carl Siciliano, Pronouns as Portal Magic by Bobbi Salvör Menuez, 'Everyone's Trans, Now What?' by Travis Alabanza, Ceaseless Struggles, Infinite Possibilities: Finding Liberation in Queer History by Matthew Riemer, Global Grassroots Funding by Leticia Opio, and Doing Better by Adam Eli.

We Can Do Better Than This: 35 Voices on the Future of LGBTQ+ Rights edited by Amelia Abraham is published on June 3rd by Vintage, an imprint of Penguin Random House. It is available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook format.

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division by Elif Shafak, No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

In How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division, Elif Shafak - an author, academic and human rights advocate - examines the polarisation of political discourse and how our emotions impact our actions and vice versa.

Written at the beginning of the pandemic, this short book - it's less than 100 pages - covers a lot of ground. From social media echo chambers, to feeling anger in the face of oppression, dealing with difficult emotions, and realising that the other side of being heard means actively listening to those who are speaking.

Like most people, this is something I've been thinking about a lot. I have noticed since being off Facebook and Twitter that I am paying more attention to the news and current events. By not getting caught up in every outrage cycle, I'm concentrating on reading, watching and listening to things that are informative and go deeper than the clickbait headlines that crowd our social media timelines.

The outrage generated is often warranted and absolutely necessary. But other times it can leave you wondering why there is uproar about this particular thing.

Shafak does not provide easy answers because there are no easy answers. How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division redirects our attention to channelling our anger into productive actions. Because outrage alone will only get us so far.

It reminded me of conversations I - and many of us - had while canvassing for repeal. There were hardline ‘no’ voters whose minds could not be changed (they couldn't change ours either), but day after day we spoke to people who had genuine concerns. We listened. We answered their questions as best as we could.  Some of them became Yes voters as a result of those conversations.

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division is a timely and thought-provoking read that would make a great conversation starter with people in your life that you may not agree 100% with politically, but have more in common with than you disagree on. Much like my feelings about this book. I didn't 100% agree with Shafak, but she did make me think about some things in a different way. 

How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division  by Elif Shafak is published by Wellcome Collection and is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook format.

Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York edited by Sari Botton

Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York edited by Sari Botton. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Inspired by the Joan Didion essay of the same name, Goodbye to All That is an anthology of essays about loving and leaving New York.

I spent 2020 rereading as much Joan Didion as I could get my hands on. Sari Botton, the former essays editor at Longform, has edited some of the best essays I've read in recent years. The combination of the two meant that picking up Goodbye to All That was an obvious choice.

First published in 2013, this revised edition includes seven new essays some of which are about the pandemic. As is expected with anthologies, there is a good mix of well known writers - including Roxane Gay, Leslie Jamison, Melissa Febos, and Cheryl Strayed - and new to me writers.

Coming away with an extended to-read list is one of my favourite things about anthologies! 

Goodbye to All That shows us New York from varying perspectives. We hear from people who were born and raised in New York, people who moved across the country to spend time in NY, people who were priced out of the city, and people who left only to find their way back.

This is a well curated collection about adventure, following your dreams, searching for belonging, and what it means to 'feel at home' somewhere.

My favourite essays are The Assistant's Loft by Leslie Jamison, Home by Melissa Febos, Misfits Fit Here by Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Losing New York by Lauren Elkin, and Shelter in Place by Emily Raboteau. 

Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York edited by Sari Botton is published by Seal Press, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group, and is available in paperback and ebook format.

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

When she was 12, Eve Black's family were murdered by The Nothing Man. Eve was the sole survivor. Now, almost twenty years later, Eve has written a book about that night and her search for the killer.

Jim Doyle is reading Eve Black's book. He, like everyone else, is hooked on this true crime investigation into a serial killer who has evaded capture. As he reads, Jim realises just how close Eve is to solving the murders. Which is a problem. Because Jim is The Nothing Man (we know this from the blurb, so it's not a spoiler!)

Alternating between the book Eve has written and Jim as he is reading it, The Nothing Man is a well-paced thriller that takes the popularity of true crime and turns it back into fiction. A concept we are going to see more of, I think.

Catherine Ryan Howard has taken inspiration from I'll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara and ratcheted up the tension leaving her reader wondering where the story will take them next.

And here is where reviewing crime fiction gets complicated. There was an aspect of the story that I did not like. I would have enjoyed the novel more without it. I can see other people loving it though, so I am possibly in a minority here. Yet to talk about it would give too much away.

That said, The Nothing Man is a gripping read. Catherine Ryan Howard deftly switches points of view in a manner that ensures that Eve and Jim are fully developed characters.

The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard is published by Corvus, an imprint of Atlantic Books, and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook format. 

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

When girls have their first period they are divided into one of two categories. They either receive a white ticket or a blue ticket. One ticket sets you on the path to motherhood and marriage. The other means you will not become a mother. The decision is made for you and there is no changing the colour of your ticket. 

Calla knew this would be the case. That she would not have a choice. Yet, here she is wondering what her life would be like if she had been given a different ticket. What if the tickets weren’t a thing and she could choose for herself whether or not to start a family? 

In rejecting the life planned out for her, Calla must face the consequences. Consequences that include trying to outrun the powers that be. At least they have given her a head start! 

Sophie Mackintosh does not spoon feed her reader. How exactly the dystopian world of Blue Ticket came to be is left up the reader’s imagination. Not having all the facts is something I enjoy in dystopian fiction, but I know some people would prefer more world building. The story is told from Calla’s point of view, so it makes sense to me that she may not have all the facts either. 

Blue Ticket is about motherhood and identity. It is about desire, grief and anger. It is about the devastating effects of patriarchal violence. It is a haunting exploration of what it means to have free will, while inhabiting a female body.

Blue Ticket by Sophie Mackintosh is published by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Random House, and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook format.

After the Silence by Louise O'Neill

After the Silence by Louise O’Neill. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

An unsolved murder. A close-knit community living on the island of Inisrun, off the coast of county Cork. A film crew arrives to make a documentary to mark the 10th anniversary of Nessa Crowley’s death, hoping to uncover new evidence. On the surface After the Silence sounds like your standard crime novel. But this is Louise O’Neill, so the murder itself acts as the backdrop for an examination of abusive relationships — in all their forms. 

The Kinsella family have never quite recovered from the night Nessa Crowley was killed at a party in their home. How could they, when people are convinced that Henry Kinsella is the man responsible for the crime and Keelin, his wife, is covering for him. 

But Keelin knows that Henry is not a violent man. She left her first husband because he was physically abusive, Henry is not the same. But there is more to domestic abuse than physical violence. Keelin and Henry’s relationship is unsettling from the beginning and that sense of unease grows as the story unfolds.  

Similar to The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard, After the Silence takes the popularity of true crime and turns it back into fiction. There are echoes of the West Cork podcast here and of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara in The Nothing Man. 

After the Silence is an atmospheric and disconcerting slow burner of a novel, which in true O’Neill style spotlights difficult subjects without feeling lecture-y.  

After the Silence by Louise O’Neill is published by riverrun, an imprint of Quercus Books, and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook format.

The Harpy by Megan Hunter

The Harpy by Megan Hunter. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

From the blurb, we know that Lucy’s life is turned upside down when a man calls and tells her that his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband, Jake. 

Lucy and Jake decide to stay together, but come to an arrangement that will allow Lucy to hurt him three times. Jake won’t know when the hurt is coming or what exactly it will be. Lucy is determined to make the punishments fit the crime. 

Told from Lucy’s point of view, we see her drawn more and more to the myth of the harpy. In her hunt for revenge, she is forced to confront things about herself that she would rather continue to ignore. Ignoring things is easier. Yet here she is, planning to deliberately hurt her husband. 

The Harpy is a strange and wondrous fairy tale that seamlessly blends the domestic with the otherworldly. It is dark. It is unsettling. It is full of rage. It is surreal. It is unputdownable. 

At just over 200 pages, Megan Hunter has packed a lot into The Harpy. Yet none of it feels rushed. Hunter has written a compelling and immersive story about love, marriage, betrayal, revenge, womanhood, and motherhood. 

The Harpy by Megan Hunter is published by Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format. The paperback edition is published on May 13th.

As You Were by Elaine Feeney

As You Were by Elaine Feeney. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Sinéad Hynes is a married property developer with young children. When Sinéad is hospitalised she decides to hide the true nature of her illness from her family. From everyone except ‘a fat magpie’, that is. 

As You Were follows Sinéad’s time in hospital, where privacy is not possible because those curtains people pull around their beds are not soundproof. As Sinéad struggles with keeping her secret, she watches the other people on the ward deal with their own problems. 

In the bed across from Sinéad, Margaret Rose won’t let a suspected stroke stop her from running her family. Thanks to her trusty Nokia. Dementia means that Jane isn’t always aware of where she is and what is happening. Shane is a quiet man who has suffered a spinal injury. Hegarty is a local politician whose daughter is never far from his side. 

Through this group of people who are forced to spend time together, Elaine Feeney examines the secrets people keep and why, Ireland’s history of institutions, the misogyny that is ingrained in women’s healthcare, and the kindness of strangers. 

This is Feeney’s debut novel, but she is a published poet which I think informs her stream of consciousness writing style. A writing style that lends itself well to a hospital setting and Sinéad’s state mind.  

As You Were is a page-turner tragicomedy that is written with a razor sharp focus on how the events of the past impact our present and future.

As You Were by Elaine Feeney is published by Harvill Secker, an imprint of Vintage Books and Penguin Random House, and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format. The paperback edition will be published on July 1st.

The Book of Queer Prophets curated by Ruth Hunt

The Book of Queer Prophets curated by Ruth Hunt. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Featuring essays from well known authors, Jeanette Winterson and Juno Dawson and the screenwriter and director Dustin Lance Black, The Book of Queer Prophets looks at the what it means to be religious and a member of the LGBTQ+ community. 

The Book of Queer Prophets is a thought-provoking read, but I found it a little uneven. This is often the case with anthologies, where I connect with some writers and essays more than others. While there are essays about Islam and Judaism, this is a predominately Christian focused collection. It is also western-centric. 

The afterword is an essay by Reverend Kate Bottley, familiar to many people as a result of appearing on Gogglebox, about how she became an LGBTQ+ ally. I understand why her experience was included, but I think the range of religious LGBTQ+ people we heard from could have been expanded before including allies. 

Overall, I would recommend The Book of Queer Prophets if you are looking to broaden your LGBTQ+ non-fiction reading. The standout essays for me were The Queer Prophet by Amrou Al-Kadhi, Mustangs and Mama Dragons by Dustin Lance Black and A Letter to My Nephew by Jarel Robinson-Brown.

The Book of Queer Prophets curated by Ruth Hunt is published by William Collins, an imprint of HarperCollins, and is available in hardback, ebook and audiobook format. The paperback edition is published on May 27th.

The Fragments of my Father: A memoir of madness, love and being a carer by Sam Mills

The Fragments of my Father: A memoir of madness, love and being a carer by Sam Mills. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.

The Fragments of my Father by Sam Mills is part memoir and part literary biography. 

When Sam Mills' mother is diagnosed with cancer in 2010, Mills moves back into the family home to care for her and her father. Mills' father has a rare form of schizophrenia, one that is accompanied by bouts of catatonia. Following her mother's death in 2012, Mills became her father's primary carer. 

Mills shares the impact that caring has on all aspects of her life; familial relationships, personal relationships, her work as an author and publisher, and her financial situation. She also brings us back to her childhood, when she didn't fully understand the reasons for her father's frequent absences. 

Mills weaves her personal experience together with an examination of the history of caring and an account of the lives of Leonard Woolf, who cared for his wife Virginia Woolf, and F Scott Fitzgerald, who cared for his wife Zelda. 

This combination provides scope for Mills' exploration of how the possible links between madness and creativity were viewed in the past and how that has or has not changed. 

The Fragments of my Father is a deeply affecting read that shows the complexities of caring for a loved one.

The Fragments of my Father: A memoir of madness, love and being a carer by Sam Mills is published by 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins, and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook format.