Newest General Fiction Reviews

The School Inspector Calls! by Gervase Phinn

General Fiction

If you've read any of Gervase Phinn's fictionalized autobiographies (the Dales series), or either of the previous two volumes in this Little Village School set, you'll know what to expect here: cosy English fun set mostly around a primary school, full of Yorkshire dialect, quirky characters prone to malapropisms and many 'kids say the darndest things' moments. Full review...

Emily of New Moon: A Virago Modern Classic (Emily Trilogy) by L M Montgomery

Teens

I think I should confess, before I write this review, that I am a true Lucy Maud Montgomery geek! I have loved her books since I was a little girl, and I have read them so many times that the covers are worn and faded and her stories live inside of me, at least in part making me who I am. I wrote my masters dissertation on her books. I went to Prince Edward Island, Canada, for a conference about her works. I came back with a bottle of red sand and a heart full of memories. If anyone ever mentions Anne of Green Gables in my presence my eyes get very large and I get very excited (and my husband rolls his eyes...) So it is with trepidation that I sit down to review one of her books. Bear with me, I will try not to geek out too much, and I will do my best to be fair! Full review...

Love...Under Different Skies by Nick Spalding

General Fiction

Jamie, Laura, and baby Poppy have had a few mishaps here at home, so when the opportunity comes to flit off to the land down under, and start a new life in Australia, they’re more excited than they are apprehensive. It might get them out of the rut they’ve fallen into, and it will definitely give them the sort of warm glow that comes from living under the, erm, warm glow of the sun. There’s really no reason not to go. Full review...

The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom

General Fiction

Something extraordinary is going to happen, and will continue to happen, through a long and eventful autumn in the small town of Coldwater. People will pick up phones, and hear a loved one speak to them, with assurances, love, delight – but they will all be the voices of dead loved ones. One woman has her slightly older, late sister contact her, another her deceased mother, who had ended her life disabled and wordless, while the local policeman will regain contact with the son killed in action in Afghanistan. The whole town will be transformed, but it might actually hit someone else hardest – Sully, fresh out of prison and patching his life back together with his six year old son, with both of them puzzled at why the lad's dead mother is among the silent majority. Full review...

At Night We Walk In Circles by Daniel Alarcon

General Fiction

Peruvian-born Daniel Alarcón returns to South America in this story of one man's downfall and the twists and turns of fate that not only contributed to this but also which compelled the narrator of this story to seek to understand what happened. The main character, a young man named Nelson whose plans to follow his older brother to the US are halted when his father dies forcing him to care for his mother, has trained to be an actor but his career is going nowhere. Then he lands a part in a notorious three person play that is going to tour the provinces. One of the trio is the play's writer, Henry, a man who was imprisoned under terrorist charges when the play was first produced. With Nelson's ex girlfriend now pregnant with another man's child, the temptation to get away from his life in his home city is too tempting. No one could have forecast what the impact this tour would have on his life though. Full review...

The House by Sebastiana Randone

General Fiction

A woman wakes to find herself alone in a dark forest. She sees a man and calls out to him but he ignores her. Eventually, she finds her way to a house and takes shelter. With no idea of how she came to be there - or recall of her own name, even - the woman explores this dilipidated mansion and discovers a portal that transports her back to Regency England. Here, a dreadful thing happens before she is transported back in time again. Full review...

If I Never Went Home by Ingrid Persaud

General Fiction

Bea is a practising psychologist. It's her second career - she was once an ambitious academic, a professor of history, but a longstanding depression led to a breakdown and recovery meant a search for pastures new and more fulfilling. But even now, she can't cast off the family crises that led to her illness. Tina is a young girl living in Trinidad with her mother. One question preoccupies Tina - who is her father? Her mother won't say and her grandmother and aunt claim not to know. Tina feels lonely a lot of the time and she is sure that finding her father would put an end to her unhappiness. Full review...

The Ice-Cold Heaven by Mirko Bonne

Historical Fiction

They say that if you fall off a horse you should get back on one right away, but even so… I don't think many people who had only just left their first love – a shopgirl in their village – for their second – exploring the world on sailing cargo ships – would leap to a further voyage having been wrecked and stranded off the coast of South America for well over a week. But Merce here does – he wants to follow his best friend on to a ship called The Endurance and head with Shackleton to the Antarctic. But Merce is only seventeen, and is rejected – causing him to stow away onto one of the world's worst ever journeys. Full review...

All my Friends are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

General Fiction

'There are 249 superheroes in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.' Tom is not one of them, but he had just got married to one – the Perfectionist – when her jealous ex, Hypno, hypnotised her into being completely unable to see or hear or otherwise respond to him. It certainly led to the wedding night Tom was least expecting – instead of the usual, he began to work out her new responses to him when he tried to touch her, such as hiccupping when he touched her head, spasms when he tried hand contact. Now, six months on, the Perfectionist is quitting the city for a new life. He is in the plane seat right next to her, hoping against hope to get what they had back… Full review...

Butterflies in November by Audur Ava Olafsdottir

General Fiction

' 'It's all threes here,' she says, 'three men in your life over a distance of 300 kilometres, three dead animals, three minor accidents or mishaps… animals will be maimed… it'll wet more than your ankles… it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy a lottery ticket'.' And so an over-priced but miraculously accurate fortune-teller sets in process a narrative that provides for a very quirky read, with quite a bit of charm amongst the unusual. The lottery ticket and a loose end and a best friend stuck in hospital all conspire to make the narrator and said best friend's four-year-old son embark on a journey of discovery, all on the southern stretch of the ring road that encircles Iceland. Full review...

The Flavours of Love by Dorothy Koomson

General Fiction

Saffron's husband, Joel, was stabbed in the street eighteen months ago and no one has ever been arrested for his murder. It's hard for Saffron and her two children, Pheobe and Zane, to live with what happened but somehow they have to find a way of getting on with their lives; lives that no longer have Joel in them. It's hardly surprising that they struggle on a daily basis and it all culminates when Saffron is called into school to discuss fourteen year old Pheobe. Saffron doesn't know how to deal with the situation especially as her daughter won't talk to her. On top of all that, Joel's killer is still out there somewhere and that makes her scared for all her family's safety. Full review...

The Circle by Dave Eggers

General Fiction

Following a string of recent scandals, the government this month announced that secret cameras could be introduced into care homes in the hope of improving patient care. The theory being that constantly recording staff would prevent any inappropriate behaviour from those in positions of authority. Could such surveillance possibly work? And if it did would any potential rewards be outweighed by the threat to privacy of both the patients and the wholly innocent staff who become caught up in the snooping? It's this question of surveillance over privacy that is central to 'The Circle', the new novel from Dave Eggers. Full review...

Bellman and Black by Diane Setterfield

General Fiction

When he was a young boy William Bellman committed one cruel act - he used his catapult to kill a rook. He didn't believe he could do it - believed until the moment that the rook fell that it would fly away before the stone hit - but the rook was dead. It can't be said that the killing worried William and as he grew it seemed that he was a fortunate man. His work satisfied him. He loved his wife and his children, but then tragedy struck and the visits from the stranger in black began. William - now 'Bellman' to most of those who knew him - had a solution. He worked harder, obsessively and he founded a business which was decidedly macabre. And that business was Bellman and Black. Full review...

Black Chalk by Albert Alla

General Fiction

Seventeen-year-old Nate Dillingham is hailed as a hero following a horrific school shooting in which he is the only survivor. It soon becomes clear, however, that Nate has neglected to share the full extent of his involvement with the police, instead allowing others to place a more positive spin on his version of events. After recuperating in hospital and facing the interrogation of both the police and the media, Nate abandons his family and spends eight years working abroad in a succession of odd jobs. Black Chalk begins with Nate’s return to his family home, as Nate seeks catharsis by finally opening up about his experiences. Full review...

The Good House by Ann Leary

General Fiction

Hildy Good has reached a strange stage in her life. She's entering her seventh decade (that's one of the few phrases that make sixty feel good) and divorced. Most people - Hildy included - would have said that she had a lot of friends, but the reality is a little different. Her daughters had staged an intervention because they thought that her drinking had got out of control and after a period in rehab Hildy found social occasions a little difficult. Evenings spent at home - on her own - were no fun. Full review...

The Reluctant Cannibals by Ian Flitcroft

General Fiction

Over a truffled turkey at their college Christmas dinner in 1964, a group of Oxford dons decide to join their love of fine food and drink with their mutual appreciation for nineteenth-century French philosopher of food Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (author of the 1825 classic La Physiologie du Goût, or The Physiology of Taste) by forming a secret dining society. Together these fellows of St Jerome's College form the Shadow Faculty of Gastronomic Science, a group that will continue meeting to share new and daring culinary experiences until Oxford agrees to set up a proper gastronomic school of its own. Full review...

Isabel's Skin by Peter Benson

General Fiction

David Morris is a book trader and valuer in some indeterminate Victorian year, when he is given the job of perusing a great and valued collection held in a rich house in rural Somerset. One can guess – especially given the mood that leaps off these pages from the first and never relents – that something might go wrong, just him and the house's sole servant and her cats. But the clues build when we find just how much she dislikes a neighbour – who seems a decent enough fellow, living in seclusion, and culture and intellect wise the only equal to Morris for his short working holiday. But whose unusual behaviour can Morris trust – and who is Isabel? Full review...

Woman on Top by Deborah Schwartz

General Fiction

Kate and Jake had one of those brilliant marriages that looks set to last forever along with two wonderful children. But Fate is always hiding around the corner with its foot stuck out, waiting to trip you up and Jake was diagnosed with cancer. They both fought to do everything that they could to find a cure but within two years Kate was a widow. For nearly a decade she dedicated herself to the children and to making a career as a healthcare lawyer so that she could support the family. When she was ready to look for another relationship she met Len. It wasn't his looks that attracted her or his stature (she'd hastily searched out her flat shoes), but he did seem to have something about him. Full review...

I Came To Say Goodbye by Caroline Overington

General Fiction

Sometimes when you have clear expectations of a book based on its blurb, and then you get an utterly different story, it can be frustrating. While I think ‘misleading’ is too strong a word for it, I really could not have predicted the story of this book from what I read on the back cover. It sounded like an excellent story about a baby snatched from a hospital ward but instead it was…an excellent story about something else entirely. Full review...

The World is a Wedding by Wendy Jones

General Fiction

They say one door doesn't shut but for another opens. Wilfred Price, the most amenable 1920s Welsh undertaker in literature, is living proof of that. He took his beloved Flora Myffanwy to be his, after they both fell in love at her father's funeral. It did leave Grace alone and bereft, and forced out of town in a very unsavoury fashion, but for Wilfred and Flora married life is fine. Hesitant, but fine. He's finally got into the swing of things as regards calling her dear, and conjugal relations, and she has finally felt able to speak up about her place in the household of her husband and his father – and whoever happens to be left to settle in the workshop, having died on the loo and got stuck in a non-coffin-shaped pose. But do those doors stay firmly shut…? Full review...

Mr Lynch's Holiday by Catherine O'Flynn

General Fiction

Having read and enjoyed both of her previous novels, What Was Lost and The News Where You Are I was looking forward to this latest book. The story tells us of a father who surprises his son, living in Spain, with a visit. The father is recently widowed and the son's long-term partner has very recently left him, although it's some time before he admits that to his dad. What begins as a holiday turns into something of a pschological rescue mission as Dermot begins to see the problems depressing Eamonn and the ways in which he might be able to help. There's a lot about familial relationships in the book, as well as ideas about living at home and abroad. Full review...

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Literary Fiction

Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries is set in the New Zealand gold rush of the late 1860s. It's a story about greed, power, gold, dreams, opium, secrets, betrayal and identity, but most of all, it's a celebration of the art of story telling, both in terms of Catton's book and the stories her characters have to tell. It's the kind of book that is perfect escapism and which wraps you up in its world. If you like big, chunky books that you can get lost in for hours, then this is one for you. Full review...

Out of the Clouds of Deceit by David Canning

General Fiction

On his way to begin training to be a pilot in the RAF, Aiden met Dennis in a railway station buffet. As luck would have it they were both on their way to the same place, for the same reason and would find themselves sharing a room. Trained and mentored by older serving officers in what was the immediate post-war period they came to understand - and to some extent feel - the sense of betrayal which burdened the pilots from bomber command who had taken part in the Allied bombing campaign in the World War II. Flying was in Aiden's blood and he was at home in the air and in the mess - the comradeship of men suited him and he understood the nuances. He was less at home with women, never completely understanding the different needs a woman has in a relationship. Full review...

More Than This by Patrick Ness

Teens

Here is the boy, drowning.

And Seth does drown. He is alone; taken by the sea, arms and legs flailing and breaking, skull dashed against the rocks whilst the icy water constricts his muscles and breath. Seth is consciously aware of his final moments. His death consumes him with a heavy, confusing blur until… he awakens and finds himself in a desolate, shattered world; naked, alone, starving and alive. This place looks familiar. It looks exactly like the English village where he spent his early childhood before his brother’s accident and his family’s move to America, but it is now overgrown and devoid of human life. It is as if the whole place was simply abandoned one day. Full review...

Straight White Male by John Niven

Humour

In Kill Your Friends, John Niven delivered a scathing and hugely entertaining satire on the music industry. In Straight White Male he's turned his attention to Hollywood and academia with similarly impressive results. Full review...

The Kills by Richard House

General Fiction

Richard House's Booker-longlisted The Kills is a collection of four related books, originally published in e-book format between February and June 2013. In some ways, the e-book format is the natural habitat for House's creation as it includes a largely optional multi-media component to the story. It is a hugely ambitious piece about money, murder, greed, stories and where things start and equally where, if ever, they end. Covering more countries than feature in Michael Palin's passport, the book starts with corruption and embezzlement in a US civilian company working in the re-building of Iraq, and ends with a kind of 'Tales of the Unexpected' story in Cyprus having taken in a gruesome story of murder in Naples. Full review...