There’s a reason you should write reviews the moment you’ve finished the book, because otherwise you’ll be sitting here faced with a blank page struggling to remember what the hell happened at that barbecue of doom anyway. But a trip home to the UK and dealing with two babies with jetlag (as well as my own, oh god never fly with babies) has meant this got pushed to the bottom of the queue. But I am determined to do this, damn it. And the three […]
I Want to Live With Wonder Woman
“[Women are] told that they are not reliable witnesses to their own lives.” There are sentences like this throughout this collection of essays, that seem so obvious and yet feel like a gut punch every time you read them. Here’s another, from The Longest War: “Violence doesn’t have a race, a class, a religion, or a nationality, but it does have a gender.” Or “Women are afraid of being raped and murdered all the time and maybe that’s more important to talk about than protecting […]
The Breakfast Club, with Murder!
Imagine The Breakfast Club if the geek, jock, criminal and princess hated Ally Sheedy’s basketcase so much that one of them murdered her, and that’s pretty much the premise of One of Us Is Lying. Cooper (jock), Addy (princess), Bronwyn (brain), and Nate (criminal), all wind up in detention on the same afternoon. All swear they’ve been set up and don’t belong there, but the teacher isn’t interested in their excuses. Also there is Simon, owner of a notorious school gossip app. During detention Simon […]
Too short but very sweet
Almost Midnight collects two short stories by Rainbow Rowell that have appeared elsewhere, and features beautiful illustrations throughout by Simini Blocker. In Midnights, Mags and Noel meet one New Year’s Eve and become fast friends. The story follows them on subsequent Eves for a few years and we see that Mags has more than friendly feelings towards Noel. Unfortunately he keeps kissing other girls at midnight. In this latest year Mags decides she’s had enough and hides out so she doesn’t have to witness him […]