It takes a talented writer to inject new life in to the well worn coming of age genre. It so happens that Ciarán West is just that talented, and then some. He takes a shopworn concept and spins it into a 350 page story that moves by so quickly it’s over before you’ve had time to properly say goodbye to the characters. Sweetness Follows is a sequel to West’s previous novel The Boys of Summer. Don’t worry though, you don’t need to have read that […]
Any person you see could be capable of terrible things
(This post originally appeared on Glorified Love Letters.) What makes Ciarán West’s books interesting is how they confirm that “page-turner” is not just a cover blurb cliché. Even when one might have other things they should be doing, they can be done after “one more chapter.” Girl Afraid centers around the kidnapping of Poppy Riley, daughter of a well-known actor, Tom, who is away filming. Poppy had been left in the care of Alice, her father’s trusted assistant, and Magda, the girl’s recently hired nanny. […]