Review: Boy by Roald Dahl

September 13, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

Opening sentence: “An autobiography is a book a person writes about his own life and it is usually full of all sorts of boring details.” As today would have been Roald Dahl’s 103rd birthday and it is officially Roald Dahl Day, I thought I’d share my review of his charming memoir, Boy: Tales of Childhood. […]

Review: Clean by Juno Dawson

September 10, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Published in April 2018 by Quercus Children’s Books / 400 pages Opening sentence: “Face-down on leather.” This was a book I’d heard good things about, but didn’t actually know much about. For some reason I thought it was a biography, then picked it up and discovered it’s fiction and actually published as YA, despite its […]

Review: Release by Patrick Ness

August 17, 2018.Reading time 3 minutes.

Published in 2017 by Walker Books / 288 pages Opening sentence, “Adam would have to get the flowers himself.” At the Greenwich Book Festival I had the pleasure of hearing Patrick Ness in conversation with authors Angie Thomas and Katherine Woodfine. He spoke about how his new book, Release was inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (the […]

Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

June 8, 2018.Reading time 5 minutes.

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. Book One in the Chaos Walking Trilogy. Opening sentence: “The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say.” Published in 2008, quite a few people have recommended this book (the whole trilogy in fact) […]

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

August 9, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Opening sentence: “Welcome to the beautiful Sinclair family.” I listened to this on audiobook, and the American narrator, Ariadne Meyers, really helped to capture the tone of this Young Adult book. I’d heard a lot of good things about it, so was intrigued to see why. But… there’s no […]

Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

July 30, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness Opening sentence: “Chapter The First, in which the Messenger of the Immortals arrives in a surprising shape, looking for a permanent Vessel; and after being chased by her through the woods, indie kid Finn meets his final fate.” Earlier this year, I read my first […]

Review: Caraval

April 19, 2017.Reading time 4 minutes.

Caraval by Stephanie Garber Opening sentence: “It took seven years to get the letter right.” This is a book I heard about due to Bookstagram (Instagram accounts dedicated purely to books.) For a while, it was the only book popping up on my feed, I seemed to be the only person in the book-world not […]