Category Literature

What I’ve been reading lately

As we near the end of the fifth month of 2023, I’m somewhat ashamed that this is my first blog post of the year. While I might have been AWOL on my blog, I have been quite busy in life – and in life, reading some pretty good books. I therefore thought it’d be nice […]

Review: Body Kintsugi, Senka Marić

Picture this: I’m lounging by a hotel pool under blue skies in Corfu, enjoying my holiday in the sun. And I’m crying. I’m crying because I’m finishing up the final pages of Senka Marić’s transformative Body Kintsugi and I myself feel a little broken and put back together again. Perhaps not the most auspicious choice […]

Shriek Song: A Brief History of the Banshee

In a recent blog post I shared the exciting news that my short story, Shriek Song, has been published in the recent edition of New Writing Scotland. Shriek Song follows the encounter between a girl and a banshee during a wild storm in the Irish countryside. In writing my short story collection about women and […]

Review: Writers & Lovers, Lily King

It has been a while since I’ve devoured a book so quickly, racing through the pages and scheduling time into my day to sit down and get lost in the 90s romcom literary escapade that is Lily King’s marvellous Writers & Lovers. There is so much that I loved about Writers & Lovers. The long […]

Review: Nordic Fauna, Andrea Lundgren

I haven’t reviewed a book for my blog in a while, so I was delighted when Pereine Press offered to send me a copy of Andrea Lundgren’s Nordic Fauna, translated from the Swedish by John Litell. And it has been something of a challenge to digest and describe the brilliant Nordic Fauna in any kind […]

Review: Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

With everything that’s been going on, I’ve recently reintroduced myself to the wonderful world of audiobooks and have restarted my Audible subscription in order to give myself some time and space away from it all. I have been loving plugging my headphones in while I walk or clean or do a puzzle, and I found […]

My 5 book recommendations

A friend on Instagram recently tagged me to share my 5 book recommendations and then tag 5 friends to share theirs. There have been a lot of these challenges going around in the time of coronavirus, and this was one I could get on board with! I thought I’d make it into a blog post […]

Review: Salt on Your Tongue, Charlotte Runcie

Salt on Your Tongue called to me in so many ways. It’s not fiction, so it’s different to what I normally read. It’s about folklore and myths, and also about real life. And it’s ultimately about the things I love and love to write about: women and the sea. Side note: there are so many […]

Review: The Mercies, Kiran Millwood Hargrave

The Mercies has been on my TBR pile for a while – with a brilliant title, an intriguing premise and a beautiful cover, I knew that I’d fall hook, line and sinker for Hargrave’s dark and atmospheric novel. Set on the remote Norwegian island of Vardo in 1617, The Mercies follows the story of a […]

Review: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong

Wow, consuming Ocean Vuong’s debut novel was quite the experience. Every sentence packs a punch. Every image is super charged and electric. In short, I absolutely loved it. Written as a letter to his mother, the novel is fragmented and rich – just the way I like my prose. Memories of childhood are threaded through […]