Category Book Reviews
Review: Wild, Cheryl Strayed
At twenty-six, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s rapid death from cancer, her family disbanded and her marriage crumbled. With nothing to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to walk eleven-hundred miles of the west coast of America and to do it alone. She […]
Christmas Reading | Little Women
When I first started my Literature degree, the first question I was asked in most of my seminars was, “What is your favourite book?” Now, I have to admit that I had a problem with this question, and I would like to point out that any discerning Literature student would probably not be able to […]
Review: The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
Woops, I did a bad thing, and that was to read this book and completely forget to post a review. I did have some thoughts about it though, and some discussions with friends, so if you just give me a moment, maybe I can try and rearrange a few ideas to share. A debut psychological thriller […]
Film Review: Brooklyn
It was a rainy Saturday in Manchester, and to avoid the damp crowds and deep puddles, my friend and I ducked into the city cinema to watch Brooklyn. “An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a new romance. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between […]
‘Vaulting Ambition’: Film Review, Macbeth (2015)
Unfortunately, I’ve never been one to describe myself as a film critic or movie buff. My favourite films are ideally animated by Disney and/or complete with a complicated romantic entanglement which concludes with a happy ending. I always tried my best to avoid Shakespeare at university, not because I didn’t like it, but because I […]
Review: We Were Liars, E Lockhart
You know when you read a book and it starts off kind of slow, kind of dull, and then suddenly that’s it: you’re hooked, and there’s nothing you can do but think about it, wonder when you will be able to read it again, stay up all night practically inhaling the story because your precious […]
Review: Everything She Forgot, Lisa Ballantyne
Lisa Ballantyne, international bestselling author of The Guilty One, delivers a compelling domestic thriller with impeccably observed characters and masterful edge-of-your-seat storytelling in a novel that leaps between past and present with page-turning finesse. “A sweet novel of love, redemption, and loss that chronicles one family’s struggle with a difficult past.”—Kirkus They’re calling it the worst pile-up […]
Review: Because You’ll Never Meet Me, Leah Thomas
Ollie and Moritz are two teenagers who will never meet. Each of them lives with a life-affecting illness. Contact with electricity sends Ollie into debilitating seizures, while Moritz has a heart defect and is kept alive by an electronic pacemaker. If they did meet, Ollie would seize, but turning off the pacemaker would kill Moritz. […]
Review: The Versions of Us, Laura Barnett
What if you had said yes . . . ? Eva and Jim are nineteen, and students at Cambridge, when their paths first cross in 1958. Jim is walking along a lane when a woman approaching him on a bicycle swerves to avoid a dog. What happens next will determine the rest of their lives. […]
Review: Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
It’s 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She’s in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they’re trying for a baby – and she doesn’t want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to […]
Bethany Wren 