1st June 2025

Sean Lusk’s second novel shares similarities with his first - it’s historical, it involves travel, and it’s really engaging. But also differences - this time there’s no fantasy. Instead this is the story of Mary Wortley Montagu, a real 18th century writer, but with the details that history has failed to retain filled in with a fictionalised account.

I found my attention captured immediately, although the narrative felt very unclear exactly where it was going - in the sense that this isn’t the traditional novel where the character has a quest and a sense of direction. Instead it’s almost like each chapter serves as a separate episode, and each is its own story, and the full picture can’t emerge until you’ve consumed them all.

I found it really great to learn more about this period of history through this lens. I find stories much more engaging as a communication format than drier text, and so it was cool to see this from the point of view of a realised person. There’s much more going on, at home and abroad, than I had realised.

A great second outing, and I’m intrigued to find out what might come next.

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24th August 2024

Another successful “it looked pretty in the pile in the bookshop” find for me. This novel tells the story of the titular character and his father, from traumatic birth to traumatic adulthood.

I was expecting something perhaps a little more fantastical, but while there are a few elements of that this is mostly a tragedy. It’s well constructed, well written, and really engaging.

I think what I enjoyed the most was the secondary characters, and how they flit in and out of the story, all with their own desires and relationships and things that are going on just out of the main characters sight. I also liked the style of the narrative, seeing different characters, sometimes in their own words.

All round a good read, and I’m planning to pick up the author’s next book soon.

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