14th June 2025

I loved Janice Hallett’s other novels, and so when I saw she was writing one aimed at a younger audience I felt like I needed to read it too. Although it’s clearly targeted at children, there’s absolutely nothing that makes it any less readable as an adult.

For those new to Hallett’s work - this is a novel like a ‘found footage’ movie. Siblings Ava and Luke discover a box of old documents, and along with them, we read through the documents to uncover a story from forty years earlier. The entire narrative is told through these documents, framed with a text message conversation between the young siblings.

I raced through it, and loved every moment. Hallett’s ability to craft these stories is astounding, and as usual there’s so much going on. I’d recommend this to every child who loves reading mysteries.

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14th June 2025

I have been a Terry Pratchett fan for many years, and now occasionally find myself able to pick up one of his earlier novels that I’ve not yet read. This is the earliest.

It’s the story of a young hereditary ruler of a planet in a universe of Humans and non-Humans, struggling as he’s caught between two different destinies, and also his grandmother.

Although it’s short, I found it a challenge to read. It feels of its time in many ways - there’s a dense style to 70s science fiction and fantasy that I find hard to navigate, and I think Pratchett at this point was early in his learning curve for what would become his later style. It’s also ahead of its time in many way as well - there’s elements of the classic turning of things on their head, which he comes back to again in the early Discworld novels. There’s also a surprising number of things that later turn up, recycled and repurposed, in the Discworld series.

It was an interesting read, but I think if I’d started reading here instead of with his later novels, I’d probably not have come back to Pratchett, and would have missed out on his other brilliant output.

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7th June 2025

Having read one of Holly Jackson’s other novels, and wanting to wait to first see the TV adaptations of the others in that series, I picked up this thriller in a charity shop. It was recommended to me a few years ago, randomly, and so I’ve been intrigued to find out what it’s like.

The answer is: stressful.

This is a thriller about six youngsters, mostly teens, trapped in an RV for eight hours, overnight, with no phone signal, and bad things happening outside. I found it hard to read as quickly as I would have liked, and I think as a result of leaving it on various cliffhangers it invaded my dreams and affected my sleep.

It took my a good few chapters to get into the narrative. The story is told from the point of view of Red - a teenage girl who doesn’t quite fit in with her friends, and we experience a lot of what’s going on in her head, which is a busy and traumatised place. I struggled at first, but after probably the first two hours of story time got into the rhythm of it and was able to read smoothly.

For me, I think this was too stressful and too dark. I’m much more interested in mystery I think, and so I’m slightly put off considering purchasing Jackson’s forthcoming book aimed at an adult audience, in case it’s more like this.

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7th June 2025

I've rapidly reached book three in my Wheel of Time re-read, and this one is strikingly different from the first two. As readers, we're now cut off from Rand, the main character we'd been with so far, and instead get long chunks of narrative following the other four lead characters of the series, before some faster chopping between them as the climax approaches.

This style I think makes the story feel slower. There's a lot to get through that feels like exposition, or just lining characters up for things, rather than developing them and their action.

Again, there's a new character who I didn't remember appearing this early in the series. It still gives that feeling that Jordan intended for a six-book adventure, not the 15 books that this became. The overall plot feels like it's taking a bound forward in each book, reaching a key milestone at the end.

I am considering a longer break now before re-reading book four, but we shall see how that pans out.

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1st June 2025

The first of two Monk & Robot stories by Becky Chambers, this short novel introduces us to Sibling Dex - a monk who isn’t sure what he wants from life.

The world-building is excellent, painting a wonderful picture of a future utopia where people can live as they want and have everything they need, and yet still yearn.

It’s a very relaxing read, though the brevity meant I got through it in a day and I would have liked the experience to last longer. So maybe when I get the sequel I’ll know to take that at a slower pace.

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1st June 2025

In their 23rd adventure, the Three Investigators are hired to look into the theft of a small statue, but very quickly get drawn into a bigger and spookier set of mysteries.

I liked that there was a lot going on, and it needs real investigation work. However it must be a sign of the changing times (this is 1975 and the series is now 11 years in) that the teenage protagonists now have guns drawn on them by police several times, which didn’t feel right to me.

The paranormal elements of the plot are more prevalent than in others, and felt presented quite differently to before, which again I’m not sure felt right for my perception of the series.

The mystery is a good one, and it was only as the climax approached that I remembered from when I read as a child what was about to happen. Otherwise the plot has entirely left my brain, so it was fun to revisit.

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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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