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Pretty good, decent page turner, very BookTok-y.

Very moving and gripping. A difficult read at times, for obvious reasons.

The pinnacle of high fantasy writing. Hobb delves deep into the psychology of her characters and creates a world extremely rich in detail.

This was my first dive into Terry Pratchett and it was everything I expected and wanted it to be. Looking forward to reading more!

This was something a bit different for me as I don’t often read graphic novels nowadays, lately though I’ve been wanting to get into them again. I really loved this - it was adorable and hilarious, and I loved the art style! I also liked the bonkers blend of medieval fantasy with added tech and science, it made for an interesting mix. Overall just a really fun read with a sweet story at its heart.

I can’t decide if this collection is mind-numbingly dull or the cosiest thing since Calm invented Sleep Stories. I confess I was bored a lot of the time reading this, but sometimes it just felt so peaceful and heartwarming. There’s a nostalgia to these stories that I enjoyed; it’s a world of typewriters (Hanks being an avid collector), newspapers, the 1950s, Americana. He writes well, but he’s not engaging - the stories often drift or Hanks spends ages writing about details that simply aren’t interesting. I feel bad slagging it off because it’s Tom Hanks, and we all love Tom Hanks, but it left a lot to be desired.

I love reading about remote places, especially in the context of military/government shenanigans, so this was a must-buy for me. It was... ok - nothing amazing but not terrible either. The characters felt a bit flat and things spiralled well into the realm of what-the-fuck at the end - way too many threads. Harris is clearly a competent writer; his descriptions of Ascension and the sense of foreboding he created were great, I just wanted more from the characters and a bit more focus on one or two of the really compelling plot lines.

This was a real struggle bus. I felt like nothing really happened and got frustrated with the lack of plot/character development. The premise set it up to be a sort of page-turning Victorian gothic tale, but it’s actually just 400+ pages of widow Cora and local parson Will ignoring their feelings for one another. And so many random/odd things happen to the secondary characters with absolutely no explanation/insight. I just felt totally lost with it and wasn’t sure what point Perry was trying to make. Definitely not for me.

Well, I’m super biased with this one because I’m a big fan of Vita Sackville-West, aka the real Orlando, aka aristocratic lesbian fuckboi extraordinaire. I will say that Victoria Glendinning has written this excellently - often biographies, especially of rich people living in the early 20th c. - can be dry and boring, but this is written a bit like a story, with lots of fun anecdotes. Is it niche? Yes. I don’t think casual readers would stick with it; it is very dense. But, really, everyone should be interested in Vita - she was such a fascinating, magnetic person - so I encourage you to at least do a cursory Google of her and read a bit about her life.

This was an interesting read. Owens is a scientist by trade and this is her first novel. You can really feel her love and respect for nature shining through in the writing. For me, this is where the book is at its strongest - Kya’s relationship to the natural world is so beautifully written, and I frequently paused to re-read descriptions of the marsh or the flora and fauna that inhabit it. The love story side of things engaged me less, and the whodunnit element/ending felt a bit rushed, but overall there was so much beauty in the writing - and some lovely secondary characters - that I was happy to stick with it.