This book seems to confront me, forcing me to question my own life, career, relationships, and goals. I am always a firm believer that good novels make us ask questions about ourselves. It isn’t just about escaping, but instead escaping within ourselves and discovering something new. Continue reading
An unexpected revelation of how an old high school friend died breaks Goldberg out of this listlessness. And he becomes acutely obsessed with how his old friend, Seth, died. Rumours fly as Goldberg reaches out to old school friends. He decides, in true male millennial fashion, that he will do a podcast about his friend’s death that will feature interviews that will eventually reveal the truth about Seth’s life and death, like all morbid murder and death podcasts do. Continue reading
The novel is set in a not-so-distant future in Iceland and follows four main characters as they navigate a campaign leading up to a national referendum that would see an extremely controversial ’empathy test’ made mandatory for all Icelandic citizens. It is not a futuristic novel by any means, and the events and setting of the novel actually feel like they could be happening right now – making it all the more unsettling as a reader. Continue reading
John and Ivar live in a suspended state of freedom—John has not yet revealed to Ivar why he came to Ivar’s island. The convictions John had before meeting Ivar, before his accident, seem to have fallen away, and all that remains is love. Continue reading
The double-edged sword of the close-knit community of the fictional country town of Ballyrowan is that it is both beautiful and utterly debilitating. The things that bring the community together over these decades are also what tear it apart. The secrets, resentments, love, and anger are all-consuming and impossible to untangle. Continue reading
The novel follows the life of Roland Baines, and the novel swaps between Roland’s formative years at an all boys boarding school in the U.K. and his adult life as a single father to his son Lawrence, after his wife disappears one day. Continue reading
The opening of Gail Honeyman’s novel Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has a quote from Olivia Laing’s book Lonely City, which I have reviewed on my blog here. I had talked about loneliness before the global crisis we find ourselves in today, and it feels like there are new levels of loneliness, loss, and struggles … Continue reading
The pressure to have a child as a cis woman is REAL. It is all encompassing. It comes up with every person you meet – and the expectation is not if you will have kids, but when. So there is no nuance for those of use, who just really don’t think kids are for them for whatever personal reason that may be. Continue reading
In Tawada’s world, the old don’t age or die, and the young are cursed with ill-health and short life-spans. Learn more about why this dystopian novel haunted me for months after I read it. Continue reading
I am a big fan of Ottessa Moshfegh’s writing. I have also reviewed her novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation which you can check out by clicking on the title. Moshfegh has an amazing way of writing perfectly awful characters in such a nuanced and special way. I feel like you love to hate … Continue reading
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