Review — Hourglass by Keiran Goddard

Birds creating an hourglass shape against a pink background with whispy clouds. Hourglass
By: Keiran Goddard
Release Date: February 14, 2023
Publisher: Europa Editions
Award: Desmond Elliott Prize Nominee for Longlist (2022)
Received From: Publisher
(All reviews are our own, honest opinions.)
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Keiran Goddard’s 2022 novel Hourglass straddles the line between prose and poetry, giving readers a lyrical insight into love in all of its aspects: yearning for love, finding love, and losing love. Goddard has previously published two volumes of poetry titled For the Chorus and Votive. His works have also been shortlisted for both the Melita Hulme and William Blake prizes. Hourglass is his first novel, however, and one that certainly succeeds in what it sets out to do.

Review — Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead

Top hat floating over a magician's magic wand with the London skyline in the distance. Death and the Conjuror
By: Tom Mead
Release Date: July 12, 2022
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Series: Joseph Spector (#1)
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Tom Mead’s Death and the Conjuror isn’t the first story in which the character Joseph Spector has appeared, formerly appearing in several of the author’s short stories. Here, however, his prowess and intellect shine in a novel-length work, the first in a series.

Review — Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Woman who's image is distorted by water as if dripping down glass. Our Wives Under the Sea
By: Julia Armfield
Release Date: March 3, 2022
Publisher: Picador
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Some books are hard to categorize. Instead of being immediately recognizable as high fantasy or romance or the sort of literary work beloved by university professors, they meld genres, slipping from one to the other as if donning new clothes. Julia Armfield takes an exploration of grief, a celebration of love and romance, and the unknown horrors that lurk deep within the ocean, melding them together into a book that lingers long after the final page.

Review — The Missing Word by Concita De Gregorio

Two fall leaves against a pink background with cracks running through the picture, making it look like a broken window The Missing Word
By: Concita De Gregorio
Release Date: July 5,2022
Publisher: Europa Editions
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One of the best explorations of grief, possibly ever written, is Concita De Gregorio’s The Missing Word. Originally written in Italian and translated into English by the fantastic Clarissa Botsford, The Missing Word is the true story of a woman whose two young daughters disappear, never to be seen again. It is a story of desperation and grief, told with all the urgency of a psychological thriller. It is a story that will rip your whole soul right out of your chest, laying everything bare for all to see. And it is a story that I cannot recommend enough.

Review — Old Country by Matt and Harrison Query

Farmhouse with a single light on in a dark, foggy landscape Old Country
By: Matt and Harrison Query
Release Date: July 26, 2022
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
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Brothers Matt and Harrison Query bring us a horror novel of the haunting variety in Old Country. The novel hovers somewhere between a traditional haunted house novel and something verging into the territory of a mythos, with characters facing forces far beyond their understanding.

Review — Rooms by Lauren Oliver

A house with a large tree sprouting from it and roots underneath it. Rooms
By: Lauren Oliver
Release Date: September 23, 2014
Publisher: Ecci
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Gothic horror has seen something of a revival in recent years, with many modern additions to the genre able to stand strong against past generations’ great authors of the genre. Rooms by Lauren Oliver is one such gothic horror. However, it doesn’t always manage to hit its mark, instead being a little too scattered with a few too many ongoing plots that don’t get the focus and attention each deserves. Yet, there is something here that draws in the reader, that makes you want to know more.

Review — Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey.

Several people camping. Upright Women Wanted
By: Sarah Gailey
Release Date: February 4, 2020
Publisher: Tor
Award: Hugo Award Nominee, Best Novella (2021), Locus Award Nominee, Best Novella (2021)
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Sarah Gailey’s novella Upright Women Wanted is another slim volume from an award-winning author packed with adventure and set in an interesting alternative-America setting, much like their first two novellas River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow.