THE PLOT: Clean by Juno Dawson is about a privileged 17-year-old girl who goes to rehab for a heroin addiction. Lexi Volkov is an heiress and socialite who is big on the London party scene. Pills, cocaine, heroin, it’s all … Continue reading Review: Clean
THE PLOT: Hello Mum by Bernadine Evaristo is about a fourteen-year-old boy dragged into gang violence in London. Written as a letter to his mum, Jerome narrates the accounts of a single day when his life got out of control. … Continue reading Review: Hello Mum
THE PLOT: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent is about a woman sentenced to death in 1800’s Iceland. Agnes Magnusdottir has grown up as a maidservant in numerous farms in a northern, rural valley. A bastard child, she is abandoned by … Continue reading Review: Burial Rites
THE PLOT: Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo is about 74-year-old Barrington Jedidiah Walker (Barry). Despite moving from Antigua to Hackney with his young wife in the 1950’s, he’s still full of energy and fond of the London nightlife (much to … Continue reading Review: Mr Loverman
THE PLOT: Lullaby by Leïla Slimani is about a nanny living in Paris. The novel starts with the nanny, Louise, having murdered the two young children she is paid to look after. It then goes backwards in time to explain … Continue reading Review: Lullaby
THE PLOT: Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo is about two sisters who don’t know the other exists. Camino has grown up in a barrio in the Dominican Republic and dreams of studying medicine in America. Yahaira is a … Continue reading Review: Clap When You Land
THE PLOT: Intimations by Zadie Smith is a collection of essays written in the early months of lockdown. A response to the global Covid-19 crisis, she explores her feelings prompted by the pandemic and touches on Black Lives Matter. RATING: … Continue reading Review: Intimations
THE PLOT: The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré is about a fourteen-year-old girl in Nigeria. The protagonist, Adunni, dreams of going to school but is trapped in her small village by poverty. After the death of her … Continue reading Review: The Girl with the Louding Voice
THE PLOT: All Adults Here by Emma Straub is about a dysfunctional American family from a small town outside of New York. The central character is Astrid, the widowed matriarch, who tries to get closer to her 30’s+ children after … Continue reading Review: All Adults Here
THE PLOT: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvares is about four sisters from the Dominican Republic. Told in reverse, it recounts the families’ move to America and flight from Dictator Trujillo. It shows how each of … Continue reading Review: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
