I have lived a thousand lives
Synopsis: The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives… Continue reading Review – The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Synopsis: Mercy is hard in a place like this. I wished him dead before I ever saw his face… Mary Rose Whitehead isn’t looking for trouble – but when it shows up at her front door, she finds she can’t turn away. Corinne Shepherd, newly widowed, wants nothing more than to mind her… Continue reading Review – Valentin by Elizabeth Wetmore
Synopsis: TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART. On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a… Continue reading Review – Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Synopsis: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born – a history whose epicentre is rooted in Vietnam – and serves as a doorway… Continue reading Review – On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Synopsis: He's been looking in the windows again. Messing with cameras. Leaving notes. Supposed to be a refuge. But death got inside. When Katie Straw's body is pulled from the waters of the local suicide spot, the police decide it's an open-and-shut case. A standard-issue female suicide. But the residents of Widringham women's refuge where… Continue reading Review – Keeper by Jessica Moor
Synopsis: A breathtaking tale of family secrets, from the international bestselling author of An American Marriage 'My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.' This is the breathtaking story of a man's deception, a family's complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle. James Witherspoon has two families, one public, the other a closely guarded… Continue reading Review – Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
Synopsis: A sweeping, uplifting story of how a boy from Brixton and a girl from Lagos escape their dark past to find themselves a bright future. 1981: England looks forward to a new decade. But on the streets of Brixton, it’s hard to hold onto your dreams, especially if you are a young black man.… Continue reading Review – The Book of Echoes by Rosanna Amaka
| A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara | I will keep it short. A Little Life has become my top 3 favourite books of all time. This is a masterpiece of writing and a story like no other. It has completely destroyed me and broken my heart. But I am so glad I have finally… Continue reading Review – A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Synopsis: Three generations of Palestinian-American women living in Brooklyn are torn between individual desire and the strict mores of Arab culture in this heart-wrenching story of love, intrigue and courage. Palestine, 1990. Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. Over the course of a week, the naïve… Continue reading Review – A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
Synopsis: An era-defining novel about the relationship between a fifteen-year-old girl and her teacher Vanessa Wye was fifteen-years-old when she first had sex with her English teacher. She is now thirty-two and the teacher, Jacob Strane, has just been accused of sexual abuse by another former student of his. Vanessa is horrified by this news,… Continue reading Review – My Dark Vanessa by Kate Russell
