Letters To My Weird Sisters: On Autism and Feminism by Joanne Limburg
From reading the blurb for Letters To My Weird Sisters, I was intrigued but also apprehensive. It is one of my favourite books of the year, so my apprehension wasn't borne out. When Joanne Limburg realised that she was autistic in midlife, it allowed her to better understand aspects of her life.
"I unsettle people. I am uncanny." Limburg states in the opening letter, which is addressed to the reader. Later, she says that "if you are working on the assumption that the kind of people we now call autistic have always existed, then it is not unreasonable to wonder who these weird or uncanny individuals might have been, what sort of lives they led, and how the worlds they lived in responded to them."
What follows is a series of letters to some of the women she connected with in some way during her research. The first is addressed to Virginia Woolf. The second to Adelheid Bloch, a disabled Jewish woman murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. The third to Frau V, the mother of a boy who was 'studied' by Hans Asperger. The fourth to Katharina Kepler, the mother of astronomer Johannes Kepler, who was accused of witchcraft. The final letter is addressed to Limburg's friend, Caron Freeborn, an autistic writer and poet who died in 2020.
Limburg does not posthumously identify or diagnose Woolf, Bloch, Frau V, or Kepler as autistic. Instead, she is interested in finding "who the weird women were" and examining how their weirdness "might intersect with womanhood and with the norms of femininity."
Together, the letters provide a compelling and oftentimes confronting look at what it meant to be a woman who was seen as different or other or weird or disabled or mentally ill or, in the case of Katharina Kepler, to be accused of being a witch. To essentially be considered not quite a woman. Throughout, Limburg discusses her own experiences as an autistic Jewish straight white cisgender woman. I mention these specific descriptors because Limburg examines how each of them impacts how people treat her.
Letters To My Weird Sisters: On Autism and Feminism by Joanne Limburg is published by Atlantic Books.
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The Snag List by Sophie White
I thought I had read all of Sophie White’s books. Yet when I saw The Snag List on a few people’s wrap-up posts over on Instagram early this year, it didn’t ring a bell. Turns out it was sitting unread on my Kindle. This is what I mean about having too many books. It is not a judgment on the number of books you have, but I am absolutely calling myself out! On the upside, I spent some unexpected time with Sophie White’s characters, which is always a wild and enjoyable ride.
The Snag List centres around Lindy, Ailbhe, and Roe, who have moved to Monteray Valley, a luxury gated housing development that gave me more than a few uncanny valley vibes. We also have a Eurovision musical and a reality-TV show about the making of the musical. We know from the prologue that everything is not as rosy as it seems!
Lindy is the CEO of Maxxed Out, her son's YouTube channel. She runs the business while her husband, Adam, creates and often co-stars in Max's videos. But what if she doesn't want this to be her career anymore?
Ailbhe should be settling into marriage and motherhood, but Tom spends most of his time abroad – he's American, and Ailbhe and Tilly are planning to join him in the US. Ailbhe just needs to keep her self-sabotaging tendencies in check long enough not to interfere with those plans.
Roe and her husband Eddie, are trying for a baby, except Roe isn't sure she wants to be a mother.
While working on the snag list for their Monteray homes, Lindy wonders what would happen if they could snag list their own lives. Better yet, what if she were the person who helped you work through your personal snag list?
I am pretty sure I say something similar each time I review White’s commercial fiction, but if you are looking for a novel that explores the complexities of female friendship, the darker side of online culture, mental illness and addiction without bashing you over the head with the point, then you can't go far wrong with Sophie White. Lindy, Ailbhe, and Roe are flawed characters, but White ensures that they never feel like caricatures. I really enjoyed The Snag List!
The Snag List by Sophie White is published by Hachette Books Ireland, an imprint of Hachette Livre.
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Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
I am about to say something that might imply I didn't enjoy Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, so I want to preface it by saying that it's a witty and sexy novel that's a lot of fun. However, there is an epidemic of characters letting out breaths they didn't realise they were holding or taking deep breaths. Seriously, the local hospital should have been overrun with people hyperventilating or passing out!
Delilah Green left Bright Falls straight after finishing school and swore she would never return. Until her estranged stepsister, Astrid, demands that Delilah be her wedding photographer. Delilah needs the paycheck, so she can't say no. Enter Claire Sutherland, Astrid's friend, who had no time for Delilah when they were younger. The spark between them throws a spanner in the works of Delilah's plan to once again escape Bright Falls as soon as possible.
Things I liked:
• Claire is explicitly bisexual!!! Yes, that warrants multiple exclamation marks. I read another sapphic romance recently where one of the characters dates people of multiple genders, but her sexuality is never explicitly named as bisexual, pansexual or any of the other sexualities under the bi+/polysexual umbrella. Look, I know many people solely use queer to describe their sexuality, and others don't label themselves at all. For some people sexuality is fluid and how they describe themselves changes but when the bi+ characters in books, TV and film are consistently the only ones who don't do labels, it starts to feel like bisexuality or pansexuality are words to be avoided, which adds to bi+ erasure.
• The sex scenes are sexy, not cringy.
Things that didn't quite work:
• The aforementioned epidemic of breath holding.
• The constant miscommunication by almost every character wore a bit thin towards the end, but the novel was still engaging.
I'm newish to reading romance regularly – so these might not be all of the tropes – but I'd describe it as an enemies-to-lovers story with a side order of there only being one part.
Sometimes I can overlook a novel’s flaws. Sometimes I can't. There isn't any logical reason for this; it's a vibes-based decision. Here, the positives outweighed the negatives, so I'll read the rest of the Bright Falls series.
Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake is published by Piaktus Books, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group. Little, Brown Book Group is owned by Hachette UK.
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Beach Read by Emily Henry
My first time reading Emily Henry! And while it won't be my last, my TL;DR review of Beach Read is that it was an enjoyable enough read, but it's not a story I'll be thinking about much now that I've finished it.
I switched from the paperback to the audio edition because my library copy was due back, and there was a queue of people waiting for it, so renewing wasn't an option. Switching to audio highlighted some things that irritated me that I wouldn't have noticed as much if I had stuck with the print edition. Is it usual for authors to mention their publisher by name that frequently? I don't mean their specific editor or agent, but the actual publishing house. I lost count of how many times January said she was published by Sandy Lowe Books! By the end I muttering 'oh, for fuck sake!', 'here we go again!' and 'I get it, you don't need to keep telling me!' whenever January mentioned it. But maybe I am the one who is cracked in the head here!
January is grieving her father's death. A grief complicated by the fact that she learned something about him after he died that has left her wondering whether she really understood who he was as a person. January is also dealing with writer's block, but she cannot financially afford to step away from getting a draft of her next romance novel to her agent or editor.
Thinking that a change of scenery could help – or at least it couldn't hurt, right? – January decides to spend the summer writing at a house on Lake Michigan. Once there, she discovers that her college nemesis, Gus, lives next door. Gus is a literary fiction author who wasn’t a fan of January's stories during their college workshops.
When it becomes clear that Gus is also dealing with writer's block, they make a bet: they'll swap genres and see who gets published first. What follows is an entertaining read which balances humour with sincerity as January and Gus are forced to confront the reasons behind their writer's block.
Beach Read by Emily Henry is published by Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
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Gold Rush by Olivia Petter
When I saw journalist Olivia Petter's debut novel, Gold Rush, described as a nuanced and feminist pre-MeToo exploration of alcohol-induced blackouts, sexual consent, and celebrity culture, I knew I had to pick up a copy. However, I didn't find it as nuanced or as feminist as I expected.
It's feminist insofar as it deals with issues of sexual consent, but I wouldn't say there is much feminist analysis within the novel. There is nuance in how Rose behaves following her sexual assault as she grapples with her fragmented memories of that night. Yet, for me, there was an opportunity to bring nuance to the discussion around alcohol-induced blackouts, agency, and sexual consent that I found lacking.
Perhaps the early blurbs I read set my expectations too high, and I should have read some reviews beforehand. Maybe my own experiences of alcohol-induced blackouts changed how I viewed the story Petter tells. What I am saying is that my review might not be the most accurate depiction of the novel itself, but then, I don't feel like the blurbs I read were entirely accurate either. So, who knows!
Rose works in PR for Firehouse, a glossy magazine publisher. Firehouse still throws lavish parties to launch a new issue. Most of the time, Rose is following up on emails to publicists or filling in spreadsheets. Dealing with the A-list celebrities is usually the job of Rose's colleague. Except on one occasion, when Rose is tasked with ensuring Milo Jax, the world's most famous and beloved pop star, attends Firehouse's latest event. Rose is wooed or intimidated by Milo's fame, which he finds endearing. They strike up a friendship/relationship of sorts until Rose wakes up naked one morning with blood on her bedclothes and no memory of what happened with Milo the night before.
I switched between reading a physical copy and listening to it on audio. Frankly, the middle section dragged on too much for my liking, and switching between formats kept me engaged more than simply reading it would have.
Overall, I liked the premise of Gold Rush much more than I enjoyed Petter's execution of it.
Gold Rush by Olivia Petter is published by 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins
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Here After: A Memoir by Amy Lin
𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘐 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.
On an August morning in 2020, Amy Lin's husband, Kurtis, sets out to run a half-marathon with Lin's family. Amy does not join them because she is nursing a recent leg injury. They are completing the "virtual" run on the roads around their vacation home due to the pandemic. Soon, Amy's father rushes back into the house and says, "Get in the car. It's Kurtis." Kurtis collapsed and was pronounced dead at the hospital. He was 32. "There is no known or visible reason for him to be dead, except that he is," she writes about the fact that the autopsy report could not determine a cause of death.
Shortly after Kurtis's death, Amy is hospitalised with deep vein thrombosis, with clots having travelled to her lungs. The doctors recommend "an aggressive approach" to treatment. Amy writes beautifully about how part of her brain was telling her to do whatever it took to survive, while another part told her that she should stop trying to live because "If I go now, I can still find him. He might even be waiting for me."
Here After is a lyrical memoir told in out-of-sequence vignettes, meaning the reader simultaneously experiences Lin's grief and her falling in love with Kurtis. For me, the non-chronological nature of the book perfectly captured the out-of-time feelings that come with grief, where you are unsure whether something just happened or was years ago, and enhanced the reading experience.
I always feel weird saying that I have enjoyed a memoir about grief, given that there is a death at the heart of the story, but Here After is a gorgeous memoir about love, loss, and learning to live with grief.
Here After: A Memoir by Amy Lin is published by Zibby Books.
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Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession
Rónán Hession's debut novel, Leonard and Hungry Paul, was the January selection for the Irish Ficsean book club run by Sarah McLarkey (@sarahfullybooked) on Instagram. I hadn't heard of it before, but I'm delighted I picked it up, because I can't remember the last time I read a book where the stakes were so low and everyone was genuinely lovely!
I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, which is indicative of the fiction I usually read, but Leonard and Hungry Paul is a gentle story about male friendship, loneliness, grief, love, kindness, and finding your way in the world.
Leonard works for a publisher of children's non-fiction. Until recently, Leonard lived with his mother. Hungry Paul – the story behind the nickname is never revealed – lives with his parents and sometimes works for the post office. Plot-wise, there is a family wedding and a competition to devise a new email sign-off for local businesses. But the joy of this novel is in the quiet moments of daily life as Leonard and Hungry Paul navigate their thirties.
Leonard and Hungry Paul's friendship is often centred around their shared enjoyment of board games, yet it is also full of warmth and humour.
There is a timeless quality to Hession's writing. There are indicators of when the novel takes place – the aforementioned email signature competition, for one – but it doesn't feel dated or constrained by time and place. Shooting is underway for the TV adaptation, which I am looking forward to watching when it airs.
Leonard and Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession is published by Bluemoose Books.
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The Young Man by Annie Ernaux
Five years ago, I spent an awkward night with a student who had been writing to me for a year and wanted to meet me.
The opening paragraph of The Young Man captures the directness we have come to expect from Ernaux's work. Ernaux was 54; A was 30 years her junior. A wasn't one of Ernaux's students, but their correspondence began because he was familiar with her work.
This A is a different man from the A Ernaux had an affair with in Simple Passion. I mention this because I read the books in quick succession and was momentarily confused! Unlike in Simple Passion, Ernaux does not lose herself entirely to this A. She is aware of the power she wields throughout their relationship: “I was in a dominant position, and I used the weapons of that dominance, whose fragility, in a romantic relationship, I nonetheless recognised.”
Their relationship prompts Ernaux to consider ageing, desire, social class, and power in contexts she hadn't previously considered. When people look disapprovingly at them, she counters those experiences with, "When A’s face was before me, mine was young too. Men have known this forever, and I saw no reason to deprive myself."
Their breakup "coincided, give or take a few weeks," with Ernaux's completion of the book she was writing about the "backstreet abortion" she had "before A was even born". From Ernaux's perspective, that writing process was when she realised that her relationship with A needed to end.
At under 40 pages, The Young Man is the shortest of Ernaux's books that I have read so far. It is also my least favourite. Its length affected my enjoyment of it because the thing I love most about Ernaux’s work – her interjections throughout the text questioning why she is writing a scene in a particular way or writing about an experience at all – are absent from The Young Man.
If you are already a fan of Ernaux, The Young Man is worth reading. Otherwise, I'd recommend starting with Shame, Happening, or Simple Passion.
The Young Man by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer, is published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK and Ireland and by Seven Stories Press in the US and Canada.
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So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
Let's get the gushing out of the way up front! I loved, loved, loved So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan.
I've mentioned before that while I understood Keegan's reasons for ending Small Things Like These and Foster where she did, neither story had the impact on me that it had on other people. Keegan is a skilful writer, but novellas almost always leave me frustrated that they aren't longer. It's very much a me being weird about novellas problem, not a Keegan problem, as my love of this short story indicates!
It's a Friday like any other as Cathal leaves work and takes the bus home. Yet, he cannot stop thinking about Sabine. About their relationship, his actions, and her reactions. Or her actions and his reactions. As he settles in front of the TV with a bottle of champagne, he wonders what might have been.
As Cathal revisits his relationship with Sabine, the reader is drawn into a story with a growing sense of tension. A story that made me say, 'Wait, what?' multiple times because we only get Cathal's version of events, and he may not be as good a judge of what happened as he thinks.
As So Late in the Day unfolds, many readers will have flashes of recognition about just what Cathal seems unable to acknowledge. I am keeping this review deliberately vague because the joy of reading Keegan's work is knowing as little as possible. Keegan writes beautifully about ordinary lives, where something no one really wants to confront bubbles just under the surface.
That said, I would also love to hear Sabine's version of events in the form of a dual-POV novel. But I want most of my fiction told from multiple points of view. So, again, that's a me thing and not a Claire Keegan thing!
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan is published by Faber & Faber.
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Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux
My TL;DR review of Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux, translated from the French by Tanya Leslie, is that if you have ever obsessed over a man, you can take comfort in the fact that Ernaux has also been there!
“From September last year, I did nothing else but wait for a man: for him to call me and come round to my place,” Ernaux states matter of factly in the early paragraphs. Simple Passion is the story of her affair with A, a married man, at the end of the 1980s. While Ernaux shares details about their relationship, she also states, “I haven’t written a book about him, neither have I written a book about myself.” Instead, she considers this a translation “into words” of how his “existence has affected her life.” According to the blurb, Ernaux blurs the line between fact and fiction, which adds to the dream-like quality of her obsessive actions. The reader is unsure what happened and what Ernaux wished to happen or not happen in certain circumstances.
When she wasn’t with A, she worried she would miss his phone calls if she left the house. As her obsession with A grew, it encompassed every aspect of her life. She stopped writing. She insisted that her sons, who didn’t live at home, inform her before visiting and leave if they were home when A came over. She describes this as “revealing only the barest practicalities that enabled me to conduct my liaison satisfactorily.” For reasons she knows do not make sense, Ernaux decides that A should never see her in the same outfit twice. So, her wardrobe becomes part of her obsession. But, then, most things about this period of her life do not make sense, which Ernaux freely admits.
As is customary with Ernaux, she interjects in her storytelling to question why she has chosen to write a specific scene that way or why she has chosen to write about her experience at all. I love this aspect of Ernaux’s work because it feels like a mini writing workshop, but I know some people find it takes them out of the narrative.
Simple Passion is as much about the mundanity of life between her meetings with A as it is about their love affair. In these ordinary moments of daily life, Ernaux shows the reader just how all-consuming her affair has become. It’s a short yet propulsive examination of what it means to lose yourself entirely for a man. I loved it!
Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux, translated from the French by Tanya Leslie, is published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in the UK and Ireland and by Seven Stories Press in the US and Canada.
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Out of Love by Hazel Hayes
Out of Love by Hazel Hayes. No Advance Reader Copy was included, and no affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s Kindle is lying on a black, grey, and white floral patterned duvet cover beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of Out of Love by Hazel Hayes
"He stopped loving me a long time ago but wasn't brave enough to tell me."
Hazel Hayes' debut novel Out of Love is a love story told in reverse. Our unnamed Irish protagonist and her English boyfriend, Theo, have just broken up. Theo initially said he wanted a break, and now that break is permanent. Theo never quite felt at home when living in Ireland, and she isn't convinced she fits in now that she is living in London. From here, the novel tracks backwards as each chapter brings the reader closer to the beginning of their relationship.
This narrative structure allows the details of their relationship to unwind slowly – more character-driven than plot-driven – as the reader discovers how they got together, their life together as a couple, their actions, and, ultimately, why they broke them. However, since the story is told from our unnamed protagonist's perspective, we only see Theo through her eyes and experience. I think the novel would have been stronger if told from a dual perspective – hers and Theo's – but I have a soft spot for multiple POV novels, so I am probably in the minority here.
Hayes writes with great warmth and humour while sensitively handling issues such as mental illness, addiction, abuse, the lasting impact of trauma, and toxic relationships. Out of Love is an examination of romantic love, yes, but also sexuality, familial relationships and friendship. I really enjoyed it!
Out of Love by Hazel Hayes is published by Unbound and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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Gender Theory by Madeline Docherty
Gender Theory by Madeline Docherty. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via NetGalley included. No affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
The cover of Gender Theory by Madeline Docherty against a white background.
Told entirely in the second person – "You are eighteen and this is the first time you have voiced desire, asked for something that you wanted, and received it." – Gender Theory has a unique narration style that places the reader directly in our unnamed Gen Z protagonist's head. Yet, at times, this narration style seems like we are watching our protagonist from afar. As if our protagonist is watching herself from a dissociated state somewhere else without being completely present in her own life. For me, this dual understanding of the novel’s structure added to the intensity of the downward spiral our protagonist's life is in for much of the story.
Plot-wise, Gender Theory is a Scottish coming-of-age novel about a protagonist who is trying to find her way at university while figuring out what it means to build and live a life.
While my chronic illnesses differ from those portrayed in the novel, I still found a sense of recognition in our protagonist's frequent A&E visits, multiple hospital appointments, and trying to balance needing answers and treatment with not wanting a diagnosis to consume your entire life.
It may sound unusual to describe a novel as an experience, but that's exactly what Gender Theory is – an immersive journey that delves into identity, sexuality, mental health, addiction, chronic illness, female friendship, and codependency. It's a captivating read that I couldn't put down!
Gender Theory by Madeline Docherty is published by John Murray, an imprint of Hachette UK. Gender Theory is available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel
Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via NetGalley included. No affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s e-reader is lying on a denim duvet cover beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel.
Next up in my 'it took me so long to read this NetGalley advance copy that the book has been published for ages now' series we have Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel. The TL; DR version of my review is that this is a strong contender for my favourite books of the year list!
Phoebe Forde has been living a quiet life in Copenhagen, housing sitting and looking after an anxious dog named Dolly. Phoebe commutes to Sweden, where she is studying and working toward her PhD. Phoebe is a “woman without a past” until her former girlfriend Grace arrives at her door looking for a tour of Copenhagen.
Grace has never met Phoebe as Phoebe. Their relationship ended before Phoebe's transition, and Grace's reappearance brings the life Phoebe left behind in Ireland back into focus.
Set over a long weekend, Wild Geese sees Phoebe and Grace explore Copenhagen as they reflect on their lives and their relationship.
Emmanuel's writing is evocative, humorous – at times darkly so, in the way Irish humour so often is – lyrical, and full of empathy. Wild Geese is a stunning debut, and I can't wait to see what Emmanuel does next!
I highlighted so many sentences and passages, so I'm ending my review with a couple of my favourite lines.
"I am not altering the blueprint of my body – these things were always there, from the day I was born. They just required a certain mature and gentle coaxing, a habitual tensing of the muscle of self-knowledge."
Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel is published by Footnote Press in the UK and Ireland and by Feminist Press in the US. It is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine
Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via NetGalley included. No affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s e-reader is lying on a cream bed sheet beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine.
Continuing the adventures of books it took me years to read because I kept picking them up and putting them down, we have Emilie Pine's debut novel Ruth & Pen. I took this photo back in 2022 when I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley. I couldn't connect with the characters when I first started reading, so I set it aside. I enjoyed Pine's writing style, though, so I knew I'd give it another try at some point. I listened to it on audio in March, and I am glad I gave it a second chance because I connected with it much more this time around!
Set over the course of one day, we follow Ruth—a forty-something counsellor whose husband Aidan hasn't come home from a work trip—and Pen—an autistic teenager on her way to a climate protest who has decided to tell her friend Alice the thing she has been keeping secret. The day in question is October 7th, 2019, when Extinction Rebellion Ireland held its climate walk and protest as part of Extinction Rebellion's week of global protests.
Pen's attempts to fit in at school haven't gone as planned. Things at home aren't exactly less anxiety-inducing, as she struggles to connect with her mother and younger sister.
Ruth's marriage is at a crossroads. After multiple rounds of IVF, Ruth has realised that she doesn't want to continue. However, Aidan doesn't want to stop. I don't want to give much more away than the novel’s blurb, but if reading about infertility is something you wish to take care with I would recommend looking up the content warnings beforehand.
Ruth & Pen is a decidedly Dublin novel. The city's landscape is as much a character as Ruth, Pen, Alice, and Aidan are. I really enjoyed the switching points of view. We hear not only from our titular protagonists but also from Alice and Aidan, which adds richness to the story.
Ruth & Pen is a beautifully tender and poignant novel, that deals with complex topics in a nuanced and compassionate way.
Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine is published by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Random House. It is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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Wild Things by Laura Kay
Wild Things by Laura Kay. No Advance Reader Copy was included, and no affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s Kindle lying on a blush-toned and navy duvet cover beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of Wild Things by Laura Kay.
El makes a New Year's resolution to do one wild thing a month to shake up her life. She is now the proud owner of a (small) tattoo! When a threesome – her next wild thing – doesn't quite go as planned, El wonders if her year of living wildly is worth it.
Then circumstances collide, and El and her friends Ray, Jamie, and Will decide to leave London for a house in the country, which they plan to turn into a queer commune. That will definitely earn El some wild points! The downside? El has been pining over Ray for years. Jamie is aware of this and jokes that El is 'gay for Ray', but will El be able to hide her feelings from Ray now that they're living together?
The story would have been much stronger if we'd heard the points of view of the other characters—particularly Ray, whose actions didn't always make sense to me. We do learn about Ray, Jamie, and Will's lives, but through the eyes of El, so it's a one-sided and subjective narrative.
That said, Wild Things is an enjoyable and cute WLW (women loving women) rom-com with a side of found family! It also amused me that Will is essentially the token straight person of the friendship group when it's usually the LGBTQ+ character who is the token.
Wild Things by Laura Kay is published by Quercus, an imprint of Hachette UK. It is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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Mudflowers by Aley Waterman
Mudflowers by Aley Waterman. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via NetGalley included. No affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s e-reader is lying on a black, grey, and white floral patterned duvet cover beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of Mudflowers by Aley Waterman.
Set mainly in Toronto's art scene, Aley Waterman's debut novel follows 27-year-old Sophie in the year after her mother's death. She is grieving and trying her best to navigate all of the messiness that grief entails. She is also in an on-and-off relationship with her childhood friend Alex.
Enter Maggie, a poet Sophie immediately falls for, complicating her relationship with Alex. The blurb describes it as a 'complicated love triangle,' so you can probably guess how at least some of the plot goes.
I liked Mudflowers well enough while I was reading it – that's the category I put it in my April wrap-up. Yet, nothing about the story or the characters has stuck with me in any way. Overall, I'd sum Mudflowers up as grand (in the Irish sense of okay/fine) but bland.
I read an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley, but my TBR list is out of control, so Mudflowers was already published by the time I picked it up.
Mudflowers by Aley Waterman is published by Rare Machines, an imprint of Dundurn Press. It is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
I don’t use affiliate links, but if you enjoy my book reviews you can show your support by buying me a coffee here.
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin. No Advance Reader Copy was included, and no affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s Kindle lying on a fluffy grey blanket beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin.
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin is such a strange novel! It is absurd, surreal, and shot through with dark, dark humour. For chunks of the book, I had no idea what the hell was happening! I kept having to scroll back to see what I had missed, only to realise that I hadn't missed anything because the thing the characters were reacting to happened off the page.
But what about the plot? Greta rents a room in a friend's crumbling-down house. She works from home as a transcriptionist for a sex and relationship coach named Om. As she listens to the sessions, Greta is drawn to one of Om's clients, who she nicknames Big Swiss because, well, she is tall and from Switzerland! Big Swiss doesn't know who Greta is. Yet, when they bump into each other at the dog park, Greta panics, and their relationship doesn't exactly get off to an honest start.
What follows is a whirlwind of a novel that is difficult to explain. Greta and Big Swiss are opposites in many ways, but they cannot keep away from each other.
Big Swiss is a novel that questions how we – as a society – view both big T and little t trauma. To be honest, I am unsure how I feel about the story. I didn't dislike it, but I am not entirely convinced I liked it either!
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin is published by Faber & Faber and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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These Days Are Numbered: Diary of a High-Rise Lockdown by Rebecca Rosenblum
These Days Are Numbered: Diary of a High-Rise Lockdown by Rebecca Rosenblum. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via NetGalley included. No affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s e-reader is lying on a black, grey, and white floral patterned duvet cover beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of These Days Are Numbered by Rebecca Rosenblum.
When the world began to shut down because of Covid-19, writer Rebecca Rosenblum posted on Facebook about her days in Toronto, Canada. These Days Are Numbered is an edited volume of those public diary entries.
Rosenblum's writing is humorous and, at times, poignant. At its heart, Rosenblum's memoir is about searching for community and connection in the strange new world we all found ourselves adjusting to.
More than once, I thought some variation of 'how odd that she keeps referring to her husband by his full name?!' before remembering that this is because he was tagged in the original Facebook posts! So, the transfer from social media to book isn't seamless, although I understand the decision to leave things like this in place.
I know reading about the pandemic (particularly in non-fiction) isn't for everyone, but I am glad I spent time with Rosenblum's lockdown diary. If only because it reassured me that forgetting how to have 'normal' conversation with people post-lockdowns wasn't just a me problem!
These Days Are Numbered: Diary of a High-Rise Lockdown by Rebecca Rosenblum is published by Dundurn Press and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
I don’t use affiliate links, but if you enjoy my book reviews you can show your support by buying me a coffee here.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. No Advance Reader Copy was included, and no affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
The paperback edition cover of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid against a white background.
What I love about the bookish corner of the internet is that different books appeal to different people. Yet I feel like I should be handing back my book reviewer and bisexual credentials or something (lol) before saying this: I didn't enjoy The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I shouldn't be overly surprised since I DNFed the other TJR books I tried (Daisy Jones & The Six and Malibu Rising). The number of people still recommending I read Evelyn Hugo made me want to give TJR another shot. While I made it to the end of this one, it was not the book for me.
The novel is a sweeping epic covering Evelyn's Hollywood career and later life, but sections of the story managed to drag on for me while the ending felt rushed (there was way too much trying to wrap up every little thing). Most of the characters felt underdeveloped to me. Some of this is because it's from Evelyn's point of view, but Celia St. James didn't feel like a fully-rounded character. I wasn't invested in their relationship, and since it is the central relationship, you can see why I struggled to enjoy the book.
The framing of the novel is that Evelyn sits down with a journalist to share her life story, so I understand Monique Grant's role. But she was also really underdeveloped, so the subplot about the breakdown of her own marriage felt like we were going off on an unnecessary tangent. As a result, I couldn't buy the impact interviewing Evelyn had on Monique's ability to believe in and stand up for herself in work and personal relationship situations because I had no deep sense of Monique as a person before Evelyn came into her life.
I wonder whether the fact that I went through a phase of reading non-fiction and watching documentaries about Hollywood actresses from this time affected my reading of Evelyn Hugo. The elements based on Elizabeth Taylor are obvious, down to Evelyn being known for her eyebrows instead of Taylor's eyelashes! TJR has also stated that the initial framing device is based on Ava Gardner's interview with Peter Evans. There is nothing wrong with any of this; it's just that for me, TJR didn't build on these elements in a way that worked as a complete novel.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
I don’t use affiliate links, but if you enjoy my book reviews you can show your support by buying me a coffee here.
Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne
Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via NetGalley included. No affiliate links were used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
Paula’s e-reader is lying on a grey blanket beside a cup of coffee. The e-reader is open on the title page of Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne.
Patric Gagne is a child when she first hears the word sociopath and instinctively knows that it applies to her and her compulsions. Yet, finding accurate information about sociopathy is difficult. She cannot even find a definition in the dictionary. She checked multiple editions.
Gagne is upfront about who she is. Some of the ways she describes herself include 'a passionate mother and wife', 'an engaging therapist', 'a writer', 'a liar', 'a thief', 'highly manipulative', 'friendly', 'a criminal without a record', and 'a master of disguise'. Given this, the reader may question how reliable a narrator of her life Gagne is. For me, Gagne engages in self and critical reflection about her actions without excusing them.
Still lacking information and resources by the time she attends college, Gagne focuses her academic and clinical work on helping other sociopaths especially now that she has received a formal diagnosis. She seeks the diagnosis while being critical of psychiatric pathologisation. Not least because there are no specific diagnostic criteria for sociopathy. Sociopathy and psychopathy are assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), which is used in a forensic mental health setting and focuses on criminality and violence. There is an adapted version called the PCL-SV (Screening Version), which removes the need for a criminal record that is used in clinical and research settings.
It's a minefield that doesn't do much to counter the misunderstandings, misinformation, and disinformation about sociopathy and psychopathy. Honestly, based on news media and pop culture portrayals of sociopaths and psychopaths most of us have little accurate understanding of either. This is where I think Gagne's memoir will have the most impact. It adds to the growing discussions around mental illness and psychiatric pathologisation. While Gagne doesn't mention neurodivergence by name, her exploration of the failings of the pathology model reminds me of the ongoing discussions around what fits under the neurodivergent umbrella.
Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne is published by Bluebird, an imprint of Pan Macmillian. It is available in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
I don’t use affiliate links, but if you enjoy my book reviews you can show your support by buying me a coffee here.